White Lotus. Unlike the lecherous, deviant, entitled and variously addicted rich holidaymakers of the eponymous HBO series, my Polish tourists were impeccably well behaved and dressed. Travelling in two crates stacked and strapped to a standard pallet, I can't see damage danger other than getting speared by a drunk forklift operator or dropped from on high by the same silly chap. A heavy pallet of course tends to avoid such mishaps in the first place. With clear instructions taped to the outside of the crates, speakers sleeved in cloth covers, drivers protected beneath solid plates, S-shaped hex key and frottee cloth included, isolation footers in a separate box, unpacking was a cinch for your single owner/operator. With my revolving reviewer's doors, these incoming visitors met an outgoing trio of Lindemann widebander boxes in the hallway. The departing freight had made sufficient space in the bathroom turned box+tools storage to house Cube's big crates with their convenient strap handles properly indoors.

A black permanent grill now shields the speaker's bottom opening from egg-laying spiders and other critters looking for a home. With the clearance created by the tall IsoAcoustics footers, access would otherwise be child's play. As I said, this white Lotus is a well-behaved tourist to bore that TV cast to tears. Ireland of course has many Polish expats who enjoy a terrific reputation as reliable hard workers particularly with building contractors. Cube's latest looked all set to continue that happy tradition.

In the listening room, kit inbound and outbound collided as well. With a new higher listening chair, I'd recently raised plus tilted back the IQ from sister brand Qualio to realign its ivory-coloured widebander with my pink bits. With the Lotus widebander sitting higher, it needed no insoles or heels. But this juxtaposition shows how Lotus 10 isn't a compact box by any stretch. Though of narrower profile than the squatter IQ, it's taller and significantly deeper.

The first box to tick was fuel: super unleaded or regular? My usual 250-watt monos proved sub optimal. Great. I'd have disliked to promote something which already on paper made less sense. It also did in real life. Whilst there was no issue with noise, tonally things felt pinched and overdamped. In the bass and with its control at '0' however, I had ideal tonal balance, extension and control.