AudioNec Loudspeakers

[heihei]

Interesting new line from Audionec using open-baffle in the bass. Will be interesting to hear these.....
https://www.audionec.com/obi-line-concept/

 

[Ron Resnick]

This looks interesting!

 

[heihei]

To keep this thread going I thought I'd report on the Evo 3's I currently have on demo, again thanks to Greg at G-Point and the team at Audionec. Spec-wise, these are close to the Evo 3 Xtrem version which has upgraded dipole drivers and an external crossover.

In many ways, they deliver exactly what one would expect having heard the smaller ones - same great speed and transparency from the dipole but with added weight and meat on the bones in the bass. Initially I felt the bass was perhaps too much in my room but small adjustments to seating position to move out of particular nodes has removed that issue. It has also been a case of getting used to a speaker that delivers more bass both in terms of depth but also impact. The fact that it does both while maintaining the tunefulness I appreciate in the Wilson Benesch Resolutions is also very impressive.

Interestingly on first listen, the speed of the dipoles isn't as apparent as in the Evo 2's, probably because there is more weight to the rest of the frequency spectrum, but if you focus on it you realise it's still there and very apparent in things like acoustic guitar etc.

The overriding sense is one of a dynamic and engaging performance of the music. If you want to you can focus in on the fine detail and the great soundstage, but the inevitable sensation is one of being swept up in the emotion of whatever you are listening to. This is repeated in comments from people who have heard them in my room...."so exciting and insightful", "exemplary, engaging and pretty damn phenomenal on the Rite of Spring for instance, but all orchestral was immense"

Very impressive speakers.

 

[geetee1972]

To keep this thread going I thought I'd report on the Evo 3's I currently have on demo, again thanks to Greg at G-Point and the team at Audionec. Spec-wise, these are close to the Evo 3 Xtrem version which has upgraded dipole drivers and an external crossover.

In many ways, they deliver exactly what one would expect having heard the smaller ones - same great speed and transparency from the dipole but with added weight and meat on the bones in the bass. Initially I felt the bass was perhaps too much in my room but small adjustments to seating position to move out of particular nodes has removed that issue. It has also been a case of getting used to a speaker that delivers more bass both in terms of depth but also impact. The fact that it does both while maintaining the tunefulness I appreciate in the Wilson Benesch Resolutions is also very impressive.

Interestingly on first listen, the speed of the dipoles isn't as apparent as in the Evo 2's, probably because there is more weight to the rest of the frequency spectrum, but if you focus on it you realise it's still there and very apparent in things like acoustic guitar etc.

The overriding sense is one of a dynamic and engaging performance of the music. If you want to you can focus in on the fine detail and the great soundstage, but the inevitable sensation is one of being swept up in the emotion of whatever you are listening to. This is repeated in comments from people who have heard them in my room...."so exciting and insightful", "exemplary, engaging and pretty damn phenomenal on the Rite of Spring for instance, but all orchestral was immense"

Very impressive speakers.

Just wanted to add something here to reinforce HeiHei's comments. He's a good friend of mine and I'm one of the small group of us who share this hobby; we regularly convene at his place to listen. It's something of a joy to have access to a system like his, and share it among a group of friends; it's great when music brings people together. We all have very good systems, but HeiHei's is something of the alpha yardstick.

I've heard his system many times and have never been anything other than thrilled by it. But even though that system is orders of magnitude more capable than mine, and certainly a very different listening proposition (my room is 3.8m by 3.6m; HeiHei's is maybe three times that space!) I've never once felt disappointed coming back to my system.......until I heard the Audionecs!

Coming back from the listening session last week and settling back into my own room, a line from Hamlet's first soliloquy kept playing in my mind: 'how weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world.' What I heard in that room will remain with me as the yardstick by which I measure all other experiences. I know I am prone to hyperbole sometimes, but really what the Audionecs were doing in that system was nothing short of astonishing.

Speed, transparency, soundstage, dynamics, authority, weight, timbre etc all the usual measures were met and exceeded in sublime harmony and balance. That opening passage of Rite of Spring, with each instrument hanging in perfect space like lights on a Christmas tree was so holographic you could almost see the orhcestra in front of you. Bass energy was superb and whilst perhaps not the last word in weight and depth, was so wonderfully integrated with everything else. it was a foundation on which the rest of the musical accomplishment was built. Too often bass energy is prioritised as the goal in and of itself, when in reality, whilst it's the hardest thing to generate well, it shouldn't be what you end up listening to. It's like the depth in a good sauce; it allows you to enjoy all the other flavours but a jug of the sauce on its own would be a one dimensional experience.

These huge towers do precisely what you want big speakers to do; they play music with alacrity and brilliance; they start and stop in the spaces between heart beats; they envelope you with atomic like accuracy; they project into the room rather than play 'over there' the space between you and the music disappears, leaving you feeling 'in the music' rather than in front of it.

There will be speakers whose individual capabilities may exceed those of the Audionecs; I imagine a big capable pannel design might outdo them on imaging, speed and transparency but they probably will trade bass weight and energy in achieving this. A much larger cabinet speaker will being that party trick to the room, with a more punchy bass slam that goes deeper and weighter, but they will sound sluggish and shut in by comparrison.

It's the ability of this speaker to knit all the traits we desire into an exemplary and well balanced package that is the Audionec's crowning achievement. We heard it with the Evo 2 in HeiHei's room, but with this version of the Evo 3 we heard that turned up to 11. Astonishing.