Step 6. With all good things being six, we've arrived at the end. Sailing Move solo with my bass traps engaged got too lean in this bigger space. Defeating my hi-tech but pricey Swiss marvels restored proper tonal balance. High above the ground, Norbert's small drivers and their port emissions caused no detrimental issues but were really grateful for free room gain. As in the smaller upstairs space, once again Move proved extended enough for the vast majority of my library. Whilst I expect this to arch doubtful eyebrows, take it from a subwoofer guy who knows his 40Hz from his 25Hz. With quick lively ancillaries and matching cabling, the superhero was back on the prowl. I actually preferred this to Groove mode. Whilst I gave up some obvious bass extension and weight—and if I listened louder, the dynamic range and distortion-lowering gains of the 100Hz high pass would pull ahead—still greater immediacy and lucidity had my vote.

On Track Audio stands with HifiStay decouplers.

These compact boxes of basic looks and low mass not priced like Raidho or Børresen exotica defy expectations. They throw a wall-to-wall panorama of capacious depth and enjoy a sufficiently even tonal balance that only misses the bottom octave. Against my usual champagne diet of Qualio's IQ below, Move was far from slumming. Wearing my critical cap across its bandwidth, I primarily noted diminishments in dynamic scale, airiness and bass damping versus the usual three-ways. But soon the musical breezes blew that itchy cap off to leave me with just the tunes. To sidestep more repetition, let's segue back to my fairaudio colleague. His key phrases were "quick as an arrow"; "direct to ear"; and the i-gen word of "i-mmediacy" coupled to a lighter tonal balance without upper-bass love handles or a spot-lit treble. That already nailed it. Like he said. Which gets us at a Zoom chat with Norbert & Christopher that filled in tech details I was still hazy on.

The Groove's active woofer sits on top and is an 8Ω/8" SB Acoustics unit. The 8" passive radiator close to the floor just fills in below 50Hz and should aim out. With a low Q of 0.5 between 35-litre box and driver, a 2nd-order high pass on the woofer raises the Q to the necessary value for the desired response and damping. Two active woofers in this cubic volume wouldn't go low enough whilst a port would cause graver time-domain issues than a low passive radiator. Aside from the 100Hz single-cap 1st-order high pass on the docked Move, there's this shelving filter at 850Hz to linearize widebander amplitude. Without Groove, that compensation disappears. It's what caused the forwardness I heard on massed vocals in the octave above middle C which vanished in active docked mode.

According to Norbert, his highly compressed Swiss CDF material is stiffer even than aluminium yet with his deliberately thin 12mm Move walls exhibits far lower energy storage than ubiquitous MDF or HD would. The internal foam liner is active between 300-600Hz to cancel remaining box resonance. After having experimented with an SB Acoustics aluminium mid/woofer, Norbert fell in love with the Alpair's time domain and lack of stored energy as he tracked it with pink noise. He then spent a few years perfecting its enclosure. Whilst looking basic, it's unexpectedly finessed to even out certain amplitude response variations. With his love for early Braun electronics, he deliberately eschewed modern 'boat hull' builds. And though detractors will point at the Alpair's lack of a spider as a sure-fire longevity issue, Norbert's prototype not run at demure SPL still goes strong after four years. The driver's voice coil too is special and implements certain tricks from the white cone of Yamaha's famous studio monitor.

Conclusion. Lindemann's Move is a compact, shockingly broadband monitor. Headphone enthusiasts will adore it. Classic audiophiles already way up the high-end food chain to roam as apex predators must hate it. It accomplishes more with radically less than they've pursued. That's a bitter pill to swallow. Measurement freaks into flat amplitude will give Move a wide berth because theory says that it can't possibly work. Then the driver's bending-wave aspects would really rattle their brains. It's listeners educated by quality headfi—on what proper time-domain fidelity without resonance and energy storage sounds like—that should flock to it like a Taylor Swift concert. Move makes their kind of sound then takes it out of the bony skull cave into a normal-sized room where music can be shared with others on a larger scale. Just don't wait to first see its driver in high-end speakers from the usual suspects. It's not posh enough, its raw behaviour too uneven. To software-sim loudspeaker designers, these factors rule it right out. If broad visibility is your prerequisite, buy a speaker with Dynaudio or ScanSpeak drivers like my Acelec. Buy self assurance and up your audiophile cred rating.

Move is for folks who judge with their ears, reference the timing, clarity and speed of headphones then shop outside the high-end ghetto. They won't be put off by Move's absence of bling, by its low mass and unknown driver. True, they still won't understand how such a seemingly basic box can do what it does. I'm only slightly less confused because this wasn't exactly my first such rodeo. Hopefully the natural-born appreciators won't make such understanding their version of a typical audiophile prerequisite. Wherever prior understanding is mandatory, the Move won't move at all. Rock of Gibraltar. Unless we're seasoned Norbert-level engineers, we must accept some magic in making this decision. Cold hard reason alone won't seem to do it. I'm told that with Move Mini, even more tolerance is needed for wishful thinking which actually delivers. The Munich show apparently rattled many a head on the Mini score. Once the new Woodnote Combo is in formal production, I'll get that threesome for more 'insulting' coverage. Arm the flame throwers. For now colour me most impressed with 'full-size' Move. To tie up an earlier thread, I really could retire with it in a much simplified system…