The Maazel/VPO Sibelius 2nd Symphony (Decca SXL 6125) brings home both the spatial and the temporal/musical coherence that the active crossovers instil in the Auditoriums. The soundstage is as expansive as you might expect, but it’s the way that the speakers hold the different elements in the orchestration and dovetail them together to create a seamless whole that elevates the musical experience. Maazel might not have the preternatural sense of tempo that Barbirolli brings to the work, but his pacing is complex and deliberate. He makes full use of the pauses and hesitations in the score, but also chooses to slow certain phrases to accentuate or add temporal contrasts to dynamic ones. With the Auditoriums there is no clumsiness or sense of discontinuity in the process of reproduction, something I’ve heard with other large speakers that struggle to keep the temporal domain a constant. The big panels separate the event from the system and actions within the event are just that – part of a continuous fabric. Just as the continuity of that fabric survives changes or breaks in tempo, so it survives even the music’s most extreme dynamic demands. The layered, slowly building musical climaxes that are such a part of the 2nd Symphony are scaled with the same poise and grace that invigorates Alina Ibragimova’s fiddle. The thunderous, rolling timps retain all the texture and body you hear in the quieter, more spacious passages of the Shostakovich. That musical and spatial coherence is never more obvious than in the opening of the Third Movement, with the melodic line flitting sporadically across the entire orchestra and yet still retaining its continuity and sense of pace and purpose, before settling into the stately interlude that presages the return of the vivacious, darting, instrumental interjections and subsequent temporal contrasts that characterise the movement as a whole. Sibelius 2 has ever been a sterling test for the dynamic and time domain performance of any speaker – just as it is a sterling test of conductor and orchestra – but it is one from which the active Auditoriums emerge with their reputation not just intact but significantly enhanced. I’d almost go so far as to say that musically speaking, this is that ‘just one thing’ that really reveals their nature and qualities.
In some ways, the difference that activating the Clarisys speakers makes should come as no surprise, even if the extent of that difference does. Passive crossovers are also referred to as ‘subtractive’ for a reason. Not only does the active option rob less energy and headroom from the system, it also connects a narrower bandwidth the load far more intimately to the driving amplifier, making that amplifier’s job considerably easier. When people remark that active systems sound more powerful they’re just reflecting the fact that even if the driving amps themselves are no more powerful, the system is making better use of the available power. With the Auditoriums that is most obvious in the bass, but as always, cleaning up the bass works wonders right across the musical range.
Active vs Passive…
The active crossover tightens up the Auditoriums’ low frequency output, adding shape and linearity to the weight and timing that was always there. Bass notes on the passive speakers are always in the right place and have the right pitch, but going active adds a healthy dose of leading-edge definition, space and clarity. Whilst the pace, pitch and line of Ray Brown’s bass on This One’s For Blanton (AJAZ 2310-721) are never in doubt with the passive speakers, the addition of the active crossover adds detail to his fingering, shape and attack to each individual note, the extra work revealed in turn uncovering new expressive layers and musical impetus. At the same time, the cleaner bass also locks in the soundstage height and dimensions with greater clarity, from Brown’s clearly upright bass to the spatial relationship between the guitar and cello on the Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileras No.5 on Anastasia Kobekina’s Ellipses (Mirare MIR 604). But play Waltz For Debby (Bill Evans Trio, Live at the Village Vanguard, another 192/24 file) and it really brings home how the cleaner, quicker bass has impacted the musical presentation. It isn’t just the way that Scott LaFaro’s bass stands away from and behind the left-hand speaker, or the body and dimensionality it’s invested with, what really clicks is the relationship between the three band members and the way the applause reaches forward to fill an acoustic that already embraces the listener, adding significantly to the immersive quality of the listening experience.
