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Set up and forget (it)? The Superioro is all about simplicity. Plunk 'er down, off you go. Except for diehard 'philes. They favor more complicated. This tends to mean plenty more plunk down. Like a proper stand for example. Unless you are a lizard—or whatever other species Susan Sarandon's Bull Durham character claimed—we don't hear with our sternums. But that's exactly what small vertically baffled speakers on the desk top tend to fire at. Especially at less than one meter away it makes more sense to aim them at your ears. It raises the soundstage, prevents treble roll-off from getting mostly off-axis rather than direct sound and with proper treble linearity also improves a slew of things like imaging, sparkle, air and focus. Depending on just how much a box interacts with your table top, isolating it properly can even improve your bass by a nice margin. So a stand it is. Or something which achieves the same results.


None of this is obscure theory or wishful thinking but hifi 101. Hence Pierre Sprey's massive Mapleshade stands for my reference Gallo Acoustics Strada 2. While admittedly a cosmetic Godzilla, the sonic benefits are just as killa. For regular monitors I have Ardán Audio's comprehensively engineered Scottish stands. Those aren't cheap either. In the context of simplicity they're in fact audiophile excess. Not so if you're after optimum sound. If the Ardáns do seem overkill today—I'd agree on raw coin—you could jerry-rig risers or wedges to tilt these boxes up until their driver centers look directly at your pink bits. Since I could, it only made sense that I would - plunk the Superioros onto these fully adjustable wonder stands and kick off with a fully dialled reading rather than forget about setup. Though you could of course and call it good enough. It's what I think the majority of the target audience would do.

At $1.800 for the surcharge finish as reviewed, the Superioro gets within spitting distance of my Gallos whose $1.998/pr sticker includes table-top stands or wall mounts. How would this meet of high versus low-tech come off? The next photo shows why on raw driver elevation the Ardán stand was a good idea. Without it Eryk's widebander sat below the Strada's lower mid/woofer.

With the stand my ears were romanced directly on axis. Since they weren't needed, I left the felt stickers and blunt-point spikes in the box (a stout job in outer cling wrap for moisture protection, solid 5cm inner liners all around, spacer between the speakers and tiny Tripath amp in its own cut-out to safely ship around the world).

The immediate sonic impression coming off the Strada 2 was one of lower effective sensitivity, slower blurrier mid bass whose resonant slightly hollow texture overlaid the midband, some minor glinty nonlinearities in the upper midrange, less general treble energy, less ultimate extension and overall more relaxed softer not as exacting resolving power. This speaker wanted to play just a bit louder for similar visibility. All of that fell within my range of expectations and confirmed prior outings with nearfield widebanders. This also included a more fluidic elastic gestalt. Gallo's tweaked and sealed time keeping is all about maximum articulation like tap-dancing stiletto heels clacking on metal.

'twas time to take some time and allow the Polish newcomers to recover from their cold airline voyage. A visual inspection showed how the driver trim extending to the exposed edges feels and looks like fine suede whist the rubber surround is of the inverted type to make the actual cone surface 7cm across. Company logo and name on the front etch into the underlying Ply for squeaky clean relief work. The top and rear Ply surfaces feel ultra smooth, the printed cheeks coarser. They also show fine grain wherever they aren't printed. The mildly flared port tube is plastic and cleanly inset. The voicing toggle has solid action, the terminals are of the usual EU-shrouded sort but accept spades, bananas and bare wire. The spike receptacles on the bottom protrude just a bit but inset cleanly without wooden fiber tears. On cosmetics the speaker delivers on its artisanal 'organic' promise.