Before the “you’re denigrating dance music” hate mail floods in, can I just point out, when it comes to young people listening to music, this isn’t so far from where we all started. What’s changed isn’t the need, it’s the equipment trying to satisfy it. All the time you stick to conventional system topology and reduce the actual manufacturing costs, it’s inevitable that you are going to end up with smaller and smaller speakers. Three-way speakers with 12” bass units, sat on the floor, is not what’s on offer these days, even if that’s what many of us experienced, growing up.
Which brings us to what might be termed New Audio Logic: you can miniaturise electronics and mass-produce them in the China, selling them at astonishingly low prices. So low that, if they break or their technology is superseded, you just toss them away and buy another. I know – that’s not exactly ecologically sound, but conflicting tendencies co-existing is hardly new either. When it comes to actual products, the problem with that approach is that the acoustic elements in the system – those that actually generate the sound – work to a different set of rules and a very different cost basis. The physical laws and engineering around loudspeakers are relatively static – the very opposite of digital processing and technology. If you are going to invest hard earned cash, it makes sense to do it into something with a long working life. Choose a loudspeaker carefully and it’s unlikely to be rendered obsolete any time soon. Which is exactly where the notion of using €8K worth of speakers with a €369 ‘system solution’ comes in: But Avantegarde take this logic further still and the Colibri is no ordinary €8K speaker. Whether it is extraordinary enough to succeed remains to be seen. A product like the WiiM amp offers an astonishing range of functional capabilities at an almost throwaway price. In many ways, the Colibri’s capabilities are just as astonishing, albeit not as immediately impressive, even if you do list them on a product flyer. The sticking point here is that in order to really get the speakers, you need to hear just what they can do. Which is a challenge when the thinking goes that, for the most part, they will be used with other equipment bought blind off of the internet. At least their standout looks help…
You can’t really miss the trademark ‘trumpet’ spherical horn, which is placed dead centre in the Colibri cabinet. Behind that sits no ordinary enclosure: The end caps are die-cast, topping and tailing an MDF box, with an inset baffle, flanked by two, extruded aluminium ‘cheeks’ that horn load the twin, reflex loaded 175mm bass units. These operate up to 700Hz, where the spherical horn takes over. What – no tweeter? The 40mm midrange driver and its horn are small enough to reach 19kHz – just enough top-end to get by, even if ‘audiophiles’ used to exotic high-frequency units that extend out to 30 or 35kHz might sniff at it. But then most of those audiophile designs lack the Colibri’s secret weapon – its 98dB sensitivity and 117dB maximum SPL!
