That helps explain why so many small speakers depend on having a single super-power – one musical attribute in which they excel. The problem is, that in turn limits their musical vocabulary, the range of material and genres on which they can convince. The Haydn Signature is almost the opposite case. This is a small speaker that succeeds by doing pretty much everything equally well. No one thing stands out and that includes the speaker itself. Rarely have I heard such a self-effacing performer. It’s not just that the speaker disappears into a coherent soundstage, it’s hard to put a finger on the nature of the speaker itself. How big is it? What’s its dominant characteristic or attribute? How does it sound? I guess, if the Haydn Signature has a party piece, it’s the ability to sound bigger than it is. But even then, it’s not obviously so. It just grows with the music and matches it for scale. It’s what happens within that performance that makes the Haydn so special – and so versatile…
Starting small…
As you move up to larger, genuinely full-bandwidth speakers (or add bandwidth to an existing system through quality subwoofers) one of the things you notice is just how much more flexibility the system gains in terms of presentation. Differences in acoustic space, the nature of recordings and their perspectives all become far more apparent. Conversely, smaller speakers seem to collapse those differences.
But as soon as you listen to the Haydn you realise that it doesn’t carry the characteristic aural tics that normally define a speaker of its size. It may actually be small, but listening to it, it clearly doesn’t believe it. Instead, it behaves like a much bigger box, at least in terms of musical presentation. At the same time, it avoids the corresponding characteristics that single out large enclosures with their hard to control panels. The Haydn succeeds in sounding like a small speaker when it comes to neutrality, clarity and focus, like a much bigger one when it comes to scale and presence – and that’s not just about its ability with large-scale recordings. You don’t get much smaller or more intimate than Hilary Hahn’s recording of the six Ysaÿe Sonatas For Violin (DGG MQA-CD UCCG-45073). Never possessed of the biggest instrumental voice, Hahn has always excelled in terms of technique and the Ysaÿe pieces are a perfect showcase for her perfect control. DGG also help her cause by mic-ing her recordings up close and personal. But, as impressive as her playing is, the thing that strikes you when you listen through the Haydns is the overall presentation. Her instrument is both fully dimensional and precisely located, defined in height and a coherent acoustic space. It doesn’t just float in front of you. The speakers establish a complete ‘room within a room’, so that the precision, articulation and texture in the playing becomes part of a bigger picture, a complete performance.
Switch to Rachel Podger’s The Muses Restor’d (Channel Classics CCS 46324) and the presentational contrast is remarkable. Podger steps back into the stage, along with her harpsichord accompanist, offering a slightly more distant but equally natural perspective – just one more suited to the slightly larger forces involved. It’s a warmer acoustic too, which suits Podger’s richer tone, more fluid lines and the swagger in her bowing. The instruments are, once again, beautifully defined (and separated) in height, although here they are separated in terms of scale too, the thrum-y complexity of the harpsichord offering a complete and distinctive harmonic character to contrast with the violin. This ability to adapt to the scale of a recording plays a huge role in making the music and performance convincing. Too often it’s impossible to ignore the fact that you are listening to a small speaker. In the case of the Haydns it’s easy to forget that you are listening to a speaker at all. But as impressive as this ability to match the scale and extent of a recording is, its real significance lies in the way it underpins the Haydn’s expressive range, allowing the music and the performance to breathe.
