Reprinted from Listener Hi-Fi and Music Review, September/October 2000

---

House Speakers

How to buy true happiness for $500-$700.
Tag-team survey by Bruce Kennett and Steve Lefkowicz

These speakers surprised me on rock music. I initially didn't think they had the oomph to rock out, and in some cases they didn't (check Under the Big Black Sun by X), getting a wee bit confused and running out of energy.

But on other cuts, like The Waitresses' "Pussy Strut" (from their Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful LP), they carried the tune and the excitement remarkably well, while maintaining a gorgeous presentation of Patty Donahue's voice. I don't mean to keep carrying on about these Rascals' ability with vocals, but they beat every other speaker in this group except the Reynauds, in this regard.

Most of the time I thought of these little wonders as "refined." To at least some extent, this was unexpected, since the Alóns' cabinets have a cheap, hollow sound when you do the knuckle-rap test - and not the well-damped thwack you expect from "high-end" speakers. Could it be that the knuckle-rap test signifies what the speaker sounds like when rapped with knuckles, and nothing else? [Yup! -ed.] At times, however - and again, generally on big, complex music - they could lose a bit of that refinement, in which case they simply tended toward the "exciting" side of things. But never were they tiring or fatiguing to listen too. The Rascals, along with just a couple of others here, came close to the all-day-listening-session beauty of the Reynaud.

The Rascals struck me as a bit power-hungry. Although rated at 88db sensitivity with a nominal 8-ohm impedance, I had to turn up the gain on my PS preamp quite a bit farther than with other speakers. And my old 40-watt Kenwood amp (with its weak-ass mid-70s power supply) simply pooped out on these, unable to make any worthwhile music come out. (The 105-watt B&K had no problems.)

I think Bruce and I may disagree on these a little. Anyone who lives with Spendor BC-1s may want a little more romance in their music than these Rascals can supply. These may be exciting and seductive, but romantic they are not! While they weren't as overall satisfying as the Reynauds, in my system, at least, the Rascals were pretty darn musical. And being the least expensive speakers in the group made them all the more appealing.

Bruce: The Rascals are well constructed and finished, although the felt ring surrounding one of the tweeters kept peeling away and needing to be coaxed back into place. I liked that the woofer was secured to the baffle by six fasteners instead of the more typical four. I spent most of the time listening to them firing straight ahead rather than toed in, per the manufacturer's suggestions.

The Rascals (sorry: I just can't do "L'il") put forth a big sound, and they were plenty satisfying on most musical material in a normal-sized room. They were very good at quick stuff (so were the Krixes, by the way), and seemed to thrive on saucy, hard-driving material. Music had more mass and weight with these speakers than with some of the others, yet alongside this strong foundation, there were times when all the elements might not have been presented with the greatest of aplomb and clarity. In large-scale works (Holst, Mahler, Bruckner, Martino) there was plenty of sound pressure, but with double basses playing clearly enough in the foreground, I wouldn't be able to hear familiar kettle drums off in the background. The Rascals seemed to excel at playing back the leading edge of notes at the expense of some follow-on - for example, great at portraying the initial impact of a drum head strike, not so good at all the decay that comes after. So I'd characterize them as having an ample but not superb definition when the going gets complicated. In simpler settings, like Danny Thompson's bass in trio settings, or Elis Regina's records, they were the bee's knees.

From this thick (not slow!) and rich foundation, the Rascals presented everything on the recording right on up the spectrum. I was always drawn into the music, though not to quite the same degree as I was by the Reynauds and Krixes. Music took on a very explicit charac ter, sometimes was even a bit hard-sounding, and I came to feel that the Rascals would be better tools in a mastering studio than late night companions in the home. Sometimes I associated them with the feeling you get when you've had too much coffee: just a bit jangled and on-edge, not mellow and relaxed. My best times with the Alóns were listen ing to music such as the 1960 Zurich performance of Mulligan's Concert Hall jazz Band that Artie just sent me (on TCB, the Montreux jazz Label). Gerry's band is big and brash and quick-moving; the Alóns can really swing -and they carry off this high-energy stuff in confidant, swaggering style. I enjoyed Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and Otis Spann through the Alóns, as well.

These speakers showed me a good time and I would recommend them for an audition. They earned a lot of respect from me just not my lasting affection.