Originally Posted by Rafale
This is what said MC :
Even when fully tuned, the AF is undoubtedly concert hall Row 20 than Row 5 and is certainly rather sweeter than the earlier SF Stradivarius or indeed its AA, at least when i last heard it. At the same time it has classically voiced character, generating convincingly natural and spacious perspectives in soundstage, and never jumps up on you or overcrowds the sence of spaciousness.
the soundstage per se is focused mainly in the space between the loudspeakers,this speaker illuminating the listening room acoustic rather less than some others. Thiq leads to a dryer sounding presentation but still with fine image focus and very good depth and transparency-here at least essentially achieving the standard required in this class.
It does play rock, in terms of bass power and extension but in rather adult manner with more refinement and elegance than the more frenetic pulsing drive that is often desired. To some degree the effect depends on the bass lines present and the record production, where the complexity of this speakers's bass design seems to leave the details and tune playing largely in place, while running at a more sedate pace than say a Wilson audio Sophia 3 or an Avalon Diamond. Nevertheless honour is largely satisfied by the sheer elegance of the vocal rendition, and a pure, silky treble that's devoid of sibilant distorsions, tizz or grain.
It's not particularly powerful for a speaker in its price class, and heavy driving results in a degree of softening and thickening at low frequencies, for example on that closely focused Jean Guillou organ recording of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an exhibition ( Organ Transcriptions 1989 Dorian DOR-90117). Here it is good plus rather than excellent and i suspect the modestly dimensioned bass ports may be partly responsible for the perceptible dynamic constraint at low frequencies. However this is an at the limit observation, and i reckon most listeners would consider that the bass is notably even, well extended and a tribute to the graded multiple bass systems that are used here.
Viewed overall the AF is delightfully easy on ear with a full tonal balance that could be described as classically mature. The low fatigue factor allows relaxed listening to be experienced for hours on end. Conversely it also sounds rather restrained dynamically. Transients are softened though not defocused, dynamic expression is a little muted, though remember we are judging at a very high standard here. I the tried my trusty and then notably neutral Linn LP12 based vinyl replay system and felt the sound was rather too laid back, a little too rich for my taste, moving now to Row 40 and not really well suited to analogue RnB. But perhaps that was never the intention of the design team.
i remember it at its best when auditioned with a fine digital recording, the lights switched off, and a string orchestra playing Vivaldi recorded in a church acoustic. This provided near magical transportation to the actual event lacking hardly any sense of mechanical repoduction. Martin Colloms Hifi Critic vol15/n2 april-june 2011
reference components :
WA sophia 3, Quad ESL63,BBC LS3/5 A 15 ohm, BW 805D
Naim NAP 250, Krell evo 402e, ARC REF 5 pre
Niam DAC, Marantz CD7, Linn Akurate DS, LP12/keel/Radikal/ Naim ARO/Koetsu Urishi Vermilion/ Naim superline + supercap
transparent XL MM2 and VDH the first ultimate
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