At the AVS, Frigg 02 had sounded immensely powerful, immediate, clean, thunderous, quick, fresh, radiant, spatially large and overall exceptional given sub-optimal show conditions. This high-performance MO tailored for dynamic and spatial scale with overall ease was the benchmark I aimed for in own listening cave. Past unpacking, speaker positioning was the first order of business quickly sorted. Bottom-firing ports have their advantages. Frigg 02 was fairly happy about little clearance but still happier with ½m distance to the side/front walls. Now bass balance was spot on. A gentle toe-in locked all images in place. Almost all was peachy. There was just one tiny kink I had to iron out. Frigg 02 connected to my Trilogy monos set to zero-feedback class A produced a fairly calm, slow, soft and round sound nowhere near the Ø Audio show experience. 55wpc and low two-figure damping are why the 995R amps work wonders with purist widebanders. In the context of their efficient kind that enjoys minimal damping, Frigg 02 had the exact opposite needs to sound its best. It's why my FirstWatt and Enleum specimens weren't up to the task. Luckily I had just the trick to largely meet today's demands. When biased into class AB, my 995Rs quadruple their power and lower output Ω by the same factor. Their suspension gets stiffer, cruise mode disengages, turbo kicks in and RPM redline. Frigg 02 enjoyed this class AB drive far more to create sound significantly closer to the AVS blueprint. I wasn't quite there which would have meant an amp of even higher damping but close enough to hear what this speaker is meant to do. I think that it would get on very well with class D. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Very high output power and very low output impedance are the topology's inherent traits. I'm not so sure about tube amps so leave such combinations to other reviewers.

Upon moving from class A to AB, some richness, seductiveness and imaging precision usually trade for raw horsepower. This time it was well worth it. On this rugged diet, Frigg 02 revealed itself as extremely gifted on all downstairs business. Although Ø Audio don't specify at what attenuation they measure 29Hz, in my room their speaker dug far deeper than most floorstanders I've hosted. Here I mean the guttural rumble that's primarily felt in the chest. With such a useful foundation, Frigg shows the stiff Johnny Cash salute to any subwoofer and quite frankly shocked given its footprint. More importantly, with sufficient amp control its upper bass aka the usual culprit of room talk and overdone bloom dialled nicely down so the entire bass package remained articulate, ripped, quick and packed with heft and colour. Gorgeous. When listening to Hans Zimmer's "Mombasa" covered by 2Cellos, that unmistakable impression of a design armed with significantly larger woofers and higher efficiency was acutely present.

Frigg 02's effortless authority made for silly-good bass and impressive imaging. Limited in-room interaction reduced spatial blur and resulting confusion. That boosted clarity, dynamic range and soundstage size. These traits further elevated with the midrange's open-backed dispersion. As far as perceived gush and imaging go, dipole designs have a clear upper hand over conventional speakers. At first glance Frigg 02 too seems conventional but the cleverly open twist on the top of its rear panel follows more unusual protocol. If fiendish bass response was one ace up its sleeve, its dipole mids were another major asset that paid out in freshness and spatial freedom. These are my two explanations why this floorstander made music feel so big, bold, direct, zesty, caffeinated, electric and alive. As such it didn't say no to heavy hitters on my playlist. It thrived on such jobs and did what my Vox monitors won't ever do without external assistance. On that note, the recently reviewed sound|kaos Vibra 30 footers [below right] greatly elevated Frigg 02's sound quality. So I think that this speaker really deserves proper isolators. The Vibra added 12mm height and was a perfect mechanical and visual fit.

In terms of tonal balance, Frigg 02's potent bass heavily contributed to its grounded somewhat earthy profile while the ranges above injected sunshine and air. The result was nicely balanced, highly listenable, engaging and even great for calm music. Although Frigg 02 likes to rock, its arsenal of sonic means worked very well with soothing instrumental and vocal tracks of smoothness, charm and dignity. I had no complaints. My Vox do more for me with enveloping imaging and audible suchness and I'm willing to bet that Ø Audio's Icon 12 and Verdande slap even harder but that's not really relevant in the grand scheme. Just like Icon before it, Frigg 02 exceeded its visual profile. Icon already gave me a firm idea of the type sound Sveinung Mala enjoys. The company's new Icon 12 and Verdande clearly embody the same so one might assume that the visually more mainstream Frigg 02 adopts a different tuning. In many ways it does but Sveinung used non-standard means to make it so. Bass beyond reach of most similarly sized competitors and dipole virtues from an elegantly modest frame make Ø Audio's Frigg 02 a major overachiever. This much raw performance squeezed from a quite inconspicuous speaker meant for regular living spaces is really impressive. Some may find that puzzling, others unexpected. Either way, the result is true entertainment and most definitely worth an audition. Job well done!