As much as I love the Alumine 5 SE – and pound for pound, I believe it’s one of the most musically satisfying speakers out there – compare it to the U2 and the bigger speaker completely eclipses the performance of its little brother. Perhaps not surprisingly, the added bandwidth delivers a real sense of scale and authority, generating a larger and better-defined acoustic. But the real benefits come across the broad mid-band, where there’s greater presence and dimensionality, a natural sense of separation and layering, more subtle and convincing textures. As I suspected, the U2 really is a bigger 5 SE – and that is a very, very good thing indeed. More linear and more subtle than the Alexx (particularly at the bottom end), more refined and spatially defined than the Divin Noblesse, the U2 may lack some of the visceral excitement generated by those speakers, but its effortlessly light-touch and unforced control, the way it allows a performance to breathe, its natural perspectives and harmonic textures, together with its relaxed, relaxing presentation offers its own appeal. Of course, add a second power amp and I suspect that would be all change. The Stenheim speakers enjoy being bi-amped the way a seal loves fish, but going that route moves the needle on the price meter significantly. That bigger budget, bigger boned approach is certainly something I’ll be looking at in future, but for the moment, it’s the possibilities of a more basic U2 set-up that intrigue me.
Which is one reason why I was so keen to try this speaker in a smaller space. The other is that I’ve been asked this exact question by at least two different A5 SE owners, both looking for more performance without sacrificing the musical attributes of their existing speakers. The Divin Noblesse is simply too big (certainly too deep) to be accommodated in smaller rooms, while the potentially unruly bottom-end of the Alexx will almost certainly get into trouble. But the U2? This is a speaker with the sonic character and adaptability to work in a more challenging space. As impressive as it is in a large room, a big speaker that’s at home in a much more constricted environment… that would be very interesting indeed.
Moving anything this heavy will always present its own problems, but the U2s proved surprisingly amenable to re-location. With ramps to roll it down the steps, the only unusual provision was a strap around the speaker’s midriff to allow the ‘pusher’ to prevent any risk of it toppling forwards down the slope which, given its high centre of gravity, should be a serious consideration.
Once in situ, set up was, once again, remarkably straightforward. Correct bass weight was achieved by using the bass cut on the crossover and raising the speaker on its spikes, using medium threads at the front and the tallest threads at the back to achieve a 0.8 degree forward rake, with a listening distance of almost exactly three metres. But the really important thing here is not the precise settings themselves, but the fact that the speaker both allows you to make them and responds so positively to them. All of this was achieved with the speaker surprisingly close to the rear wall, testimony to the careful tuning of the rear-facing slot ports. Driven by a single CH Precision M1.1, the U2 maintained a surprising sense of scale, depth, dimensionality, layering and texture. The near-field/near-wall set up barely diminished the characteristic Stenheim strengths, with excellent instrumental character and timbral identity along with the subtle nuances of vocal diction and phrasing that breathe life into recordings. The sound was neither flattened nor forward, while deep bass was both detailed and powerfully weighted – as an outing with the Gravity OST at a physically threatening level quickly demonstrated.
