Tommesani.com Audio

These speakers are gorgeous! Their design may not be everyone's cup of tea, but the finish is outstanding, the real wood veneers state very clearly that this is not a typical cheap MDF box. They also play very well, painting an outstanding soundstage (a fair dose of toe-in will prove very effective). They are a bit open in the higher spectrum, so it's better to pair them with neutral / soft sounding gear (NAD amps are usually fine, tubes make it even better!). Bass performance is somewhat disappointing when you first hear them, as typical bookshelf speakers have a slightly enforced mid-bass to mask the lack of deep bass; not here, there is no bump in mid-bass, the frequency response is flat down to about 65 Hz, then starts falling quickly, the result is a quick and well-defined bass performance that can be easily augmented in the lower octaves with a properly tuned subwoofer.

These speakers in stock condition perform so well you may be tempted to keep them as they are. But you'd miss the last 10% of performance that can easily be achieved, so if you want it all, here's some suggestions:

1) remove the woofer from the case, and solder the silver cable straight into the speaker terminals, avoiding those horrible fast-ons connectors. Be quick, or you will damage the cones! Now you can dampen the plastic basket of the woofer using small strips of damping compound.

2) now place some large strips on damping compound on the inside of the case: this tweak will further reduce the resonance of the Thai drums, as you can easily discover knocking on them. Will this one close the performance gap with Synthetic Marble speakers? Probably not, but we're getting closer!

3) choose some heavy, sturdy speaker stands (TNT-Audio's Akropolis are just perfect, if you can stand their style...) and tightly bind the speaker case to the top plate using adhesive hooks (you can find them in most DIY shops, choose an arrow-pointed model so that it can be firmly stuck into the plastic feet of the speakers). There's a side benefit to this tweak: speakers won't fall down to the floor as easily as before when someone accidentally hurts them (actually that's the reason I started thinking about this!). But the audiophile benefits are clear: by choosing arrow-headed hooks that can firmly keep the speaker in place without any vibration, the case is bound to a much heavier mass, the speaker stand, that greatly reduces resonances. When playing loud, the nOrhs won't get mudded on bass lines, and the soundstage will become firmer. And, I almost forgot, never listen with the grill clothes on!