LOUDSPEAKERS
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go to: Contents | Features | Bookshelf, Stand-Mount and Desktop | Floorstanding | Editors' Choice Awards<br />
Welcome to the 2013 edition of The Absolute Sound’s Editors’ Choice<br />
Awards, our annual Recommended Products list. On the following<br />
pages we present the gear that our editors and writers have selected<br />
as most worthy of your consideration. These are the components we<br />
ourselves would buy—or recommend to friends and family. Each product<br />
category is divided into price ranges, with components listed in order of<br />
ascending cost (though a few items, like cables and accessories, are listed<br />
alphabetically). Each recommendation is also accompanied by a capsule<br />
review, the original reviewer’s name or initials, and the issue the review<br />
appeared in. Note that in a few cases a product may have been reviewed<br />
in one of our sister publications, Playback or AVguide.com, or the review<br />
may be pending publication, or the product may not have been formally<br />
reviewed but earns a recommendation based on one or more writer’s<br />
extensive experience with it.<br />
Given that this is the high end, where components generally have long<br />
lifespans, some of our recommendations look back several years. At the<br />
same time, in an effort to be as selective and up-to-date as possible, we<br />
have dropped some components that appeared on last year’s list, usually<br />
because they have been discontinued but sometimes because fresh<br />
competition has caused us to reconsider the choice.<br />
<strong>LOUDSPEAKERS</strong><br />
Desktop Loudspeakers<br />
Paradigm Shift A2<br />
$279-$329<br />
paradigm.com<br />
A 2012 Golden Ear recipient, the<br />
Shift A2 is more than just a cleverly<br />
named loudspeaker. Compact,<br />
internally powered, and equipped<br />
with DSP bass management and<br />
enough back-panel inputs to<br />
connect to almost any source, this<br />
is what 21st century entry-level high<br />
end is all about. A combination<br />
of sound and value, it extends the<br />
welcome mat to budding highenders<br />
who may have felt they<br />
couldn’t afford the entrance fee.<br />
Neil Gader, Issue 224<br />
Focal XS Book<br />
$399<br />
audioplusservices.com<br />
While functioning best as nearfield<br />
monitors tethered to a good<br />
computer-audio system, the XS<br />
Book speakers also work beautifully<br />
as part of a small-room bookshelf<br />
system. For $399 these powered<br />
speakers offer a lot of sound,<br />
flexibility, and functionality. And<br />
though, in the end, they are a<br />
lifestyle rather than an audiophile<br />
product, it’s a lifestyle that most<br />
people won’t mind living. Steven<br />
Stone, 224<br />
B&W MM-1<br />
$499<br />
bwspeakers.com<br />
Small and attractive enough<br />
to place on a desktop without<br />
rearrangements, the MM-1 features<br />
B&W’s famed Nautilus tweeter<br />
technology, a pair of 3" “woofers,”<br />
and four miniature, Class D, 18-watt<br />
amplifiers. The sound is notably<br />
natural with vocals, well balanced,<br />
and surprisingly open. Although<br />
there is no deep bass, what’s there<br />
will satisfy most, without the<br />
need of a cumbersome add-on<br />
subwoofer. Wayne Garcia, 204<br />
Magnepan Mini-Maggie<br />
$1490–$2285<br />
magnepan.com<br />
The Mini-Maggie system is a threepiece,<br />
ribbon-tweeter-equipped,<br />
planar-magnetic, dipole speaker<br />
system intended primarily for<br />
desktop use. Featuring small<br />
tweeter/midrange panels that sit<br />
atop the desk and a two-channel<br />
mid/bass panel that sits in the<br />
footwell below, the Mini-Maggie<br />
package is arguably the finest<br />
desktop speaker made. In detail,<br />
resolution, purity, freedom from<br />
grain, soundstage width and<br />
depth, and, above all, coherence, it<br />
sounds like a pair of Magnepan’s<br />
exceptional 3.7s on a smaller scale.<br />
Chris Martens, 223<br />
Stand-Mount and<br />
Floorstanding Loudspeakers<br />
Under $500<br />
Pioneer SP BS-22<br />
$129<br />
pioneerelectronics.com<br />
Designed by Andrew Jones of<br />
TAD, this two-way makes few<br />
obvious sonic concessions to<br />
the budget market. Its puts just<br />
enough heft and weight behind<br />
vocal and instrumental images to<br />
provide reasonable dynamic scale<br />
and imparts a flavor of low bass<br />
without sounding stressed. One<br />
of the most enticing best buys out<br />
there. NG, 228<br />
PSB Alpha B1<br />
$300<br />
psbspeakers.com<br />
Yet another “how does he do<br />
it” loudspeaker from the prolific<br />
mind of Paul Barton. The new,<br />
more curvaceous Alpha combines<br />
mind-bending dynamics and rich<br />
mids in a speaker barely a foot tall.<br />
Even the midbass has power and<br />
pitch definition rare in this modest<br />
price range. Only the nebulous<br />
soundstaging is less than excellent.<br />
NG, 170<br />
102 Guide to High-Performance Loudspeakers www.theabsolutesound.com<br />
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