Fi Magazine, Jonathan Valin,  July 1998

Summary – Fi component in a nutshell
Pitch : Very good to Excellent
Timbre : Very good to Excellent
Dynamics : Excellent
Duration : Excellent
Imaging : Excellent to Outstanding
Soundstaging : Excellent to Outstanding
Clarity : Excellent to Outstanding
Value for dollar : Outstanding
Overall Rating : Excellent to Outstanding
Other Products to hear : M-L Aerius I (must be joking, 1.6 blow away SL-3’s !)

Recommended Components
Goldmund SRM Monoblocks, Atma-Sphere MA2 Mk II
Nagra PLP, AR Ref One line stage, CJ Premier 15
Nordost SPM IC and cable

Review

• Nostalgic ‘70’s intro
• wee bit of upper midrange brightness
• very top octaves a bit soft compared to Genesis or Maggie true ribbons
• low 30’ and upper 20’s absent but definition and authority that reproduce 3 Dimensional cellos and contrabasses
• not as detailed as 3.5, 20 R, Quads, Bella Voces Sigs, Gen 300’s
• Single driver sound, all frequencies cut from the same cloth, superior to Gen 300’s, AvantGarde Trios, Bella Voce Sigs
• 5 reasons for superiority, boxless, large dipole – natural image size, QR tweeter good blend with magnetic planar woofer, crossover at 600 Hz to give good midrange transient response, large transducer area produces instrument "action" – sense of air volume moved by instruments
• aural confusion between reproduced sounds and real live sounds from kitchen!
• front and back and side to side clarity is revealing on Adagio, Mahler’s IVth. 1.6’s do as well or better than anything he has tested for vast stage and complex orchestration of this piece.
• timbre very damm good, not as good as Bella Voce Sigs
• extreme top softness, upper mid energy, minor crossover suckout, mid upper bass authority combine to give a sweet, darker than life sound instead of dry, bright, up-front sound of magnet driven plastic.
• frequency response not ruler flat but unimportant compared to lightning transients, superb dynamic scaling, remarkable spaciousness, nearly world class inner detail, single driver coherence, sheer presenting power
• bass panel break in takes a couple of months
• need at least 100 watts at 8 ohms
• best sound you can buy for $ 1,500