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As these were quite small mini monitors I was expecting a fairly light-weight tonally tipped-up presentation. Upon firing them up I was surprised by how rich, smooth and balanced they were. Sure, deep bass was MIA as with any small speaker but the presentation was so seamless and full that I soon forgot about those lower octaves. Listening to Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic’s recording of Carl Nielsen’s Second and Third Symphonies [Dacapo 24-bit/192kHz WAV] showcased the Admonitor’s greatest strengths: excellent musical involvement and exceptional sense of timing; a clean, transparent wide open panoramic sound without any overt colorations or feeling sterile or boring; and bass that while not plumbing the depths offered convincing weight. The 311 was agile, communicative and expressive across its bandwidth.

The Admonitors also ably captured the texture and glow of the human voice in Verdi’s Falstaff recorded in the late 1950s by Herbert von Karajan, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus plus a stellar vocal cast [EMI 67162-2]. Instruments and voices sounded natural and lifelike without any sense of homogenization or blurring. Better still I particularly enjoyed how these wee speakers captured the scale and drama of this terrific recording. There were instances, particularly when involving Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, that the hairs on the nape of my neck stood on end. It’s truly a special speaker that can do that.


T e shimmering translucent string tone of the Staatskapelle Dresden on Rudolph Kempe’s terrific album of Strauss Waltzes recorded back on New Year’s Eve 1973 [Berlin Classics 16-bit/44.1kHz] sounded gorgeous and gloriously rich through the Admonitors without any trace of wiriness or hash. Transients and sharp dynamic swings came and went without overhang. Drum whacks and percussive attacks were convincing albeit without true low bass. What bottom end there was came across well-defined and agile along with excellent pace and forward momentum. There was nothing anaemic or sluggish about the 311s at all.


A wonderfully packaged LP set that I have listened to countless times since its release in 2011 is Take Care, Take Care, Take Care from Explosions In The Sky [Temporary Residence Limited TRR-199]. This sounded almost new again and I observed new layers of depth and texture in the Spector-ish wall of guitar feedback and distortion. If soundstaging and imaging are your thing, this perspective was set behind the plane of the speakers with a fine sense of depth. Rather than etched-in-stone instrumental and vocal images or 30’ wide pianos, performers were naturally arrayed and proportioned across the soundstage with a decent sense of separation. Also of note, individual instruments did not wander back and forth or side to side. On many speakers a violin for example will shift about sideways as it climbs up and down its register. In essence you hear the crossover points. It’s quite maddening when you become aware of it.


On Big Cliff from Kahil El’Zabar’s Ritual Trio [Delmark DE-477] I could hear the pitch, pace and shape of Malachi Favor’s bass notes as well as the relationship between drums, bass, sax, violin and piano in this wildly diverse live recording. Individual instruments emerged from single points in space as they should. And while the 311 is not a time-coherent design, it certainly came across as one in this respect as well as in delivering music in a fatigue-free naturally flowing manner. Compared to my Green Mountain Audio Callistos, the Admonitors possessed richer tone along with a cleaner more transparent midrange. Massed strings came across with a tad more body and texture. Voices were better defined and shaped. I picked up all sorts of little percussive ticks and clicks and musical nuance I hadn’t heard before or which weren’t as apparent on familiar recordings. They also shared the long-term listenability of the Callistos. All speakers tend to wear after a spell, some quicker than others. The Admonitors ranked among the top two or three in this regard.