Having achieved the best initial position and height, the real beauty of the spikes is that you can use them to dial in not just the bass balance, but also the mid-band integration and listening axis. I usually start by nailing down toe-in (using the rotating head), rake angle (generally tilted a little forward, given the height of the cabinet) and azimuth. Then I start to play with tiny, incremental changes in height, making sure that once I’ve reached the desired balance of bass weight, energy, rhythmic continuity, mid-bass/mid-band integration and dynamic coherence, I correct for rake-angle/listening axis. It’s a time-consuming and involved process, but the external positioning of the spikes and the fact that you can adjust them by hand makes it an awful lot easier than it might be.
Stand the Liszt next to the Beethoven Concert Grand and the similarities are as obvious as the differences. Leave aside the dual concentric driver in its pivoting head and the squarer, deeper cabinet. What connects the two speakers is the three identical bass drivers, the diaphragm for the midrange unit, the three-way, five-driver topology and the same mechanical grounding/spiking system. But what makes this particular review situation even more interesting is the availability of the original Liszt, with its previous generation drivers and their distinctive, transparent/translucent spider cones. When I reviewed the Beethoven I suggested that it eclipsed the performance of the original Liszt – a suggestion reinforced by the rapid (at least in VA terms) appearance of the Liszt Reference. Here’s the opportunity to listen to all three and map the company’s developmental path and assess the success with which it has exploited its own Composite Cone technology. Given the care and attention (not to say precision) demanded by the Liszt when it comes to set up, as described above – a consideration that applies equally to all three speakers – such a comparison is far from straightforward. But it is also to good and interesting an opportunity to miss…
Beethoven – meet Liszt…
Reinstalling the original Liszt delivered a strong reminder as to just why this speaker remained a reference point around these parts for so long. Its combination of bandwidth and natural tonality imbues voices and instruments with body and presence. It sets up a convincingly proportioned soundstage that stands free of the speakers. It allows music to breath and gives it a life of its own, independent of the system or the actual process of reproduction. It makes for an engaging, convincing and relaxing listen, long on musical virtues and devoid of intrusive, hi-fi artifice.
But the Liszt was never perfect and despite the grace with which it covered its musical and hi-fi tracks, the arrival of the Beethoven Concert Grand Signature (to give the speaker its full, unwieldy title – or BCG for short) showed up the shortcomings of the older but more expensive model. The new speaker took the virtues of the old and added a healthy does of musical energy, purpose and sheer vigour. Wider dynamic range coupled to a more rhythmically fluid presentation made for a speaker that was more articulate, sure-footed and expressive. The BCG offered greater dynamic discrimination and more space around and between instruments and singers, resulting in easier separation of musical lines, more definite phrasing, a greater sense of ensemble and musical integrity, a broader expressive range. Those benefits are not small or trivial.
