From desktop mites to full-size floor
standers, the speaker market is brimming with quality kit. And there’s a pair
to suit every budget
Best Standmounter: $1,050-$2,250
KEF LS50: $1,200
KEF has an enviable habit of winning our
Product of the Year Awards. This year is no different with the LS50 picking up
where last year’s winner of the title, the Q300, left off.
KEF
LS50, the best Standmounter
Given a little space to breathe and mounted
on a pair of solid stands these monitors sound terrific. The first thing that
strikes us is the quality of the bass performance for a box that strikes us is
the quality of the bass performance for a box that stands just 30cm high, these
speakers deliver impressively deep, agile and powerful lows with the likes of
Bod Marley’s Concrete Jungle. But the LS50s don’t over-egg things; everything
sounds in balance, and that’s important.
These monitors sound terrific. For a
box that stands just 30cm high, these speakers deliver impressively deep, agile
and powerful lows
Articulation with emotion
Move up the frequency range and these KEFs
continue to impress. Kate Brush’s vocals on 50 Words for Snow are as clear and
articulate as you like, and there’s no shortage of insight or emotion. The LS50s
communicate the energy and drive in a piece of music brilliantly.
We’re also impressed by the speaker’s
seamless integration – as we are by the way it sets up a huge stereo image
populated by securely focused sounds. Perhaps most importantly, these speakers
are fun to listen to. You can thank a sure-footed sense of timing,
class-leading cohesiveness and strong dynamics for that.
Put it all together and you have one of the
finest Standmounters below $1500, and a worthy winner of our Product of the
Year title.
Best stereo speaker up to $300
Q Acoustics 2020i: $217.5
This is the second year that Q Acoustics
has taken the budget speaker Award. Nothing we’ve heard this year has surpassed
the 2020i’s formidable array of talents.
Q
Acoustics 2020i, the best stereo speaker up to $300
It’s a shame the company didn’t make a
bigger noise when this speaker was upgraded to ‘I’ status. The changes were
significant and amounted to a new tweeter, different cone material for the
mid/bass driver – a carbon fiber and ceramic-coated paper rather than the
paper/mica mix of the previous version and a revised crossover. You just know
the engineers have really tried hard when the tweeter is decoupled from the
front baffle to reduce any sonic ill-effects caused by the vibration of the
mid/bass driver. Take a listen and the benefits of that obsessive behavior
become apparent very quickly.
These speakers sound terrific. They retain
the refined presentation we’ve always liked from the Q Acoustics brand but add
a notable dose of transparency and attack to the proceedings.
Take a listen to James Blake’s Limit To
Your Love and these small speakers deliver with impressive authority and drive.
And their talents aren’t limited to the intimate: they sound as happy
delivering the large-scale majesty of Holst’s Jupiter as they do charging along
to The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army. The 2020is are relatively small, so
bass can only go so low, but within their physical limitations the low-end heft
produced is deeply impressive.
You just know the engineers have
really tried hard when the tweeter is decoupled from the baffle to reduce sonic
ill-effects
Smooth on top
They’re pleasingly refined at the top end
too, refusing to turn overly aggressive even when provoked by harsh recordings
and bright amplification. The broad spread of sonic talents, that range from
seamless integration between the drive units to wide dynamic reach and
expressive midrange, means these little speakers sound at home across a wide
spread of music.
‘Unfussy’ isn’t a particularly glamorous
term, but couple the 2020i’s easy-going nature with their excellent sound and
it makes these speakers the ones to beat at this price level.
Best stereo speaker: $300-$525
Monitor Audio Bronze BX2: $375
We’ve long been fans of Monitor Audio’s
BX2s. they’ve always been such well-rounded products, as though the people
behind them have spent months ironing out any weaknesses and then months more
honing things further.
Monitor
Audio Bronze BX2 - these speakers take an age to run in. they’re likely to
sound a bit aggressive at first but after around 50 hours they’ll mellow
No rival we’ve reviewed feels so solid or
is finished to such a high standard. There are neat touches too; bolting the
mid/bass driver to the rear of the cabinet not only keeps the front panel
uncluttered, but also reduces enclosure vibrations and so improves sound.
Monitor Audio has long advocated the use of
metal diaphragms in drive units. The ones in the BX2 are ceramic-coated
aluminum/magnesium, a blend that improves damping and rigidity.
They have the kind of mature sonic
balance that favors long-term satisfaction over the short-term ability to
impress
In for the long haul
These Monitor Audios sound terrific. They
have the kind of mature sonic balance that favors long-term satisfaction over
the short-term ability to impress at a dealer demo.
Give them a good long listen and you’ll
find they deliver an impressive amount of detail. We’ve yet to come across a
rival that can replay Debussy’s Clair De Lune with such finesse. The speaker’s
dynamic subtlety is pleasing, as is the bass authority.
Move onto the music of REM and these
speakers excel, delivering Losing My religion with impact and drive. The BX2s
are perhaps a little less forgiving of harsh partnering kit than previous
Bronzes, but they still won’t make a meal of things.
You’ll need a good pair of stands and
enough space to let the speakers breathe a little. A touch of toe-in towards
the listening position helps hone the stereo imaging too. Sort those things and
you’ll have the BX2s at their rewarding best.
