But there’s more to the Comtesse than seamless integration of the three different drivers. The cabinet is built on the same massive lines as the other Divin speakers, with 50mm thick enclosure walls which, along with the symmetrical porting and carefully calculated Helmholtz and critically located sympathetic resonators, ensures extremely low levels of stored energy and a well-behaved internal air mass. Together with the exactingly designed and manufactured driver diaphragms, with their sophisticated, multi-layer coatings and advanced surrounds, it’s a recipe for extraordinary neutrality. Listen to the Comtesse and you really aren’t listening to its box. Or, to put it another way, listen to the Stenheim or the Peak and as exceptional as their enclosures are, you can still hear exactly how the speaker and its box combine to create its specific character. Neither speaker could be described as ‘boxy’, but the Divin Comtesse is in another realm in this regard.
And we’re not finished yet. The Comtesse has one other stellar attribute: it’s fast! Few speakers track dynamics as precisely as the smallest Divin. The Stenheim might respond with equal or greater sensitivity to input, but it lacks the Göbel’s control and absolute accuracy. In some ways, and for many listeners, this will be the deciding (or dividing) factor when it comes to the Comtesse. That speed and control are bought at the expense of bass weight, the speaker extending flat to the bottom of its bandwidth. It might boast the same -3dB point as the A5-SX, but when it comes to dynamic impact and sheer presence, the Stenheim is in another league. What are the musical implications of that design choice?
Neutrality, precision and speed: they’re the very qualities that a small consort, early music recording demands. Vivaldi’s La Cetra gathers a dozen, related violin concerti and Rachel Podger and the Holland Baroque Society’s double SACD recording (La Cetra, Channel Classics CCS SA 33412) is the perfect audio obstacle course to demonstrate the Comtesse’s sure-footed clarity and control. Combining a chamber organ, low strings, lute and harpsichord continuo with two violin sections and violas, there’s plenty going on – and plenty of opportunities for musical and instrumental confusion, especially given the enthusiastic playing. Compared to other speakers (and the other speakers here) the first thing that’s going to strike you about the Göbel’s presentation is the clarity with which it identifies and separates the continuo instruments, particularly the organ and bowed bass. So often playing in chorus, here they are divided by both texture and location. The bowed bass is refreshingly vibrant, while the organ notes having the correct, tube-y sound. Most speakers make them sound fluffy and indistinct, but with the Comtesse the relationship between the pipe’s core frequency and its chuffing are clearly defined. The pitch, centre, duration and sustain on notes is equally definite and rhythms and patterns are both secure and unforced, falling naturally rather than jammed into shape. The complexity and vibrant body of the harpsichord is all present and correct, a world away from the jangly irritant that many systems make it.
