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It’s always a question whether to receive brand-new sealed products for review or cosmetically used demonstrators already well preconditioned. I prefer the latter and that’s what I got. I mention this only in case you detect minor blemishes in the photos. Yes they showed signs of wear but they also arrived in peak sonic shape which to me is the more important.
There’s something about the Dwarves' appearance which attracts attention. Marcin who took the photos opined that they were very photogenic. Call ‘em what you like but despite or because of their uncommon appearance many might find them attractive. I’ll conclude that they look interesting to fast-forward to a description of their sound.
These Solphonique speakers were not very impressive at first. Their task to impress was particularly challenged because I’d just sent back the wonderful Dynaudio Special 25 monitors which struck me as some of the best monitor speakers I’d ever encountered. For the first two days I simply left the Dwarves running in unattended to give them time to settle down Only afterwards did I begin to listen seriously. Although the Dwarves are not typical monitors by being active, they still offer a set of virtues that’s characteristic for this type of speaker. Generally speaking their sound is not spectacular at least not right away but there were certain aspects that really impressed like their spectacular huge monitoresque soundstaging.
A soundstage can be drawn in different ways. The Dwarves built up theirs solely from behind the speakers. Everything happens ‘over there’. If an ensemble was sufficiently large like on the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack, the closest performers were already well behind the base line and the farthest ones in the room behind the wall. Good was that even the most distanced instruments could be heard loud and clear. Each detail was delivered precisely and clearly. Another characteristic monitor trait—pulling a Houdini—-was true for the Solphonique loudspeakers too. They simply disappeared. They required no significant distance between me and them for the soundstage to remain wide always and to have the music emerge never from out of the boxes but some place well behind them.
The general sonic impression delivered was somewhat darker than usual. Was the tweeter placement responsible? Perhaps. The longer I listened, the less I cared. I simply accepted the presentation as the proper way to present the music. Still bowed string instruments on the listed recordings sounded darker as though they'd been tuned a bit lower. Entire recordings gained a darker atmosphere in fact which I incidentally really enjoyed but I did simultaneously wonder also whether overall vibrancy hadn’t diminished.
To make sure I used a sparser recording by Midnight Blue where cymbals and trumpet are very important ingredients which normally sound fabulously vibrant. It didn't take long to confirm that the general presentation was a bit darker but only affected timbres, not overall vibrancy. Perhaps smoothness and coherence were second to the extraordinary Esotar2 tweeter of Dynaudio’s Special 25 but the Danes had delivered this particular recording in the best fashion ever so having the Dwarves trail them was nothing to be ashamed of.
