As I’ve already pointed out, you can’t get something for nothing when it comes to loudspeaker design and that extraordinary efficiency comes at a price. The Colibri’s bass extension barely deserves the name, output almost non-existent below 70Hz. That makes it broadly equivalent to an LS3/5a – which is hardly impressive for a two cubic foot cabinet the size of a Spendor BC1: Except that’s part of the thinking too. To make the most of the Colibri’s bass – and it definitely more than makes up in quality what it might lack in quantity – you’ll want to push them back against the wall, or even into a corner. Which is another way of saying that they feel right home in small spaces. Used like that the bass is surprisingly fulsome, fast, articulate and tactile. Play some acoustic bass and you’ll quickly realise just how muddy, bereft of pitch information and low-frequency energy most conventional speakers are – at least at this sort of price. Add to that the machined bosses mounted in the end caps and on the rear panel, along with the speaker’s symmetrical lay-out and it quickly becomes obvious that you can install the Colibri vertically or horizontally, on its matching stand, special wall bracket or on top of its matching 18” sub-woofer. Did I say sub-woofer? Ahhh… well that’s the second half of the Colibri story.
The problem with bass is that, at least in audiophile terms, doing it right inevitably costs money. Those last 10 or 15Hz can cost as much or more than the rest of a speaker put together. Of course, the Colibri neatly sidesteps that cost by simply not including deep bass. After all, if you want that, you can always plump for a pair of Uno or Duo SDs – as long as you’ve got the space and the coin. Except the Colibri’s departure point is that its customers are probably both space and cash poor. The fact is that an Uno SD customer isn’t a Colibri customer and a Colibri, even with a pair of subs, won’t compare to the Uno SD. The Uno SD lives in systems that start at around the €30K mark and go up from there. The whole point of the Colibri is that it brings horn benefits to systems starting at €10K – and no €10K system can compete with a €30K system built around essentially the same technology. Anybody who thinks that a Colibri is an alternative to the Uno SD is going to be sadly dissappointed: but then, they aren’t a Colibri customer. That Colibri customer wants the biggest bang for their limited and hard earned bucks, musical impact the Colibri is well placed to deliver – especially if you add a sub, any sub… This is where AvantGarde has been especially clever. Yes, they offer an impressively capable sub-woofer option that mates sonically, aesthetically and physically with the Colibri. But with a purpose built 18” driver, active electronics and a stand styled to match and support the satellite, there’s no way that sub is going to be cheap – especially if you are buying a pair so that you can indulge your steam punk tendencies with a pair of pseudo guitar ‘combis’, your very own domestic PA.
