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Vocals appeared warmer but naturally so. This was no surprise given the internal class D amps. From my point of view this presentation had a clear advantage never mind the practical consideration of built-in compact amplification of high power and low heat. That sound lived somewhere between tube and transistor strengths. The Dwarves don’t attempt to cheat. They give strong taut midbass but don't attempt to mine the first octave. Their enclosures are too small for that.
While Dynaudio’s Special 25s managed to perform like small floorstanders, the Solphoniques acted like monitors, period. This seemed a premeditated deliberate limit considering how the Australian designers clearly assumed that anybody needing lower or more potent bass would add a subwoofer via their carefully provided socket.
But referring to the Solphonique Dwarf as just a monitor would be a grave understatement. What we get are monitors + amplifiers + DSP compensation/linearization + DACs with USB. This makes for a nearly complete system that only requires a source which could be your laptop. Such completeness makes it difficult—or rather pointless—to compare these speakers with others. The Dwarf offers high-quality sound with certain typical monitor traits like good separation, precise image placement and a complete disappearance act.
The upper bands offer lots of air, great vibrancy and impressive decays. The midrange is slightly warmed up but only to the point where con arco strings, acoustic guitars and vocals feel naturally warm. The upper and mid bass are taut, dynamic and well differentiated. The lowest bass is missing which is no surprise given the size of the enclosures and the diameter of the mid/woofer. The designers prefer augmentation by subwoofer rather than forcing their monitors to produce artificially low bass.
An extra bonus is the programmable DSP feature which allows customisable settings that can be recalled at any time. This makes the Solphonique Dwarf different, quite unique and with its impressive performance well worth an audition.
Description: The Solphonique Dwarf Active Digital is a small two-way bass-reflex speaker. The drivers come from the Norwegian firm Seas and the Canadians at Solona. The technology involved is called Solacoustic which seems to be a combination of software corrections and physical driver orientation. The tweeters fire downwards mounted to a protruding beam which faces an angled grooved metal body that looks like an external heatsink. All parts are precisely aligned to reportedly achieve perfect phase/time coherence across the entire audible band.
Amplification built into each cabinet is via an AS2.100 class D module from Dutch company Hypex. The review loaner also included the digital module which accepts incoming signal not merely via analog RCA connection but coaxial S/PDIF and USB. The speaker with the control panel acts as master to the slave unit. Signal transfer from master to slave is either by digital coax or analog interconnect. Both speakers must be powered up from the wall.
