This review page is supported in part by the sponsors whose ad banners are displayed below |
 |
 |
|
 |
This reader report first appeared in the September 2010 issue of hi-end hifi magazine fairaudio.de of Germany. You can also read it here in its original German version. We publish its English translation in a mutual syndication arrangement with the publishers. As is customary for our own reviews, the writer's signature at review's end shows an e-mail address should you have questions or wish to send feedback. All images contained in this review are the property of fairaudio.de or Pointos. - Ed.
|
 |
Contributor: Christian Löser
Component Retail: €950/pr
|
From B&W to widebander: Many hifi fans are familiar with the feeling. They're just happy with their systems yet—somehow—want more. Or just different. For a while now, that’s been me. No doubt my Bowers & Wilkins CM7 were very good speakers; superb build, wonderful mids, fetching dimensionality. But, I sold ‘em. I was missing something without being real clear what.
I simply was haunted thinking that more ought to be possible. Of course I knew full well that it was. I simply didn’t want to pay for it. So the search was on. Audition followed audition to the point of doubting the wisdom of my sale. Clearly the speakers I tried were all good at some aspect or other but as jack of all trades, they didn’t match the CM7.
|
|
|
Happenstance led to an online article about a small new loudspeaker house in Berlin – Pointos Audiosysteme. I first fell for the visuals, minimalist yet elegant. That’ll be a matter of taste of course. But I was also suspicious. Was I dealing here with DIY boxes? Every week someone with a (believed to be) clever idea is certain he'll revolutionize the speaker scene. Actually the concept here was just a bit unusual, a widebander with transmission-line loading. Uncommon solutions get my attention. Curiosity was piqued sufficiently to have me set up an appointment with creator Norman Schur.
|
|
|
 |
As luck would have it, a day after my call a small store in Berlin planned to premiere the top Pointos Quanta model. Entering the shop, I was seriously skeptical. The room seemed ill suited. What's more, the speakers were actually placed at different heights. Then the first sound arose. Now I was a bit shocked. That kind of sound I did not expect. The scheduled audition had to follow suit, this time around the firm’s smallest speaker called Anima. Since this outfit is factory direct, I wasn’t directed at an optimized show room. Instead I arrived at Herr Schur’s nicely decorated residence. Of course he also offers a home audition should that be more convenient.
The small Anima turned out to be immaculately finished and quite grown for a monitor. Observing everything around me, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was in the tangible presence of the designer’s passion. The looks were clearly different and not off the shelf. I should add that any commercially available veneer is fair game (specialty items of course carry a surcharge). Dimensions for such a compact speaker were quite stout (ca. 27 x 44 x 33cm WxHxD) but this size suited the speaker well. As already mentioned, the Pointos core concept are TL-loaded widebanders.
|
|
|
|
Preconceptions against widebanders are common because contrary to classic multi-way speakers, a single driver becomes responsible to reproduce the entire audible range by its lonesome. The tunes hence don’t emerge through physically offset—usually vertically arrayed—drive units. Naturally Pointos eschews all electrical filters. Time for a listen.
We kicked off with a song I wasn’t familiar with, Schiller’s "Tired" from the 2008 Live album. Humans tend to not recall specific sounds but thinking back on the opening bass of this cut, I still get goose bumps.
|
 |
 |
 |
