Issue 126 / October/November 2000
HP'S EDITOR'S CHOICES
Realization of an Audio Vision:
Acarian Systems Alón Lotus SE Mk II Loudspeaker
BY AARON SHATZMAN
Realization of an Audio Vision:
Acarian Systems Alón Lotus SE Mk II Loudspeaker
BY AARON SHATZMAN
 the abso!ute sound Golden Ear Award |
I was also promised a bevy of triode amplifiers to use with the Lotuses - another incentive. Several months earlier, David Berning told me he'd designed a 5-watter that might work with minuscule British bookshelf speakers. His goal was to create a wholly involving amplifier that would nurture delicate musical signals. I mentioned that to Carl Marchisotto, who agreed that "one of the negative consequences of large amplifiers is a loss in delicacy." He had chosen the name "Lotus" for his new speaker, he said, in homage to the Japanese who "in some ways are way ahead of [Americans] in recognizing that little amplifiers have admirable qualities that big amps lack."
Marchisotto's goal for the Alón Lotus, his vision, was to create a speaker system to display the virtues of small low-output amplifiers without being limited by the amps' shortcomings. The Lotus aims at performance that rivals what one hears from audiophile-grade speakers driven by high-output push-pull amplifiers: high volume; deep, fulfilling, solid bass; believably sized images; and "comfort" in large rooms.
I have auditioned the Lotus SE over an extended period, mated to four quite different amplifiers: Art Audio Diavolo; EAR 834 Integrated; Manley Stingray Integrated; Viva. The most "powerful" of these units make 50 watts a channel, while the Diavolo and Vivas produce 13. 1 have used two listening rooms - an 11 x 20-foot basement room with an 8-foot acoustic-tile dropped ceiling, and my current 13 x 21-foot "tower" room with a drywall/plaster ceiling that slopes from 8 feet at the speaker end to 15 feet behind my chair.
The Lotus SE is a "classic" Marchisotto design. It employs his sculpted open baffle on which the 1" aluminum dipole tweeter and 5.25" tri-laminate cone, cast-frame Alnico (cobalt) magnet midrange driver are mounted. This baffle, so nicely finished I once mistook the wood for some exotic polymer, mounts above a sealed enclosure ("infinite baffle") that holds a special 14-ohm impedance 8" long-throw woofer. (Another version of this speaker, for high-output amplifiers, carries Acarian's standard 4ohm impedance 8" woofer.) Each speaker, covered in black "sonically transparent" cloth, weighs 70 pounds and measures 49" x 9" x 13". Each has a dedicated external crossover (passive, at 400 Hz and 3,500 HZ). This is to facilitate upgrades and modifications, if such are offered, and to simplify bi-amplifying. The unit is tri-wired, and accepts Acarian's Black Orpheus cable without protest. Extensive listening confirmed the manufacturer's assertion that the system's response extends from 35 Hz to somewhere beyond my ability to hear.
With those big black boxes (the crossovers) sitting behind, attached with a mess of wires, the speakers make a profound visual statement. When mated to any amplifier meant to work with them (all of which will display tubes and transformers), the Lotus speakers will attract enough notice to satisfy any audiophile ego. No one who buys them will care if they displace the sofa, or a chair or a table, since these are speakers for those whose passion is music and who are happy to give priority in room decoration to audio requirements.
The biggest surprise of my experience with the Alón's was that their much-heralded performance in the bass, though every bit as good as rumored, was not what I found most endearing. That experience prepared me to approach the Lotus without preset expectations. Nevertheless, I could not resist addressing the design challenge Marchisotto had set for himself, so early sessions found me listening to rock LPs, to see if a 13-watt amp could make convincing sound. Yaz' Don't Go [Mute Sire 298861 can sound anemic or it can overwhelm, and with the Lotus/Diavolo, it surpassed all prior auditions not merely in the sheer power of the presentation, but also in the size of the images. The image was proportionate to the stage, unlike that crafted by some mini-monitors, which create a large soundspace filled with tiny images, or vice versa. This was all coherent.
No matter what amplifier or source I used, the Lotus delivered bass, including low bass, that defied criticism. The Vivaldi Lute Concertos LP [Hungaroton SLPX 11978] delighted me with the panoply of detailed delicate images, and seized my attention with bass that was solid, full, rich, warm - characteristics this disc had never before revealed to me. On the magisterial Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition [Reiner; RCA Victrola VICS 2042], the bass was always explosive, but now genuine waves of sound rolled over me. There was a presence, a physical dimension that reminded me of old Audio Research-driven systems. The great Berglund/Bournemouth Shostakovich Eleventh [EMI SLS 5177] gave plucked bass entries at ppp that were felt as much as heard. I was able to hear clear differences in volume as the bass players supported the orchestra, rather than an indistinct indiscriminate lump of sound. On Klemperer's Mahler Resurrection with the Philharmonia [EMI CDM 76962 2], the gentle arc of basses and celli spread before me made the most beautiful, rich, warm, mellow tones - I found this so riveting that I became fixated on the quality of the bass and ignored the distinctive performance.
Time and again, the Lotus allowed me to hear bass lines on familiar discs that previously had gone unnoticed. With the Manley Stingray, the old (1961) Fleisher/Szell Beethoven Emperor [Columbia SBK60499] revealed subtle bass-drum accompaniment to the piano that I had never heard on disc. Similarly, the Weavers Reunion [Vanguard VMD-2150 CD], a recording well-known for subtle bass thumping behind the singers on the Carnegie Hall stage, now displayed bass support lines I'd never known were there. Thus, at high or low dB, with in-your-face slamming rock bass, or subtle low-level support lines, Marchisotto's Lotuses not only met expectations about bass performance, but surpassed them.
Satisfying, even superlative, bass would not fulfill the design goal Acarian established for the Lotus SE. The whole point of designing a speaker to be used with low-power single-ended triode amplifiers was to take advantage of the way such amps are said to nurture the delicate side of music.
From tubes one expects (hopes) to hear clarity, openness, a rich harmonic structure, ethereal beauty, accompanied by fullness and body. In an ideal audio world, one would hear detail without grain, clarity without edge. On the Beethoven Fifth [Hogwood; L'Oiseau Lyre 417605-2], the sound was dry, clear, tight, lean, bright. I noted incredible detail. The sound was clean, etched, with a hint of edge, but after all, this was Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music on period instruments. To consider a different sound, I auditioned the Persuasions' We Came to Play [Collectables COL CD 5234]: Again, the sound was pure, vivid. Lawson's highs were gossamer-covered. And for yet another type of musical experience, as Tate and the Dresden traversed the Schubert Great C Major [Berlin Classics BC 1083-2], I heard vivid bloom - rich, dark, harmonics. The sound had a solid, hefty quality, a fullness. And finally, through the Lotus speakers, my cherished Rutter rendition of the Fauré Requiem [Collegium COL 101] transported me to a state of audio ecstasy. The delicate "Sanctus" was appropriately heavenly, ethereal, soaring, angelic. Caroline Ashton's "Pie Jésu" was otherworldly, her modulation from pp-ppp-p-pppp rendered perfectly. The sound overall had an airiness I cannot recall hearing before. Yet it was at the same time so clear, defined, precise, etched. The delicacy of music was what the system captured.
Yet to highlight the Lotus's excellence with music that is essentially "delicate" would hardly do the speakers justice. During a recent listening session, I revisited an old favorite performance, the Jocum/ Berlin 1967 recording [DG 449 718-2] of the Bruckner Fourth. Cataclysmic swings in volume are the essence of Bruckner, and few amplifier/speaker combinations can come close to recreating the experience of a live performance. In my room, this dynamically compressed recording, through the Lotus/Viva combination, displayed a dB range so wide, and so free of restriction or congestion, that, days later, the experience lingers with me. Bruckner, a church organist, strove to create massive cathedrals of sound. The Lotus is the first speaker in my experience to make me feel as if I were hearing a cathedral (as opposed to a rural church) during a recording of Bruckner. The speaker and amp together crafted a cavernous space, and filled it with glorious, rich, resonant sound.
Poulenc's Concerto in D for Two Pianos [Olympia OCD 364] poses a similar set of challenges, for the composer's jazz-inspired score is full of sudden percussive surprises that demand speed, power, and tonal faithfulness beyond the capability of most components. The Lotus/Viva combination again captured the "snap" of the percussion entries with a precision that was as startling as the music itself, and gave each instrument its own special tonality. And all accomplished under severe demands for instant shifts in volume as the score called for bursts or snippets of sound calculated to amuse, shock, jar, or jolt. The Lotuses are sensational at sonic extremes.
Among audio's greatest myths is that all electronics sound the same and that it is the loudspeaker that "shapes" what one hears. Hence, some argue, speakers are the most important audio component. Of course, the opposite is closer to, but far from the whole, truth. Speakers are windows through which our ears perceive what has come earlier in the audio chain. They ought to be "transparent," but seldom are, since the load they present to amplifiers creates a host of interactions. What is perhaps most remarkable about Marchisotto's Lotus SE is the degree to which it not only works well with a variety of quite different tube amplifiers, but allows each to display its own inherent character. It was easy to distinguish among the amplifiers I used with the Lotus speakers. Yet each performed beautifully, and I believe displayed its signature traits faithfully. Through the Lotuses, the Diavolo and Viva amplifiers performed at a level that equals the best I have heard. The EAR and the Manley never made me think I was hearing cutting-edge amplification, and neither of those integrated amps makes any pretense at providing that level of performance. But I doubt that either would perform better were it connected to a different speaker. My sense is that the Lotus SE will not limit most tube amplifiers, but will allow exotic SETs to display all the virtues associated with such designs. This is a must-hear speaker for all who love music and value faithful reproduction. Heard when driven by a single-ended triode amplifier, the Lotus will illustrate why so many music lovers consider the triode the source of musical truth.
AARON SHATZMAN
MANUFACTURER INFORMATION
Alón by Acarian Systems
181 Smithtown Blvd., Ste. 104, Nesconset, New York 11767
Phone: (631) 265-9577; fax: (631) 265-9560
www.AlonByAcarian.com; alon@compuserve.com
Sensitivity: (2.82 volts) 90 dB @ 1 M (89 dB for 4-ohm version)
Source: Manufacturer loan
Price: $3,700/pair
ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT
Berning TF-12 preamplifier; Art Audio Diavolo, Viva Mono, Manley
Stingray, EAR 834 amps; JVC XL 2050 CD player/transport; Metronome
Technologie DAC; Oracle Delphi Mk 11 turntable fitted with Magnepan
Unitrac arm and Crown Jewel phono cartridge; Acarian Black Orpheus
cable configured for tri-wired application
MANUFACTURER'S RESPONSE
... Four different amplifiers, two different listening rooms, and a
variety of source components means a great deal of effort on the part
of the reviewer in order to come to grips with the sound quality of
the speaker under review. We appreciate this level of commitment and
integrity on the part of Aaron Shatzman and The Absolute
Sound.
I would like to shed some light on the two versions of the Lotus SE Mk II. We developed an 8-inch 14-ohm woofer for use with low-power amplifiers. Typically, SET amplifiers of low power operate with little or no feedback and exhibit a relatively high output impedance. This means we do not have a lot of current output or loudspeaker damping capability to rely on. The 14-ohm woofer will have about three times the damping and control when compared with our 4-ohm woofer, when driven by a low-power SET amp (say, 10 watts). However, life is not that simple in the world of High End audio. So what happens when you connect the 14-ohm Lotus to a high-power, high-damping amplifier of either tube or solid-state construction? Generally, over-damped bass and a thin dry sound. This is why we offer the Lotus with the 4-ohm woofer - for those with higher power feedback amplifiers. This is a no-cost option that is selected at time of purchase through one of our authorized dealers.
CARL MARCHISOTTO
PRESIDENT, ACARIAN SYSTEMS