Just as the Colibri asks us to step away from conventional assumptions of what constitutes hi-fi performance, so it opens up a different approach to consuming music and building the systems to do that. Any budget product involves the designer in selecting compromises compared to cost-no-object designs. The prevailing audio dogma has imposed severe constraints on loudspeaker designers, in turn limiting the range of choices open to them. Why are most €2K loudspeakers horribly boring to listen to? Because they’re still obsessed with squeezing as much bandwidth out of a tiny box as possible. The Colibri C2 doesn’t just discard that imperative, it applies the production techniques and materials from Avantgarde’s high-end speaker line to leverage its musical proposition. The result is as physically different as it is different in application. So, let’s define what the Colibri C2 isn’t as well as what it is.
This speaker isn’t an Avantgarde-Lite. It might embody the same musical priorities as the bigger and far more expensive Avantgarde designs. It might use many of the visual design cues, much of the technology and some of the manufacturing techniques, but it is also engineered to a price. In buying into Colibri, you are benefiting from Avantgarde’s musical sensibilities and expertise but, make no mistake, Avantgarde’s high-end speakers cost a lot more for a reason and that reason, ultimately, is high-fidelity performance: performance that ticks all the same musical boxes as the Colibri, but all the sonic and technical boxes that audiophiles demand too. They’re better – just as they should be.
Instead, what you need to ask is how the Colibri C2 compares to its competition? Which is where more confusion reigns. Just what is the C2’s competition? Well, here’s a clue: it isn’t equivalently priced conventional designs. What you need to look at is system cost, not product cost. What speakers do you find in conventional €10K systems? Exactly the sort of €2K boxes that the Colibri C2 eats for breakfast. Step away from conventional thinking and familiar, embedded notions of what you should be spending where and in pure musical terms, in terms of sheer musical delivery and enjoyment, the Colibri starts to make a whole lot of sense. Musically speaking, it’s an object lesson in what actually matters. The complete antithesis of Linn’s ‘Front-end first’ philosophy, it invites an approach that goes right back to basics and reinstates performance attributes that too much of the industry has long forgotten. That alone is lesson enough for the audiophile community. I’ll be looking at what the Colibri might mean and might offer to the audiophile customer in a separate piece. For now, audiophiles might need to recognize that they’re neither the only nor the most important music consumers on the planet.
Flying in the face of accepted wisdom is never an easy thing. Avantgarde may not be betting the farm on the Colibri’s success (they’ve still got the extraordinary G3 range to work with) but at least in this case, they’re not a lone voice in the wilderness. The Zu Audio loudspeakers offer similar sensitivity, albeit using very different technology and a very different approach, and have garnered considerable interest and a loyal customer base. It’s a matter of taste but for me, the Colibri achieves the same goal with considerably more style, while making fewer sonic compromises. I love the way it looks and I love the way it sounds. The C2 isn’t an Avantgarde: it’s a Colibri – and believe me, that’s a whole different thing!
