With that lay of the land, we now move to Buchardt's E50. When positioned a half meter from the front wall, I had instant overkill bass. This was welcome. The clearly necessary extra distance promised a major hike in soundstage depth. 1½m plus gentle toe-in nailed it. Some speakers with rear-firing radiators had wanted more boundary coupling in this space before like Gradient's 6.2 floorstanders. The E50 did not. Even without such support it introduced itself as a well-hung hefty performer which some may read as a politically correct way to describe a speaker with overdone bass. Not. Sufficient clearance prevented excess and effectively primed well-defined hard slaps with obvious ease. Feisty tracks at party SPL communicated that. While the E50 hit high-RPM gear when needed, dug remarkably low but remained composed no matter what, relaxation, copperish hues, juiciness, spatial boldness, thick outlines, softness and sensuality made up its core voicing. This was one playful fatigue-free speaker!

That kind of psych profile comes natural when bass is the foundational force that drives all else. Yet my own hardware contributed to the E50's atmospheric sonics. The Trilogy 995Rs' fairly high output impedance meant that their control over the Danish speakers was rather low. Monitors like this tend to fancy higher damping and output power. My monos only provided the latter. Meanwhile most class D amps would cover both bases so could be today's silver bullet. I'm certain that now things would have sounded leaner, even quicker, more contoured, oxygenated, radiant and sporty. Not that I felt shorted. In my system the E50 did very well on detail, image precision and complexity, eloquence, tactility, treble, staging and vividness. While its thicker core may have suggested otherwise, it didn't cross over into the murky in the least. While I appreciated how relaxed and effortless it was for the most part, how it tapped into seemingly endless power reserves and stiffened its suspension on naughty tracks impressed even more. When the usual signs of struggle don't register, big ballsy effortless sound from a handsome compact has that effect. While that was a major perk, the Dane's ability to instantly change pace and mood as per the music on my menu and do so in style was its strongest asset.

After several days with the E50 exclusively, combat against my Vox3 was in order. It's accurate to say that these two speakers had nothing in common. While admirable on bass considering its tiny footprint, the Swiss was nowhere near as ripped, grounded, majestic and deep. That alone had a major impact on how their individual profiles registered. As usual, my resident was predominantly lean, quick, shiny, illuminated, precise, fresh, insightful, nimble and spatially enveloping. The visitor was a fair bit calmer, more voluptuous, cloudy, tonally warm, dense, earthy and on imaging not quite as layered and meticulous. Chalk and cheese. This comparison reiterated how competing with quality widebanders on their own turf is anything but easy, let alone outclassing them. I just don't see how any conventional monitor could beat the Vox3's imaging. While such a feat would probably demand an even more sophisticated widebander, it doesn't diminish what the E50 managed to do. At the end of the day, this is a very approachable, finessed and artfully tuned speaker that performs on a very high level. Considering how brilliantly it portrays scale, might and shove particularly on heavy music, most listeners will find it thoroughly entertaining and positively surprising. Let's wrap.

The two Buchardt speakers I previously reviewed aimed primarily at regular consumers looking for reasonably priced high performance. While the company's E50 still fits this profile, its exemplary build, posh Oak exterior, top-shelf components and great sonics will attract seasoned audiophiles as well. Most importantly, it sells for significantly less than what we'd expect from such ingredients yet feels like a luxurious statement that also acts it on the most relevant count. That's my takeaway. Props to Mads & Co. for landing this awesome speaker set and showing us how much can really be done in its price range whilst being built entirely in Denmark.