Arendal Sound’s 1528 Series Tower 8 Loudspeaker—Monumental Value
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 December 2024 01 December 2024
Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada’s National Research Council can be found through this link.
A couple of decades ago, a marketing director for a boutique-type speaker company, vexed by my questioning of his company’s product claims rather than accepting them at face value, called me cynical. I didn’t take offense. On the contrary, I considered this a compliment: it confirmed I was doing my job as a reviewer. Arendal Sound founder Jan Ove Lassesen might have thought the same of me these past few months, having been bombarded by my incessant email queries. But I have learned a good deal.
Wooed by Wood—The Sonus Faber Sonetto V G2
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 November 2024 01 November 2024
Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada’s National Research Council can be found through this link.
If you’ve been following this column, you might know I’ve recently developed a preference for white speakers in my living room. It started with the striking Estelon Auras, which I reviewed a year ago, and continued with the sleek Totem Bison Twin Towers, featured in August. So when my review pair of Sonus Faber Sonetto V G2s arrived and I found out they had the dark-color wenge wood veneer, I was somewhat disappointed. Not for long, though. Once set up, they looked so good that they may have cured my fixation on white speakers.
The Bison Twin Tower in White: Totem Acoustic’s Best-Sounding and Most-Beautiful Speaker Yet?
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 August 2024 01 August 2024
Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.
Whenever I review a product, I try to not only understand the product itself but also the company that makes it. If it’s a good product from a reputable company whose products have historically been well received, I want to know what the story is behind the company, what makes it tick.
Sonus Faber’s Lumina II Amator Loudspeaker—Luxury and Beauty for Small Rooms and Budgets
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 March 2024 01 March 2024
In the last installment of this column, I wrote about the Estelon Aura loudspeaker, which retails for $19,900 a pair (all prices USD). The amplifiers I used to power the Auras ranged from the $2499 Marantz 40n integrated amplifier (reviewed in August 2022) to the $30,000 duo of Simaudio Moon 791 streaming preamplifier (reviewed in November 2023) and 761 power amplifier. This month’s installment takes the “System One” column back to its roots, when it focused on more affordable equipment, with the Sonus Faber Lumina II Amator, a two-way standmount design priced at $1499 a pair. Although much cheaper than the Aura, the Lumina II Amator, too, combines great sound with a striking appearance and more than a hint of luxury.
Estelon Aura: A Beautiful, Great-Sounding Stereo Starts with Beautiful, Great-Sounding Speakers
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 November 2023 01 November 2023
When I started this column five years ago, I intended it to feature the kind of components and systems found in real-world listening rooms, such as my living room, where I’ve set up all the equipment I’ve been writing about here. It was meant to focus on inexpensive products, which I defined in my first installment (and have reiterated several times since).
Why Bigger Is Not Always Better: Focal Vestia N°3 Loudspeaker
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 July 2023 01 July 2023
Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.
As I’m typing these words, I’m listening to Bruce Cockburn’s latest album, O Sun O Moon, through a pair of Focal Vestia N°3 floorstanding loudspeakers, the subject of this review. But when I initially set this review up, I’d planned to listen to the album, and some of my reference recordings, through Focal’s Vestia N°4 floorstanders.
A New Direction for “System One,” Mapped Out While Living with Bowers & Wilkins’s 705 S3 Loudspeakers
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- Written by Douglas Schneider Douglas Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 April 2023 01 April 2023
Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.
Back in December 2018, I launched a new regular feature on SoundStage! Hi-Fi. As I outlined in that inaugural column, the name “System One” could refer to “someone’s first system, or someone’s only system—or something else, depending on what’s covered that month. What won’t change is the theme . . . cost-effective, high-performing equipment that many people can afford.”
JBL's Best-Kept Secret Is a Killer All-in-One Music System—the L75ms Integrated Music System Revisited
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 December 2022 01 December 2022
This is the article that almost never happened. The idea for it first came up when I was picking up the JBL L75ms Integrated Music System ($1500, all prices in USD) from Gordon Brockhouse’s place. Gordon had just finished reviewing it for SoundStage! Simplifi, and his endorsement of this all-in-one system in that review was so glowing that our team basically had to give it our Reviewers’ Choice award. His praise also piqued my interest. So as I was bundling it into my SUV with the plan of returning it in a few weeks’ time to JBL’s Canadian distributor, Erikson Consumer, I told him that I was tempted to listen to it myself. But that’s when he said, “I have to warn you, it’s really hard to get in and out of the box.”
Movie Night, Music Night with the Focal On Wall 302 Loudspeaker
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 August 2022 01 August 2022
When I started this column about three-and-a-half years ago, I envisioned it would be for products priced in the hundreds, not thousands, of dollars. But occasionally I’ve felt the need to stretch the budget, like the time I wrote about the Sonus Faber Lumina III loudspeaker and Rotel RA-1572MKII integrated amplifier-DAC, which are priced at $2100 per pair and $2099.99 respectively (all prices in USD). Granted, they’re not cheap, but they’re good value for money and I felt that thrifty audiophiles should know about them.
Blown Away by Monitor Audio Bronze 100 Loudspeakers
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- Written by Douglas Schneider Douglas Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 May 2022 01 May 2022
Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.
Diego Estan reviewed a pair of Monitor Audio Bronze 100 loudspeakers on SoundStage! Access in August 2020. About three months after that, Jay Lee produced a follow-up Take 2 video review on the Bronze 100 for our YouTube channel. Last month, James Hale wrote about the 100 yet again for his “Art+Tech” column on SoundStage! Xperience. Does anything more really need to be said?
