However, the Airtech ATS01 does exploit a certain trickery which certainly inspires immediacy and precision from a psychological point of view. Their overall tonal tuning is more present than strictly neutral, the upper bass and lower midrange slightly restrained. Voices feel extremely transparent and super-apparent reverb intel sometimes conjures up a hyper-realistic spatial atmosphere which feels more catchy and direct than sonorous and warm. Nevertheless, this presence is balanced such that I didn't find it disturbing ever but soon regarded it as its own flair which we quickly embrace if we generally like it more frontal than laid-back. Fans of warm, comforting aural bubble baths on the other hand could be pulled out of the water faster whilst friends of ultra-linear studio monitors may find this not quite orthodox take on high fidelity a bit too free-spirited.
That's especially apt when the bass also has a characteristic that seems more fun or emotional than textbook. Nonetheless, our Italian developers approached their tuning with a very sensitive hand. I listened to the ATS01 for weeks over a wide variety of music. I always found the wonderfully rich non-exaggerated if not overly differentiated bass very appealing emotionally and perhaps ½ to ¾ rather than fully dry. The bass drum and sustain-rich big toms in "The Opposite" by The Smile from A Light for Attracting Attention emanated such blackness, volume and authority without undue room pressurization that this wonderfully rhythmic track really grabbed me with low tones of great energy. It may read contradictory but I believe that the slightly generous bass tuning makes a perfectly tasteful match with the fast immediate tuning of the higher bandwidth by adding something pleasing and creamy at the bottom. The slightly slimmer upper bass and fundamental range too are somewhat counteracted by this.
The fabric covering of the Airtech ATS01 is an integral part of the construction and cannot be easily removed.
Wherever the word 'cream' is mentioned, a cherry shouldn't be far off. Here it manifests in flawless timing. With a hybrid construction where a thin fast film meets a heavy laggard cone as almost opposite species, this is anything but a matter of course. As described, the Airtech woofer does not produce dust-dry bass and seems to render the ultimately steep attack of the nimble foil rather more flowing. Still it lets go of bass notes so effortlessly and quick that the sum of it all seems absolutely coherent. The low crossover frequency must certainly play a role here. I am convinced that such a harmonious coexistence of highly different driver technologies cannot simply be calculated in simulation software. So I vividly imagine how countless listening sessions ticked away in Tuscany to achieve this in the best sense of the word catchy outcome.
Of course dipole depiction of space is special. The makeup of our room and its acoustics now play a greater role. In my well not excessively damped room set up clear of the walls and with my chair at just over 2½ meters, this cast a stage less precise than my Sehring or Wilson but raised it up and depending on recording also extended it farther beyond the speaker edges. Just so the guitar, steel drum, cornet and saxophone on Robert Wyatt's "On the Town Square" from Comicopera remained in their traditional places including the centre image which was cleanly defined by short chord progressions of the guitar. In addition to image size, the detachment of sounds from physical origins created a free-floating panorama for a truly involving spatial illusion free of all box-talk remnants.
True, studio monitors work different but after "On the Town Square" it was downright difficult for me to switch back to my classic box speakers. 'More real' isn't always 'more gripping'. The dynamic gradations of the ATS0 directly tracked the output levels of the wind instruments and if you don't sit effortlessly concentrated and spellbound on the listening sofa, you might actually have to get your health checked by a doctor.
Let's unpack this picture for contra indications. If you primarily long for lush sonorous timbres or hope to indulge in melting with what's musically offered, you have to reckon with incompatibilities. Likewise for flat response freaks. If on the other hand you want to free yourself from any box sound and experience dynamics not just classified as 'even better' but actually conjuring up a live feel, you should embrace the Airtech with delight. Since resolution too eludes the usual evaluation criteria, it's not just about more peas to count but the next level where we learn exactly what our peas are made of. This was most conducive to subjective playback realism and all most stress-free listening despite the very serious speed and precision on tap. It's likely because such unfettered clarity reduces unnecessary interpolation work between our ears to cause less fatigue from constant if subliminal wetware computing.
