October 2001
FOLLOW-UP: Alón by Acarian Systems Circe Loudspeaker
Circe owners can upgrade their speakers for $2000/pair but Acarian Systems has decided to keep the Circe's retail ptice at $12,000/pair despite the higher production costs of the revised version. The upgrades are included in all Circes manufactured since June 2001.
I spent two consecutive weekends listening to the Circe, before and after the speakers were updated, using the same source material. The crossover upgrade was performed at Acarian Systems' factory during the intervening week, while the woofer and cabinet-coupler upgrades were performed in my listening room during the second weekend.
I noticed the bass improvement in the revised Circe immediately. Before the upgrade, the bass performance was fairly natural and extended to 25Hz, hut was a bit warm in the midbass region. The bass from the revised Circe was tighter cleaner and faster but with no loss of dynamic impact or extension. The electtic bass on "Walking on Sacred Ground," from Janis Tan's Breaking Silence (Analogue Productions CAPP 0227), sounded deeper and more dynamic, while the upper-bass articulations were tighter and clearer and the upper harmonics of the string bass were more audible. The rhythmic pacing of the bass was also more tuneful, and better aligned with the rest of the musical spectrum. The string bass on Miles Davis' "So What," from Kind of Blue (Columbia/Classic CS 8163, 45rpm), was also cleaner with more of the instrument's woody sound evident
The enhanced dynamic performance of the revised speaker was also fairly dramatic. The Circe seamlessly reproduced every nuance and gradation from ppp to fff and did so consistently across the frequency spectrum much as in live music. From the delicate and subtle articulations of the low-level percussion in John Cage's Third Construction (from Pulse, New World/Classic NW 319) to the bombastic crashes of piano, percussion, and brass in Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony (LSO/Previn EMI 5117), the speakers breathed with lifelike organic realism.
The Circe's noise floor seemed lower particularly in the midrange. On Janis Ian's "Some People's Lives," the subtle piano transients were more articulate, with more air but without giving up a trace of the piano's natural warmth.
Speaking of pianos, I was listening to George Ciumb's Makrokosmos III (Music for a Summer Evening), for two pianos and two percussionists (Nonesuch 71311-2), when my five-year-old son, Jordan, entered the listening room. He looked puzzled; when I questioned him, he said, "Oh, nothing. I thought I heard a piano playing in here." In the five years that I've subjected Jordon to equipment reviewing (he wanders the house singing Janis Ian songs, not Barney tunes), this was the first time he'd mistaken a stereo playing in a nearby room for live music.
Finally, there seemed to be a very subtle improvement in the high frequencies. The upper harmonics of electric guitars, deacon chimes, and ride cymbals seemed a touch less mechanical, but without losing those instruments' requisite transient bite.
Acarian Systems has made the same three-step upgrade available for the $3895/pair Alón Lotus SE ($1000 upgrade). Woofer-only upgrades are available for the $22,000/pair Phalanx ($1600 upgrade), as well as for the $5500/pair Alón V Mk.III ($200 upgrade).
It's commendable when a speaker designer can make such noticeable improvements in an already excellent product, and more commendable still when that improvement can be executed without increasing the speaker's price. But that's progress, innit? - Robert J. Reina