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About the top Scanspeak drivers there isn't much to add. We’ve heard them in several designs we really admired for their sound. Here we just mention the Crystal Cable Arabesque and its smaller Mini cousin. Contrary to some makers Pancin don't attempt to make things read more interesting than they are. They do not boast of specially sourced driver versions or proprietary alterations. Their drivers are off the shelf to be easily matched if replacement is necessary. Any hidden magic resides in exactly how the drivers are loaded and thus controlled.

Said control arises from the enclosures and crossover. Most crossovers of even large speaker systems sit enclosed in the cabinet. Pancin chose the external route so the VZ1 could be a cosmetically lean model. Obvious additional benefits of an external crossover are lack of real estate and exposure to internal sound pressures. Here the result is a very big heavy crossover. After unscrewing the top adorned with the Pancin signature, the innards show little space left. Three giant Intertechnik Tritec air coils take up a lot of room. What space is left is occupied by a load of Mundorf silver/gold oil-filled capacitors. When Mundorf HQ receives an order for Pancin filter parts no doubt their accountant starts to cheer.

After covering background and technicalities, it was time to listen. Here we were offered plenty of it as Marcin told us that there was no rush so we could live and work with the VZ1 at our leisure. Sometimes reviewing is really hard. This wasn't one of those assignments. Each hour spent with the VZ1 on active duty had us delight in its many strong points. We sampled the VZ1 not only from the sweet spot but a great deal of time was spent listening whilst otherwise occupied way off axis at 90° degrees and 5 meters or more outside the stereo center. Even doing dishes the VZ1 accompanied our splashing and clattering. Doing chores with the VZ1 whilst playing our favorite music rather redefined the meaning of chore.


Pancin rates their VZ1 at 88dB whilst presenting an averaged 4-ohm load to the amplifier never below 3Ω. Their own measurements show a response of 42-24.000Hz with a -6dB drop at the extremes. Overall that's quite benign behavior from an amplifier’s perspective but one shouldn't expect very heavy bass based on those figures. The proof of the pudding would be in the listening however as any room always adds its own signature. This 3-way array uses 2nd-order acoustical slopes at 400Hz and 2.1kHz. Over our extended audition period we were able to combine the VZ1 with various other gear that came and went for review. It was unique for us to do do so with speakers which are not exactly within our own budget.


Our first combination included the XX-PC streamer followed by the Phasure NOS1 DAC. Amplification was in the hands of the Hypex Ncore 1200-based demonstrator monos connected with Grimm Audio balanced interconnects. Between the amplifiers and VZ1 we used Acoustic System International LiveLine Reference cables in a bi-wired configuration Franck Tchang made us by request. With this setup the virtual image in the hot seat was deep, well defined and not restricted to between the speakers. Our notes describe the sound as light-footed though not thin or lean just nicely transparent. Voices and acoustic instruments played at levels between 85 and 90dBA in the seat. When such material had electric bass its lowest tones from the E-string were somewhat rolled off. That notion of light-footedness was absent on classical fare. Here smooth renditions of large orchestral works dragged us away from the real world into the programmatic story the composer had in mind. The sound was even and well balanced and had sufficient depth and width to imagine a full orchestra not just between the speakers. Dynamics were handled very lifelike. We noted how the volume control was dialed higher than we're used to. In this combination of electronics the VZ1 came even more alive when some extra volts were applied.

Another setup introduced the La Rosita Beta source. This French audio streamer uses WiFi to communicate with for example iTunes on a Mac. This offers the choice of built-in DAC or a converter of your choice. For the external DAC we could rely on the one embedded in the Devialet D-Premier. First we used the La Rosita's own DAC to drive the Audio Note Meishu. As a warm-blooded SET running on Western Electric 300B the theoretical output is around 6wpc. On paper or screen this looks quite middling and for moderately efficient 88dB speakers far from promising. Yet reality painted another picture. SET power ratings behave differently from transistors and our Meishu confirmed it all over again.

That said SET amplifiers and specifically those running 6SN7 inputs cannot be labeled fully neutral. No, they render music in typical SET fashion which makes it sound bigger, warmer and very pleasant. Fortunately audio reproduction in the home is an art form and not exact science so we are free to embrace any form which pleases us. Combining digital wireless streaming with good ol' analog valve amplification had us enjoy a variety of music admittedly in mostly intimate settings. A trio or quartet was about the max but those were gorgeous. Take Renaud Garcia-Fons with his Arcoluz trio where the mighty 5-string upright bass is bowed, struck or caressed whilst working through 5/4 or 6/8 rhythms accompanied by guitar and drums. With this album the system took us on a long journey from the riviera along the Mediterranean all the way to faraway India.


When we traded the SET amp for the class A/D hybrid Devialet and switched to the S/PDIF output of the La Rosita we also swapped cables to try our trusty Nanotec SP#79 Special and SR cable combination driving an €80.000 speaker with €20/m wires. Pricing aside, this combination was mouthwatering too. Now we enjoyed the revival of Soft Machine as Soft Machine Legacy and the extensive Moonjune Records sampler found on Bandcamp - definitely music that will shake you and the house. We in fact drove the D-Premier quite hard and toyed with the idea of getting the Ncores back in place but preceded by a preamp for volume control. Instead we now went one step further and commissioned our second D-Premier to active duty. After reconfiguring both Devialets for dual mono it was time to go fusion rock 70’s style.


Running the VZ1 with dual D-Premiers could have been the best combination we had on hand which is always dependent on what’s in stock. Next to the La Rosita relying on iTunes and WiFi, the dual Devialet setup also gives a good old CD spinner a chance. This led to picking up the PS Audio Perfect Wave transport and connecting its balanced output to the master D-Premier. Now we had more musical choices to explore in our CD drawers not yet ripped to hard drive. Through the PWT we revisited the major part of the Miles Davis oeuvre and Frank Zappa’s. Davis’ older bebop showed beautiful definition and the tiniest details came through without clamouring for attention. Despite their physical beauty not once did the VZ1 betray their acoustical presence to work in perfect unison behind the scenes. For best performance we pushed back the hot seat about 1.7 times the distance between the speakers. An added benefit from that position was that the viewing perspective on the toed-in VZ1 got even better. Later more electronic Miles recordings brought back memories of the many live performance we were able to attend during his active career.

Chrome finish
These memories of concerts in large circus tents or formal concert halls lasting often 3 hours straight had us wonder. What might the addition of a subwoofer do? Rated at -6dB @ 42Hz we could connect our Zu Audio Submission and dial it in to take over below ~50Hz. This wasn't because we thought the VZ1 bass shy—room gain was plenty sufficient—but to milk our recordings for ultimate ambient retrieval rather than raw bass. We left the Submission positioned between our short-wall Pnoe horns and ran a long pair of speaker cable to the amps to tap their speaker outputs. With the Submission the VZ1 gained even more authority. This is a strange phenomenon whenever a true subwoofer is added. On its own it could be hardly noticeable depending on the music. Yet together with the mains there is just enough extra information to fool the brain into hearing things at even larger scale and with more original venue cues.

The many tests we conducted with different electronics in various combination resulted in only one showing which we felt was somewhat light-footed. All other combos lacked that notion to become impetus and retry the exception to figure out what caused it. With the XX-PC, NOS1 DAC, Ncore 1200 amplifiers, Grimm interconnects and ASI loudspeaker cables we arrived at the same observation. In isolation the treble wasn't exaggerated, the midband not depressed and the bass not really shy. Yet somehow the overall sum of these parts felt less anchored than any of the other configurations had.

We decided to swap speaker cables first. Out went the ASI, in went our ultra-thin Crystal Cable leash. With that in place it was obvious that synergy had much improved. The sound was still lucid and transparent but without that tiptoeing carefulness. Later we swapped speaker cables again and the Nanotec #79 Special and SR combination proved to be another great match. What we appreciated most with the VZ1 was its ability to vanish from the musical stage and give up all the room to the music. We never noticed the VZ1 as a physical presence. There was only music full of dynamics due to clearly superb impulse response with extremely quick start/stop times from excellent driver damping and proper time alignment. Dynamic compression as the routine bane of all playback was another thing MIA in Pancin’s vocabulary and hence not heard in the VZ1 even at extreme SPL. The speaker itself is voiced for neutrality and neither warm nor cold, slam-bam heavy or sizzling whatever musical content it might be fed. A bad recording sounds like itself and bad. A great recording sounds great. If there’s emotion embedded in the groove or bits, that emotion gets retrieved and transferred intact through the air. If there's no life in a recording to begin with... well, too bad. There’s no CPR to the rescue. At the end of our adventure with the Pancin Art Technology loudspeaker, we could arrive at only one possible conclusion: the VZ1 is one smoking hot looker that performs well beyond its looks...
Condition of component received: Immaculate.
Reusability of packing: Endless.
Website comments: In English, sometimes the font is a bit hard to read.
Completeness of delivery: Includes setup service.
Pricing: Regarding the costs of development, parts, complex manufacturing, quality finishing and distributor/dealer margins, the price remains realistic for the ultra high-end.
Human interactions: Despite some language barrier difficulties, heartwarming.
Competition: Vivid Giya, original all fiber-glass B&W Nautilus, maybe Sonus Faber Aida when a true subwoofer is added to the VZ1.
Remarks: Partir, c’est mourir un peu is true also for such loudspeakers when they have to leave.

Pancin Art Technology website