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Louhivaara again: "Please take your time. I know that the Graphica can sound a bit dull and even boring at first glance. But in the long run listeners have begun to appreciate the advantages of the total acoustic design - coherence, timing, neutrality, speed, integration, correct soundstaging and resolution without being over-resolved."
I asked whether he thought his triple tweeter solution had equivalent power response to his mid/woofer sextet. I wanted to understand why the speaker sounded so laid back and not very articulate in the upper midrange. Antti submitted two measurements, one of a prototype with sealed bass system to show 0°/20°/60° free-field responses; and the above free-field response of the production Graphica where Antti's own measurement is said to be reliable "from 400Hz up". The proto curve showed surprisingly close tracking of the 20° off-axis response which began to separate from the main curve at 1.000Hz to be down 4dB at 20kHz. The 60° curve began to separate at 500Hz and was down more than 12dB at 20K. The final curve shows a pronounced suck-out between 4.000 and 7.000Hz. This can translate as a lack of presence. It probably explains my reaction. This is a deliberately polite laid-back voicing that seems to stage very deeply but also sounds somewhat remote.

Louhivaara once more: "One more hint on placement. In all cases the Graphicas have worked best whenever placed on the long wall of the listening room. As already stated they can be placed quite near the front wall but need space to the sides, preferably a minimum of 1½ meters, the more the better. In my home the Graphicas are at the longer wall which is 7½ meters wide so there is more than 2 meters of space on either side. For the Munich show we will have a room of 4 x 6 meters. I am 99% sure that the Graphicas will perform better when placed on the 6-meter wall. Just a little acoustic treatment behind the listening chair and the results should be best under such temporary exhibit conditions. This is an issue I must still address in the user manual."

As photos accompanying my reviews show for good reason, the room is oriented for short-wall placement. If speakers require specific conditions for setup, manufacturers must voice them a priori and not dispatch product to writers who cannot accommodate them. With my very common layout I couldn't eliminate what I perceived as a fundamental energetic reticence (not that I believe long-wall setup would have ameliorated it). The spark of excitement which usually looks to the next session with anticipation was extinguished. Antti's own words of "a bit dull and boring" explain why.

With various speakers from Amphion, ASI, Boenicke, Dayens, Gryphon, Mark+Daniel and Zu on hand I had many comparators. Under the same conditions and while some had clearly less bandwidth or raw output potential, they all 'corrected' the tall Graphica in this one specific —and to me critical—aspect. What the Finns needed was adrenaline. Ancillary swaps from ModWright to FirstWatt transistors to Octave pentodes; from Esoteric op-amps to ModWright 6SN7s; from iMac source to Esoteric UX-1 with APL Hifi modifications; from an ASI cable loom to an equivalent Zu Event or Crystal Cable Ultra... none managed. A quick counter squiggle in Spatial's software suite for a strategic digital response correction likely would have but I wasn't yet set up for it.

I'm of course keenly aware how the power of the press—and particularly web-based reviews with their instant global accessibility—can attach themselves like a leech or evil jinx to any product just because one writer didn't fully get it. This had me feel twice blocked. I listen to music for involvement and excitement. The Graphica kept me at bay. Even so I couldn't plead the 5th. Were our writers to share a common office we'd organize a second or third opinion for properly balanced reporting. Our globally scattered lot simply doesn't accommodate that. My core issue possibly peculiar to setup or personal preference was that this politeness or gentility overshadowed everything. It stood in the way of noticing much of anything else. In a very fundamental way I never got beyond it.

Soundstage depth and sheer scale of open-barn-door wall of sound were clearly strong suits. They would seem intrinsic to the design and repeatable even with relatively close proximity to the front wall. Bass was good into the 30s to be full-range for most applications. The speaker really did nothing wrong - except not move me. This must be puzzling and upsetting for the designer whose best effort this is for now and whose smaller Cerica impressed me. Incidentally my very review pair was earmarked for the Munich hifi show in May. It's predictable that various show reports will comment on the Graphica in a quite different light. Given my inability to successfully relate to its voicing in my familiar environs, my comments simply ought to be viewed as provisional (also because I couldn't accommodate the maker's preferred setup geometry). View my comments then as a 'they exist' intro with the requisite background and technical intel. Sometimes writer and review subject are ill-matched by the luck of the draw to leave reviewer and designer alike at a loss. With apologies to Aurelia, in this instance I never quite made it to their finnish line.


Antti Louhivaara for the last time: "About the power response in general, Scandinavia has been a geographical region where this issue was emphasized in both Sweden and Finland since the 1970s. The approach to reaching the goal was different in that the Swedes tended to concentrate on speakers with a smooth energy response and omnipolar radiation whereas the Finns approached it by combining smooth energy response with controlled directivity. However both schools for a long time now have been very aware of the importance of in-room energy response. It's one of the main criteria in all of my designs in fact and certainly applies to the Graphica. Your comments about a recessed presence region implies some incompatibility with your listening room. It doesn't appear when the speakers are placed correctly. Your guess about some notch in the energy response isn't factual.


"I should also qualify my earlier statement. There are listeners who at first fancy an exciting balance. They tend to initially find this speaker a bit dull and boring because its balance is generally very neutral and smooth. But in the long run everybody has been very impressed with its integration, coherence, timing, speed and of course soundstaging. It seems evident that your room had the lower bands mask too much of the midrange to lead to a conclusion that for us is very weird. If anything the Graphica is usually criticized for being too fast and present. But people are different, ears and tastes are different and of course listening rooms are unpredictable. What can we do. I am sure that in Munich we can offer visitors a presentation which will prompt very different reactions." Cheers to that.

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