Reprinted from Listener Hi-Fi and Music Review, Spring 1999
Lotus Song
Review by Art Dudley
An answer to the musical question,
"What speakers can I use with
my little amps?"
An answer to the musical question,
"What speakers can I use with
my little amps?"
True story: My friend Will called the other day and asked for advice
on buying a new amp and speakers. His shopping experiences up to that
point had not been good: "All these guys are trying to push home
theater and surround sound," he says, "but I don't want that. I don't
want to combine my TV and my stereo. I don't want more than two
speakers. And I don't want a subwoofer. I just want to upgrade my
downstairs music system, because I think I've progressed to where I
can appreciate something better."
Okay, so here's an enlightened consumer (Will's a high school teacher) with no particular axe to grind (he's not an audiophile) who wants to spend some money on his hi-fi-but who has no interest in caving in to marketing trends (in addition to having no TV in his stereo, you'll find no SUV in his garage and no bottled water in his fridge) and is generally not a materialistic, toyhound sort of guy.
A few more pertinent details: Will is married and has three kids. He owns his own house. He and his wife are both in their 40s, both work and both enjoy spending time at home and traveling, in more or less equal measure. Will plays golf in his spare time, reads a lot and knows something about wine, too.
So what am I describing here-some kind of misfit? Consumerism's version of JoJo the Dogfaced Boy, condemned forever to the sideshow of lawn sales and secondhand shops? (Down, boy!)
Of course not. Every one of you either knows someone like this or IS someone like this: people who like music and want to have a few nice things in their lives, but who are generally too smart to show up on the marketing weasels' radar.
Now, here's a list of all the things that most people in the American "high-end" audio industry are doing to attract people like my friend Will:
What's interesting is this: At about the same time Will was driving out of town in his search for a real hi-fi store, one of America's few real hi-fi manufacturers was on his way to visit Listener from his workshop on Long Island.
Carl Marchisotto first gained attention as a designer for the famed Dahlquist line of loudspeakers, back in the early 80s. (And what hi-fi enthusiast of my generation didn't lust for a pair of those?) Since then, he's teamed up with his wife, Marilyn, to launch a company called Acarian Systems, Ltd. and their line of Alón loudspeakers.
People familiar with Carl's earlier work won't be startled by the principles behind his new Alón designs. First of all, he strives to make speakers that naturally- without electronic trickery- produce a facsimile of the music's original complex waveform, with all its components having the proper time and phase relationships with one another. (With today's high quality drives, virtually anyone can make a speaker with flat frequency response, but doing so doesn't mean that their speaker puts out a truthful replica of the music that's put in- a point lost on many in the "Mister Hirsch, may I hold your sliderule for you?' set.) So in most Alón loudspeakers, you'll find such things as carefully shaped baffles, physically stepped drivers, and crossover networks designed to keep all the drivers reading from the same page, as it were.
Of course, none of those ideas seem unique anymore (forget that Carl was one of the first people to recognize and implement them). Happily, those aren't the only bunnies in the Alón hutch- a fact underscored by the introduction of the Alón Lotus SE. The SE stands for single-ended, and to fans of modern low-power, high-musicality amplifiers, those two letters speak volumes. Here is a loudspeaker designed to make believable music with only a few watts of power.
A spin through the Alón spec sheet tells you that none of their designs lack for efficiency, and none have the savage impedance dips seen in less professional efforts. But with the Lotus SE, triode enthusiast Carl decided to take things further. And in doing so, he created two things: a true full-range loudspeaker with a highish impedance curve and electrical sensitivity of 90 dB, and a stunning answer to the question on every triode newbie's lips- what speakers can I use with these things?
The details: Alón's Lotus SE is built around three drivers. Frequencies below 400 Hz are handled by an 8-inch woofer, made in the US to Alón's specifications. At the other end, frequencies above 3500 Hz are reproduced by a 1-inch aluminum dome tweeter made for Alón in Europe.
But I've saved the best for last: The frequencies between those extremes- the three-plus octaves of greatest importance-are handled by a 5.25-inch custom midrange driver with a cast alloy frame and an Alnico magnet. That latter feature will set some hearts aflutter: For whatever reason, Alnico has been at the core of the finest dynamic drivers ever made. Proponents say Alnico has properties beyond all power of words and Gauss meter to gauge-- and I have neither the wits nor the inclination to disagree.
The woofer operates in a sealed enclosure, while the midrange and high frequency drivers are mounted on a machined piece of MDF that resembles the tip of a very fancy ironing board- so there's an infinite baffle for the lowest frequencies and an open baffle (true dipole) for everything else. The whole shebang is covered with a fabric "sock" and topped with a decorative slice of black acrylic. The crossover is external, housed in a toaster-sized box of matching acrylic, and provisions are made for tri-wiring. (Everything's spiked, too - loudspeaker enclosures and crossovers alike.)
Set-up requirements? Since I was lucky enough to have the designer install my review pair, I was spared the trial-and-error bit (with me, it's more error than trial), although in hindsight I can say that the Alóns are not at all finicky. Unsurprisingly, they want to be well away from the back and side walls, more so from the former than the latter. Unsurprisingly, having them fire down the length of the room, with their front edges about a third of the way in, worked best. (In other words: In an 11 by 15-foot room, start with the fronts of the speakers about 5 feet away from the short wall behind them.) Somewhat surprising- for my room, at least- was the fact that they work best aimed straight ahead, and not toed-in.
During their time in my house, I tried the Alóns with a few different amplifiers: Carl's own Cary 300B monoblocks, as well as my own modified Audio Note Kit One (also 300Bs), an Audio Note P2SE, and a loaner pair of Fi2A3 monoblocks. Thus, power-per-channel ranged from about 3 watts for the Fi up to 17 watts for P2SE. Speaker cable was a tri-wire set of Alón's own Black Orpheus (wanna guess what color it is?), though I tried tri-wire sets of Nordost Flatline Gold and Alpha-Core Goetz Silver, too. Except for the addition of a visiting Lin Sondek CD 12, the rest of the system was my well-loved usual: Linn Sondek LP 12 record player with Naim Aro arm, Lyra Lydian cartridge, and Naim Armageddon power supply; Naim CD3 CD player; and Fi preamplifier, with homemade solid-core silver interconnects. Everything is on Mana stands and seems to benefit from them greatly. Now before I describe how the Lotus SEs performed, let me say that from the very first notes they played in my room, these speakers were both listenable and convincing. One of the first discs Carl and I tried was the Ofra Harnoy recording of Bruch's Kol Nidrei-- a performance I find mildly engaging but which is otherwise lacking in emotional depth. (There's not a lot of marrow in those bones- and what's there is hard to get at.) I won't suggest that the Alóns transformed Harnoy into Jacqueline Du Pre, but they did give the most involving performance I've heard from this disc. The Alóns are nothing if not smooth, and their spatial presentation is more distant than upfront- yet they didn't smooth over the cracks in the music's texture or blunt the visceral/emotional impact of the notes.
Contrast this with something like the $12,000 Wilson Audio WITTS, which sound bigger, brighter, deeper, more detailed, more open, and more spacious- and which put me to sleep. Go figure.
Over the months since Carl and Marilyn left them with me, the essential strengths of the Lotus SEs never paled. On the Go-Betweens' "Drive for Your Memory," they were, again, very involving. I had tears welling up in my eyes the first time I played this on them. (I know: What a sissy!) This whole album (16 Lovers Lane) is a little light sounding and has a plastic-y edge to it but the good bass depth and richness and general overall smoothness of the Alóns helped make the music more listenable than usual.
The Fairport Convention album Angel Delight is altogether better sounding material-- not so bright as the aforementioned Go-Betweens record- and here you can tell that the Alóns' smoothness is no mere dulling effect. The sound was pleasantly detailed. In fact it was here that I really noticed the Alóns' knack for separating out different sonic elements within a recording. Instruments are moved apart from one another spatially and in terms of sheer definition. Musically, though, the notes and beats continue to hang together. On the song "Wizard of the Worldly Game," it was now easy to hear the distinct separate sounds: piano, organ, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, electric bass, and drum kit-plus a lead vocal and at least three voices in the background.
But it was no mere audiofool experience: This sweet odd little song remained moving and interesting. It's one of Fairport's least typical numbers, and the Alóns, though listenable, did not smooth over its eccentricities. And it sure was nice to have their solid, low-40s bass foundation here.
On Ives' The Unanswered Question, the Alóns do a good job getting across the contrast between calm (the long, singing line of the off-mike strings) and persistence (the brass and winds). And don't laugh: lots of systems (loudspeakers in particular, it seems) make a mess of this music, and by missing the rhythmic essence of both elements, make a mess of Ives' intended contrast. The flutes on this bad-era Columbia LP can rip your ears off with some loudspeakers- certain other metal tweeters, in particular- but with the Alóns they were tolerable, if not quite as silky on the Quad ESLs.
I tried the new Speakers Corner LP reissue of Van Karajan doing the Strauss Ein Heldenleben- and here again was the Alóns' brilliant separating act, put to very good use. This music also shows off all of the Alóns' good sense of scale, a simple and seemingly effortless ability to sound really big when they have to. I missed the greater presence and drama of the Lowthers here- which of course also produce the kind of scale this piece cries out for- but the Alóns' unfussy demeanor, that unique combination of smoothness and ability to dig into the essence of the music, continued to impress me.
So far the Alón pages of my listening notebook seemed like one big Valentine; all I had to do was go back and dot all the i's with little hearts. Then I tried R.E.M.'s Document album- and believe it or not, it was then that the Lotus SEs really came into their own. They're even better than my big Spendor SP100s at separating all the elements from within this big, messy melange of sound and delivering coherent meaning. It still sounds big, and appropriately busy/clangy, but it's less noisy on the Alóns, and it makes more sense.
And even though I had originally intended to move sideways in my record collection toward something else ("Finest Worksong" and its "another chance" refrain made me think of The Replacements' "... another chance to get it wrong," so I was going to put on Pleased to Meet Me), the Alóns are so engaging and so musically unconfused that I stayed with that album all the way through. By the end, Document had gone from being one of my least favorite R.E.M. albums to one of my favorites (although I still think "Disturbance at the Heron House" is stupid).
Sonically, the Alón Lotus SEs are well balanced, with a proportion of deep bass to top-end extension that sounds right to me. They have plenty of Linn-like drive in the midbass, which in my experience is unusual for a speaker that's designed to be placed so far away from room boundaries. But I think that's a good thing, and it's arguably one of the sonic qualities that give the Alóns their combination of punchy, rhythmic drive with bear-around stereo imaging.
That soundstage, incidentally, is wildly deep, all the way from extreme left to extreme right; even someone who doesn't really care about spatial effects can't help but be impressed. As I think I mentioned above, the Alóns' is a more distant presentation than the Lowthers' (no surprise there) or even the Spendors' or the ESLs' (that last one only by the slightest of margins).
The Alóns have good scale (about equal to the Spendors), though, as noted above, not as much drama as the Lowthers. They have a good sense of timbral color- although (and this really surprises me) sounds occurring between the speakers on stereo records are more colorful than those right at the speakers. Try "Blue" from the Jayhawks' Tomorrow the Green Grass to see what I mean: The acoustic guitars that open the song sound good but distant and a little grey; the center-stage voices are distant too- but much more colorful. Again, go friggin' figure.
At the end of the day, the Alón Lotus SEs stand out as a compelling choice for the single-ended enthusiast. Within that admittedly small-ish field, they're worthy alternatives to Listener's long-time favorites, the Spendor SP100s. In their favor, the Lotuses do a better job getting out of the way of spatial information. Their Quadlike way with the stereo image (voices and instruments come from well behind the speakers, and are both widely spread and uncannily well-focused) is bound to please triode newbies who wish to abandon the mechanical, uninvolving sound of most "high-end" systems but not their soundstaging capabilities. For their part I think the SP100s portray the tactile and timbral qualities of acoustic instruments (it might be all instruments, but I really only hear it on things like cellos and mandolins) marginally more realistically. Wood instruments sound woodier (sorry) on the Spenders.
Incidentally, neither can match the Lowthers when it comes to dynamics, clarity, or giving up that last little drop of emotional and physical involvement. The Lowthers are winners and still champ-eens in the efficiency stakes, too, and so are friendlier to the lowest of low-power amps. (For the record: A 2A3 amp will drive the Alóns to satisfying levels in a small room on some material, but the minute you give them something like Das Rheingold, you'll reach for a 300B instead.) Then again, both the Alón and the Spender are geared more toward the average consumer: They don't have that nth degree of psychedelic presence that the Lowthers do, but they don't ask their owners to give up much of anything else, be it bass extension, flexibility, good looks, reliability, and general lack of goofiness. The Alón and Spender are all-rounders- brilliant all-rounders at that.
Carl Marchisotto has hit one out of the park with the Lotus SE. This is real hi-fi, and something I could both enjoy owning myself and recommend happily to anyone who asks.
So what about our friend Will?
To the serious hi-fi enthusiast $3500 is not an exorbitant sum. If you picture the Alóns as part of an $8000 or $9000 system, you're still talking about less money than a new car, and not that much more than it costs to go on a lavish cruise or remodel your kitchen.
Of course, most people aren't serious hi-fi enthusiasts. But I still think we have to work harder to remind those aging baby boomers how much they used to spend on speakers back in 1972 ($200-$300) and how much more everything else costs these days (7.5 times on average by my reckoning). Looked at that way, $3500 is far from highway robbery- $800 to $1000 is a bargain. (Not to get too off the subject here, but Alón's floorstanders start at just $1095 for the two-way, three-speaker Point V-and as Listeners readers know, there are even a few other real hi-fi speakers at that price point.)
What you should do is this: Bring your micropower amp to the nearest Alón dealer you can find and audition it with the Lotus SEs. You might really like them, and there you go: speaker dilemma solved. At the same time, bring a non-audiophile friend with you and tell him or her to check out the less expensive Alóns- and who knows, maybe the similarly priced Meadowlarks, Carvers, Symdexes, Soliloquies, Merlins, and a couple of others, as well. You'll get a new pair of speakers that make music better than what you have now; your friend will do the same, albeit on a smaller scale, and you will have stimulated the US hi-fi industry in specific and the economy in general, thus adding to the sum of human happiness.
Any questions?
Quality: 
Value: 