For a gorgeously poetic album, reach for Hania Rani and Dobrawa Czocher's Biala Flaga. "Odchodzac" kicks off with a piano in the middle of the room. After just a few tones, recorded reflections convey a good impression of its size and height. Once Czocher's cello appears, both instruments mapped precisely relative to each other whilst the 'air space' around them felt somewhat larger than over my La Campanella. Yet the reading's intimacy remained just as it should have.

John Lobbs footware justifies its elevated stickers with exemplary quality and attendant longevity. Just so it remains a quite exclusive luxury. A pair of High Cellini from the workshop of Acapella follow suit. From their flawlessly lacquered horns to the quality grills for cosmetic coherence, everything feels of one piece and conceptually mature. One is assured that these transducers will work brilliantly decades from now whilst its owners will enjoy sonically extraordinary performances quite outside the stream of time.

Psych profile for the High Cellini…
♦ Neutral tonal balance except for a small emphasis in the upper bass/lower mid transition. This injects minimal warmth and makes for excellent speech/voice intelligibility.
♠ Very deep, clean and quick bass. The sealed alignment creates precise definition without compression effects. Pressure development and authority are a given with no softening during loud passages.  Naturally the chosen amplifier should exert proper control but beefy muscle amps aren't required. 20-30 watts should suffice.
♠ The midband is exceptionally resolved with very realistic vocals to play with unbelievable emotional intensity.
♦ Particularly with the ion tweeter, the treble is unusually precise and impulse correct without incurring nerviness or bite.
♠ Excellent dynamic range useful across nearly unlimited SPL with horn-typical jump factor. Even at very low levels nothing falls apart nor does dynamic contrast bleed out.
♥ Whilst cosmetically specific, these speakers completely disappear acoustically. Relative to their height, they stage a bit bigger than usual yet despite unexpected depth and height, proportions remain cohesive and believable. Due to controlled dispersion, width remains limited to between the speakers. Images focus is shockingly three-dimensional.
♦ This speaker manages both high emotiveness and ultra-realism that's committed to the smallest of details.

Facts.
♠ Concept: 3-way passive floorstander with horn and plasma tweeter
♣ Dimensions and weight: 1685 x 620 x 605mm HxWxD with horn, 120kg/ea.
♥ Warranty: 5 years