La review della prima versione ora aggiornata per migliorarla ,
When I first got into hi-fi, stereo was just over the horizon and imported products were still rare. The inexpensive ones came from Japan, and you could find them, often with names that changed from week to week, in the open-air displays in and around Cortlandt Street in lower Manhattan. The more expensive brands were European, primarily British, and beyond my financial grasp.
Today, with the great increase in international trade, it's sometimes hard to know a product's nation of origin. British-designed loudspeakers are made in China, Dutch brands carry labels that say "Made in Belgium" or even "Made in Malaysia," and American components can be sourced from anywhere—even the US. So what might one expect of an Estonian loudspeaker?
I first came across the Audes line some years back, at a Consumer Electronics Show. I thought the designs somewhat derivative, the execution meticulous, the sound from model to model inconsistent, and the prices very attractive. Since then, Audes has expanded their lines of speakers, which—more important—now sound much better (judging from brief auditions at shows) while remaining very reasonably priced.
I hinted to Audes' Naum Dorkhman that I might want to review one of his speakers, but he waited patiently for me to pull the trigger. When I bumped into him in the men's room at Carnegie Hall during the intermission of a Kremerata Baltica concert last fall, I was a bit at a loss for something to say. Finally, I said, "Let's do a review." Dorkhman suggested the Audes Blues, but I've had little luck with side-firing woofers in my listening room. We settled on the Jazz, which costs $1899/pair.
Description & Setup The Audes Jazz is quite tall and deep for a two-way speaker with only a 1" dome tweeter and two 6.5" mid/woofers. The enclosure is a matte-black, square-edged box, the drivers near the top of the front panel. The box is flanked by wooden panels, beautifully sculpted and finished, that extend about two-thirds of the way up the sides and a bit beyond the front and rear edges. Combined with a similarly decorative and extremely stable, spiked baseplate, these cosmetic additions make the black box seem to disappear, and the entire ensemble look less imposing. The shaped grille, too, contributes to making the Jazz look like anything but the rectangular black box it actually is. I liked it. (My wife didn't.)
The drivers are mounted in a vertical mid-tweeter-mid array, the tweeter offset to one side. On the rear, the plate bearing the serial number and L/R indication also bears two sets of multiway binding posts with links to permit single- or biwiring. Above this plate are two large, smoothly radiused ports for the mid/woofer chamber. There are no controls. The accompanying documents consisted of a general statement about Audes speakers and a more specific paper that dealt with the Jazz and its related models. From this, I assumed that the recommended setup would be to position the speakers so that their tweeters were more toward their inside edges. This was confirmed, after setup, when I noticed that labels on the backs indicating which speaker of the pair was the left, which the right.
Even when I have no logical justification for doing so, I biwire speakers; for the most part, I used the Audes Jazzes with the terminal links removed. Ha! Those terminals on the back of the Jazz may have EU approval, but they're the speaker's worst feature. The knurled knobs are too small and too close together—I couldn't get them to firmly grip the spade ends. Perhaps the grip would be better with bare wire. I suspect that the posts have intentionally been made without a hex profile to discourage overtightening with a wrench. But every time I moved the speakers, I had to check the terminals and, usually, tighten them, lest I lose a connection and, at worst, short out the amp.
The Jazz on jazz After a little wrestling with connections, I powered up the Bel Canto eVo2 monoblocks and the Jazzes swung into action with, appropriately enough, some great jazz: the DVD-Audio edition of Ray Brown's Soular Energy (Hi-Res HRM2011) on the Meridian Reference 800 DVD-Audio player.
Well, not so great. The bass was full and the treble fairly detailed, but there was a disturbing lack of presence or body to the sound. But I figured I'd only just begun performing the arcane rites of speaker positioning. I wiggled the Jazzes around, from closer together to farther apart, from straight ahead to toed-in, from farther back to very near—each permutation tried with grilles on and off. Finally, I thought I'd gotten them balanced, and they were. The HF was okay, and the bass extension justified the enclosure size. Moreover, the midrange fit in pretty well. Final positions: far apart, toed-in about 15 degrees, 5' from the front wall, grilles off.
A big problem remained: The sound came distinctly from the two enclosures—even with mono sources. I found myself listening to the Jazzes standing up, walking around, or passing through, but seldom when sitting down in the "sweet spot," because the sonic image had no center-fill at all. I can't tell you how frustrating it was to have two speakers, each of which sounded decent independently, that just wouldn't talk to each other.
The solution was suggested by my preference, independent of other variables, for spacing the Jazzes farther apart. The hell with the manufacturer's recommendations and standard practice—I switched left for right, so that the tweeters were outboard, and started over.
Da capo Again I powered up the Bel Canto eVo2s, and again the Jazzes swung into action with the Ray Brown DVD-A. But this time, we were rolling. The Jazzes' wide-range sound was now enhanced by center-fill and a sizable spatial presentation. Instead of Ping-Ponging instruments, Ray Brown had an ensemble.
The overall sound was balanced, fairly smooth, and decidedly not "hi-fi." The bass was full but not truly powerful or extended. Not that I missed sub-40Hz bass on anything other than stress-test recordings. Ray Brown's double bass was excellently rounded and weighty, with good definition. On Scelsi's "C'est bien la nuit" (Simax Classics PSC 1136, footnote 1), Björn Lake's bowed bass fiddle was even more impressive, especially for a speaker in this price range, since it requires a careful balance between bass and midrange levels. The midrange was pretty much a nonissue, with male and female voices balanced between weight and sibilance, and with good detail.
Treble detail was adequate without noticeable brightness, but from time to time a piano note or similar sound would jump out, suggesting some irregularity in the overall response. This was confirmed when, somewhat unreasonably, I turned up the volume until there was a shift from smoothness to a little hooting in the crossover region. For example, Hilary Hahn's recording of the Brahms Violin Concerto (Sony Classical SACD SS 89649), which has just won a Grammy as I write this, was clear and powerful, but the Jazz could not be pushed loud without Hahn's violin jumping out from the orchestral ambience. As long as I stayed below this threshold—and unless I'm torturing speakers or listeners, I do—dynamics and balance were just fine.
Spatial presentation, with Variations 6 and 8 of Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (Simax Classics PSC 1111), was quite good in the longitudinal axis, with decent depth and fill between the now-reversed speakers. Laterally, the soundstage was adequate, but barely extended beyond the speakers. Still, all things considered, the Jazzes presented an excellent re-creation of a chamber orchestra in a fairly rich reverberant field.
Is that all there is? The above comments apply to the Audes Jazz when driven by the Bel Canto eVo2 monoblock, which is among the most powerful and neutral power amplifiers I've ever used. The eVo2 is a bit more amp than the Jazz is likely to be mated with in the real world. A single stereo eVo2 was equally successful, as was the McCormack DNA1 Rev.A. In no case was there any problem driving the 4 ohm Jazz, as judged by the relatively low settings of the volume control on my Sonic Frontiers Line-3 preamplifier, compared with those used for the 8 ohm Revel Studios.
Footnote 1: All of the Simax Classics tracks cited in this review are from a marvelous demonstration sampler, Ensemble Highlights Collection 1 (ECL 20031), from the Swiss electronics firm Ensemble. This CD, compiled from the Simax and Aurora catalogs, consists of 18 tracks of classical excerpts ranging from solo instrument or voice to chorus and chamber orchestra: no headbanging or augmented symphony orchestras, but consistently lovely and revealing sound.
For completism's sake, I also tried the Jazzes with the Sonic Frontiers Power-3 monoblocks—another case of overkill, or so I thought. But this combination was wonderful. The tube amps made the Jazzes swing ever so smartly. From about 60Hz up to about 10kHz, the sounds emerging from the SF/Jazz combo were unerringly enjoyable; I spent many hours in the sweet spot with disc after disc, just grooving to the music.
The price of this, however, was palpably less bass extension and definition than with the eVo2s, and a loss of some clarity in the upper midrange that compromised spaciousness to a similar degree. This was particularly evident in excerpts from Britten's A Ceremony of Carols (Simax Classics PSC 1106), in which the chorus, and especially the treble soloist, were thrillingly present, but the sense of place was less evident than with the eVo2s.
But forget about dissecting the sound parameters—the tradeoffs were definitely worth it. True, with the Power-3s I could not play the Jazz any louder before they began to complain, but, as I've said, that happened only at levels beyond the bounds of reasonable behavior. In fact, I'd bet that Sonic Frontiers' Power-1, or any other quality 50-100Wpc tube amp, would be able to make the Jazzes sing.
Studio and Jazz The Paradigm Reference Studio/60 v.2s are the main speakers for both stereo and multichannel sources in my weekend system. I'm very familiar and satisfied with the Studio, and it and the Audes Jazz are similar in configuration and price. Despite being slightly smaller, the Studio/60 has a more extended, tighter bass with the Bel Canto and Sonic Frontiers amps. On the other hand, the Audes Jazz sounded bigger and warmer. The Jazz filled the room with its generous (if not deep) bass, and, with its subjectively rolled-off treble, it was never fatiguing, even with quite raucous material.
One of the things I like about George Faber's voice is its often gutty edge. His new album, Blues (BAT), has that edge a-plenty, but the Audes Jazz smoothed it out noticeably. Not so with the Studio/60; its neutral balance from bass through HF retains all the grittiness but with a little less immediacy. The result was that the Jazz's presentation was close, comfortable, and involving, while the Studio/60's was more distant and cool, but wider and more detailed. Now all we need is BAT's Geoff Poor, who produced the recording, to tell us which sound, if either, is is more accurate.
In general, the choice between the Jazz and the Studio will hinge on your preferences and, to a degree, your experience. Those who need not analyze or qualify the sound will probably find the Jazz a great portal for any music. It's the kind of speaker that makes an immediate connection with the listener and doesn't fatigue with extended exposure. I, however, am obsessed with analysis, and couldn't do without the neutrality and transparency of the Paradigm Reference Studio/60 v.2s.
Conclusions Besides its attractive appearance, the Audes Jazz offers a lot of loudspeaker for $1899/pair. With careful positioning, its sound should be reasonably full, warm, and spacious, with great presence. Despite its 4 ohm spec, the Jazz seemed relatively easy to drive, sounding equally good at low and high levels. Tube amps of reasonable output should definitely be considered as suitable mates. For the money, one can buy greater transparency and wider range, but the Jazz is more than competitive in terms of presence and untiring balance.
Early in my auditions, a friend said that, even though he preferred his present, much more expensive speakers, he might have resisted the upgrade bug a long while had his first serious speakers been the Audes Jazzes. I agree: One could live long and happily with the Audes Jazz.
