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REVIEW: Audio Note Speaker kit 03 Speakers

195.204.137.49


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Model: Speaker kit 03
Category: Speakers
Suggested Retail Price: $1950
Description: 2-way ported design
Manufacturer URL: Audio Note
Model Picture: View

Review by Rune ( A ) on April 16, 2006 at 05:14:33
IP Address: 195.204.137.49
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for the Speaker kit 03


Just wanted to share some of my impressions on the Audio Note Speaker kit-03.I will try not to say it sounds like this or that,because the more I learn and hear,the more I find it very difficult to nail down what one product does in a chain where every part has a colourisation.There is no perfect cable,resistor,cap,tube,transformer,speaker aso ,you get the point! :-) So this is my opinions,my impressions in my system and with my taste,so don't come back to kick me if you don't like what you here with these speakers:-)
They have over 500 hours use now and are placed on home made stands in the corners,crossing about 1 meter in front of my main listening spot.

I ordered these from AN UK, and got a woodworker to make me the cabinets here in Norway.They are made of birch plywood.I'm happy with the way they turned out.
Right away I heard stuff on my recordings I hadn't noticed before,and this is also usually the case when I get a new product that has a different voicing than I'm is used to,but this seemed a little different.I heard new stuff from top to bottom,which mean I heard little cymbal rythmic patterns I hadn't noticed,voices seemed clearer and with more colours,easier to hear the lyrics on some off my records,I thought I heard clearer the room the recording was made in or how much/little reverb they had added on voices in studio,different instruments seemed to be clearer with their special qualities,and all the way down to hearing more clearly what the bassist and drummer were playing.The speakers sounds very fast(the bassperformance is maybe what surprised me the most,they sound big,bold,and articulate)and I'm quite sure this has to do with the simplicity off the design and good integration between drivers.They MUST start and stop at the same time to make more sense out off whats recorded.A Lowther for example does this even better than this speaker,but a fullrange driver usually needs help in the bass and/or the highs.I like fullrangers alot,and maybe thats what I will end up with some day,but at the moment this speaker seems like a good compromise,and very whole/even and complete in presentation.I also like that they are made to be in the corners of a room,seems to load a room better that way.I have lived with the Klipschorn and I think the basshorn is the strenght of that construction.Give the Klipschorn the right room and I think it must be one off the funniest speakers out there,but its not perfect,nothing is.
After lived with some horns the best I've heard is the Altec A5(1505 with 288 drivers),I still have them,but don't use them.A horn is a horn,and in my home I usually listen close to the speakers,and in the long run I like listen to all my different music without it beeing "thrown" at me.
The 03s are dynamic and I belive they can be pretty impactful with a bigger amplifier than my kit1(8 watts,300B SET),and they probably would sound more impactful in a smaller room than mine as well.They are supposed to handle about 200watts of clean power,and that should be pretty loud! The 03 does not have the kind of impact(hit to chest) in my system like a Altec A5 or the 4 *15" dipole construction I use in my basement(Here I have my drumset and some other instruments).
If you know how a piano sounds acoustic in a room,then you know that if you hear a piano through a PA system it doesn't sound the same.If your preferences is that when you listen to music it should sound as though you hear music through a PA system every time,then horns is what you need.There is nothing that hits you in the chest like big efficient pro drivers,and I'm not sure if I could live with the kit03s if I didn't have my basement setup to satisfy my impact needs sometimes:-)
On the other hand the kit 03 does things that I haven't heard in a horn speaker,and thats stuff like integration between drivers,and how they can create a 3-D like image in my room,among many other things.My system can at its best sound spooky,with voices,piano,trumpets aso. sounding more like how an acoustic presentation in my room would be than anything I've heard.Piano notes has such fast attack and equally what seems like fast decay of the hammer leaving the string and leaving room for the timbre in the piano.It's also easier to hear room acoustics on the recordings and/or what kind of effects that has been added to instruments and voices.More important I hear more timbre on voices and instruments and its easier to pick out a voice and instrument from the mix.Even more important:-) is that I get more involved in the MUSIC on all my recordings,and to me thats really what makes this speaker so special.Even how bad I thought some recordings were,now the music seem to come across much better,and to me thats priceless.
I'm in this for the music,and have no interest in listening to test records for the sake off some "sound-analysis-sport".I want to hear the great music on my favourites like Led Zeppelin,Deep Purple,Queen,Beatles,U2,James Brown,Pastorius,Weather Report,Coltrane,Mozart aso .These speakers sounds good on all kinds off music(like a good speaker should),and even though heavier stuff sounds really cool on these,if you listen to Death/Trash/Techno only and its all about brute force, you might want to hear a PA system instead.

A little caotic review,but the reason I wanted to write it is that these speakers are really special in my view.They may look like they have runned out on date long time ago,and a little resonating cabinet will most likely make most speaker constructer laugh out loud,but that should be before they have heard them! :-)
I highly recomend MUSIClovers who is into hifi to check out the Audio Note stuff if you haven't allready.
These speakers are maybe the most complete I've heard and I have heard and had much much more expensive stuff.
2 thumbs up and highly recomended!!!!

I have also just finished the AN kit1,so it doesn't have more than about 100hours so far,but what an amplifier!! and it seems to match so very well with the speaker kit 03,allthough personally I would have liked about double the power or more.
An Ankoru would have been fun to :-)

Sincerely,
Rune


Product Weakness: -
Product Strengths: -


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: AN Kit1
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): AN Balanced Signature kit
Sources (CDP/Turntable): AN CDT1,DAC kit 1.2, Dual 701w/Shure M91ED
Speakers: -
Cables/Interconnects: AN,VDH,Silver Sonic
Music Used (Genre/Selections): everything
Room Size (LxWxH): 9m x 6m x 2.5m
Room Comments/Treatments: normal livingroom
Time Period/Length of Audition: 2 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): -
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner
Your System (if other than home audition): -




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Topic - REVIEW: Audio Note Speaker kit 03 Speakers - Rune 05:14:33 04/16/06 ( 4)