With the bottom-end hooked up, the Liszt Reference takes on a whole new persona. Rather like the BCG, which took the strengths of the original Liszt and built so effectively on them, the Liszt Reference takes everything that the BCG does and then adds its own special virtues: poise, clarity, grace, refinement and a natural sense of perspective and proportion that not only bring shape and sense to performances, but generate a more convincing impression of the original event. Get used to the Liszt Reference and in comparison the BCG sounds overly enthusiastic and a bit bumptious. Listening to Isabelle Faust on the Liszt Reference the subtle control and her mastery of technique are effortlessly apparent. The shape and embellishment she brings to the solo phrases are an object lesson in graceful, musical beauty, breathing life into both the performance and the title of the album. Locatelli’s works are indeed a playground for virtuoso technique and expression – a playground to which Faust takes without fear or hesitation. Played on this speaker, this isn’t just a better performance by the soloist, it’s both better, more intelligible music and better music making from the orchestra.
That last point is important. If the individual musical elements are more finely wrought, the relationship between them is more clearly defined, the structure and shape of the whole is more obvious and powerful as a result. The directness of that connection, the emotional power that results elevates a song like ‘Ballad Of Yvonne Johnson’ to a completely new level, running the full gamut from horror and desperation to hope and redemption. There’s an almost aching intensity to ‘Separated’, a quiet determination to ‘Not Lonely’. The Eliza Gilkyson album as a whole is a touchstone for emotional range that highlights the musical integrity and communicative qualities of the Liszt Reference perfectly.
The overall scale, proportions and perspective are also significantly more natural, a major factor in making the (normally well-behaved) BCG sound unruly, boisterous and slightly overblown in comparison. It also adds a convincing quality to acoustic performances, enhancing the sense of the balance and relationship between performers, whether a small scale recording like the Kobekina or the more substantial offerings of the Faust disc. Although I used the Blanton mainly to check the set up and integration of the speakers before serious listening, there was no escaping both the clarity with which the Liszt Reference established the physical spacing and relative scale of the two instruments, and also the way the relative location enhanced the connection and conversation between them. Sound staging in general is anything but a fixed commodity, with different listeners looking for different degrees of separation and different presentation. Done well, the sound stage should be an extension of the time and phase relationship within the recording and between the musicians. It shouldn’t be a separate quality but an integral part of the reproduced performance. This is the threshold that the Liszt Reference crosses. The BCG’s enthusiastic energy and presence is still engaging and rewarding, especially on pop and rock recordings. Step outside our limited list of discs and play albums like Neil Young’s Sleeps With Angels or The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds and the drive and momentum generated by the BCGs makes for an infection listening experience. But enter the acoustic realm and the subtle scaling and integration achieved by the Liszt Reference, its sense of overall musical coherence and the utter seamlessness of its integration and spatial presentation bring a wonderful inevitability and clarity to performances, giving each its own voice and its own existence.
Liszt two…
With the pecking order firmly established, it’s time to investigate the Liszt Reference’s qualities more closely. I ran the VA speakers with several different systems, including the Levinson 585 and the latest CH Precision I1 integrated amplifiers, the VTL TL-5.5/S200 pairing and the CH L1/X1 and A1.5. Although varying in both type and ambition, these amplifiers all have a substantial power output in common. Experimenting with lower powered partners merely underlined what I already knew: the Liszts like power and it’s even better if that power is clean, simple and uncluttered. That suggests capable, solid-state amplification the natural (but not exclusive) way to go. The VTL pairing fed the speakers’ natural warmth, colour and body, delivering convincing scale and presence along with a beguiling intimacy. In practice, it’s the power that matters. The speakers are neutral enough that they’ll cleave to the positive qualities of the driving amp, as long as the drive is there. And as long as the drive is there, the more amp you give the speakers, the better they sound. I’ve rarely had a speaker so adept at embracing and displaying system upgrades – or one that reacts so positively to them. You’ll have to go some to outrun the Liszts’ musical capabilities.
