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REVIEW: Soundline Audio SL-2 Speakers Review by David Spear at Audio Asylum

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Background

I have been a fan of planar speakers for many years — Maggies since the late 70's and, more recently, Eminent Technology planar-magnetic hybrids. Although I was extremely happy with the ET's, I decided to order a pair of SL2 ribbon (actually, quasi-ribbon) hybrids after visiting Soundline Audio's website (www.soundlineaudio.com) and exchanging several pleasant e-mails with Greg Godfrey and Robert Jantz, the co-owners of Soundline Audio. I should mention that Soundline Audio only sells direct to the customer via the Internet. There is no dealer network. The speakers carry a 5-year warranty covering all parts and labor.

Several factors led to my decision to buy a pair of SL2's without ever auditioning them or even reading a published review (foolhardy, I know!): 1) they use a single ribbon driver to cover the entire frequency range from 250 Hz up, thus obviating the need for a crossover in the midrange; 2) they are reasonably efficient (88.5 dB at 1 meter, compared with 83 dB for my ET's), making it possible for me to play around with moderately powerful tube amps in the future; and 3) well, basically, they look cool.

In addition, since each pair of speakers is built to order, Greg and Bob were quite willing to make a number of modifications to the basic design of the SL2's to accommodate my personal preferences. Specifically, my speakers were built with the zebrawood trim option, Kimber silver/OFC Litz internal wiring (with double runs to the woofers and silver solder connections), dual sets of WBT binding posts for biwiring, and custom outrigger feet for additional stability. These modifications raised the price from $2595 to $3579.50, which I thought was quite reasonable.

It took about 5 weeks for my speakers to be built and shipped to me in Japan, not including a brief delay to sort out some confusion with American Express concerning payment.

Physical Description

Each speaker consists of a dipole ribbon panel measuring about 10" wide by 72" tall by 2" deep at the center. The 50" ribbon driver is located behind the upper two thirds of a full-length perforated black metal grille in the center of the panel flanked by two full-length profiled decorative wood trim pieces (zebrawood in my speakers). The metal grille is covered with black cloth. The back of the panel above the woofer cabinet is also nicely finished, with the trim pieces extending around the edges to the back. Between them is a curved perforated black metal grille (kind of like the front of a Martin Logan electrostatic speaker), also covered with black cloth. The perforated metal grilles protect the entire ribbon driver, front and back. The ribbon panel is quite heavy and very solidly constructed.

The ribbon panel is positioned in front of the woofer cabinet and bolted to the top and bottom with machine screws that mate with threaded metal inserts. The woofer cabinet is about 2 feet tall by 2 feet deep by 10" wide and is made of MDF with a tough stain- and scratch-resistant black finish. The 10.25" woofer is recessed into the front of the cabinet and angled inward toward the listener, with the sound emerging through the lower part of the perforated grille of the ribbon panel as well as two openings on the sides of the woofer cabinet, each of which is covered with a black-cloth-covered frame. The ribbon panel is electrically connected to two gold-plated binding posts near the front of the top surface of the woofer cabinet with gold-plated bananas. Speaker cables are connected to binding posts on the back of the woofer cabinet above a single 3"-diameter port. In my speakers, connection is made to two sets of gold-plated WBT binding posts for biwiring.

The speakers stand on attractive custom-designed black powder-coat aluminum outrigger feet that screw into the bottom of the woofer cabinet. These aluminum feet extend about 4" from either side of the woofer cabinet (at the front and back) and end in adjustable spikes. Since I live in Japan, I requested these outrigger feet to ensure stability during earthquakes. In fact, a few days after delivery, there was a reasonably strong quake here, but the speakers remained perfectly stable.

Appearance and Build Quality

To my eye, the assembled speakers are strikingly attractive. They are tall and slim, with a simple, elegant appearance. The front is just a long narrow black strip running vertically between two nicely finished wood pieces. The zebrawood panels are very pretty, with a pronounced grain pattern, but are not mirror-image pairs, as might be expected in more expensive speakers. As mentioned above, the ribbon panels are very sturdy, and the MDF woofer cabinet is also quite solidly built, although I did manage to partially remove two threaded inserts while installing the outrigger feet. (This was easily repaired by reinstalling the inserts with a metric Allen wrench.) I like the fact that the speakers are assembled using machine screws and matching threaded metal inserts, rather than wood screws and pilot holes.

Assembly was quite straightforward, taking about an hour, but should definitely be considered a two-person job.

Setup

I placed the speakers in the locations that sounded best with my ET's (which were positioned using the Cardas method), with each speaker slightly toed in. My room measures about 12 by 17 feet, so the speakers ended up about 6 feet apart, 4-5 feet from the front wall, and about 3 feet from the side walls. I should also mention that I use a REL Strata III subwoofer, which is located in the right front corner of the listening room. Integrating the REL with the SL2's was a snap, taking about an hour or two. I used 1/3-octave warble tones for rough adjustment, followed by a variety of musical selections containing deep bass for final tweaking. FWIW, the REL ended up set to a cutoff frequency of 30 Hz. A detailed description of my listening room and associated equipment can be found in the "Inmate Systems" section of Audio Asylum.

Sound

Initially, the SL2's sounded rather strange, with a pronounced midrange suck-out. Basically, the midrange sounded constricted and quite dry, giving the speakers a cold, bloodless, tinny sound. However, I had been warned by several net friends that a break-in period of a couple of weeks is needed to allow the ribbons to loosen up, so I put a copy of Frank Zappa's "Hot Rats" in the CDP, set the player to infinite repeat, cranked up the volume, and left the room for half a day. When I returned, the speakers sounded much better, with a significantly warmer and richer tone. I figured that they had broken in sufficiently for some serious listening, although I should mention that they continued to sound warmer and, for want of a better word, "wetter" over the first 20-30 hours of use.

The first things that struck me about the sound of the SL2's were their speed, transparency, dynamics, and imaging, all of which were quite impressive. Each aspect of their sonic performance is described separately below.

Spectral balance (after initial break in) is quite natural from about 40 Hz up. The treble is extended and airy, with a feeling of unlimited extension, but with no hardness, harshness, or ringing. The midrange is very clean and detailed, tending more toward a lean or refined sound than a lush or forward sound, with remarkable clarity and realism, particularly on vocals and strings (both plucked and bowed). The bass is fast and well controlled, with no boom or muddiness, but is not particularly prominent or extended. This may have been an intentional design choice to ensure seamless integration with the ribbon driver, which (to my ear) has been fully achieved. Since I use a subwoofer to cover the lowest half octave or so, the lack of deep bass from the SL2's is not a major concern to me.

The most impressive characteristics of the SL2's are related to imaging and soundstaging. With my ET's, images of individual voices and instruments tended to be about the size of beach balls suspended in the soundstage, but with the SL2's, focus is substantially improved, with images shrinking to the size of bowling balls. The most amazing thing to me is not the improvement in lateral imaging, but the improvement in the depth dimension, leading to a much more realistic sense of front-to-back layering. Voices seem to come from an area not only a wide as a human head, but as deep as a human head, allowing individual singers in unison vocal arrangements to be precisely localized and clearly identified.

On a related note, another revelation for me was the rock-solid stability of images in the soundstage. During fade-ins and fade-outs, images do not appear to move forward and back (or from side to side) in the soundstage, but to simply become louder and softer at the same precise point in three-dimensional space. Frankly, I had never heard this before, and had always thought that such forward/backward movement with changes in volume was an unavoidable artifact of the recording process. Similarly, the positions of delicate sounds (such as lightly struck triangles) do not shift as other parts of the music become softer or louder.

The soundstage is both wide and deep, extending about 6 feet to the outsides of the speakers and from about 1 foot in front of the plane of the speakers to about 20 feet beyond the front wall of my listening room. The soundstage is commendably rectangular, with no sense of narrowing toward the front or back. Although I realize this is probably nothing more that a euphonious artifact, the vertical soundstage is also impressive, with cymbals seeming to shimmer in the air over the music and bass notes seeming to come from a subterranean cavern under the floor.

The SL2's give an impression of unrestrained dynamics. There is absolutely no sense of strain or hardening as the volume is increased, or of muffling or deadening as the volume is reduced. Loud passages sound a bit louder than before and soft passages sound a bit softer. As is the case for imaging, the loudness of various instruments also remains stable, and does not shift as the overall volume of the music waxes and wanes. To use the example of a lightly struck triangle again, the delicate sound of this instrument does not change in position, volume, or character as louder instruments enter and leave the mix.

I'm afraid that the above descriptions may give the impression that the SL2's are excessively analytical, hyper-detailed, or fatiguing, but this is not the case at all. The high resolution and speed of these speakers definitely do not result in an in-your-face sonic assault. Somehow, the amazing detail and transparency of these speakers seems completely natural, unforced, and realistic, sort of like the sound of silver interconnects and speaker wires. In summary, all aspects of the performance of the SL2's serve to add to the musical experience, rather than calling attention to themselves and screaming "THIS IS HI FI!"

Conclusion

As is clear from this review, I am extremely happy with my SL2's. They both look and sound wonderful. In addition, dealing with Greg and Bob at Soundline Audio has been a pleasure. I must admit that I purchased these speakers with some trepidation, particularly given that I was quite satisfied with my ET's and was not able to audition the SL2's before placing my order, but my worries proved to be groundless. The Soundline SL2's have exceeded my high expectations, and I couldn't be more pleased with them.


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Topic - REVIEW: Soundline Audio SL-2 Speakers Review by David Spear at Audio Asylum - David Spear 07:50:09 05/20/00 ( 3)