Review
by
James L. Darby
I have a lot of respect for Vienna Acoustics speakers. I have heard their larger designs at various audio show and have always come away impressed. VA is distributed in the US by Sumiko, one of the top distributors in all of distributordom. Sonus Faber is another of their lines and we all know how good they are. Sumiko and VA have chosen to parcel out the lower, entry level line to Magnolia which is now incorporated into your local Best Buy chain store. Stereomojo has made arrangements with the local BB to audition and return certain products within their usual 30 day in-home trial period. We could have gone the surreptitious route and just take advantage of the policy, but we did not. We got permission. Our thanks to Best Buy for their agreement.
The Vienna Acoustics Hadyn Grand is the cheapest and smallest main speaker they make, though its price at $1,295 is not all that cheap.
The Haydn is a two-way bass reflex design stand-mount monitor with a nominal 4 Ohm impedance. The tweeter is a 1” fluid cooled silk dome and the woofer is a 6 incher with a novel see-through cone. I can’t tell you what the material is, because nobody at Best Buy knew. VA calls it X3P, but it must be some type of thermo plastic. I had also asked about the sensitivity spec buy nobody knew what that was; not the number, the spec itself. It’s claimed to be 89 dB, but me thinks it is probably a little lower than that.
The tweeter has a trick up its sleeve as well as it is mounted on a bridge in the woofer port. The light gray area is the bridge and the darker gray is foam, but the whole circle makes up the reflex port. It helps make the cabinet smaller at only 14” high.
The back holds no surprises unless you consider the lack of bi-amping or bi-wiring ability a surprise. I know several speakers in this range that provide 4 posts, but if you don’t want or need ‘em, you are all set.
I am not going to spend a lot of time on the details, for reasons you will see shortly, but if you are dying to know more now, here’s the VA link. Warning: Be prepared for a very slooooow flash presentation, even if you have a fast connection. http://www.vienna-acoustics.com/popup.html By the way, one of the advantages of an online publication like Stereomojo is the ability send you to important places right away instead of having to copy URLs down and traipsing to your computer to type them in. We also save a lot of trees.
Technology, cabinet finishes (the Haydn offers a few) and other peripheral factors are significant, but the most vital feature is how the thing sounds, right?
Lets go there.
THE HADYN’S REPERTOIRE
The sound of the Vienna Acoustics Hadyn Grand can be summed up in two words:
Soft and Loud.
Simply put, the top end sounds soft and bottom end sounds loud. This is not good.
I first gave the Hadyns over 100 hours of burn-in as the manual specifies. I then set them up in Room B or the small room, well away from the back and spies walls and in an equilateral triangle position with the listener. 20” stands were used to prop them up. I connected them to the awesome LSA Mk3 Reference integrated I reviewed here via Ray Kimber’s excellent Select cables. These are heavy monsters which the 20 pound Hadyns barely withstood being tipped back. I used a Music Hall CD 25.2 to play my Stereomojo reviewing disk. The first cut shows me the size, position and detail of the soundstage. There are heavy footsteps on a cement floor starting at the left rear and walking across to the right rear amidst a background of outdoor nature sounds like birds and wind. Then you hear a Coke bottle role back across the stage again. The man also whistles a tune as he prepares to get in his car, further illuminating the stage. I should tell you
I very much like the fact that small speakers are capable of throwing a huge image that reaches the ceiling and well beyond the speaker boundaries on either side. They also have a way of disappearing with which larger speakers can struggle. I also am a very visual listener; I listen in the dark with my eyes open. What I “saw” was at once a surprise and disappointment. The stage was only moderately big and much smaller than I am used to with practically any other speaker this size. The image did not extend beyond the edges of the speakers and was not at all tall. There was depth ok and the effects were stable and vivid, but the scratchy footsteps and rolling Coke bottle were both rather rolled off on the top end and something funny was afoot in the midrange. Hmm.
I tried toeing in, towing out, wider, closer, farther. The sound changed, but the bottom end, the top end and the soundstage remained less than what is deemed acceptable today.
The next cut is from Flim and the BBs. When I play this at shows people always recognize it and nod approvingly. This CD has some of the largest, fastest and widest dynamic hits ever recorded – in the neighborhood of 100 db. It also features piano, drums, bass and sax recorded in audiophile approved quality. With the Hadyns, the piano and drums were overpowered by the bass player. As a pianist, I hate it when that happens when playing in a group. But this time, it wasn’t the player’s fault. As I continued playing different cuts of female vocal, classic orchestral, soundtracks (Morricone), choirs, jazz and rock, one theme kept reoccurring – soft, loud – soft, loud. The bass was just something you are most likely to hear emanating from Puff Daddy’s Lexus SUV. But the more I listened, the bass emphasis was more a function of the recessed mids. Simultaneously, the top end was laid back and more fluid, but seemed more than a bit muted where air, space and high-end sound lives. No amount of speaker positioning in that room solved the problem or even reduced it much. Moving it closer to the walls only made it worse. So I moved the speakers again.
To another room.
Same speakers leads, but this time connected to the Halcro MC-20 power amp (my review) and a Triode tube pre with the wonderful Roksan Caspian Phono Pre. Now I had the TW-Acustic Raven One to play with in the system, all sitting pretty in Paul Wakeen’s terrific Stillpoints rack. Room A is a large room with a cathedral ceiling, but guess what? The Hadyns sounded pretty much exactly the same. Even sitting outside on the lanai, the primary sound heard was frequencies below, say, 1,200 or so, no matter what the genre playing.
I played several LPs, but there was just no escaping the speaker’s characteristics. The Hadyns never were engaging, musical, intriguing or even fun to listen to. So I stopped. Back to the friendly if somewhat uninformed folks at Best Buy, thank you very much.
As you will see, our own measurements by guru Danny Richie of GR Research confirms wham we and others have heard and said:
To somewhat salvage this rather bleak epistle, let me throw THIS you way:
See, here is yet another reason Stereomojo has an advantage over print mags; they could never afford this much space for something like this!
Now, before you think this was included out of purely gratuitous, sexist, prurient interests, let me introduce you to Rebekka Bakken.
Rebekka is a singer. A very good singer. And she has several recordings out including one I have been playing a lot lately. Even through the Hadyns.
This is it. It’s jazz, it’s pop, it’s rock and it’s great. Real songs with real words and melodies. It’s not available through the link on our home page for great prices on CDs & SACDS (the logo on the top far right),
but it should be. I recommend you check her out. Her music, that is.
As for the Hadyns..
Based on their overall character of soft highs, compromised midrange and uneven overall response, we cannot recommend the Haydn's for any serious music lovers in search of hi-end sound for reasonable prices. We would not even suggest that you try them free for 30 days. At its price of $1,295, there are too many other outstanding monitors and even full – range competitors that are far superior.
If you do not need the space savings of a stand mounted monitor and can spend a bit more, at $1,995 the Strata Minis from AV123 are unbeatable. See our review.
If it must be a stand mount, the LSA Monitor One at $300 less than the Hadyns are superb. I have heard hundreds of small speakers at shows and these are still at the top of my list for great sound at a great price. Someone from Absolute Sound heard them at CES and mentioned them in similar glowing terms as ours.
You can read our review here.
Others from ERA, Silverline, B&W and EPOS have impressed our reviewers and some of those cost much less than the Hadyns.
To be frank, I would rather listen to Insignia speakers from Best Buy with Danny Richie’s mods than the Hadyns.
Our review policy is to “tell the truth without being harsh or mean spirited”. I have tried to do that here.
ADDENDUM
As this review was being prepared for the web, two audio magazines from Europe arrived, both featuring reviews of the Hadyn Grands.
From Hi-Fi+, “…with a tweeter that isn’t particularly extended by the latest standards they can seem slightly on the softer side”, and, “while this is not the finest tweeter I have heard… decent response to transient input…they lack a little of that small speaker sharpness.” Chris Thomas goes on, “..a full bodied view of the music…generous and colorful tonality”. Despite those rather damning descriptions, the overall review is quite positive, ending with “What criticisms I have must be seen in their astonishing price and an appearance and performance that suggest they cost so much more”.
Paul Messenger then reviewed them for HIFI Choice. The heading under the review title says it all; “Exceptional enclosure finish distinguishes this pretty standmount”. Interestingly enough, in this case, the speakers were set up by a rep from Sumiko in Paul’s home, something that is prohibited at Stereomojo unless it is normal practice for all customers. Despite that, in the body of the review we find this: “On our measurements, the output level fell something like 5dB between 1.2 and 1.7kHz, and above that the treble stayed flat for nearly two octaves before starting to rise again above 6kHz and increasing by some 4 dB by the time it peaks at 12kHz” …. “a suckout in the presence zone”. And, “The bass and midrange was better…if uneven along the way”.
But then, toward the end we read this; “Listening past the balance, this is clearly a quality speaker…”.
Well, I will not comment on other’s assessments. They do their thing, Stereomojo does ours. You decide.
- REVIEW -
AV123
With this review, Stereomojo sets the mark not only for our future reviews, but those of other publications as well.
What you are about to read is a review by, not one or even two, but FOUR different reviewers! We believe reviews that encompass the opinions of more than one reviewer, in more than one room, with more than one system and with accompanying measurements, gives you the best and most honest, reliable information possible. Yes, it is costly and time consuming, but we believe our readers deserve the best.
It is our goal to publish the most comprehensive reviews such as this in as many future reviews as possible.
Thank you for supporting us!
James L. Darby - Publisher
Review
Number One
by
Ken Yuan
INITIAL BUILT QUALITY & SET-UP
The Strata Mini is well built for its asking price – and beyond. For example, the cabinet edges are nicely rounded without any hint of roughness in the finish. Subjectively speaking, these speakers are aesthetically pleasing.
I set the speakers 8 feet apart, center-to-center while the listening position was approximately 10 feet away from the front plane (ear-to-speaker). Room dimensions are 23 feet by 15 feet by 8.5 feet (LxWxH).
FIRST LISTEN
John Mayer's Continuum was the first spin. I went right to my favorite track, "I'm Gonna Find Another You." Mayer's voice in this bluesy song was clear and had a strong sense of presence. To me, the Mini's midrange is clearly one of its strengths. Immediately apparent to me during the first listening session was the sound stage presented by the Mini - it is quite expansive, with very reasonable imaging.
The Mini's ability to portray good imaging was further confirmed by track #10, "Eric's Song," from Vienna Teng's Waking Hour. Ms Teng's voice was clearly center-stage, with her piano located just to my right. This portrayal is similar to that of my personal system.
Although the Mini is quite capable of producing a convincing midrange, to me, the higher frequencies did not seem quite as extended. Ms Teng's voice in "Gravity" sounded a bit subdued; this was evident during the phrasing of "hey love I am a constant satellite of your blazing suns my love."
SECOND LISTEN
After a bit of break, I decided to move to a different genre. I threw in one of my favorite orchestral pieces, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade with Jose Serebrier and LPO. The intro of the first movement, "The Sea and Sinbad's Ship," immediately showed the Mini's ability to produce palpable bass, which is undoubtedly delivered by the powered, built-in subwoofers. Unfortunately, the Mini's inability to produce an extend high was once again confirmed by the violin around the 1:23 mark of the same song. Nonetheless, the combination of throwing a wide soundstage and producing a nice mid came to fore during the inter-play of violins and brass around the 6:45 mark.
The Mini's powered subwoofers definitely displayed their capability in the fourth movement of Scheherazade. They weighed in mightily around the 7:25 mark, when the percussive instruments joined the ensemble; however, again, the cymbals could have been a bit more shimmering. Irrespective of the cymbals, the overall sound was quite nice, indeed. Throughout my listening of the Scheherazade piece, the Mini's ability to deliver an expansive, and a reasonably deep, soundstage was clearly in abundance.
THIRD LISTEN
After a few days off, I returned for more listening. I thought some break from the Mini would give me a fresher perspective. Using the piano as the centerpiece of a presentation has always been a personal favorite, especially when Sergei Rachmaninoff composes the work. The Mini's performed admirably at holding those piano notes and delivering the resonance. Once again, a bit more extension on the high end would have brought those notes more desired shimmering. This was definitely noticeable around the 2:25 mark in the second movement, Adagio Sostenuto, when the piano is playing a virtual solo.
The speakers' ability to resolve a relatively complex movement was also good. In the “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” the Mini's had no problem keeping the pace. Scheherazade’s 4th movement further confirmed this again.
SOUND DETAILS
The Mini's planar magnetic drivers provide ample detail. As an owner of a pair of Ambience 1800 SuperSlims (Australian made 6-ft tall hybrids), I have always been a fan of planar drivers' ability to reproduce nuances within the music, and the Mini’s certainly deliver in that regard.
Notwithstanding their perceived inability to provide an extended high, in my opinion, the sound of violin from Scheherazade certainly provided a very palpable feel. The violin reproduction gave a good sense of "body." Perhaps, the smooth sounding natures of planar drivers just don’t quite yield that dynamic feel on the high frequency. In this case, I think it really is a "toss-up" choice to the listener.
The integration of Mini's built-in subwoofers is very good. The subwoofer controls gave me plenty of adjustment combinations to tune-out most of any meaningful room resonance. And, they gave the Minis very dynamic mid and low capabilities. This was definitely evident in the fourth movement of Scheherazade.
TONALITY
Overall, I thought the Mini's tone was pretty accurate. The percussive instruments from John Mayer’s “Waiting On The World To Change” were impressive, but not overpowering. Again, this is where Mini's subwoofers really shined.
Given the sound radiation pattern of planar drivers, speaker placement is relatively important; however, as Mini’s design is not of a true dipole, the speaker placement is not likely to be as sensitive. In my set-up, I had approximately 6 feet from the speaker baffle to the front wall; this breathing room ensured the speaker’s mid/lows are not over emphasized. In most rooms, I think a minimum front-wall-to-speaker of 3 feet would be preferred.
FINAL IMPRESSION
In short, the Mini is a very nice speaker. Notwithstanding the less-than-ideal high extension, the speakers provided a very smooth presentation. Again, the stage width and depth were impressive.
The Strata Mini has no meaningful or apparent shortfalls in this reviewer’s opinion. The overall sound characteristics are wonderful. And, combined with the reasonable price point, the Mini gives the audio world a pair of wonderful speakers at a tremendous value. Considering the sound quality with the built quality, and then factoring its asking price, I think the Mini is a winner.
Review Number Two
By
Chris Henderson
The AV123 corporation recently released the interestingly designed Mini Strata loudspeaker. Its introductory cost is $1995 in a regular finish or $2295 for the High Gloss Piano Rosewood or Piano Black finish. - Piano finishes are limited production models, available only as long as supply lasts - publisher
The Mini Strata loudspeakers are shipped in two separate double-boxed enclosures. A very soft white cotton sock that encases speakers while it is being transported further protects them. White cotton gloves are also included to help move the speakers without getting handprints on the finish. Very nice touch! Brass spikes are provided that can be used for carpeted surfaces, but you’d be wise to screw them in after you’ve found the proper placement in your room to ease moving these rather tall, heavy beasts.
Each Mini Strata measures 47 inches high by 11.5 inches wide by 17.5 half inches deep and weighs 94 pounds. I was able to lift and move each of the speakers without undue difficulty. Just make sure to watch for the sharp fins on the plate amplifier located on the back of the unit.
The Mini Strata has a plate amplifier built into each loudspeaker you ask? Yes it does, to power the 8 inch woofer. “Power” is the right word, too, as each amp supplies the woofer, which resides in its own sealed enclosure, with 350 watts of class A/B juice. Yes, with each pair comes 700 watts of stereo amplification. Price a 700 watt stereo amp by itself and see what you come up with!
The driver complement in this 4 way design includes a 1 inch ring ribbon tweeter, an 8 inch long rectangular planar magnetic midrange, a 5 and one quarter inch mid-bass, and the aforementioned 8 inch powered woofer. The woofer is located beneath the plate amplifier on the back of the loudspeaker. The other three drivers are located on the front baffle of the speaker in a vertical configuration with the ribbon tweeter near the top of the speaker, the planar magnetic driver located underneath the tweeter, and the mid-bass driver underneath the other two.
The Mini Strata has a somewhat unique profile in that the lower portion of the speaker looks like a regular speaker, but about halfway up towards the top of the speaker the side profile narrows from the initial 17.5 inches deep to about 2.5 - 3 inches deep creating a more slender looking upper speaker half. The front portion of the speaker remains 11.5 inches wide to maintain speaker continuity when viewed from the front of the loudspeaker. The side profile helps to make the Mini Strata more lithe in appearance. Enough of the technical details, how does it sound?
SOUND THAT’S MORE STRATA THAN MINI
Before you power on the loudspeakers, be sure to read the included manual so that you wire the speaker to fit your sound needs. One of the greatest strengths of the Mini Strata lies in its versatility. Too much bass in your room and Bass Traps aren’t an option? Run the woofer without the plate amp turned on. Need a little bit of bass? Adjust the crossover point and gain on the powered on plate amplifier to suit your room and your tastes. Want to use the loudspeakers to play at party levels? Move the signal gain upward and jam away with sub-level bass that will be the envy or annoyance of your neighbors. Perhaps even another block!
After wiring the speakers, I first began by listening to music using my Kinergetics Research C-200 amplifier (105 wpc), Dodd Audio entry level tube preamp, California Audio Labs Delta transport, and a GR-Research modified LiteOn DAC 72. During my initial listening session I deliberately left the plate amps in the off position to gain an initial impression of the speaker without the extra bass reinforcement that the amps provided. I began with the Sarah McLaughlin CD, Surfacing, and the Nancy Griffith CD, Other Voices Other Rooms.
At first, I did not care for the sound of the Mini Strata very much. I found the ribbon tweeter glaring and the overall sound muddled. So, I let the speakers break in for 11 hours a day for eight days while I was at work. Then the Mini Strata sounded much, much better. Where there was glare, it was replaced by a clarity that I have rarely heard on a loudspeaker at this price point. The muddled sound gave way to an ease of presentation that was hard to ignore.
I listened again with the plate amps off and found the Mini Stratas to have good vocal presentation with a rather good top end. I raised the rear spikes on the speakers to remove some of the rearward slant of the cabinets, which improved the sound to my ears. Overall, the speakers produced a rather cohesive sound that I found to be a more “unified whole” of music reproduction than most of the 4 way speakers I have heard. Sarah McLaughlin had a nice sparkle to her voice and her piano also showed the same trait. About a minute and a half into “Sweet Surrender” listen for a high-pitched drone in the recording that I had never noticed reproduced before in any loudspeaker to which I have listened.
Nancy Griffith’s Other Voices Other Rooms is an acoustic album featuring Griffith singing Folk songs with appearances by eight other legendary Folk singers such as John Prine, Emmylou Harrison and Odetta on eight of the tracks. Griffith’s voice had a wonderful plaintive quality and was reproduced very well by the Mini Stratas. I found the vocals to be slightly quieter or recessed than I am accustomed to hearing through other speakers (mainly with women’s singing voices) with a tiny drop of the extreme high end output . Then came the fun part.
I turned on the plate amps. Now we’re cooking with gasoline (my apologies to those not from the Southeastern United States)! I dialed in the plate amps by listening to AC/DC’s Hells Bells, which has a large church or school bell sounding with a fade that presents unmistakable harmonics that can be heard after the initial strike begins to fade. Also, the track has a very good kick drum with solid thumps.
So, do the Strata Minis rock? Well, “Hell’s Bells” yes!
Once I had the settings on the plate amps set to my satisfaction, I put away the hard went back to the Sarah McLaughlin CD, this time with the 700 watts of power dialed in. I now noticed that the entire musical presentation had a deeper soundstage. The width of the soundstage did not expand much more than the non-amped listening. For some reason, probably having something to do with psycho-acoustics, after the Mini Strata’s amps were on, the treble sounded even better than after the break-in period. Vocals were still slightly recessed, but were easier to follow as was the extreme top end of the sound range. Nancy Griffith’s acoustic guitar now had more body to it, making her songs sound more like a performance than a recording.
I also listened to the Statler Brothers’ The Definitive Collection CD and thoroughly enjoyed the presentation of the quartet, at least their older, less polished sounding works. Their newer recordings seem to have a little too much sound booth or mastering enhancements, which makes the sound slicker and more sterile. The banjo of “Flowers on the Wall” shown through in the beginning of the song and was easy to keep follow during the rest of the song.
Dipping back into the hard rock pool, I listened to The Cult’s High Octane (a greatest hits collection of their work) and found the sound of “Wild Flower” to have almost all of the right moves. Ian Astbury’s vocals sounded, well, like Ian Astbury. All of the instruments sounded spot on. The only problem I noticed was the hardening of the top end sound when the ribbon tweeter was asked to play high intensity crash cymbals. This occurred only when noise levels were in the party mode. This was not a problem when the Mini Stratas were played at more sane levels. I also listened to Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue which also had a rather convincing sound reproduction through the Mini Stratas. The other musical genres to which I listened were all reproduced well.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
I found the Mini Stratas to be handsome and pleasingly designed. The fit, finish, and packaging all were excellent and showed the extra care that you get when purchasing the Mini Stratas from AV123. The sound reproduction was accurate with a slight recess in the vocal region for women’s voices and the high end of the human sound spectrum. The tweeter would harden and show some glare when pushed to loud sound pressure levels.
If you do not listen to hard rock or heavy metal at loud levels with a lot of crash cymbals, these speakers would be a very good choice. The Mini Stratas would be an excellent choice at their price point. If you don’t have young ones in your house, I would definitely recommend the Piano finishes even considering their extra cost if you can get them. The piano finishes are very limited production and at press time their status is uncertain, but they tell me that if enough people want them, it might influence whether they produce more or not. I am not a photographer but perhaps a lot of completely indirect lighting might allow for a realistic picture to be taken so that you might not have to take a reviewer‘s word. A very nice loudspeaker to review and enjoy.
Chris, you are absolutely correct that the Minis need a substantial break-in period and sound pretty rough right out of the box. In fact, the 88 hours you employed means that they will still get better, especially in the areas that concerned you. And they definitely DO rock! – publisher
REVIEW
NUMBER 3
by
Nolan Shaw
Equipment used in the evaluation of the Mini’s: Onix H6550 Tube Integrated, XCD-99 used as transport, Perpetual Technology’s P-3A w/Modwright level II (DAC), Panamax 5300 power center, Onix SP-300 speaker cable, Onix interconnects. Emotiva MPS-1/DMC-1.
Music used in the Mini’s evaluation included the “Carousel” cut from the Off Broadway show Jacques Brel, “Way Down Deep” cuts from “The Hunter” by Jennifer Warne’s, “The Long Day Is Over” cut from “Come Away With Me” by Norah Jones, and “A Living Prayer” cut from “Lonely Runs Both Ways” by Alison Krauss and Union Station, various cuts from Broadway’s show “Miss Saigon” and the movie “The Matrix”.
SOUND OF THE MINI
One of the attributes that the Mini’s possess is the ability to resolve complex pieces of music without them sounding congested. An example is from the cut “Carousel” from the Off Broadway show “Jacques Brel”. Toward the later part of the song the tempo and volume picks up along with multiple voices and instruments. Every speaker I have heard at anywhere near this price range has been difficult to listen to on this song due to the congestion and I typically skip over this track as a result.
The Mini’s resolved this piece music with ease. Every voice and instrument was reproduced with no significant congestion or merging of the sounds.
The resolution of the Mini’s also came through clearly in the soundtrack from Broadway’s “Miss Saigon”. Orchestral and vocals were distinctly separate with plenty of air and black background. The soundstage was excellent. The strings hung in the air to the left of center, the brass emanated behind the strings, the vocals moved to specific points on the stage where they are supposed to be located. Very impressive!
To evaluate the low frequency response of the speakers, I listened to “Way Down Deep” from Jennifer Warne’s “The Hunter”. The song begins with a very LF beat that shakes my windows noticeably when I utilize my subwoofers. I wasn’t expecting to hear or should I say feel the magnitude of the bass resonating through the room - so much so that it was overpowering and distracting. With the Mini’s, the problem was an easy fix as a result of a control center mounted on the rear of each of the speakers, complete with amplitude adjustment controls. Once adjusted (took me several corrections to get it just right), the bass blended seamlessly into the rest of the presentation.
One of the first artists I chose to listen to on the Mini’s was Norah Jones. I found “The Long Day Is Over” track off of “Come Away With Me” interesting in that I could hear Norah’s nasal tone as I hadn’t heard on my previous speakers. I could actually hear her voice cut in and out very slightly at times. She sounded like she was sitting 10’ in front of me. The soundstage was wide and deep and her voice floated like a feather in at the front of the soundstage.
At one point I lost track of the evaluation and got lost in the music.
I also listened to the cut “A Living Prayer” from Alison Krauss and Union Station’s “Lonely Runs Both Ways” for signs of sibilance. Alison’s voice is strong and quite forward in several places in the song. Her voice sounded natural through all the high notes and never felt overpowering or uncomfortable to the ears. These speakers have a way of sneaking up and seducing you with their sound before you realize it. Silky smooth and balanced would be the two words that come to my mind when I listen to them.
The Mini’s excel with music and at their current price point I don’t think that there is another speaker around today that can touch them.
REVIEW
Number 4
By
James Darby
Mark Shifter, the force behind AV123.com, gave us the honor of the very first pair of these for review. I spent about 200 hours with them, half of which were spent breaking them in, the rest listening to every kind of music I could throw at them.
THE PHYSICAL
There is truly nothing “mini” about the Strata Mini. At four feet in height, it is a rather tall floorstander.
As you can see, our pair came in a beautiful rosewood veneer with a curved front. Other finishes, including piano lacquers, are available in very limited numbers. The three visible drivers are a tweeter up top, a planar midrange and a 5 ¼” lower mid cone which is enclosed in its own specially damped chamber. A planar magnetic mid, used in costlier speakers for enhanced midrange, is very rare at the Mini’s astonishing price of only $1,995 per pair. Yes, per pair! If the Mini were to stop there, it would still be a killer deal, but it goes way beyond that. In back, you will notice a large black enclosure that houses the real surprise – an 8” subwoofer with an integrated 350 watt-per-channel dedicated amp!
Those two subs take the bass response all the way down to 27Hz. Think about that a moment. How much would it cost you to buy a single, good 350-watt powered subwoofer? $800 maybe? Here you get not one, but TWO of them - $1,600 right there. So the rest of the pair is thrown in for $400?
Unbelievable.
They certainly do not look like $1,995 per pair. Linda, much experienced in assessing prices, thought they probably retailed for closer to $10k, just by appearance. She thought they looked “sexy”. There is a black grill that covers the three front drivers in case you need them, but the gently tilted back fascias are very attractive without them. Four spikes are included for the bottoms that make them very stable on carpets.
A full compliment of adjustments for crossover point, phase and volume of the sub grace the back as pictured. The package includes a very robust jumper cable (the blue one) to interface the sub with the rest of the drivers. High quality WBT style connectors accept any type cable. I used Ray Kimber’s outstanding Select for mine.
The crossover network, custom designed by our own guru Technical Editor, Danny Richie, includes air core inductors, polypropylene capacitors and non-inductive wire wound resistors. 4th order acoustic slopes on the upper end and 2nd order slopes on the bottom end.
FIRST SOUND IMPRESSIONS
The Minis take a good 75 – 100 hours of break-in. They sounded pretty rough right out of the large wooden crates, so don’t be alarmed. Drivers and amps are being conditioned simultaneously, so that is to be expected. Several amps were employed during the preview: the Halcro MC-20 400 wpc power amp (review pending) driven by its pre-amp mate and also the Triode tube pre, the marvelously massive LSA Reference MKIII 150 wpc tube hybrid integrated (reviewed here), the Triod
e TRV-35SE tube integrated (review in progress) and even an Onix 60 wpc solid-state. Because the powered subs take much of the most power hungry low freqs, all of the amps had no problem driving the Minis to 100 dB+ peaks.
Speaking of peaks, the Minis are very dynamic. I actually spent time listening to them without the subs in play to isolate the critical mids and uppers. Snare drums snapped and popped appropriately and guitar plucks were accurately rendered. Fast. The planars imparted a sense of speed on leading edges and transients that were exciting and involving, yet gave vocals the smoothness and liquidity that only a planar can render. Danny did a superlative job with the difficult task of seamlessly crossing the flat panels over to the cones and domes. Cascading test tones, always a joy to endure – especially by our resident Shelties – revealed no detrimental gaps, dips or change in tonality as the frequencies were handed off from one driver to the other. Very coherent for a hybrid configuration of this type and price.
While still impressive, the high end might have been the least imposing feature. It took some jockeying around, mostly moving back, of room placement because the tweeter seemed to be firing a bit too high. Standing up a little brought the highs and imagining into proper perspective. A phone call to Danny revealed that the cause may be a slight polarity problem in very early samples that was quickly fixed in production models.
AV123, for good reason, has a very strong following. In fact, several hundred pairs of the Minis were sold before the first one was ever built. Buyers forked over their cash based completely on the Mini’s on-paper description and their experience with many other products from the brilliant mind of president Mark Schifter. (If that name sounds familiar, Mark was also the founder of Audio Alchemy, which earlier set the audio world ablaze with bargain priced, quality DACs and other components. He is still at with AV123) The interim fix was easy though. I simply tilted the speakers forward about an inch and viola, a very nice high end.
A four foot tall speaker is not easy to make disappear, but dematerialize they did. The soundstage was nicely deep and wide with individual instruments firmly ensconced where the recordings placed them originally. CDs, run through the Halcro’s state-of-the-art DAC, were vivid. Vinyl, as rendered by the equally astonishing TW Acustic Raven One with a Dynavector DV-XX2MkII cartridge (exclusive review upcoming), was glorious. Transparency, while not the equal of more expensive competitors and even some restricted range monitors under $2k, was very satisfying.
At this point in the listening tests, I would have to say the AV123 Stata Mini is a remarkable achievement.
Then I turned on the subwoofers.
Flipping two little switches turned the Minis into Maxes and immediately transformed them into audio giants. The 350-watt class AB amps took hold of the 8” paper cones with an iron grip and good bass became “Good-god-amighty ” bass. Things got even mightier as I dialed in the proper phase, crossover and gain. Clean and tight as the heads of the timpani that now thundered in Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man”, it became clear why an 8” woofer was used as initial fundamentals as well as percussive transients were launched at speed equal to the planars.
I pulled out Munch’s “Living Stereo” Saint Saens Third, the “Organ Symphony”, both my first-stamper vinyl version and the SACD.
It was all there. Dean Peer, Stanley Clarke and other subterranean recordings followed. Nothing boomed or bloomed, just a muscular, natural sense of weight and authority appeared that is not often heard under $5,000 and never at $2,000. And, since CES took place while I had these, I tried to find something there among the hundreds of speakers that might compare.
Nada.
If you want to know if I would recommend these speakers, well, I already have. Friends of 20 years asked Linda and me over last night. They are looking for new speakers and asked for my advice. Guess what I told them.
-Update; the gentleman did buy them. I helped him set them up in his very large, lively room. He and his wife love them. They even bought a turntable on which to play their nice collection of original Motown vinyl. They are driving the Mini’s with a 30 wpc Linn Majik integrated. They report that they have been spending nights just listening to music - for the first time ever.- publisher
One thing to bear in mind is that you DO have to plug both of them them in to an AC outlet in order to supply current to the internal amps.. They come with their own generic but replaceable power chords as well as the jumper cables necessary to interface with the powered woofers.
Incidentally, while Stereomojo does not “do” surround sound or home theater, if you or someone you know is contemplating a movie system, consider these. They would do music and special effects equally well without the need of separate subs.
AV123 offers a 30-day in home trial, but trust me, if you let these jewels in your room, they will never leave.
Warranty is a generous 3 years.
THE AV123 STRATA MINI
- MEASUREMENTS -
By
Danny Richie
GR Research
OVERALL FREQUENCY RESPONSE
The frequency response was taken on tweeter axis and at 1 meter with a 1 watt input signal. A 4ms gated time window was used.
This close range measurement and limited time window will not accurately measure ranges below 200Hz so it is not included in the graph.
This sample pair sent for review measured to with +/-2.3db from end to end.
Previous measurements of the rear-firing sub showed a tuning frequency of 28Hz.
With its own built in plate amps and the flexibility that this offers, the speakers should easily hit -3db down points in the 28Hz range without room gain.
In some rooms they could easily cover mid 20's.
HORIZONTAL OFF AXIS RESPONSES
The horizontal off axis responses were also taken at one meter.
Red is again the on axis response with each additional measurement made by moving 10 degrees off axis. This speaker has a very even off axis response in the horizontal range with the highs dropping out very smoothly and consistently.
VERTICAL OFF AXIS RESPONSES
The vertical off axis responses were also measured with 1 watt at 1 meter with the Red line being the on axis response.
Each additional measurement was made by moving the microphone up 4" per measurement going from Orange to Yellow to Green.
The Green line shows the response at 12" above the tweeter axis. The measured responses confirm the very even response in the vertical plane.
These speakers were designed in such a way that the drivers are kept acoustically in phase over a wide vertical range.
This allows the off axis response in the vertical range to be very close to the on axis response. So whether you are seated or standing these speakers should sound very much the same.
However if one's listening position is such that the listener is below the tweeter axis then it might benefit the listener to tilt the speaker forward slightly using the adjustable floor spikes to maintain the neutral response.
CUMULATIVE SPECTRAL DECAY
The cumulative spectral decay measures how fast the speaker dissipates stored energy and inertia.
In this regard the Mini Strata really excels. The speed of the planar magnetic drivers are really tough to beat as the decay rate is very fast.
IMPEDANCE
The impedance response shows an average low in the 8 ohm range. This will allow them to be easily driven by any amplifier.
The rise in the bottom end is from a 6db high pass filter that pulls the lowest ranges away from the small, front firing, Atohm woofer.
At $1,995, the AV123 Strata Mini is an extraordinary buy in a full-range speaker. It can be driven by modestly powered amplifiers and still deliver quality low bass in the 20Hz region rarely seen at this price point. Positioned correctly (you may need to tilt them forward a little from their default tilted back posture), the Mini's will reproduce music of all genres with a high degree of listener satisfaction.
Featuring literally "outside the box" thinking and design, the Strata Mini is as handsome as it is musical. Recommended only for medium to large rooms of at least 16'.
AV123 also excels in customer service. We ar as confident in the company as we are the product.
For its outstanding value and performance, we award the
AV123 STRATA MINI
our
Congratulations!
Back to HOME and other reviews
Have you ever heard of the Benchmark DAC? How about the Alesis Masterlink? Or maybe the Behringer DEQ2496 rings a bell? All of these products started out as Pro Audio items, meaning they were intended mainly for use in commercial recording studios or live concert venues. They were not sold in home audio stores or advertised in Stereophile or TAS. However, somewhere along the line, each of these products were discovered by audio reviewers and written up in the high-end audio press. They became hot topics on audio boards and blogs, all resulting in many thousands of sales to audiophiles worldwide. And for good reason; they are excellent products selling for prices that make them attractive to home audio enthusiasts.
The fact is, there is a whole world of such products sitting in guitar stores right now;
speakers, amplifiers, cables, isolation devices, DACs – you name it. The question is, how good are they in comparison to components designed for and marketed to the home audio segment? We at Stereomojo believe this question is worth investigating and perhaps barbecuing a sacred cow or two along the way.
HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY…
…for a pair of very good, rather large (say 17" x 11" x 13.5"), very well constructed 2-way stand-mount monitors featuring not a 6 or 7 inch woofer, but a big Kevlar eight-incher? Plus a 1” silk dome tweeter? Then add that they are very accurate – flat from 50 -20,000 with only a +/- 1.5dB variance? Most expensive speakers do well to accomplish that within a +/- 3dB range. The specs say they are within 3dB all the way down to 39hz. The flatter the response the better, right?
What would you think so far? Maybe $1,000 a piece? There are plenty of much more costly monitors that cannot boast those specs. But wait a minute. Each of these boxes includes two amplifiers! An 80-watt amp just to drive the 8” woofer and another 40 watter dedicated just to the tweeter. Therefore, a pair of these speakers includes four separate amplifiers. Very clean amplifiers. 120 watts per side? That’s not all that much. But what if they could output a clean 113 db at 1 meter before clipping and built to sustain that 24/7 in a recording studio environment?
What class of amps are they? AB? D? I asked Alesis. Several times. They would not say, claiming that information is “proprietary”. I was also not permitted to talk to anyone in the engineering department. Since there are large heat sinks in the rear, class D is unlikely, and we know there are no tubes in there. Probably AB.
How much are we talking now, particularly since you save a bundle on expensive interconnects you would not need? You might want to invest in some good XLR ICs since these speakers are fully balanced. Balanced speakers? Yup. Three or four grand for the pair maybe? But wait, there’s more.
THE DSP FACTOR
You probably know DSP stands for Digital Signal Processing. In this case, the DSP is a digital crossover with 24bit resolution. If you are worried about digititus, there was no evidence of the malady anywhere to be heard.
With the Alesis 820DSP, here is what that means to you. Imagine, if you can, sitting in your room right in the sweet spot with your trusty laptop. A standard 9-pin serial cable (provided) runs from your laptop to the left speaker. Another included cable connects to the left speaker to the right speaker. On your laptop screen is a four-band parametric EQ. When you make adjustments from your listening position to one speaker or both simultaneously, you hear the changes in real time from the speakers. When you have achieved your optimum voicing of the speakers to your room, just click “save” and the parameters are saved – in the speakers - for you to recall or change at your whim via buttons on the front panel – complete with an LED readout of whatever you named it.
Up to eight user settings are storable, but in case that is not enough, there are another 8 factory presets. #1 is flat, #2 is Hifi based on the Fletcher Munson curve. What if you prefer a British sound? Use #7 named the BBC Dip which gives you a slight dip in the 1 to 3kHz range for a more distant (mid hall) and relaxed sound. #6 will even emulate an 80’s boom box for your teenager. They speakers are magnetically shielded
A professional, high quality EQ can set you back $1,000 or more, plus the ICs you would need to connect it and you still would not have the convenience of adjusting it from your sweet spot.
THE LED FACTOR
The front of each speaker sports a greenish multifunction LED and six small buttons.
Depending on which buttons are used, the LED will tell you:
THE BREAKING IN FACTOR
There are those that believe that speakers do not need break-in, that what the listener is experiencing is a psychoacoustic effect which is actually their hearing and their mind adjusting to the sound of the speaker, not the sound of the speaker changing over time. It’s all in their head.
If there was ever a speaker to blow that theory out of the water, it is this one. When I first installed the 820s, they sounded very constricted and tight. Mediocre dynamics. The low end especially was MIA. However, most notably, they did not play very loud and clipped rather easily. How did I know they were clipping? It was obvious to hear, but I could also see it. The greenish-yellow LED was flashing red, signaling that clipping was indeed occurring even at moderate levels.
After several hours, the bass opened up, as did the rest of the frequency response. They played louder and the dynamic range expanded drastically. Moreover, the LED no longer flashed red even at ear shattering levels.
Besides, the manual states, “Nearly all new speakers require a few hours of bass-heavy material at fairly loud volume to break them in. What this does is loosen up the driver suspensions and smooth out the response”. No psycho babble now, please. Case closed.
HOW DO THEY SOUND?
How do they sound? I will let my wife Linda answer that first. She came home late from our office while I was listening in the dark to the newly set up 820s. She stuck her head in the listening rooms and said “Did you get new speakers in for review today? The sound makes me think of you sitting at a mixing board! What are they?” This from the sound she heard from outside the room.
Backing up a bit, as I listened to them after a few hours of break-in I had the very same thought, but I thought it was a since I knew these were recording studio monitors. But she did not. I kept trying to shake the feeling, forget they were pro audio and evaluate like I would any speaker, but still they evoked such strong memories of long sessions in various studios it was impossible to dispel. Linda confirmed what I was hearing was not a psychological predisposition, but an actual characteristic.
What is this characteristic? First, the sound is incredibly dynamic. Listening to Flim & the BBs Tricycle, the powerful snare drum did not just snap, it was a small detonation.Same with the kick drum. Maximum Mojo. The piano was clean, very neutral and again, the notes just leapt from the speakers. Electric bass was deep and tuneful. It took no effort to follow exactly what the bassist was doing and equally easy to differentiate him from the drummer’s bass kicks.
Wide dynamic splashes indicate there is a low noise floor. If a sound initiates from a high noise floor, there is not as far for it to expand. Anything percussive through the Alesis’ was explosive compared to most home audio speakers which tend to favor either a dry, detailed and restrained personality, or the opposite warm, smooth, romantic style. Bach or Rachmaninov. These are not euphonic in any sense. Critics who write that a certain speaker imparts no coloration need to compare them to a good pair of pro studio monitors. They might reconsider their remarks.
When listening to rock or pop studio recordings, I enjoy listening for what the producer
and engineer did in the mix. That is every bit as much art and science as what the musicians are playing. The 820s allowed me to hear that clearly; so much so that I began to pull out Alan Parsons, 10cc, ELO, Steely Dan, Sir George Martin and, of course, Pink Floyd. Their mixing artistry shown through gloriously. These speakers love rock and rock loves them. Same with Boz Scaggs, Chicago and the remarkable new Beauty Room – a mix of The Dan and CSN&Y if you imagine that. Go check it out.
Recording studio monitors are designed to give such people a canvas with which to paint their aural masterpieces. The Alesis Prolinear 820DSPs did not place Miles and his friends on Kind of Blue in my room, they placed them live on the other side of the glass in the studio.
ONSTAGE
The soundstage is presented differently as well. In classical recordings such as Reference Recordings excellent “Tutti” CD or the Mercury vinyl version of Hanson’s “Composer and His Orchestra”, the images of instruments were very stable and easy to isolate, but they were not rendered in the 3D holographic tableau so characteristic of the better high-end home products. Classical vinyl sounds a bit sterile and more CDish. The size of the stage was rather moderate and not as dramatic as the Vienna Acoustics Haydn or the even larger sounding LSA 1 Reference. The ambient field was not as thick and palpable. Classical is not this speaker’s strong suit. Perhaps that is why many classical recording and mixing studios do not use commercial studio monitors and lean more towards B&Ws and the like.
