What happens when you add the sub? You gain weight and depth, scale and dimensionality and (as long as you don’t overdo the levels) you don’t lose that sense of musical pace and the infectious, toe-tapping involvement the C2 brings to music. It also goes a long way towards restoring some body, space and dimensionality to a top-end that’s lightning quick, but like a rapier, lacks the sort of heft that you get from a broadsword. There’s no missing the almost physical presence that the sub adds to proceedings, the weight and impact it brings to dance music or live concert recordings, but there’s no missing those qualities in other music too, whether that’s atmospheric Scandi Jazz or the geometrical precision of the Brandenburg Concertos. With the sub in play, the Colibris become not just a genuine wide-band system, they become a system that will grow and flourish if or when you improve the quality of the front-end. Adding the sub literally underpins the longevity of your acoustic investment. And talking of front-ends…
The WiiM Amp did an astonishing job of delivering music to the C2s. It’s sound was surprisingly organised and, if it missed the dynamic range and discrimination of a true, high-end source, it certainly managed to keep everything moving in the right direction and at the right pace, making for an enjoyable and engaging listening experience. It also had the hidden benefit of considerable flexibility. Not only did it handle the whole range of input options, built into a single, discrete, multi-controllable box, but buried in its DSP menus were both a sub-woofer control panel (as already mentioned) and a full bandwidth equaliser, allowing owners to trim the system balance, something that certainly came in handy to tailor the bottom-end when using the C2 as a standalone speaker.
But beyond the WiiM I also ran the C2s with a range of other amplifiers and sources, ranging from the Icon Audio Stereo 20PP (an EL84-based, Leak Stereo 20 clone) to an elderly Cyrus CD player and amp combination (exactly the sort of thing that you could pick up for less than €500 the pair). The combination of the 15W/Channel Icon tube amp with the C2s was simply astonishing, the amp’s warm balance and inherent musical coherence meat and drink to the responsive speaker. Likewise, the Cyrus amplifier delivered poise, clarity and pace that added even greater verve and dynamic drama to the Colibri sound. Of course, neither of these options deliver the all-in-one ultra-convenience of the WiiM – or its digital and all-important streaming capabilities. But they do demonstrate two things: just how capable the Colibri is and just how capable it is of growing with your system. These days, with so many standalone DAC/Streamer solutions on the market, a quality secondhand amplifier still doesn’t negate the essential logic that defines the Colibri concept: it just moves it one step closer to the front-end. I’m going to examine the question of just how far you can take the Colibri, but that’s a question for a different article – and a different buyer. Meanwhile, if something like the WiiM doesn’t light your candle, then think about a low-powered tube amp (plenty of steam-punk cred to be had there) or a secondhand amp from the likes of Arcam, Rotel or Audiolab. Perhaps the obvious choice would be the original Musical Fidelity A1, but given how hot they ran I’d be reluctant to invest too much in one of those, despite the wonderfully fluid sound…
The shape of things to come?
The Colibri C2 is a classic disruptor, as potentially confusing as it is impressive. In conventional terms, it breaks the rules and it breaks established patterns and cost structures when it comes to building systems. No audiophile in the right mind would consider using an €8˚ speaker in a sub-€10K system. That’s what makes them an audiophile – but it’s also what makes them an audiophile… This isn’t an audiophile product. As difficult as the average audiophile might find it get to get their head around the colibri C2, I suspect it’s going to make perfect sense to its target customer: the listener who consumes music from the internet, wants to step outside of headphones but wants a space conscious solution that still embraces the communal aspect they associate with non-phone listening. The same listener who looks at and listens to a €2K floorstander and a bunch of separates and wonders, “Why bother?”
