UHF No 70 (Net).indd - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

Equation 25 MkII
S
mall speakers are often better
than big speakers, but what
you should know about this
tall loudspeaker from the Belgian
company Equation is that this is
its small speaker. Actually, there is a
slightly smaller one (the model 7) but
even it’s tall. Want a mini-monitor? See
somebody else.
However the imposing cabinet can’t
hide the fact that it is not one of those
huge speakers that could fi ll a meeting
hall. It is a two-way speaker, with
an 18 cm woofer cone, not enough to
give you bragging rights in the locker
room. The cone’s grey color suggests
polyethylene, though in fact it is an alloy
of magnesium and titanium. The highs
are provided by a German-made ceramic
A contender for one
of our reference
systems, and you
know what? It nearly
made it.
tweeter. The series crossover requires
only a single pair of binding posts, which
are from WBT.
If the components suggest luxury,
so does the cabinetry. No lightweight
stuff here. Each speaker weighs close to
50 kg, though it is considerably lighter
once you remove the grille unit (the
speakers is designed to sound best with
it in place, however). The remarkable
fi nish on ours was what is described as
“pinched maple,” whose distinctive dots
are the result of an insect parasite.
The Equations arrived at a propitious
time: we were searching for a speaker
to replace our long-time Alpha reference,
the 3a MS5. The sheer size of the
speakers gave us pause, but even a casual
listen revealed that there was magic
coming from those big boxes. We knew
what we wanted from our new reference
speakers, and we knew we were hearing
it. Perhaps…
But a lot of listening was needed
before we could arrive at what would
have to be an anonymous decision.
We had been warned that the ceramic
tweeter would require a lot of breakin
time. We interpreted that to mean some
200 hours, and then we proceeded to our
fi rst listening session.
We started with the LP version of
Façade, William Walton’s remarkable
tone poem, which has so many solo
instruments that it could serve as a test
all by itself. We listened eagerly for the
piccolo in the opening tableau, since it
sounds shrill on all but a very few speakers,
and it is very shrill on our reference.
Alas, it was sharper than it should be
on the Equations too, with the soloist
seeming to take fi ve giant steps toward
us as he moved up the scale.
But there was good news to report
as well. After its solo trills, the piccolo
continues to play behind the clarinet,
where it is completely hidden on nearly
all speakers. Not on the Equations.
“There’s more of the piccolo," said
Reine, “There’s more of the bassoon
too.”
Indeed, nearly all of the instruments
were admirably rendered, but it was the
interplay of them all that was especially
thrilling. This highly accessible but
modern musical suite is full of surprising
dissonances, complex counterpoints and
ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 39
Listening Room