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

Listening Room
choral recording, Now the Green Blade
Riseth (Proprius PRCD9093), but we
need not have been. The fl ute in the
opening passage was somewhat shriller
than with our reference speakers, but the
female and male voices were a revelation.
We have heard this fi ne recording turn
to annoying mush with some surprisingly
expensive systems (“I’m going to
start taking it with me to shows,” said
Gerard), probably because so many
speakers and amplifi ers can’t handle its
quick dynamic peaks. Once again, the
Curves showed that powerful signals
are no challenge at all. We had little
diffi culty distinguishing the individual
voices, always a good sign. Only the fi nal
crescendo was…well, hard. It often is, to
be fair.
Back to the turntable for The Secret of
the Andes, whose dazzling succession of
exotic percussion instruments is a tough
test of the rigidity of a speaker enclosure.
Would the Curves pass the test?
Well of course they would, but we
were pleasantly surprised to note that
their competence extended to far more
than just the percussion. Everything at
the very bottom end, including the left
hand piano chords, was superb, with
power, control and quickness. There
I’ll tell you what. Take the time to listen
to your music music through these speakers.
Carefully. Use most of your other components,
if at all possible. If your music improves
(compared to live, of course), and
you discover discover real tight bass, a wealth of additional
details and an impeccable rhythm,
then get them. You need them, them, your system
needs them.
Ours didn’t. didn’t. I noticed all the qualities
I mentioned above, but they brought along
other less desirable traits. “It’s a matter of
taste,” an audiophile audiophile once said to me, about
some some other speakers. I don’t think so. Check
what your system needs, not your taste.
—Albert Simon
I found some excellent qualities in these
elegant speakers. The image is good, the
lateral space generous, the depth excellent.
The bottom end is at once solid and ample.
48 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
was little sign of distortion. Individual
sounds were pure and gorgeous. “It was
worth listening this far,” commented
Reine.
We ended the session by returning to
our SACD player, and Eric Bibb’s Needed
Time (Opus 3 CD19411). We were happy
with what we heard. The high resolution
version of this recording is loaded with
fi ne details, and the Curves reproduced
them meticulously. The clarity made the
song’s text all but telepathic.
Of course, the recording didn’t
really sound the way it did with our
reference speakers. Bibb’s voice was a
little brighter, and a little thinner too,
Summing it up…
Brand/model: Wilson Benesch Curve
Price: C$11,000
Dimensions: 91 x 23 x 37 cm
Sensitivity: 88 dB
Impedance: 6 ohms, 4 ohms minimum
Most liked: Brilliant design, brilliant
results
Least liked: Perhaps a tad too brilliant
Verdict: A potential giant-killer, still
in training
Why UHF reviews are different
Let us count the ways.
CROSSTALK
1) UHF maintains high quality reference systems, chosen for their exceptional
transparency. They are used for all of the reviews, not some, but all.
The speakers have an exemplary clarity that
can no doubt be attributed to the carbon
fibre cabinet’s anti-resonant properties.
They can manage an exceptionally good
separation of timbres. They’ve got impact,
energy, flawless rhythm. Even in very fast
music filled with varied and plentiful instruments,
I heard no confusion. They can
do justice to complex counterpoints.
So, So, with with such a long list of qualities,
why am I still unsatisfied? How can they let
through such searing highs? The spectral
balance is imperiled, with a lower midrange
that seems seems nearly absent. It’s really too
bad, and I’m convinced the designer could
fix this. That would be enough to tip the
Curves from their nearly perfect score to
outright perfection.
—Reine Lessard
2) UHF uses three reviewers, not just one. You get more than one point of view.
3) Each review includes a section in which the three reviewers can provide their
own point of view. Do we disagree? Not often, but there is no pressure to conform,
and an occasional disagreement can shed new light on what we’ve heard.
4) UHF makes a signifi cant amount of its revenue by recommending and offering
recordings and accessories through The Audiophile Store. That means
we can say no to an advertiser who theatens us. This hardly ever happens…any
more.
I’m perplexed by these speakers. I lis-
despite the quick and deep bottom end.
The bottleneck guitar sounded changed,
as well, but there was nothing going on
that escaped our ears!
Then it was off to the lab. We wondered
whether the frequency response
curve, measured in our Alpha room,
would show an imbalance. It didn’t,
though curiously Wilson Benesch’s
own graph (the blue one below ours)
does show lower midrange rather below
the top end. On the other hand, we did
confirm that the speaker can handle
lows with little effort. The photo at left
on page 46, shows a 40 Hz tone at our
reference level!
Then again, the second photo on the
same page shows a 220 Hz tone. The
roughness, which was intermittent, is
probably caused by a problem with an
internal connection.
The square wave (the third photo) is
not bad, though the phase doesn’t look
quite spot on.
Wilson Benesch has gone to a good
deal of trouble and expense to slay the
age-old dragon of cabinet resonance. It
has been successful, too, and we were
left with the feeling that a little more
tweaking would have brought up some
real magic.
tened to them casually during their breakin
period, and I heard what seemed like
good reason to look forward to the review.
And that’s despite the fact that we don’t use
our best source to do equipment run-ins.
There was such a sweetness to the music,
and such control of the bottom end. This
was going to be great!
But in the end I wasn’t satisfied. Yes,
the carbon fibre cabinets are wonderful,
producing a sound that is tightly controlled
without going all the way over to constipated,
as with some other other speakers I could
name. The detail is superb. Only I always
had the feeling the speakers were never
quite quite placed right, or that they weren’t suited
to the room.
We tried. Perhaps they’ll deliver their
exciting promise in your room. We couldn’t
get what we wanted in either of ours.
—Gerard Rejskind
So our reviews are highly useful to audiophiles. And they are useful to manufacturers
and distributors as well, because audiophiles believe what we say.