It’s not that surprising that the two Clarisys speakers share a lot of musical qualities – chief amongst them musical and spatial coherence. In one answering the question is easy: the Minuet delivers a lot of what the Auditorium gives you, at least on a fundamental musical and presentational level. It’s a seriously impressive little (well, everything’s relative) loudspeaker. But climb the range and you soon discover that the larger speakers build on that fundamental platform, adding sensitivity and scale, wider (and easier) dynamic range, greater dimensionality a more immediate and easier-breathing presentation. As impressive as the Minuet’s soundstage certainly is, the Auditorium’s is broader, taller and more transparent, with more focussed, more dimensional and, where appropriate, life-sized images. With quicker dynamics and greater weight at their disposal the bigger speakers are even more expressive and, ultimately, more convincing. The differences are far from simply cosmetic, the added layers of instrumental, acoustic and intra-instrumental detail adding significantly to the musical picture they paint. So no, the Minuet isn’t perfect. But feed it properly and set it up right and it will be pretty near perfect for the price.
Back in the day, I owned a succession of Apogees, from the Caliper and Caliper Signature to the Duetta Signature, searching for dynamics and musical vitality to go with their bandwidth and spatial coherence. I rang the changes on speakers and amps, system topology and set-up – and never really got close. 40-years later the Minuet has delivered on that promise, while the option of active drive or the larger Studio suggests that there’s even more to come. In some ways, the biggest obstacle to understanding what the Clarisys Minuet does, and whether it will do it for you, lies in the demands they put on placement and angular adjustment. I spent the time and I reaped the rewards. You could too. Not surprisingly, this Clarisys joins the (VERY) short list of loudspeakers I could happily retire with.
Price and availability:
Clarisys Minuet $46,000 USD (Inc. tax, shipping and installation)
