If all that sounds daunting, it shouldn’t. In many ways the challenges that inform the Diptyques’ set up are no greater or more critical than they are for any other speaker – just arguably more obvious. In fact, it could be argued that that makes them easier to deal with. Either way, get things right and the results are seriously impressive, immersive in a way that box-speakers at or near this price simply cannot match. Besides which, the Diptyques deliver their own compensation in terms of presence, body, purpose and dimensionality. Play the Pluhar recording and Raquel Andueza has rarely sounded so dimensional and present as she does here – and certainly never on a speaker at this price. There’s a vivid sense of the column of air in Gianluigi Trovesi’s clarinet, a smooth shape and connectivity between the notes in his long, peaky lines, an intimate connection between the players and phrases. The spatial coherence extends to rhythmic continuity and the music’s sense of pace, direction and momentum.
Downsizing…
The Diptyques’ presentation is way, way more than just big: it’s natural on terms of viewpoint, coherent spatially and in temporal terms, qualities that make it as communicative as it is involving. Having spent so much time talking big, perhaps it’s time to talk small…
You don’t get much smaller than Rachel Podger’s recording of the Bach Cello Suites, transcribed for violin (Channel Classics CCS SA 41119). The Diptyques don’t just present the size, body and tonal and harmonic character of her instrument, they place it precisely in space, within a well-defined, well-damped and intimate acoustic. They capture the pace and phrasing, the control in her bowing. The characteristic pauses in the score arrive so naturally that you’ll find yourself catching your breath with each one. It perfectly sums up the level of musical communication these speakers can achieve.
Now, switch to Sayaka Shoji’s recording of the Mozart Sonatas For Violin and Fortepiano K301, K378, K454 (with Gianluca Cascioli, Arcana A575) and you’ll hear instrumental images that are just as clearly defined and dimensional, but smaller, more distant and held in a colder, livelier and larger acoustic space. The speakers don’t impose on the spatial information on the recording, they adapt to it. They adapt to the instruments too. The smaller body, lighter tones and agility of the fortepiano are unmistakable, but it’s the distinction between the two violins that are really impressive. Virtually contemporaneous, Podger’s 1739 Pesinarius is all grace, intimacy, rich, woody tones and texture, smooth transitions and fluid phrasing. There’s an almost physical impression of her bowing. Shoji’s 1729 Strad has a bigger voice, more projection, more tonal muscle and harmonic sinews. She plays it with an incisive dynamic precision that conjures sharper musical corners, explosive dynamic steps and jumps. She’s all about purpose and focussed energy.
It’s an uncannily accurate impression of the contrasts between two very different but equally compelling performers. It also demonstrates the Reference II’s freedom from the boxy colouration that so often thickens harmonic textures and collapses tonal and technical distinctions between instruments and players. Note – I’m not saying that the Diptyques are free from colouration. It’s not that they are not coloured – just that the colouration is different, distinct and by its nature, less intrusive. Rather than the relatively narrow bands of colouration associated with enclosed or vented cabinets, the Diptyques exhibit an overall colouration that extends evenly from top to bottom. It’s this consistency that makes it less intrusive. It’s nature? A subtle softening of leading-edge attack, a glazing over of instrumental textures, a slight loss of the immediacy that’s possible from higher-efficiency systems with horn loaded or dynamic drivers. It’s somewhat similar in the way it influences the overall sound to, although not nearly as severe as, the ‘plastic-y’ colouration once ascribed to a lot of electrostatics. But where that leant the sound a lean, clean and slightly cold quality, enhancing transparency and immediacy, in this case it actually rounds and warms proceedings.
