A big part of this musically inclusive capability comes down to the even energy spectrum the AXjets generate, especially at high-frequencies. The Melodiya-sourced recordings in the EMI Oistrakh box-set (Violin Concertos, SLS 5058) might not be pristine, audiophile grade, but it’s hard to fault their musical integrity or significance. Played with the RIAA EQ, they can sound spacious but thin and with a distinct glare to the solo instrument’s upper registers. But use the EMI curve and these 1964 pressings gain body, substance, tonal warmth and complexity. The deft touch, drive and precision in Oistrakh’s bowing is clearly apparent, but even when he scales the upper reaches of the violin’s range in the Shostakovich Passacaglia (Violin Concerto No.1) there is a focus and passion driving his instrumental line, the duration of notes is precisely mapped, the tone properly sharp and shrill – yet devoid of edge or hardness. The melodic path he treads may be fragile and delicate, but neither the playing nor the instrument loses body or substance, location or presence. It’s an impressive presentation that few speakers relying on conventional dome tweeters can match.
“Get down, deeper and down…”
Where do the AXjets compromise? 30Hz is deep, but it’s not genuinely full-range. Play the LPO recording of the commissioning concert that celebrated the renovation of the Festival Hall’s massive organ (the Poulenc Organ Concerto and Saint-Saëns Symphony No.3, LPO – 0081) and you can hear that loss of really low frequencies in the lack of hall boundaries and the absence of those juddering notes that energised the entire space (dubbed ‘Pull Out All The stops’, it WAS quite a night!). The AXjets do an astonishing job of delivering the intensity and texture of those multiple pipes (not to mention the rest of the orchestra) but they can’t match the sheer scale, weight and authority that the Trio G3s deliver from their horn-loaded subs, or the Peak Consult Dragon Legacys from their ported enclosures – although these big boxes present a whole host of different challenges to a system. That’s an extreme example, but it also helps explain the AXjet’s way with separation and dimensionality. Soundstages have depth and breadth and good locational discrimination, but just as they lack really clearly defined sidewalls, they lack the individual instrumental dimensionality that comes with genuinely full-range reproduction. Mind you – extracting that or adding it to the AXjets would make for a considerably bigger and vastly more expensive speaker. Just witness the alternatives that do deliver full dimensionality!
Those looking for a rounding or softening of the sound should also look elsewhere. The AXjet Pros are nothing if not honest. If you expect them to draw a veil over poor recordings or – just as importantly – poor system set up or infrastructure, then you’ll be disappointed. It’s one of the reasons that they work well in the pro/specialist PA field, where source types are predetermined and the system path tends to be dead straight. Take them home, put them in a multi-source system and they won’t just tell you that you’ve opened a can of worms, they’ll point out exactly what’s inside. Warts and all doesn’t mean they’ll throw the warts at you at the expense of the music. The warts are simply going to be part of the whole. In many cases that’s not actually such a bad thing. Take the live examples listed above. Yes, they are unmistakably live, with all the qualitative challenges that can present – but isn’t that the whole point? The object of the exercise is to get the musical message, including and in spite of those challenges and this, the AXjets do – brilliantly. Just don’t expect rose tinted specs to go with their raw presence and impact.
Speaking truth to power…
This point about the speakers’ essential honesty is significant when it comes to matching them to a system and in particular, the driving amplifier. Try and warm up or round out the presentation with some sloppy triode amp or warm and cuddly pentode and the speakers will simply tell you that’s a really bad idea. Not a case of two wrongs making a right: just one wrong going seriously wrong. It is no accident that AXhorn use and recommend the TEAD Linear A amplifier, a hybrid with push-pull EL84 outputs. Like the other TEAD designs, it’s linear, unencumbered, fast and high-resolution, with impressive dynamic range. It’s exactly what the speakers are begging for. The ultra-simple Icon Stereo 20 did a surprisingly good job (although as pointed out above, it too depends on push-pull EL84s). Less successful were the CH Precision M1.1s, which I tried because they were there and before I moved them: They weren’t bad, and offered real grip, resolution and stable clarity, but it wasn’t a combination that brought the best out of either partner – at least not at its elevated price. A single A1.5 proved far more successful. Likewise, the ‘gorgeous’ JA30s proved disappointingly sluggish and syrupy in this system context…
