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Because the 6.5" woofers are active to 4.5K and beyond (after all, a 2nd-order network isn't a brickwall filter), there seems to be a certain amount of beaming in the lower treble. If I had to guess, I'd even propose that the power response of this band is elevated over a conventional 1" tweeter operating below 2K. It's either an amplitude plateau or turbo-charged lower treble dynamics. If the recording contains heat in this band, the Tubulous will parlay it. Plucked strings and fiery singers gain a degree of incisiveness that, with the wrong amplifier, can err on the side of excess energy.


The NuForce monos were such amplifiers. Dialing in a falling tweeter response naturally didn't address the band handled by the mid/woofers but merely minimized the overtone splash surrounding the fundamentals. Altering toe-in didn't fully address it either as the energy was clearly in the room and audible even way off-axis (just not as focused then as in the seat). I definitely had to return to the Patek SEs to hopefully eliminate this narrow range of stridency. But while the Ref9s were playing, my first notions of the "more power is welcome" credo were in full evidence. This is an ultra-dynamic speaker of impeccable articulation, i.e. endowed with the ability to convey attack and pitch far lower into the bass than its visible driver would suggest. What clearly helps this quality is the sealed alignment. No port ringing at all. Naturally, sheer displacement of moved air mass doesn't keep up with bigger woofers or line-source paralleled arrays which the Tubulous otherwise resembles by how nimble and accurate it dances way down in the basement. But there's definitively happening life down into the upper 30s and even lower synth pedals still growl and rumble though attenuated of course.


I concur with Vinh's "electrostatic speed" descriptor, having just reviewed the "Greek Apogee" panels. However, the Tubuli are far punchier. I can appreciate why Vu would reach into the drawer of boxing references. However, this too is an exponential thing with SPLs. Senor Tubulous does not wake up as early as my high-efficiency speakers. Something about needing that power breakfast, remember? He insists on being stroked a bit - nothing silly, mind you, but his power band (the optimal RMP/torque range in automotive terms) sits higher on the rev meter. This is not a stay-in-first-gear-to-60mph machine then. Throttling back on the SPLs to upper background levels nearly cured the aforementioned prominence on the NuForce amps but some of the sheer feistiness and thereness remained reined in at those levels. To get into the full-on meat zone asked for a few more clicks on the volume. That's when that sharpness reasserted itself on the analog switching amps.


Imaging focus, spread and scale of the soundstage are spectacular as you'd expect from a physically small, minimum-diffaction monitor speaker. Image height was about as tall as my GPA rack, i.e. four-or-so feet, making performers slightly shorter than life - or, more accurately put, appropriate for the apparent distance they seem away from your listening seat behind the speakers. Though not as meaty as the unique Zu drivers, the Tubulous is not a hyped speaker that has you wishing for more body. I'm not quite sure how that works since the row of woofers never actually vents into the room. Only the first driver interacts with the room air. The others merely help to push from behind.
Replacing the Californian amps with the Canadians in bridged mode [left] instantly relaxed my shoulders. The objectionable sharpness mellowed out and without undoing drive or dynamics, things got a bit warmer and fleshier. At truly happy levels, I could still make the Tubuli sound slightly energetic and somewhat forward, suggesting that this trait hadn't been eradicated by the choice of amps but merely subdued or "delayed". It now kicked in at levels beyond what's important to me and while not completely gone, it was in effect no longer a concern.
The $64K question was whether the NuForce amps
sound that way, period. Or did both amp and speakers somehow fall victim to a poor match up? Replacing two things at once, I had of course committed a grave crime in any serious reviewer's book of proper protocol and etiquette. However, it did establish, quickly, that the Tubuli respond to power like tired flowers to water. The NuForce Reference 9 feature review will of course weigh in on the amps' behavior in the time-honored code. Only insert one unknown component into a review system at any given time.


While I wish I could identify one spec-ular electrical reason why the NuForce/Tubulous combo became too spicy and the Audio Sector/Tubulous was just right, I cannot. All I know is that as time passes and more amps come through Taos since the Patek SEs have cozied up on my Monaco shelf, evidence is mounting for how good these hand-built miniatures truly are - bona fide statement-level stuff, period. Not having experimented along these particular lines yet because I don't usually require power, I don't know whether the enhanced luv between Tubuli and bridged Pateks had to do with power, different amplifier stability into 4 ohms or both. Whatever. Vis-a-vis the so-called "digital" amps, I even gained more oomph in the lower bass, not by extending any lower but by being more fleshed out and developed.


While the added warmth and image density of the SEs benefitted all playback levels, it still remained true that I wanted to goose the tubers a bit. I'm so used to the premature curtain calls of my 101dB champs that my psychological standard for fully manifested presence requires that more conventionally efficient speakers be played a bit louder to achieve equal lock of thereness. But I'm not here to sell you on that concept. I'm here to report on the Gingko Audio speakers.


In American Sweethearts, the Latino character with the hilarious accent, in the final press junket showdown, retorts to the query "who are you?" with "I'm the ass kicker of you, that's who". That funny phrase kept recurring in my head as I listened to the Tubuli. They've got kick. Naimies would refer to it as PRaT. There's plenty of rhythmic impact. Another image is that of a horse carriage charging down a wicked cobble stone alley. Not only does the passenger experience a very bumpy ride -- rhythm and impact, remember -- but the horse shoes produce a very incisive clip-clop tattoo. Music over the Tubuli is full of small and big bumps - energetic micro explosions of percussive events. Clippety clop, clippety clop.


Equally compelling is dynamic scaling. Things rise and fall with vigor, more so than seems entirely normal for a 6-inch two-way (of course it's not a normal 6-inch two-way). Dynamics are one manifestation of speed. If you think about it, the Tubulous One is conceptually nearly a single-driver speaker. It's therefore also close to being a point source. With most all the musically relevant data coming off one driver, you get seamlessness that's a hallmark of the wideband driver milieu. It's also the reason why listeners of a particular bend must listen to simple two-ways and refuse the pieced-together results of more-way approaches.
As won't be a surprise by now, the Tubulous can rock. Calling it muscular knowing what's inside that tube is cheap but nonetheless fitting. And though I don't like boxing, Vinh has a good point. Sock it to ya - these speakers will oblige especially at higher levels. With regard to my minus points on the finish, Vinh wholeheartedly concurred. My review pair still sports an actual laminate which is rather thick and as such, reluctant to be wrapped around a small tube. Production will use conventional paper-backed wood veneers that lay properly without the laminate's tension. While I personally wasn't that fond of the dark wood-alike finish submitted, the photos Vinh made available of the three current veneer options make one look very tasty to my eyes - the "Scandia-type" blond finish with silver bottom plate and trim ring.


Tubiculous Conclusions
If I'm not mistaken, Albert Von Schweikert authored a SOTA flagship speaker for Eggleston Works once called the Savoy which featured isobaric loading similar to the Tubulous One. Otherwise, I can't come up with another design in the consumer sector that employs this scheme for a midrange driver - and none that uses three drivers rather than a push-pull configuration. At $2,000/pr on the introductory offer until the end of the year, there probably isn't another 2-way on the planet that aligns three mid/
woofers in a row to drive up articulation, precision and slam. Even though I had geared up to chop hydra heads of hype and 'bole based on the Tresolution mystique -- reviewers often get strategically set up with White Papers and technical background info -- there's little exaggeration about Gingko Audio's claims once you listen. Perhaps the most impressive quality of the Tubulous is how linear dynamics are from top-to-bottom. The textural differences of usual two-ways where, as you descend into the bass, things get a bit looser, sloppier and bloomier has been transcended. It's ultimately limited only by cone surface, not driver control. Sure, 35Hz doesn't pressurize as a 10-incher would but these 6-inchers are just as tight, potent and "poppy". Think of the Tubulous as a precision jackhammer. It's perfectly suited for all but the biggest highway projects (no sub needed). Precision jackhammer. Yep, that'd be a suitable nick.


Moral here? This speaker isn't simply different to spin a story and shtick to help sell numbers in what after cables surely must be the most overcrowded product segment of our market. The Tubulous is different for very good reasons. Those become blatantly apparent the moment you spin the first CD. True, very similar results can be achieved with line sources where endlessly paralleled drivers barely move for any given SPLs. Limit excursions and you up the ante on speed and precision. But besides being tall by definition, line sources also require greater listening distances to come together. The Tubulous One is a "horizontal line source" of sorts. It ends up as a point source with an unusual twist. I'm very impressed by the whole package - concept and realization. And viewed from the listening seat (head-on in other words), the form factor isn't as odd as it strikes me from the side. If I owned a pair of these, I'd probably do a bit of strategic cloaking by way of indoor trees nestled against the outside of each speaker.


Vinh Vu is quick to disown any compliments for his Tubulous. He claims his friend did all the important work. Meanwhile that friend refutes. He did very little except make a few suggestions. So he says. Vinh did all the rest. I think the two make quite the pair. Good cop, bad cop. Antics galore. I also think they were right to spend the year since the last CES and take what at the time was a promising but not yet dialed concept and tighten up all the loose ends. Going off into the ethers for a second, I'm envisioning a camel-colored leather-wrapped Tubulous One replete with brass tacks and faux granite base to complement a leather/metal/ stone decor: the moonie (trademark pending). Tantalizing future options to go wild and customize this speaker seem legion.


My only note of caution concerns the last 1.5-or-so octaves of the woofers' coverage band. They're unusually peppy and dynamic. Perhaps it's merely unusually potent in-room power response. Be that as it may, I found that amplifier swapping handled it very well to where you wouldn't know what I was talking about unless you had the wrong kind of amp. Still, had the NuForce monos been the only amps on hand, my opinion of the Tubuli would have been less positive. Since they love power and are affordably priced, logic mates them to transistor amps - Adcom, Bryston, McCormack, Rotel. Peter Daniel's chip amps prove how the genre can be fulsome, warm and dense without at all sacrificing drive, rhythm or transparency. There'll be others like the Pateks of more conventional ingredients. If you can find one of those rated at 100/200wpc into 8/4 ohms, you'd have yourself a Naim-approved speaker that images like a bandit; rocks like a powerful middleweight with a mean right upper cut; resolves like a High-End contender; plays far bigger, ballsier and louder than size would indicate; and emphasizes the elements of drive and propulsion encoded on your discs. How Gingko Audio went from acrylic dust covers to resonance control platforms to loudspeakers is one of the more unusual progressions in this field. But make no mistake - there's nothing frivolous, ill-considered or experimental about this speaker with the funny name. Even established loudspeaker houses could learn a thing or two from these tubers. I did. What? That sometimes, product propaganda is actually an honest attempt at conveying facts rather than fiction. Also that sometimes, innovation can appear in the most unexpected places. Both lessons are solid and apply to the Gingko Audio Tubulous One in spades. Excellent stuff, gents. You weren't smoking. Or if you were, it was the really good stuff hat let's you see things with preternatural clarity. Tresolution is for real and a very good idea!
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