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The Hoyt Bedfords sound clean with clean amps, warmer with warm amps, detailed with detailed amps and terrible with almost none I could find - save maybe for a hint of upper-register artificiality with the Dayens Ampino. If you're holding out for 'best amp' recommendations you're out of luck. With electronic music solid state wins out in terms of room drive and detail data. Transparency and bass control maintain that Nietzsche heartlessness. For that and deeper crayoned colour, the Trafomatic Aries will see you home. Without giving away too much ahead of review coverage elsewhere in these pages, the HB/Aries pairing is very much synergy mission accomplished - fast, resolving and none too overly romantic. Nice work Sasa.

Much of the early Type 1 audition was spent with the rear-facing ports plugged with poof balls. When unplugged I noted a more effusive loudspeaker of greater expression and vivid hand gestures. "Comme ci, comme ca". The toms and clicks that run the length of IDM’s nervous system were granted greater dexterity and delicacy. Let's get specific with Jimmy Van M's Balance 010 compilation. Disc one is loosely mixed. It's a DJ showing off his downbeat offbeat collection. After a meandering intro where the mix heads into classic 90s ambient territory (BoC, Ae), Van M takes the bathysphere down and down into darker abstract waters (Eno/Schwalm) until Dave Gahan's voice swells from the deep from the very rear of the soundstage to the very front. Goldfrapp's film-noire interpretation of Depeche Mode's "Halo" swiftly surfaces the underwater craft and again highlights the Hoyt Bedford’s ability to submerge the listener.
In a broader sense the Hoyt Bedfords on the fly create an alternate take of every song thrown their way. They tease out the percussive flow that makes house music click and unplug the bigger guitar amps on some indelibly inked rock classics. Talking Heads' "Life During Wartime" has its afro beat influences forced forward to underline the song's disco groove backbone twice over. Three words to describe the Hoyt Bedford way with more traditional rock music are organic, disciplined and precise.


Powered by midrange centricity, these are loudspeakers that highlight the acoustic elements of everyday rock songs. They'll also stun listeners living on the lighter side of life with folk, acoustic and jazz. No revelation there. That much we expected. Like a larger-scale but drier 47Labs Lens, the Hoyt Bedfords are as close as I've traveled to a single driver speaker for modern music, especially electronica and thus not just for those clinging to their Joni Mitchell bootlegs. The Type 1s serve up a different but equally valid and enjoyable take on electronic music. Plug the ports with the poof balls and they do all of this (with diminished dynamics) in a smaller room. The Hoyts are flexible. You can bend 'em to fit your life. Rockers looking for eXXXtreme slam will of course come unstuck and are advised to consider a Type 3 sub appendage or a Type 4 sub integrated.


You pluck from the Hoyt Bedford tree because of lucidity, imaging and speed. The Type 1s don't try to scale mountainous heights or plumb oceanic depths. Instead they offer a journey into the belly of the whale. The downside is the blatant exposure of brick-walled recordings and compression.


Their single-driver nature makes them unconventional speakers for the forward-thinking journeyman. Chochos' pricing renders his new range democratic and non-exclusive. That translates to everyman hifi at its best. Not best everyman hifi because the midrange of every tune is prized wide open. Not best everyman gear because of unimpeachable holography and imaging. Not best everyman hifi because they are the finest sound money can buy. They're not. The Type 1 are more like the view of a familiar city from an alternative suburb on the other side of town. It's where the suited and booted mingle with the tie-dyed. Neither faction hold cultural sway. Best of all, rent is cheaper than Chochos' own domicile upon whose neck the Hoyt Bedford range has now firmly placed its foot.
Safe as milk.


Quality of packing: Cardboard coffins lined with sheets of polystyrene. Just enough.
Reusability of packing: Quite a number of times.
Ease of unpacking/repacking: Piece of cake.
Condition of component received: Immaculate.
Completeness of delivery: 100%.
Human interactions: Pretty good. Louis Chochos is a busy man.
Pricing: Super keen.
Final comments & suggestions: For the money these loudspeakers offer extremely good value. Try to audition prior to purchase but a blind punt isn’t out of the question. Custom finishes are available for an additional $200 - $300 depending on type.
Hoyt Bedford website