Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Audience ClairAudient 2+2 Speakers by winstoncheng888@hotmail.com

Model:	ClairAudient 2+2
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$5000
Description:	Monitor speaker
Manufacturer URL:	Audience

Review by winstoncheng888@hotmail.com on October 09, 2010 at 20:50:13
IP Address: 99.71.136.10 Add Your Review
for the ClairAudient 2+2

I recently purchased the 2+2s from Audience in late August after a short trial period in my home (Audience is not very far from me).

A little bit of background before I go any further. My wife and I moved from our rented condo to our first home last November. I was extremely excited about finally having a place to call our own, but my listening room went from an open 22 x 18 living room to a small 11 x 10 bedroom. My Quad ESL63/Gradient woofer combination which had worked wonders in the larger listening room, just wasn't cutting it in my new tiny listening room. They still sounded pretty good (I probably would not have known what I was missing if I never first got the chance to hear them in the larger room), but I could tell that the room was just too small for them. So, the search for a new pair of speakers began.

I first heard the 2+2s in the Audience room at THE ("The High End") show in Las Vegas in early January. Audience had some of their much more expensive speakers there, but to my surprise were playing the 2+2s in a small to medium sized hotel room. To my wife and I, the Audience room with the 2+2s playing was one of the most "magical" sounding rooms (along with the Reference 3A room and the super-expensive Kondo room, which brought my totally non-audiophile wife to tears), with a very natural and "clean" sound. Even though I had been extremely impressed with the 2+2s, I never "got around" to trying them until late August for some reason. In the meantime, I listened to a number of monitors at dealer showrooms (Harbeth 7s, Dynaudios (not their top of the line, though), Wilson Duettes, Sonus Faber Liutos (local dealer didn't have Guarneris or Cremonas), B&W 805s w/the new diamond tweeters, JM Labs, and Wilson Benesch Arcs). Except for the Wilson Duettes, which I couldn't afford new, none of the speakers had completely blown me off my feet, but I planned to audition the more expensive Dynaudios (Confidence C1 and Contours) at a dealer in LA and also to audition the Arcs and Harbeths in my home. I was also interested in the Merlins and Reference 3A decapo i's, but couldn't find any local dealers to audition them.

In early July, I saw a pair of "nearly new" NOLA Boxers for sale on audiogon for a good price and decided to buy them sight unseen and unheard. They sounded pretty good and worked decently well in my small room. They were remarkably impressive for their retail price of $1500/pair. Thus, the speaker search slowed down for a couple of months. But being an incurable audiophile, the itch ensued and I knew that there was something better out there, especially since my budget was considerably higher than the NOLA's price point. I saw a new audience ad in one of the audiophile publications in June or July that featured a picture of the new 2+2s. I decided to call audience and they offered to let me borrow a pair for audition in my home in mid or late August.

The new pair of 2+2s that Audience loaned me was just built the previous day, and were finished in a very nice teak veneer. Build quality was very good, my only complaint being that the teak veneer did not extend to the bottoms of the speakers, which were finished in a matte black. Not a big deal, since the bottoms won't be seen after I put them on stands. I was happy to see that the physical size of the speakers was very good for my small room and that they fit perfectly on my Skylan 2 post stands.

The 2+2s were very impressive right out of the box. They are a big improvement over the NOLAs. This is to be expected since they cost more than 3x the NOLAs; however, I've come to learn that these kinds of "leaps" in sound quality can't always be expected, even when jumping multiples in price. I never realized that I was getting some midband coloration from the NOLAs and the Quads (this coloration did not exist with the Quads in the larger room, but was there in the smaller room), but the 2+2s immediately showed me the shortcomings of the other speakers. The 2+2s were extremely quick, detailed, transparent, and coherent throughout the frequency range (of course, they don't reach down to the lowest registers, being a small monitor speaker). I suspect that the small size of the drivers and the lack of a crossover contribute greatly to these qualities. The detail does not come at the expense of musicality and is not accompanied by a brightness or glare that can make some speakers sound good at first listen but fatiguing in the long run. The bass did not reach down to the lowest frequencies, but was more than satisfying in my small room. Although I wasn't hearing the lowest frequencies, the detail and quickness of the bass, especially with upright bass, was awesome and reminded me of the Quads. The lack of a crossover in the 2+2s allowed them to be very coherent. Voices and instruments across the frequency ranges came across as a whole and instruments in the highest registers (cymbals especially) did not seem to be "detached" from the rest of the music, as I've heard with some other loudspeakers. The 2+2s also threw an impressive soundstage, with location of performers exhibiting very good placement in the soundstage with layers of depth and a very natural air around them. I found the 2+2s to be very sensitive to placement and have to admit that I haven't done too much experimentation yet (probably since I've been too busy enjoying the system to fiddle too much). When I first set up the 2+2s using the same placement as the NOLAs, I found the location of performers to be tilted to the right of the soundstage. Upon examination, I saw that the tape markings that I made on the floor for my NOLA Boxers were a little off; the placement of the right speaker was about 3/4 of an inch closer to the listening position than that of the left speaker. I couldn't tell this difference from the NOLAs, but the 2+2s let me know right away.

Anyways, sorry for such a long post, but I'm very enthusiastic about the 2+2s. I've definitely found the right speakers for me in my small room. To me, they exhibit the best qualities of my Quad ESLs and dynamic speakers. They exhibit the quickness, transparency and midrange magic of the Quads with the dynamics of a conventional loudspeaker.

Product Weakness:	May not be suitable for larger rooms
Product Strengths:	Quickness, transparency, coherency, soundstaging

Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: Berning ZH-270
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Tom Evans Vibe
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Origin Live turntable and tonearm
Speakers: Audience ClairAudient 2+2
Cables/Interconnects: Silversmith
Music Used (Genre/Selections): various
Room Size (LxWxH): 10 x 11 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments: Real Traps, EchoBusters, ASC Tube Traps, Skylines diffusors
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Walker Audio Velocitor power conditioner
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner

Amplifier:	Berning ZH-270
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Tom Evans Vibe
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Origin Live turntable and tonearm
Speakers:	Audience ClairAudient 2+2
Cables/Interconnects:	Silversmith
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	various
Room Size (LxWxH):	10 x 11 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments:	Real Traps, EchoBusters, ASC Tube Traps, Skylines diffusors
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Walker Audio Velocitor power conditioner
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner