This was one system that allowed you, encouraged you, positively insisted that you relaxed as soon as you entered the room. Delicate, open, articulate and lucid, the undoubted qualities present in both the digital and analogue front-ends were preserved by the electronics and delivered, coherent and intact by the speakers. The driving system is a recognizably class act, full of products that tick a lot of my personal musical boxes. Still, making them work together to create a whole that’s greater than the sum of the parts requires more than just hooking them up – something that seems to have escaped the collective memory of most of the audio industry. It’s not enough to simply connect a bunch of disparate components and expect the magic to happen. But there was definitely something magical happening here. Intimate, communicative, charming and seductive, this was a system and sound just aching for the sort of material played in the LowSwing Records sessions. The superb micro-dynamic resolution brought life and vitality to the performance, reminding me just how convincing a system can be when its scale matches the scale of the recording. But this wasn’t only about girl and guitar audiophile discs. Larger scale music showed the same rhythmic and dynamic integrity, natural tonality and lucid sense of shape and pattern.
Sitting at the end of the chain, the Callas speakers are worthy of a special mention. Larger than they look, the unusual topology of their five-driver line-up (there’s a rear-facing tweeter) appears to break all of the rules yet clearly delivers exceptional – and exceptionally coherent – results. Splitting the midrange across two drivers with a crossover in between might seem like madness but giving the all-important mid-band, twin 8” diaphragms certainly projects, presence, body and musical intent. In this instance the benefits definitely outweigh any presumed costs. They also contribute to a 91.5 dB sensitivity, a number that’s certainly reflected in the sound of the system which tracks dynamic shadings like a faithful bloodhound on the trail of a missing infant. This system reveled in all those tiny musical nuances – and the speakers delivered (and made sense of) them all.
The Lirogon Origin Loudspeakers
By Roy Gregory
Proving once again that’s there’s little new under the audio sun, while there’s considerable mileage still to be had from the more ambitious ideas that litter hi-fi’s history, the Lirogon Origin multi-driver electrostatic is in many ways, the legendary Koss Model 1 re-incarnate.
A relatively squat, compact (think Quad ELS 63) floor-stander, the seven-driver, four-way system is built into a heavy, machined aluminium frame, with a substantial rear extension supporting a massive power supply and huge adjuster for rake angle. The drivers are individually mechanically tuned, with user adjustment of the tweeter and super-tweeter. Finish is a mixture of polished metal and piano lacquer, with beautifully executed, inlaid logos. It might be the company’s first product, but the Origin is a class act – although at 120,000 a pair, so it should be.
