One pallet, four weather-proofed cartons. After having shipped to Sweden on a misapplied label, delivery and unpacking were uneventful. An hour later I had sound. I set up the woofers facing out. I fed them by 6m RCA interconnects off our Vinnie Rossi L2 Signature linestage which ran Elrog ER50 direct-heated triodes. The well-proven Bakoon AMP-13R drove the widebanders.

Barely visible atop our Pass Labs XA-30.8, it was actually the 25wpc Bakoon with its attenuator bypassed which played.

Using test tones to save time dialing in the subs, these settings reflect the initially most linear in-room balance in my seat. Unlike many of its kind, Cube's active bass was 100% hum and noise free. As you can see, these particular plate electronics may run in augmentation or filter mode. In the latter case, one loops in/out via RCA and sets the right-most control of the high-pass filter anywhere between 50-150Hz. I used augmentation mode to run the mains wide open as intended.

With only 30 hours on the clock, I'd have to book another 170 before making final adjustments. Particularly the Sub Crossover might come down in frequency. But instant purity at very high resolution and with seamless integration of very well-damped bass without overhang or any boom whatsoever were all off to a very good start.

Next we see Polish flower power in close-up to demonstrate the two whizzer petals of the 8-inch Neo driver. Why anyone living outside industrial clean rooms would want high-gloss black is beyond me—it's impossible to keep free of dust, finger prints and swirl marks—but it's clearly popular enough for Cube to enthusiastically cater to. The audience of Camerton and Voxativ widebanders has the same taste. Piano gloss black is very much the currently hip thing. That I personally far prefer the white lacquer of our Nenuphar is entirely beside the point. Choices are all about friendly disagreement.

One day after Cube's delivery, 8mm audiolab's enormous Linga showed up on a pallet stacked man-high. With no room to set them up other than downstairs and longer storage out of the question given winter temps and high humidity in our box barn, the Poles said hi and good-bye. Then they hoofed and heaved it upstairs for their break-in. Since I can't run any speakers 24/7, that would take at least two weeks.

Clear by immediate contrast? Their sealed direct-driven woofers created none of the room issues and ringing bloat which the ported woofers of Linga set off in the very same downstairs location. On bass speed, linearity and articulation, the half-sized Polish solution utterly dominated the 2-meter Lithuanians. Bigger was worse. Whilst Linga's €25'000/pr tag put them on close par with the Cubes, their doubled-up passive bass artillery of dual 12ers, each with its own rear-firing port, proved problematic. And unlike Nenuphar Mini, they couldn't go upstairs.