Trenner & Friedl Osiris Loudspeakers Review

My review of the Trenner & Friedl Osiris loudspeakers is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. You can read it here.

New Trenner & Friedl ART Monitors!

A few months ago, maybe a year, I found out that Austrian speaker manufacturer Trenner & Friedl was going to update my beloved ART monitors. I've wanted to put this news into my blog for a long time now, but I kept forgetting. I first received my ARTs way back in April of 2011, when I was still living in Texas. Since then they've been one of my most consistent references, and I love everything about these loudspeakers.

The photo above is the new version, which still have the same dimensions but different drivers, different materials and many improvements on the inside. That is not a stock photo of the new ART, however--yes, a pair just showed up at my door thanks to my friend Bob Clarke at Profundo, the US distributor! I'm about 30 minutes into listening to them right now, and I won't say anything until they have settled in--let's just say I'm smiling.

The new ARTs will be my first official equipment review for Part-Time Audiophile, and of course I will be comparing them directly to my older version. I don't believe in direct comparisons between two products, but as you can imagine this will be quite different. We Trenner & Friedl ART owners in the US are few but proud, and we know this monitor is one of the best-kept secrets in audio. All of my ART buddies are dying to know what the differences are, and I am in the unique position of being able to do that thanks to Bob, Peter Trenner and Andreas Friedl.

Very, very excited.

More Prototypes from Les Davis

Les Davis, who has created the constrained layer damping (CLD) material I talked about after my trip from Australia, has just sent more more prototypes of his new footers to try out. As you can see from the photos, Les has been playing around with colors, patterns and even thicknesses. His latest assortment includes CLD footers of different thicknesses--three layers, four layers, five layers and even six layers.

The idea is that we've pretty much confirmed that the material works, and Les has conducted plenty of A/B listening tests to confirm that this isn't just another hi-fi tweak that only works if your system is resolving enough, or if your ears are good enough. As I've mentioned before, our initial tests were conducted with a rather modest source--an old Arcam CD player that probably only retailed for a few hundred dollars when new. (Those modest Arcam players, by the way, employed the stellar Ring DACs, so they always sounded exceptional for the money.)

Now I have to determine if the sonic improvements can be increased even more by adding layers of CLD material. We do know that the overall sound of the system improves if you keep adding footers to all of the components. Back in Sydney, we started off with four footers under the feet of the CD player. Then we added more material under the amplifiers we used (Tara Labs, Einstein and REDGUM). Finally, we added CLD footers between the Brigadiers Audio BA2 monitors. With each addition, the sound improved incrementally. The CLD footers made our test system sound fuller and with a greater wealth of detail.

We all made the comment that "more music flowed through" with the footers in place--I've since read in an equipment review that the flowing music description has become a huge cliche, so I will refrain from using it in the future. But you get the idea, I hope.

These additional tests will help Les to determine the finished product. Will he offer the CLD footers in different thicknesses, at a proportional retail price? I'm using a very resolving system to determine that--the new flagship Unison Research Unico 150 integrated amplifier, the equally new Unison Research Unico CD Due transport/DAC, my Trenner & Friedl ART monitor speakers, the PureAudio Vinyl phono preamplifier and my Unison Research Giro turntable/arm mated with a Transfiguration Axia cartridge. All cables and power management are from Furutech. I've settled on this system over the last few weeks because it is unusually resolving and allows me to hear deep into recordings (another audio cliche, by the way).

The different colors and patterns are just Les having fun. I had one person at CES ask me if the footers would be available in different colors and patterns, and Les told me he could do anything the customer wanted. He's still considering how to finish the footers, but he's already determined that wood and metal sandwiches may look attractive, but they lessen the impact. So he might be close to a finished product for now--he's experimenting with laser cutting so that the edges are neat and professional.

That kind of makes Les' footers a no-BS kind of audio accessory, I think--you're not paying for anything that doesn't affect the sound. Besides, when you put the footers under amps and digital sources, you can't see them. Plus, and this is an important point, keeping it simple allows Les to sell them at a very, very reasonable price. So this will be a tweak for the masses, something just about everyone can try!

2L Recordings' Mezzotints on Blu-ray Audio and CD/SACD Hybrid

It's been a couple of weeks since the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show ended, and I've finally reached the point where I can start catching up on some of these music reviews. All through CES I kept saying to myself that I had five albums from 2L Recordings to review when I got back, and I had to get serious about finishing those reviews. In the spirit of efficiency, I brought all five of those discs to CES with me and played them as much as I could in order to get more familiar with them.

For reasons obvious to high-end audio show-goers and the audio industry in general, I couldn't play all of five of them. Two were definitely avant-garde recordings, incredible and mind-bending musical adventures that might re-define how you listen to contemporary classical music. "Room-clearers," in other words, or perhaps "suburban audiophile repellant." One more, perhaps my favorite of the five, was only available in the Blu-ray format, and our digital front-end couldn't play that format. That left only two remaining recordings that I could play over and over in the room.

During a slow time at the show, I checked my Facebook account on my phone and noticed that the 2L Recordings page was promoting that one of the CES exhibitors was playing a selection of the newest releases from 2L. Trollop that I am, I posted a comment on that thread that I was playing a new 2L recording in the room at that very moment as well--Mezzotints, a collection of chamber music from Norwegian composer Stale Kleiberg. Within minutes I had a handful of people drift into the room, almost as one, and they started listening to this warm, direct yet melancholy music with huge smiles on their faces. Ah, the magic of social media.

If you're unfamiliar with Klieberg, I can quickly refer you to my review of David and Bathsheba
where I just couldn't get over the astonishing amount of detail captured by Morten Lindberg's microphones,and how the overall sound interacted with the inner walls of the church where it was recorded. With Mezzotints, the scale is much smaller. This is a mix of pieces that feature all sorts of chamber arrangements such as string quartet, solo piano and variations thereof, so you won't quite feel the same level of enveloping space as in the earlier recording. But here's what you do get: probably the most dynamic and powerful performance by a string quartet in recent years, coupled with solo piano pieces that may set a new standard.

My friend Bob Clarke of Profundo has told me once or twice that a great grand piano recording will tell you everything you need to know about an audio system, and I agree--although I think it's more fun to use Shelley Manne's drumming on Sonny Rollins' Way Out West. That flies in the face of modern audiophile dogma which states that the female voice, preferably from someone like Diana Krall, Eva Cassidy, Patricia Barber or Diana Krall, is the ultimate test of a system. But listen to Jorgen Larsen's piano work on Mezzotints and then try to tell me that you're not hearing more of the piano than ever before. I'm not talking about the clinking of the ivory keys or the sound of the felt-covered hammers hitting the strings, but the actually sound of the body of the piano, that big wooden box around all those mechanical structures, and how that huge wooden enclosure shapes and delivers the sound that we ultimately hear.

As for the string quartet--which consists of Marianne Thorsen on violin, Oyvind Gimse on cello, Bard Monsen on violin and Ole Wuttudal on viola--when I say that this ensemble is "dynamic and powerful," I really mean that they redefine the term "whipped into a frenzy." There are points throughout Mezzotints where these four musicians are so synchronized and so contagious with their passion that you can hear the bodies of their instruments buzz and rebel as one.

Another reason to mention Bob Clarke is that I used a very new system to evaluate this recording, along with the other four. I've placed my personal reference, the Trenner & Friedl ART monitors, back in the system after a lengthy hiatus, and I paired them with the big new Unico 150 integrated amplifier and Unico CD Due DAC/transport that we used at CES. (Trenner & Friedl are imported from Austria by Bob.) With the 150's magnificent power matched to the somewhat low-sensitivity ARTs, I think I have a system that's optimized for most of these 2L Recordings. The imaging is spectacular, and the level of detail retrieved from these recordings is truly rare.

Oh wait--I forgot something. Another 2L Recordings disc just arrived in the mail. But that's okay, since I popped it into the CD Due and gave it an initial listen and it was utterly amazing. With the temperatures only occasional rising above freezing, a plenty of snow still on the ground, now is the best time to indulge in more amazing Norwegian recordings.

In Search of the Perfect Two-Way, Part 2

Have I ever told you how much I love two-way monitor speakers? I know I have, at least a few times. In fact, I've found two of my old equipment reviews where I started off by saying how much I love little two-ways. I've also found three old reviews where I start off by saying how much I love integrated amplifiers. So I guess when all is said and done and I retire from this audio thing, I'll probably choose an integrated amp and a pair of two-way bookshelf speakers and fade away into musical bliss.

For the record, I can probably find dozens of reviews from other writers that start off with a sentence declaring unconditional love for either integrateds or two-ways. Maybe they copied it from me, maybe I copied it from them...but if I had to lay money on it, I'd say I probably stole it from Art Dudley back in his days with Listener.

Anyway, when I say I love two-way monitors, I can back that shit up. I have little monitors all over the friggin' place. As you can see in the photo above, I gathered them all together for a group photo. I did this for a few reasons--one, I thought it would be goofy and fun to do so, and second, I'm preparing myself for my upcoming trip to Australia to consult with the fine folks at Brigadiers Audio Group on the final version of their new speaker line. We'll be tweaking and listening to two models--one is a larger 2.5-way floorstander, and the other is the two-way monitor I've had in my system since January.

This is the speaker I'm talking about, the BAG Compact, the biggest, heaviest and potentially most expensive speaker of the lot. As I've mentioned before, this is a very ambitious design that features the highest quality parts and drivers, and an intricate cabinet made from birch ply. That's why they weigh about 45 to 50 pounds each--they're like solid blocks of wood. Heavy wood.

I'm very, very excited about this speaker because it's one of those two-way speaker designs that I could retire with. It's all I need from a speaker--it throws up a giant soundstage, goes satisfying low in the bass and has oodles of air and space in the treble. The only drawback of this speaker is that it has a relatively low sensitivity, and I haven't had a big powerful amp to drive them with. I was able to briefly pair them with the PureAudio Reference monoblocks, which provide 65 watts per channel of beautiful Class A power--and the combo was magnificant. But outside of those ten days or so, the most I've been able to throw on the BAG Compacts is 45 watts per channel. I'm jonesin' for a nice 100-150 wpc amp right now, and then I may discover the true potential of these speakers.

That's why I'm bringing them back to Australia with me--so I can hear them mated to the amplification used in their design.

These little two-ways need no introduction. Okay, they're the Trenner & Friedl ART Monitors from Austria. These are my personal reference speakers and have been for the last four and a half years. These go into my main system whenever I don't have another pair of speakers that I'm evaluating or breaking in--unless, of course, I have a big giant speaker on hand and I want to listen to the bottom octave. Even so, these little speakers with a front baffle around the size of a classic LS3/5a go surprisingly deep--down to about 44 Hz with proper set up.

As a distributor, I make plenty of switches to my system on an almost weekly basis. With all those changes, it's easy to lose that sound with which you're comfortable--prompting a sudden and drastic tearing down and rebuilding of your system, trying to recover that magic. In most cases I can simply insert the ARTs into my system and instantly return to the sound I crave.

These, of course, are the little brother to the ART, the new SUN. As of right now, I believe that this is the only pair in the US. They made a huge splash at the Newport/Irvine/Santa Ana/wherever Show last month, and I'm listening to them now. I love them with all my heart. So small yet so musical. Just astonishing.

In my original blog entry about the SUN, some guy made an absurd comment about the SUN--how they couldn't be that small and that satisfying at the same time. He dragged out a bunch of hoary old tropes about the limitations of little two-ways and came up with a bunch of strange comments that didn't really apply. The biggest mistake he made was assuming these were single-driver speakers--they're not. These are two-ways, since the tweeter is where the dust cap is, mounted concentrically. As a result, the little SUN comes as close to a single-point source as any transducer I've heard.

These, of course, are the Axis VoiceBox S. I import and distribute these in the United States, so I won't go on and on about how good they are. But I am happy that this is my very own pair to have and to hold for as long as I want. Of all the speakers I own, the Axis are perhaps the best at delving deep into a recording and extracting as much musical information as possible, except for the bottom octave, of course, all without sounding analytical or harsh like many other pro recording monitors.

There's a good story behind the middle VoiceBox, the one with the wood veneer. This was a prototype of the current model that sat in the garage of TAS' Neil Gader for a couple of years. After he reviewed the finished version of the speaker for TAS a couple of months ago, he sent this lone speaker back with the review pair. Apparently one speaker had to be sent back to Australia for one reason or another, and, well, who knows. Stuff happens. So I'm thinking about marketing this lone speaker as a Signature Mono Edition of the VoiceBox. Catchy, huh?

Finally, I have these old Rega RS1s sitting around. We originally purchased them for a song from one of our dealers--we wanted to place a modest system in our old cigar lounge back in Texas. This pair had been damaged during shipping, but the dealer was able to get a new replacement set of drivers. The cabinets are scuffed up with a bashed corner or two, but they sound wonderful. These speakers retailed for $795/pair or so when they were new, and to tell you the truth they sound absolutely great for the money. The first time I heard Rega's smallest speaker was back in the '90s during a visit to my old dealer Gene Rubin. They retailed for $495/pair back then, and they became my stock recommendation at that price point for many years.

I've listened to these on a number of occasions, and despite the beat-up cabinets and the seemingly cheap drivers--at least compared to the other monitors I have in the house--I've always been surprised at how musical they are. But at this point, I'm not sure if I really need to have them, especially with all the speaker choices I have in the house. If you're interested, I'd probably sell them for cheap. Just let me know.

My trip to Australia is being planned for August 16-29, or roughly thereabouts. I'll try to keep everyone informed about my work with BAG, and my experiences as an "professional speaker consultant."

A New Review of the Trenner & Friedl ART Loudspeaker

Positive Feedback, a high-end audio publication that occasionally publishes my articles, made me smile today by reprinting a wonderful review of the Trenner & Friedl ART monitors by Marek Dyba. I usually praise these speakers to the skies without concern for conflict of interest--they are the loudspeakers I've used in my own personal system for several years, and I'll gladly recommend them to anyone who wants a high-performance premium two-way monitor that offers a huge sound from a little box. Plus, they are absolutely beautiful--they are built by hand in Austria using the finest materials and exemplary craftsmanship. I am proud to own these.

I guess I'm excited about this review because the ARTs haven't had many reviews...other than mine, of course. It blows my mind that everyone isn't familiar with the ARTs and what they can do. Over the last few years, I've met a handful of fellow ART owners within the US, and we tend to act like one of those guys who discover a great band in a small club, conflicted and hesitant to spread the word because we don't want everyone to come along and make them popular, making us feel less special. Actually, we should be doing the opposite--telling every audiophile we know that they need to sit down and audition a pair before they die.

In Texas, I hosted a few audiophiles at my house--audiophiles who just wanted to hear the ARTs. At least one of those audiophiles wound up buying a pair, and another keeps telling me he's saving up. So this review is most welcome--not because audio journalism can make or break a product as much in 2015 as in 2005, but because this speaker deserves the buzz.

You can view the review right here.

More on the Trenner & Friedl Suns

Remember those tiny Trenner & Friedl Sun speakers that I loved at the Newport Show? They're at my house right now. On the last day of the show I walked up to Bob Clarke of Profundo, the US distributor for Trenner & Friedl, and said, "So, Bob...what you gonna do with them li'l speakers?"

"I don't know yet," he replied.

"Well then send 'em home with me! I want to see just how good they are."

I didn't expect Bob to give in so easily, but later in the day I checked back into the Profundo/Blackbird Audio room and Bob pointed to a small cardboard box and said, basically, there you go. Take 'em. When I returned home from Southern California last week, however, I realized there was a glitch in my evil plan to bogart these amazing little speakers. I didn't have a single amp in the house to use in our reference system. I sold my last one while I was at the show, my personal reference since at least October, and I had to ship it out to the dealer ASAP.

I really wanted to put some incredible amplification on the Suns. At the show, Bob and Dan Muzquiz of Blackbird paired the Suns with the new Elixir integrated amplifier from Heed Audio, which will cost probably about $1200 once it starts shipping from Hungary. Along with a Heed CD player, this system let everyone at the show utterly gobsmacked. At home I thought about pairing the Suns with a nice tube amplifier with some power--while Bob doesn't have the final specs from Trenner & Friedl yet, he suspects that they have a less than average sensitivity--just like my personal Trenner & Friedl ART monitors. I also thought about pairing them with the PureAudio gear, a full $20,000 worth of amplification. After all, the ARTs paired really well with the PureAudio gear over the last couple of years--one of the best speaker/amplifier matches I've performed among our brands.

But I have nothing, nada. No music for at least a couple of weeks, until my next shipment comes from Europe. So I started thinking about the system my parents have. If you've read any of my old Vinyl Anachronist columns for Perfect Sound Forever, you'll know that I've always maintained a modest but well-chosen system for my parents over the years. I started back in the mid-90s with a Rotel integrated, a Music Hall CD player and a pair of those incredible little $200/pair Optimus Pro-4 speakers from Radio Shack, the ones with the Linaeum tweeters, the ones I actually got for 50% off.

Over the years, the ephemeral Music Hall was replaced with a succession of cheap Sony DVD players, the Optimus Pros were switched out for a pair of Epos ELS-3s when the vinyl veneers started peeling off in big sheets. Finally, just a few months ago, the Rotel started acting up in one channel so I helped them choose one of those inexpensive yet fairly competent little T-class integrated amps from Dayton Audio--another fabulous $100 bargain in the world of hi-fi. For the last couple of years Colleen and I have wired this system with some of the more affordable cables from Cardas Audio.

This system has always sounded relatively great, considering the cost of the components, but I've never been able to get what I would call truly satisfying sound in their house. First of all, they don't really have a good room for it--first they placed this system on an old yet beautiful walnut bookcase, the very same one I now use as a two-way mini-monitor display in my living room, in their bedroom. Over the last year they've redecorated their home, and the bookcase went to me and the stereo migrated to their living room and now resides in a new entertainment hutch/rack/TV stand/thingie. Still, the sound is somewhat small and closed in because my parents like to shove the little Epos as close to the rear wall as possible. Whenever I visit, I pull them out a little. Whenever I return, they've been pushed back.

Yesterday, on my father's 84th birthday, I came over and swapped out the Epos for the Suns. Again, the Suns have an internal enclosure about one-third the size of the Epos. Even my Mom had to chuckle at the diminutive little Suns. Once I hooked them up, however, the sound was transformed. This was anything but subtle. For the first time in my life, I have heard genuine high-end sound at my folks' house.

My father, who probably is an audiophile in some alternative universe--he possesses excellent hearing and often makes the same exact comments about specific pieces of audio gear as I do--instantly heard a profound increase in soundstage depth. For the first time, the wall behind the system dissolved and I heard the original recording venue recreated spatially. I also heard something else equally impressive--solid, tight and well-controlled bass. Both my father and I are sharing a love for Harry Belafonte's music these days, and he played a rather typical '80s live recording, all bright and twinkly and ultra-etched, and yet there was a solid, accurate reproduction of the electric bass on every track. My mom felt compelled to go outside and monitor the volume levels from the front curb--she was worried the neighbors were going to complain.

In nearly every respect, I felt like I was listening to a genuine high-end system comprised of a $100 T-class integrated, a Sony DVD player that probably cost $29 new, and one of the most surprising tiny speakers I've ever heard. Of course the Suns were revealing the weaknesses in the amp and source--there was a dryness throughout the upper midrange during louder passages that's fairly typical of cheap digital and cheap D-class amplification. At the same time, the Sun really took advantage of the Dayton's 100wpc to deliver deep, convincing bass and an unbelievably airy and delicate treble. The imaging and the soundstaging was some of the best I've heard from any speaker of any size.

So I want to keep using these Suns in different applications. We've shown that they can transform a mediocre system into something that approximates totally decent sound. Next, Colleen has a relative who just purchased a super-cute but super-small house in an older neighborhood. The only problem is her living room is about half the size it should be, and my first thought after I crossed her threshold for the first time was "Where would the stereo go?" So I'd like to see if the Suns work in another modest system set in a really small room. (The ARTs are, in my opinion, the best speakers I've used in a small room.)

That would be another good reason to buy these. Finally, let's hook the Suns up to something amazing just to see what they can do. Tiny speakers that sound great have always had a fairly difficult time in the marketplace--think about all the negative comments you heard when the Acoustic Energy AE-1s first appeared, or the Celestion SL-700 SE. The Suns are even smaller, yet they're offering a level of sound quality that I've never experienced with an enclosure this small.

The perfect speakers for tiny apartments? Ivy League dorm rooms? A desktop computer system? Or just something that's small and unobtrusive and still offers high-end sound? I hope I get to find out the answers before I have to send them back.

Tiny Speakers, Great Sound from Trenner & Friedl

It's sort of a cliche in high-end audio to talk about small speakers that sound much bigger than you expect--if you can't say that about your own speakers, you probably shouldn't bring them to market. But the new Sun speakers from Trenner & Friedl take this type of thinking to a whole new level. The Suns are so tiny that you can pick them up easily with one hand. Yet when you listen to them, you'll shake your head in disbelief. Mated with a fantastic new Elixir integrated amp from Heed Audio, which will retail for just around $1200 (including a fabulous-sounding headphone amp), the Suns created a large, convincing soundstage with unbelievably impressive bass response.

The Suns are not going to be as inexpensive as the Elixir, but you have to know a little bit about Trenner & Friedl designs before you can comment on the perceived value of such an amazing little product. The cabinet work is truly astounding, as are the drivers and the innards. No corners have been cut--the precision and sheer audacity of the four dinky ports on the rear of the speaker, for example, hints at the extraordinarily high level of engineering and craftsmanship.

The Suns are ideal for small rooms (my Trenner & Friedl Arts are perhaps the best speakers I've ever used in such an application), or for people who want great sound in their apartments or their offices. (Warning: they can go loud with relative ease!) These might just be the ultimate speakers for a desktop computer system. Here at the Newport Show, attendee after attendee couldn't believe the breathtaking sound coming from the diminutive coaxial drivers.

Don't judge these speakers until you've heard what they can do. I don't want anyone telling me about the laws of physics when it comes to a transducer of this size--these sound full and musical and utterly impressive. Or, as Harry Pearson used to say, "If you haven't heard it, you don't have an opinion." I want to give Andreas Friedl and Peter Trenner a huge hug for accomplishing this feat. Please visit Bob Clarke of Profundo and Dan Muzquiz of Blackbird Audio on the third floor and hear for yourself.

Numbers Don't Necessarily Tell the Whole Story...

Today I set up what I'm calling my interim system, and it's an unlikely one. As you can see from above, I have the new Simply Italy integrated amplifier in from Unison Research, and I have it hooked up to my Trenner & Friedl ART Monitors. The problem here is that the Simply Italy is relatively low-powered tube amplifier--12 watts per channel--and the ARTs are fairly inefficient speakers at 85 dB. (They do have an 8 ohm impedance, however, which is the only reason why I would try such a match.)

The Simply Italy is going to be one hot little amp, and the Unison factory is already working overtime to fill orders. I got ten of them in today and five went right back out the door to waiting customers. But many of those customers had questions about whether or not this amp could power their speakers. Almost every speaker mentioned was far more efficient than the ARTs. Yet this system here is making music, beautiful music. I started off with "Rise" from the Flobots' Fight with Tools just to see if the Simply Italy and the ARTs could make that gorgeous bass guitar sing, and the answer is an absolute yes.

I'm not going to rock out to Tool or System of a Down with this set-up, but the deep bass is solid and the soundstage is hefty and organic. I'm probably going to swap out the ARTs in the next day or so with the far more efficient and far more sizeable Opera Grand Callas, and we'll see what the Simply Italy can really do. But for now I'm pretty pleased with the overall sound of this match-up.

When I was into low-powered SET amps (remember that I used a two watt per channel Yamamoto Sound Craft A-08 for a few years), speaker matching was always a question. With two watts per channel, you'd better stick with speakers with efficiencies greater than 96 or 97 dB. I used 101 dB Zu Audio Druids with the A-08 and was very happy for some time. But by the time you get to 10 or 15 watts per channel, you can be surprised what actually works. As long as your room is on the small side (mine is) and you aren't cranking it to 11 (I usually don't) and you aren't using Magnepans, ATCs, Apogees or other hard-to-drive speakers, anything goes.

Cpt Kirk - Starship Cadillac

If you dig fusion jazz and you really want to give your stereo system a workout, check out the new CD from Cpt Kirk, the new trio headed by extraordinary bassist Rufus Philpot. Philpot, along with drummer/singer Kirk Covington and keyboardist Scott Tibbes, race at breakneck speed through a set that is one third Parliament/Funkadelic, one third Bill Evans and one third atomic-age sound effects. Dan Muzquiz of Blackbird Audio, who is a buddy of Rufus', snuck this CD in with the Heed Audio amps he sent me last week, and if any piece of music can show off how potent the little Obelisk is, it's this one.

For example, take the first ten seconds of the title tune. A tympany is thwacked, and the resulting bloom and decay flows through my listening room like a steel-railed roller coaster. If anyone doubts that my diminutive Trenner & Friedl ARTs can produce deep and realistic bass, I'll just slip 'em this little snippet and watch their jaws drop. Sure, the drum sounds like there might be a touch of electronic embellishment, but who cares. If you need to hear real instruments in a real space, Tibbs spends plenty of time at his grand piano and combines romantic flourishes with angular, atonal sorties.

Philpot, who has been acclaimed by reviewers and fellow musicians alike, infuses plenty of personality into his instrument and is one of a growing generation of bassists who step beyond the notes and create a manic, textured landscape that is endlessly detailed. An added plus is the great names for all of the songs such as "Drop the Chalupa," "Disgruntled Consumate Monkey" and "Pickled Pigs Feet." This exciting, funky and whimsical album has some serious musical chops dwelling in its crawlspace, and I look forward to freaking out some visitors to my listening room with it.

To buy this album, simply visit Philpot's website at http://www.rufusbass.com/.

Trenner & Friedl ART Monitors

"I'm still undecided whether the Brio3 is a fantastic little amplifier that outperforms everything at its price point, or if the ARTs are an incredible speaker that makes everything sound great even with modest ancilliaries. I'm sure it's a little of both."

I said these words a few days ago, and it made me think about the Trenner & Friedl ART speakers that have resided in my system for the last six months. While half of a year is certainly not that long to have a piece of audio equipment in for review, I've felt remiss in not offering a formal review on the speaker I've decided is perfect for my needs. I suppose I was reluctant to offer any type of formal review on a pair of high-performance $4250 mini-monitors while my reference amp retailed for just $750. Now that I'm using the ARTs with the Heed Obelisk SI integrated amplifier and the X2 power supply--a combination that is truly synergistic in many ways--I feel I have a better handle on just how great the ARTs really are.

Bob Clarke of Profundo, the US distributor for both Heed and Trenner & Friedl, put it best. "You probably won't want to ever trade in the ARTs as you upgrade your system," he told me at the 2011 CES. "They will really continue to blossom as your amplification gets better and better." Bob should know, since he uses the ARTs as his own reference speakers mated to the expensive VivA tubed amplfication from Italy.

If you think my enthusiasm for the ARTs borders on hyperbole, then consider the following:

1. Terry Combs, owner of Sound Mind Audio in Dallas, uses his ARTs in conjunction with the dedicated 78rpm system I talked about in the latest Vinyl Anachronist column for Perfect Sound Forever. Terry carries a lot of expensive speaker brands, but he keeps coming back to the ARTs for his own listening enjoyment. "If someone told me I had to listen to the ARTs and only the ARTs for the rest of my life, I'd say okay...thanks!"

2. Before I listened to the ARTs, I was extremely enamored with a couple of British mini-monitors from a beloved and respected manufacturer. Since I've owned the ARTs, I've listened to these speakers on several occasions and actually came away unimpressed for the first time. The ARTs ruined them for me.

3. While listening to Trenner & Friedl's $170,000 Duke flagship speakers at CES, I came away thinking how similar the ARTs were in tonal accuracy and their ability to reproduce detail in a forthright and utterly musical manner. I have to admit that the Dukes are the finest loudspeakers I have ever heard, but when I returned home from Vegas and gave my ARTs an extended listen, I loved the little guys even more. The family resemblance, in other words, was amazingly strong--even considering the $165,000 difference between the two products.

In some audiophile circles I frequent, I received a bit of flak from so-called objectivists who felt that the ARTs aren't that impressive when you look at their numbers, especially considering their price. One audiophile and longtime acquaintance, who prefers Vandersteens and vintage tubed amplification, asked me, "Are you trying to say that you couldn't find a decent full-range loudspeakers you liked for $5000?" (The slightly inflated price was the result of his estimate of a good pair of stands for the ARTs.) I thought about that question for a while, and realized that the answer was no, there was no full-range speaker in that price range that I felt bettered the ARTs in overall musicality. In my relatively small listening room (actually a small spare bedroom in a rather large house), the ARTs are able to sound dynamic, authoritative and BIG. They are able to throw up a gigantic soundstage, just like a full-range speaker. They play loud. They produce an amazing amount of bass for a mini-monitor. And they never fail to sound musical.

I guess it eventually all comes down to bass, since the ARTs are nearly perfect in all other respects. The ARTs do go down to 44Hz, plus or minus 6dB. It's that 6dB spec that has the objectivists in a tizzy; if it was only 3 dB, then that would apparently be okay. I tend to focus more on that 44hZ spec, since I believe that it can be further reinforced with proper room placement and amplification. Besides, I think about some of the huge British loudspeakers I've owned over the years. The Spendor SP100s I had for several years are flat down to about 45 Hz. The $13,000 Harbeth 40.1s I used for about six months are flat down to about 39 Hz. Those are giant speakers with huge footprints. The ARTs are downright miniscule in comparison. While that 6dB blip is the reason why I can't honestly say that the ARTs are in the same ballpark low frequency-wise with those other speakers, they're relatively close. Close enough, in other words, that I really don't care about the gap.

After living with the ARTs for the last six months, I'd say that I have the right amount of bass for at least 90% of the music that I listen to...maybe even 95%. There are certainly times when I know that a bass line is missing altogether, such as some of the subterranean bass guitar runs in the Flobots' excellent Fight with Tools CD. But the ARTs get so much right in the bass department that it's not that big of a deal. Double basses, for instance, are reproduced with the right amount of weight. Kick drums are visceral and potent.

The ARTs' ability to throw up a giant soundstage certainly helps. As I've said before, lack of deep bass is less noticeable in a humongous soundstage. The ARTs deliver the type of soundstage that easily transcends room boundaries. I've been told that they breathe even more in larger rooms than mine, but that undermines my point about the ARTs excelling in small rooms. I've never heard a speaker, small or large, that does so much with so little. To illustrate this, I recently had Colleen Cardas of Cardas Audio listen to my system (The ARTs, by the way, are internally wired with Cardas cable). Colleen's first comment was "Wow, this room is small." Her second comment, after listening to a few selections, was "This sounds like really expensive systems do."

In other words, if you want great sound in a small room, start with the ARTs.

So what about the five to ten percent of my music that needs more bass? Well, I suppose I could consider a subwoofer down the line. While visiting Dan Muzquiz, a Trenner & Friedl dealer in San Diego, I heard the ARTs mated to a Mingus subwoofer--a discontinued model from none other than T&F (I hope you've noticed by now that most T&F speakers are named after jazz greats, and the ARTs are named for Art Pepper). This was a thrilling full-range combination that gave me everything I could ever want--the same coherent musicality, the same unbelievable soundstage and the same thrilling dynamics. There was just a bit more bass. Not a screaming amount, just a bit.

Okay, so I've beat the bass issue like a deceased equine, and it's time to talk about why the ARTs are so great. What else is there to say? Now that the Heeds are in place, I'm experiencing a sound that is easily the equivalent of some of the $50 to $75K systems I had at my disposal while reviewing gear for TONEAudio. I tallied up my system the other day, and came away with a slightly inflated (aka MSRP) price of $18,000. That includes the exquisite Clear Light cables from Cardas Audio, which account for a bigger percentage of the total than I usually reserve for system cabling. There are also some weak links in the system, such as a modest Rega P3-24 turntable and Zu Audio DL-103 cartridge, and a very modest Denon CD player. (I'm not really interested in getting an expensive CD player as long as I'm using our custom Blue Computer Solutions music server, although I might be getting one in the near future for review). I truly believe that the ARTs are great enough to make those pieces perform at their very best.

The ARTs elevate the performance on the entire system, which explains my reluctance to point out the shortcomings of the Rega Brio3. (For the record, the Heeds underlined the fact that the Rega is a little gainy in the treble, and it isn't the most resolving amp in the world). The fact is, the Rega/T&F combination was much better than I expected. So in my humble opinion, the ARTs may be one of those rare components that can transform an entire system for the better.

I haven't even mentioned the fit and finish of these remarkable mini-monitors. The cherry veneer is deep, textured and rich. The Corian baffles are translucent and make the speaker seem to glow from within, much like the music the ARTs produce. These are absolutely gorgeous speakers, a rare mini-monitor that radiates beauty without resorting to odd shapes or glued-on doodads. The proportions are unique; while the ARTs look tiny when faced dead on, they are unusually deep, a result of the fact that they are designed using the Golden Ratio. In other words, the ARTs are uniquely striking without being gaudy. The pride of ownership with these little gems is through the roof.

So will I keep the ARTs forever and ever? That's hard to say, since I once said the same thing about my Spendor SP100s. All I can say is that if I do replace the ARTs one day, it will be with a speaker that is MUCH bigger and MUCH more expensive. And it will probably be sporting a Trenner & Friedl badge as well.

Blasphemy!

My brother's gonna kill me for blogging about this, but yes--that's a Mac Airbook (or Air Macbook, or Book AirMac, or whatever) hooked up to my system. I ran the borrowed Mac through the Wavelength Brick V3 24/96 DAC and listened to titles using iTunes. The purpose of the Mac is to help break in the new cabling while the laptop for the server is being used as a, well, laptop. Overall, the sound quality was good to excellent and I was able to listen to a series of choice audiophile-y cuts that sounded about the same as a good CD player.

I think that says more about the excellence of the Wavelength DAC (not to mention my Trenner & Friedl ART monitors, which truly amazed some guests I had over last night) than the software. When it comes to iTunes, I think the interface is clunky, slow and downright antiquated compared to the Zune software running through the Blue Computer Solutions Music Server Project. (Or, as my brother likes to say, "iTunes looks like it was designed in the '80s.") In my humble opinion, many people love using iTunes because it's the only thing they know. I've used iTunes on PC for the last five years or so, but when I switched to Zune I instantly noted a HUGE difference in ease of use, speed, flexibility, features and overall appearance (the Zune presentation is great-looking and fun).

In the end, however, I think I could be okay with just the Mac BookAir and iTunes. It's not bad at all. The sound quality was much better than I expected (although those new Cardas cables are starting to break in nicely). But I can't wait to give the Blue another shot. The other night I reviewed Sam Cooke's Ain't That Good News from HDtracks for Stereolist.com, and it was my first experience with FLAC files. The sound quality was simply amazing. So I think we're on the right track with the project.

Listening to 78rpm records...what a blast!

I spent yesterday up in Dallas with Terry Combs of Sound Mind Audio in Dallas. And, as promised, we listened to 78rpm records on a stellar analog rig that included a rare Micro Seiki turntable modded by Terry himself, with a wood-bodied Benz-Micro that was specifically built to handle the medium. I won't go into too much detail about the experience since it will appear in the next Vinyl Anachronist column for Perfect Sound Forever, but suffice it to say that it was an ear-opening experience.

In a nutshell, listening to a state-of-the-art 78 rig won't quite achieve the same level of fidelity and realism as the best modern LP playback systems. What this rig did offer, however, was an illuminating and exciting window into the original recording event, something that is just not possible with more contemporary solutions. What Terry did point out on lacquer after lacquer was the sheer emotional thrill of 78s, and how listening to 78s like this a something akin to traveling in a time machine. If you fancy yourself a musical historian who is interested in such classic performances, a 78 rig like Terry's is clearly the way to go (as opposed to remastered offerings on other formats).

In addition, I finally got to hear the amazing Trenner & Friedl RA Boxes, a unique high-efficiency design that was able to create a full-range sound that was both dynamic yet agile. While I believe that the $170,000 Trenner & Friedl Dukes I heard at CES were possible the finest loudspeakers I've ever heard, the RA Boxes offer a huge chunk of that sound quality for a fraction of the price. I could easily imagine living with these for the rest of my life. The RA Boxes are also extremely practical designs, since they are designed to be used only a few inches from the back walls. They are big and beautiful, but they also stay out of the way.

Terry had paired the RA Boxes with huge single-ended monoblocks from VivA, an Italian amplifier company that has found a unique sonic solution by using the same tube types for the output, driver and rectifier tubes. When you see the four identical tubes in a row on the top of the VivAs, you probably will assume they are push-pull designs. But they're not. Due to this tube configuration, these amps provide a respectable amount of power that will work with a variety of speakers. Plus, they sound absolutely wonderful.

Finally, it was nice to hear Terry express his love for the Trenner & Friedl ART monitors, which I also own. (Here's a pic with the ARTs with the T&F Brilliant supertweeters, mounted on stands that Terry made himself; he actually builds most of the beautiful equipment racks and furniture in the showroom). With all of the bigger, more expensive speakers he had at his disposal at Sound Mind Audio (and he has a LOT of equipment on hand), he told me that if someone told him that the ARTs were the only speaker he could own, he'd say "Wow...thanks!" Again, I don't think there is a finer small monitor on the planet than the ARTs, which is why I chose them. (And I've heard just about everything.)

Terry is also one of the few high-end dealers who works out of his home (which was a gorgeous house that he had completely remodeled on his own) and still keeps a large inventory of product on hand. In fact, he has two showrooms set up with a huge amount of components. He's also one of the few dealers around who doesn't sit quietly while you're listening to music; he LOVES his music and is always emotionally involved whenever the needle hits the groove. I had a HUGE amount of fun spending the afternoon with Terry, and I hope I can visit again soon.

If you'd like to know more about Terry Combs and Sound Mind Audio, give him a call at 214-327-2073. And my Vinyl Anachronist column should appear in Perfect Sound Forever around April 1.

CES 2011--The Profundo Room

Sure, I spent as much time as possible in the big Trenner & Friedl room with the Dukes, but I also frequented the other Profundo room which was run by Dan Muzquiz of Blackbird Audio Gallery in San Diego. Profundo is the US distributor and importer of many of Dan's brands such as Trenner & Friedl, Heed Audio, Transfiguration and VivA Audio. Profundo is basically Bob Clarke, who is one of the good guys in audio because he loves music and puts that first. In fact, once you get to know Bob, you'll find out that when he plays music, he loves to crank it up. Yes, Bob Clarke rocks.

It was also great to hang out with Dan, because over the last few months we've become good friends and yet we've never met in person. It was weird to walk up to him in the Profundo room and wait for him to recognize me. When he did, I got a huge bear hug.

Anyway, Dan had some very intriguing gear set up in this room. First, as I mentioned before, he had the ART monitors set up and run by the Heed Audio monoblocks, along with a Heed preamp. Sources were a Basis turntable with a Transfiguration cartridge as well as a digital transport and DAC from Heed. Cables, of course, were all Cardas.

But the ARTs had a little something extra on top...the new add-on super tweeter from Trenner & Friedl. I erroneously reported earlier that this was the same tweeter used on the Dukes, but it's actually a scaled down model. It's a Vifa tweeter instead of the diamond tweeter used on the Dukes. That makes sense, because the diamond tweeter add-on would cost approximately $15,000 to $20,000, and that doesn't quite make sense with a pair of $4250 stand-mounted monitors. The smaller tweeter will retail for somewhere around $2500. While this still sounds expensive, especially in the context of the ARTs, it makes a lot more sense for the middle speakers in the Trenner & Friedl line such as the Ella and the Dizzy. Best of all, both of these super tweeters can be added to almost any speaker on the market.

This smaller tweeter also has the striking Swarovski crystal on top. I watched guest after guest walk into the room and immediately run toward those big "diamonds" perched on top of the ARTs and try to figure them out. Once Dan explained how they work, it made a lot more sense. The super tweeters, as you can tell from the pics, fire upward from the top of the speaker. The crystals are cut in a specific way to aid with proper dispersion. I was able to listen to the ARTs with and without the super tweeter, and the difference is not subtle. With the super tweeter in place, the ARTs sounded a lot bigger and threw up an amazingly deep soundstage. It's very impressive to hear such a wide, deep, expansive sound coming from such little speakers. As I toured from room to room in CES, I saw nothing but giant speakers everywhere I went. It was nice to see the ARTs, in many cases, sound just as authoritative and impressive as those big floorstanding behemoths.

I also felt that the ARTs, with and without the super tweeter, sounded much better in this room than in my own personal listening room at home. First of all, the room at CES was quite a bit larger than mine and the ARTs had more room to breathe. Secondly, the Heed amplification is quite a few notches above my current Rega amp. The ARTs produced an amazing amount of bass with the Heed monoblocks, so much so that we often found ourselves laughing at just how much low frequency information was coming from these mini-monitors.

Fortunately, I will soon be able to experience this kind of sound at home. Bob told me that once he recovers from CES, he's going to send me the Heed Obelisk SE integrated amplifier and X2 outboard power supply that I blogged about a few weeks ago. Bob told me that the wonderful thing about the ARTs is that you can keep throwing higher and higher quality amplification at them and they'll keep sounding better and better. Bob uses the ARTs at home with the expensive VivA amplifiers from Italy, and the ARTs definitely pull their own weight. It's nice to know that as I improve the other pieces in my own system, it will be a long time before I feel like upgrading the ARTs. In fact, unless I can win the lottery and buy a pair of Dukes in the near future, I plan to keep the ARTs for a very, very long time.

Maybe with that super tweeter, though.

Trenner & Friedl ART monitors -- Impressions #1

Today I listened to one of my true reference LPs, the RCA Living Stereo re-issue of Clair de Lune from Raymond Agoult and the London Proms Symphony, which is always a treat. Recorded in England in 1959, this recorded is one of the most beautiful classical albums I've ever heard, and the sound quality is rich, natural and very earthy. Now that I have my Trenner & Friedl ART monitors settled in on their Quadraspire stands, and now that they've been broken in for almost a month, I'm starting to do some serious listening. I put the LP on the platter of my modded Rega P3-24 and cued side one.

For me, Clair de Lune has always been a soothing album, as in sooooooootthhhing. There are a few crescendos here and there, but for the most part this album is meant to be relaxing. (For those who are unfamiliar with the album, it's a collection of moon-themed classical piecs from the likes of Massenet, Tchaikovsky, Elgar, Bach, Gluck and of course Claude Debussy.) Starting with the first side, however, I noticed how exciting this music actually is. On Tchaikovsky's Chants sans Paroles, for example, I was actually startled once or twice by the wide dynamic swings.

The ARTs may be small, but they don't sound small. For me, that's the mark of the best audio equipment, the feeling that the soundstage is limitless and that you're listening--and looking--into something that's life-sized. While the tiny ARTs don't go as low in the bass as a true full-range speaker, they do present a big enough soundstage to preserve that feeling of sheer size. Even the double bass section was presented mostly intact, with even the deepest notes sounding melodic.

Along with this size goes dynamics, and this is where the ARTs surprise me like no other mini-monitors. I had to lunge for the volume once or twice because I just wasn't prepared for the sudden, emotional swells in this music. The ARTs also capture all the detail of the quiet passages. In fact, one thing I noticed yesterday when I was listening to my German ARS pressing of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours was that all of the fade-outs were longer on each song, and I was able to hear more of the tiny details at the very end. I don't think I've ever heard a speaker that could do that, except for maybe some huge panel speakers that cost quite a bit more than the ARTs.

That's my thoughts for the day on the ARTs. Fantastic little speakers so far.