It’s an artistic tour de force, from both pianist and loudspeaker. But it also demonstrates the price you pay for that astonishing musical and rhythmic coherence. While the solid-state amplification certainly makes the most of the speakers’ clarity and articulation, switching to the tube amps added a whole new expressive dimension. The Icon Audio added colour, presence and weight to proceedings, albeit at the expense of some speed and clarity. But the JA30s offered a near perfect match of transparency, rich instrumental tonality, dynamic coherency and dimensionality. In fact, of all the amps tried, they were the only one that set up a convincingly scaled and three-dimensional image. Lateral separation with the Levinson was excellent. The I1 added depth and further clarity to the picture, but it was the Jadis that fleshed out the images and delivered body and presence: enough body and presence to make a convincing stab at the volume and sheer weight of Huangci’s Yamaha grand piano, as well as larger bands and multiple instruments.
Step up in scale and complexity and that clarity of note weight and line, pause and impetus translates effortlessly to the separation of instruments and the shape of phrases, the way those instruments and phrases relate but, above all, the shape and pattern of the piece as a whole. I’m not just referring to the spread of instruments or the conversations between them, although those aspects of the performance are clear enough to be described as explicit. I’m referring to the way in which all of the musical elements, in balance, combine to create the whole. There’s a preternatural sense of proportion to the presentation that makes it both incredibly natural and intelligible. You’ll hear it in the intimate cut and thrust of Vivaldi’s La Cetra (Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque’s wonderful ‘One To A Part’ performance, Channel Classics CCS SA 33412), the relative size, and weight of the instruments and the energy they generate, but more in the way that information combines to create a meaningful, stable and convincing whole. The soundstage generated by the JA30s and Greenwich might be scaled down, relative to genuinely full-range loudspeakers, but its proportions and clarity, combined with the easy separation of instruments and their individual lines makes for the sort of lucid, accessible and communicative performance that so often escapes audio systems and is more normally associated with live music.
In the same way, the carefully constructed layers of the RVW Tallis Fantasia (John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London, Chandos CHSA 5291) are deftly revealed yet combined, without the individual separation undermining the all-important whole. If the Greenwich has a super-power, it is this ability to separate and bring clarity to the elements within the recorded event without undermining the coherence of the musical whole: the ability to deliver the facts of the performance as well as its sensibilities. Compare Wilson’s reading to the seminal 1963 Barbirolli recording (also with the Sinfonia of London, English String Music, EMI ASD 521) and even allowing tor the switch in format from SACD to LP, the difference in style and musical idiom is stark, The Greenwich clearly revealing not just the difference in tempo but Wilson’s more contiguous approach to structure and phrasing. Without the pauses, elongated phrases and slower tempo employed by Barbirolli, the modern recording is lush and sweepingly romantic, yet without the tension, emotional intensity and drama that the earlier performance delivers. In turn the Greenwich delivers, by making clear not just the differences in tempo but, musically and emotionally, why they matter. It’s a level of insight that demonstrates just how musically literate the minimalist speaker design really is.
But what about the roundabouts?
Interestingly, the limitations at low-frequencies are more of a concern than the comparatively limited treble extension. Although you might miss some air and separation, the Greenwich actually achieves a remarkably natural top/bottom balance, that doesn’t leave the upper registers exposed or overly obvious. I found my ears adjusted easily to that balance, helped by the even projection of energy right across the speaker’s range. The treble might not go as high, but the treble there is has real substance and purpose, which is arguably rather more important.