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Perhaps it’s this very combination—time coherence across the audible range plus extreme precision and pressurization in the bass—which gifts this otherwise rightfully described as characterless speaker with a sonic fingerprint or identifiable birth mark after all. This is nicely appreciated also with piano. Some speakers excel at rhythmic flow and pointedly transient-focused work but are too ethereal to fully capture the resonant sound board in its full glory and size. Other speakers manage the latter perfectly until the pianist goes into overdrive on the 32nd notes to have the giant instrumental body lag behind. Granted, this is writerly excess but as tendency everyone should be familiar with the underlying conflict.


The Avancé for once sees no never-the-twain-shall-meet issues. There’s body, scale, impact and incision when necessary, with clear sorting, structure, openness and intelligibility of each sudden embellishment and tendril which are never obscured by physical mass. The effect is fabulous particularly where it usually fails - when the performers descend towards the keyboard’s left edge so far down, so massive yet so very articulate. Encore!

Not as tuff a nut as well-recorded black ‘n’ whites is Erykah Badu’s "Bag Lady" soul song from Mama’s Gun. But I still love to ask. "How about da basz, dawg?" It ought to be hard and mighty, the e-bass voluminous but also endowed with a gnarly inner tension. Facing Thiel’s CS3.7 elicits no complaints about impact violence or bass definition but—hifi reviewers are such whiners—I could wish for more shove, more physical air motion. That I get nicely with Ascendo’s System F, thank you muchos. De nada. But by comparison growl turns more purr and while the beat has more weight, it softens a bit and with the Thiel also has more directness. Classic tradeoff between bass amplitude and accuracy? Not by necessity. Simply part with longer green, leash a combined 720 watts to four 20cm woofers, track their behavior like a tax inspector in an evil mood and off goes. I’d seriously contemplate going partly active if that were guaranteed. The Avancé growls more ferocious in the bass than even the Thiel and, if so adjusted, gets even mightier than the Ascendo. To wrap ‘er up it then sounds as though she extended an extra octave lower than either of the other two. With three brilliant floorstanders all incidentally tuned for time coherence, the Audiodata was my clear favorite in all bass matters.


Unlike from the midrange on up, here I’d categorically insist on plain better rather than matter of taste. If ultimate bass quality be the sum of amplitude, reach, definition and proper time integration with mids and highs, this statement is really unavoidable. With that discussion over—period, exclamation mark & Co.—let’s address matters of opinion next.