So, despite the considerable similarities, it’s no surprise that these three speakers sound quite different to each other, each with its own balance of musical virtues. There’s only so many ways to make a sensible, conventional box speaker. These three tick those boxes and don’t deviate too far from the path of common sense and practice. But even within those constraints, there’s still huge potential for variation (and disaster). As the cream of the current crop, these designs have all successfully avoided the common pitfalls, but their designers have still made deliberate choices and each one still prefers a particular approach and matching equipment. A big part of reviewing is finding or choosing recordings that illustrate a product’s strengths (and its weaknesses). Perhaps the place to start with this three-way conversation is to select a recording a recording that suits each one – and explain why?
The Stenheim Alumine 5-SX and Christina Pluhar/L’Arpeggiata’s Music For A While
Let’s start with the Stenheim A5-SX, the longest standing of our three contenders. Right from the start, the A5 has had the ability to let music breathe, bringing life, immediacy and expressive range to performances and recordings. Each subsequent iteration or upgrade has added sonic attributes and musical insights to extend that ability. First came the SE, with its bi-wirable and upgraded crossover. Now we have the SX (shouldn’t that be SEX?) which, learning from experience with the massive X-base for the Ultime 2, adds a heavyweight ‘plinth’ to the already far from light A5. The transformational impact of what is essentially an inert chunk of aluminium and some big, stainless-steel spikes is little short of astonishing, bringing leading-edge substance and a planted sense of dynamic authority to go with the speaker’s existing dynamic discrimination, greater transparency and focus and a further increase in presence and immediacy. It’s all good stuff, adding significantly to the musical capabilities of the speaker, elevating the performance of the musicians and bringing the listener (even) closer to the original event. Best of all, it’s an upgrade that’s retrofittable to all existing A5s, irrespective of stripe or colour.
But to really grasp just how much life, vitality and intimacy the A5-SX brings to musical reproduction, there’s no better place to start than Christina Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata’s LP of improvisations based on Purcell songs, Music For A While (Erato 01902952550843), a truly genre-bending combination of early music and modern, acoustic and electric instruments, Early English Baroque source material and jazz, a French ensemble and international singers, with a combination of vocals, recorder, organ and clarinet. This is definitely music that needs to breathe. It is also compact and rhythmically tight, with crisp and expressive dynamic graduation and a vibrant sense of ensemble playing. The Stenheims capture the acoustic space between the instruments and their relative scale. Portrayal of height and depth are excellent. But it’s the relationship between the players that really sparks and which brings the music to life. The precision and technique displayed by the vocalists is laid bare, without being forced or spot-lit. It brings the effort and focus in the singing firmly to the fore: you’re never left in any doubt that this is a human being delivering an extraordinary performance. It holds those voices stable, solid, dimensional and stage centre, yet also allows the playful interplay with the jazz influences of guitar and clarinet.
