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Obviously on bass and properly anchored tonal balance Eryk's tiny ported driver found itself outclassed by a similar sealed driver plus sealed subwoofer. Those were basic Physics. Thus turning off my Gallo sub to run the Superioro solo instantly took things away. Compared to the more linear Ion+ this injected some upper midrange whitishness. Whilst this duly added forward projection on vocals, it also introduced some splashiness to percussive noises with high overtone content. The presence band's lift in liveliness was offset by greater looseness from the port contributions. In combination the effect was of subjectively greater presence energy with less focused articulation. The upper bass exhibited some hollowness where properly indicated pitch lacked complete followup and the lower registers signaled only as their upper harmonics. The fundamentals were out of reach but remained hinted at by some ringing. The very powerful Danish integrated contributed some added fullness and weightiness whilst on price of course being wildly unreasonable.

On the unconditional plus side the small point-source principle took to the nearfield milieu with very dense unbroken staging. Here the focus wasn't on ultimate depth—which psychologically is hard to achieve with a computer monitor in the way—but solidly physical left-to-right mass. Getting verbally creative to talk of a textural attitude, the Gallo/Amphion aesthetic played it more articulated, tightly sprung and wiry. The Eryk S. Concept was looser, unbuttoned and sleeveless. Relaxed with suspenders rather than constricting belt. In prior reviews I've invoked the term gush factor for a similar effect. This the Superioro did really well. Associated was a sense of largesse, generosity or biggishness. The latter in particular should rattle genre newbies. They'll stare at those two tiny drivers like two slices of singing lemons (that's about the proper diameter of it) with guffawed disbelief that so much sound spills from them. Quite copious cubic volume behind our lemon slivers adds to their sense of easeful radiation.

At stout desktop levels with box talk bleeding in—the sidewalls clearly pulsed in tandem with bass beats—the upper bass range became surprisingly boisterous. This too would catch newbies by surprise. It admittedly disguised a modicum of sloppiness but certainly didn't diminish the raw fun factor. Streaming some gorgeous Jan Garbarek wailing soprano over moody synth atmosphere, singing bass and tribal drums [Visible World] showed no tendency for nasality or undue bite when the Norwegian sax man got emphatic. Meanwhile a younger Yannis Parios with powerful high notes and what at the time was Greece's best male voice soared with easeful shininess, again without betraying Lowther-type brightness. When it comes to normal voices whereby I categorically exclude operatic sopranos, a small widebander without energy-robbing filter exploited within its happy SPL range (easily done on a desktop) can pull off some quite amazing stunts.


And that's the little secret. You have to goose the Superioro a tad for it to spread wings. At lower levels its competition's more sorted exactitude and separation power have the advantage. Once you play loud enough—not banging but certainly stouter than hearing yourself think easily—the Polish box kicks in fully. Now you'll find it harder arguing 'but', namely that to achieve this effect involves certain small liberties which you'd recognize had you proper references. Or were paid to be hyper critical. It's why John Blue AudioArt's equivalent JB3 so rattled our contributor David Kan. Properly used which means not overdriving it or deliberately feeding it mega bass fare to obviously miss stuff, a small widebander well behaved in the upper reaches can really shine on voices. Here common two-ways will sound stiffer. Less pliant, more mechanical.

With Eryk's S.M.S.L.-branded SA-S3 Tripath integrated. Thick fingers and expandable screw-type banana plugs on my Zu Event cables got into a cluster fuck on its tiny rear panel. Then the cable weight capsized the tyke. This prompted a quick search for a wedge. My solid copper bracelet from a Taos pueblo native fit between amp and screen base just so. The latter floated atop repurposed inverted spike footers not to sharpen the image but to give Eryk's amp some breathing room. Running my iPod off a 30-pin-to-twin-RCA leash to bypass its volume control showed plenty of voltage gain at 10 o'clock on the amp's back-lit dial. The overall sonics didn't suffer too much compared to the Gato. They generally simply got softer and fuzzier. In the bass this went too far however. I don't know the SA-S3's output impedance. Gato's is 0.06Ω. This had properly controlled the ports. The Tripath amp had them boom like cheap Electric Avenue hifi. Each time their resonant frequency was approached or hit, things went off like a woolly bell. Breaking sad, my time with the amp thus proved short-lived. The Superioro deserved/needed better. Time for the upstairs stint off Crayon Audio's CFA-1.2 in lieu of the German Physiks HRS-120 usually holding court there. Source was a NuForce-modified Oppo BDP-93.

Here our story scaled to its climax. I'd finally hit upon the ideal setup close to a wall (our house otherwise has no such locations with a suitable hutch or commode to set up a hifi). Driven from a truly superior amp with wide-bandwidth reflexes and proper boundary boost at play, I kicked off with an unfair Reggae slam-beat club number from Up, Bustle & Out [Kalan]. Here the Superioro acted shockingly butch. It also played rather louder than we'd ever do on movies, drivers visibly quaking. Whilst the midbass serving was a bit generous on quantity, it wasn't sloppy but in control. Now the ported alignment played to its strengths. Once again surprisingly hammy densely woven soundstaging had taken the field. Still sitting within two meters to not demand unreasonable room fill, this even sounded quite convincing still at the foot of the stairs.

It reads like exaggeration but given the right partnering amp—I'm thinking Clone Audio's ~$500 chip-based integrated or the equivalently priced NuForce true digital piece with all digital inputs—and having the boxes sit within 40cm from a wall, the Superioro even makes for a very credible 2-channel video monitor of capacious staging and a fulsome rather than lean balance. Obviously the program will focus on The Good Wife rather than big explosions and rocket launches. This again plays to its torque kicking in at higher levels than casual desktop listening would prompt.  

Wrap. Were it me I'd opt out of the bundled Tripath amp and ask for a commensurate sticker adjustment. I'd save another 20% on one of the high-gloss standard lacquers unless I really had to have the same modern Art work on all four cheeks. Without a nearby wall I'd want a small subwoofer. Then I'd also experiment with plugging the ports. A sub becomes less critical on the desktop if that means civilized rather than bottom-heavy fare and entails a wall. That's because with a nearby wall the rear-ported alignment works as intended to play it rather more gutsy and boisterous than you'd grant such tiny drivers on the best of days. The Superioro isn't about competing with ribbon tweeters or releasing coruscated sparks from tickled cymbals. But properly accommodated it's extended enough either way to sound guilt-free balanced whilst exploiting midrange-centric virtues from a slightly tipped-up upper bass and finely shaded treble. And as is point-source 101 for both single and coaxial drivers, soundstaging was terrific. That's where terms like coherence enter which on their own seem uselessly abstract. What does coherence sound like?
Plainly visible surface issues on top of one speaker. I'd have expected this piece of Ply to be rejected for it.
It's something you appreciate vis-à-vis something that's less coherent to become choppier patchwork by contrast. Vocals in particular show it off. Finally the driver loading and low-mass cabinet make for a relaxed loosey-goosey mood when it comes to the textures and feel of your tunes. It's the opposite to rattling off synonyms for precision, accuracy and straightjackets. Outright slop intrudes only with an amp that fails to properly damp the ports. In toto the Eryk S. Concept Superioro is a well-tuned small widebander and fashion statement. That and its artisanal fabrication don't come cheap. Clearly Eryk Smólski counts on sufficient folks being bored to tears with vinyl-wrap boxes to gladly pay extra for something that's a bit different and highly customizable. If that's you, consider yourself addressed and romanced...
Eryk S. Concept website