‘Who’ and ‘How’ are questions of personality and technique. Do you recognise a familiar performer’s style, voice or distinctive approach? ‘Why’ is all about expressive range: what does the music offer and why are the performers playing it? ‘What’ is concerned with the completeness and intelligibility of the piece and performance: does the music make sense? ‘Where’ is about the acoustic environment in which the recording was made, whether that’s a single space, a multi-tracked studio or a mixture of the two. As such it is about the space within as well as the space around the recording and, crucially, its contribution to the creative chemistry that fuels the music as a whole.
If we apply those categories to the examples already cited, you can see (hear?) the speakers’ performance taking shape. We see it in the life, presence and intent that invests the Shoji/Temirkanov performance, that captures so much of what makes Temirkanov and the St. Petersburg such astonishingly complete performers. We see it in the way that each track on Cover Girl gets its own distinct feel and frisson. We hear it reflected in the easy confidence and insouciant attitude of Michelle Shocked, the sculpted sonic landscape of the Nocturnal Animals OST, the carefully calculated power of the emotional cues that Carl Davis incorporates in his music. Measured on this spectrum, the Dragon Legacy clearly goes long in the ‘Where’, ‘What’ and ‘Why’ categories, carrying the ‘Who’ and the ‘How’ along for the ride. Interestingly, that makes it the complete opposite of the U2, a speaker which excels in the areas of ‘Who’ and ‘How’, yet what is really interesting is where the Venn diagram of opposing performance intersects. What is it that makes both of these speakers so engaging and enjoyable to listen to, despite their differences? Just as the Peak embraces the ‘How’, the Stenheim gets a good grip on the ‘What’, but what really brings both speakers’ performances to life is the ‘Why’. Neither speaker leaves you in any doubt as to the intent behind the performance, why and just how hard the performers are working to express that intent. Both speakers let the performers and their performance breathe.
Ultimately, if I want to know more about Shoji’s technique and Shoji as an artist (as opposed to Batiashvili or Hahn for example) I can learn more, more quickly from the U2, thanks to its immediacy and transparency, stemming directly from its sensitivity and ease of drive. But if I want to experience the Shoji performance as a whole, embracing as it does, the brilliance of Temirkanov and his orchestra, his sense of musical balance, support and sublime direction, then the Dragon Legacy is the speaker for the job. Its presentation is more akin to the concert experience – and a direct result of the choices made in its design. It reflects both the Peak’s balance of sonic virtues and, more critically, the way those sonic virtues are deployed to serve the musical whole. If you want to revel in the sonically spectacular there are plenty of speakers you might choose. Most of us want sonics and music – and there the field starts to get seriously thin. But if your interests really do lie entirely with the musical as opposed to the sonic, the choice is limited indeed – and currently the Dragon Legacy sits firmly in pole position.
