I took the afternoon off Thursday to trip up to Portland and Stereotypes Audio (1.5 hrs north from work) and pick up my Rega Apollo-R. I had resolved to demo a few speakers while I was there and boy did I.
The speakers I demoed were:
Nola Boxers $1500
PMC TB2i Signature $2850
ProAc Tablette Anniversary $2200
Spendor LS3/5r2 $1600
I took 6 CD’s with me so that I could just get a feel for each speaker.
The Roy Hargrove/Christian McBride/Stephen Scott Trio - Parker’s Mood
Christian McBride/Nicholas Payton/Mark Whitfield - Fingerpainting: The Music of Herbie Hancock
Gonzalo Rubalcaba & New Cuban Quartet - Paseo
Michel Camilo - Spirit of the Moment
The New Gary Burton Quartet - Common Ground
John Williams - The Baroque Album
I grabbed these in a hurry on the way out of the door on my way to work…regrettably I didn’t take any music for voice. As it turns out it didn’t matter as the differences were quite clear without, but still it would have been nice.
The reference setup for my demo was the Rega Brio-R with Shunyata Venom 3 power cord, Rega Apollo-R with the standard power cord, both components placed on a Quadraspire Q4 rack. Interconnects were Chord Crimson with speaker cable being Analysis Plus Oval 12 for all but the Spendor speakers and she insisted on changing out to Chord Odyssey for that demo. She stated that the A Plus cable would be too laid back. I insisted on closer to entry level cables for all listening.
First up were the Nola Boxers. These are a beautifully finished muscular looking standmount. The gloss cherry veneer is quite striking. I prefer a more matte finish but as gloss finishes go the Boxers are first rate. Their $1500 price tag seemed a bit out of order considering their high end look. Everything from the label on the back to high quality binding posts looked more polished than all but the PMC’s.
Oops…we started with Parker’s Mood, a CD I’m very familiar with and can’t get enough of…but something didn’t sound right. In came Teri Inman, the owner of Stereotypes and something of a legend in audio retail in the Northwest. She said “geez I keep telling these guys to not plug the Brio-R into anything but the wall”. She took the power cord from a Shunyata Hydra and plugged it directly into a wall outlet and the difference was immediate and not subtle. Before Teri stepped in and made the appropriate adjustment the sound seemed a bit vague and the timing was off. That all straightened out considerably.
On Michel Camilo’s fabulous “Just Now” the piano and percussion were not quite as clear and open as I would like. Piano is a percussive instrument and it is very difficult to get the leading edge right and follow with the soft sound that often lies in the wake of the attack. The Nola’s didn’t get either quite right. Also timbre wasn’t as good as what I’m used to with Harbeth. On John Williams “The Baroque Album” the Classical guitar was not fully convincing. The lower midrange was full bodied and punchy if a bit less detailed and well controlled as with the others. Also cymbals, muted trumpet and so on were pushed from their natural register down to a place in the midrange which wasn’t quite convincing to me, and in fact this presented the biggest issue for me with the Nola. The upper mids were not particularly natural. The biggest strength of this speaker is convincing you that you are listening to a whole lot more speaker than you actually are. This is one effortless sounding speaker…just keep turning it up and it just keeps right on going. Over and over I found myself marveling at just how big and rich this speaker sounded. Overall I liked the speaker and think it is a screaming bargain. For my personal tastes I could not live with the shortcomings after living with Harbeth.
Next up were the PMC’s…holy shit. From the first notes I found myself so excited that I thought I would pee myself. Seriously, no really, I simply couldn’t sit still I was so excited. This is one of the finest loudspeakers I’ve ever heard. I was able to follow every note and sound from the opening whoosh of air through the trumpet to the brassy sound midway through to that place where brass gives way to air and a hollowness. The detail was astounding on every disc I played and better yet the ability to boogie was not affected at all by the crystal clear detail. Each hand on a keyboard, each instrumentalist and their relationship to the other, both physically and artistically was laid bare in a way I had not heard for quite sometime and at that price, never. The only 2 standmount speakers I’ve heard that compete are the incredible DeVore Fidelity Gibbon 3xl at nearly twice the price and the Harbeth C7 which has better timbre (only) by a hair. The PMC’s, much like the Nola’s, sounded big but far more open as the sky seemed the only limit for the PMC’s. Gobsmacked aptly describes my experience with this speaker. If you have 3k and are speaker shopping you owe it to yourself to give these an audition. You may not get on with them but don’t dismiss them. Oh and did I mention, the PMC's were drop dead gorgeous.
I required time to gather myself after listening to those and had I still been a smoker it would have been time to light up.
Next up were the ProAc Tabelette Signature’s. They were just a darlin’ little speaker and to me the second most impressive of the day. No they did not sound big…sorry, laws of physics apply here. They are small with small drivers…but they did sound bigger than they were and did nearly everything else right. Great timbre and balance. The upper register was a bit more recessed and a bit less refined than the spectacular PMC speaker but that was expected. The Tablette blazed through the Camilo and Rubalcaba tracks with aplomb only occasionally sounding small…keep in mind this was a pretty good sized room. Not sure how big…should have asked…my bad. The Tablette was particularly good with the Classical guitar of John Williams. Bass, though not deep was better than any but the PMC’s. Not as deep as the Nola’s but far better defined and with much better overall tone. Midrange was a bit cool but certainly not sterile. A speaker this size begs for a comparison to my very own Harbeth’s. The ProAc’s will play a bit louder but aren’t as good at the timbre game, simply not as natural sounding. I prefer my Harbeth’s but could easily see how someone might go the other way.
Last and unfortunately absolutely least were the Spendor’s. The LS3/5r2 was a nice sounding speaker…yep a nice sounding speaker. I’m not sure what tracks I listened to because I was asleep..ok so it wasn’t that bad but I must admit I found myself disinterested more often than not. Decent timbre…overall balance very good…in fact I can’t think of a bad thing to say about them as they were supremely well balanced. So why was I so bored. I dunno perhaps I had already shot my wad and was ready for a nap…who’s to say. The Spendor’s were just a bit lost in the room and they simply came up at the wrong time in the audition. I preferred their sound to the Nola but for a room bigger than 10x10 I’d take the Nola over them…this was truly a small sounding speaker. Not fatiguing. Wait..what does fatiguing mean…as I couldn’t stop yawning…oh that’s right your ears hurt during listener fatigue. Hence the difference between listener fatigue and just plain assed fatigue. Have I drifted from the topic, yeah, and you get it.
Well that’s it…had a great time and can’t wait to do it again..
Late development: Apollo-R is defective and I may get to do it again next week…stay tuned!
Big Kudos to Stereotypes Audio for providing me with a comfortable listening environment and friendly service even though they knew it weren't gonna pay off for 'em!
Also kudos to Rega Research for designing budget products that clearly showed the differences between these fine speakers.
As beer was involved in this report please allow for liberal editing…peace out!
