Studio Monitor Up3

Reviewer: Srajan Ebaen
Financial interests: click here
Main system: Sources: Retina 5K 27" iMac (4GHz quad-core with Turbo, 32GB RAM, 3TB FusionDrive, OSX Yosemite. iTunes 14.4), PureMusic 3.02, Audirvana 3, Qobuz, Tidal, Denafrips Terminator+ clock-synced to Gaia/Avatar, Soundaware D100Pro SD card transport; Preamp: Vinnie Rossi L2 Signature with Elrog ER50; Power amps: LinnenberG Liszt monos; Headamp: Kinki Studio; Phones: HifiMan Susvara; Loudspeakers: Audio Physic Codex; Cube Audio Nenuphar; Aurai Audio M1 [on loan]; Cables: Complete loom of Allnic Audio ZL; Power delivery: Vibex Granada/Alhambra on all source components, Vibex One 11R on amps, Furutech DPS-4.1 between wall and conditioners; Equipment rack: Artesanía Audio Exoteryc double-wide 3-tier with optional glass shelves, Exoteryc Krion and glass amp stands; Sundry accessories: Acoustic System resonators, LessLoss Firewall for loudspeakers, Furutech NCF Signal Boosters; Room: 4 x 6m with high gabled beam ceiling opening into 4 x 8m kitchen and 5 x 8m living room so no wall behind the listening chairs
2nd system: Source: Soundaware D300Ref SD transport; DAC: Denafrips Terminator; Preamp/filter: Passive Preamplifier icOn 4Pro SE w. custom 4th-order/40Hz hi-low pass; Amplifier: Crayon CFA-1.2; Loudspeakers:sound|kaos Vox 3awf, Zu Submission sub; Power delivery: Furutech GTO 2D NCF; Equipment rack: Hifistay Mythology Transform X-Frame [on extended loan];  Sundry accessories: Audioquest Fog Lifters; Furutech NFC Clear Lines; Room: ~4x6m
Desktop system: Source: HP Z230 work station Win7/64; USB bridge: Audiobyte Hydra X+; Headamp: Kinki Studio Vision THR-1; Phones: Audeze LCD-XC on Forza Audio Lab cable; Powered speakers: Fram Audio Midi 120
Upstairs headfi/speaker system: Source: Soundaware A280 SD transport; Integrated amplifiers: Schiit Jotunheim R or Bakoon AMP-13R; Phones: Raal-Requisite SR1a, Audeze LCD-2, Final Sonorous X & D8000, HifiMan HE-1000; Loudspeakers: Acelec Model 1
2-channel video system: Source: Oppo BDP-105; DAC: Kinki Studio; Preamp: Wyred4Sound STP-SE II; Power amp: Pass Labs XA-30.8; Loudspeakers: German Physiks HRS-120; Room: ~6x4m
Review component retail: $8'770/pr to $15'904/pr

Unobtainium. It's when the object of your affections slept with someone else and ain't coming back. It'd be silly of course to let sex be the decider. There's so much more to relationships. But replace sex with specs. People do it in hifi all the time. When it comes to actual unobtainium, today we learn that Hendry Ramli's 10th Anniversary Vermöuth Audio monitor is a limited edition of 10. Duh? By the time I got the memo, he had already sold six pairs. So peel away your lustful eyes from the above. Refocus on the image below.

Hello Studio Monitor. You even get one extra driver. Total Recall?

To begin with, this unlimited production speaker comes in five different levels of eroticism if you're a parts not personality wo/man. So the standard version gets Jantzen Std Z caps, RSS resistors and 16-gauge Crosscoils with OFC internal wire. Up1 [$9'252/pr] goes to Jantzen Superior Z caps, Superes resistors, 16AWG wax coils and OCC copper. Up2 [$9'634/pr] gets you Jantzen Silver Z caps, Duelund resistors, Jantzen 14-AWG wax coils and more OCC copper. Up3 [$11'125] upgrades to a full Duelund set of wax/paper copper-foil caps, tinned copper resistors and 12-gauge wax-paper copper-foil inductors. Wiring upgrades to Hendry's own OCC copper Black Pearl. Up4 [$15'904] makes the 1.75kHz crossover external and packs it with more Duelund goods – tinned copper-cast caps, cast silver resistors and 12-gauge full-cast inductors again with Black Pearl wiring.

So there's something for everyone's idea of sex appeal. What remains unchanged is the d'Appolito array. It has two Accuton C173 6.5" ceramic mid/woofers bracket a Raal 70-20XR AM ribbon tweeter in a gloss-black side-ported enclosure. In the back are Hendry's own terminals of rhodium over tellurium copper. The lot ships in a stout wooden crate from Ngurah Rai, Bali's international airport.

So what parts turn you on the most?

Coming off our racy horse, either model—the soon-to-be unobtainium and ongoing obtainium—stretches Hendry's brand ambitions in tandem with his cable range. That recently built out its Reference tier with speaker and USB cables. Now these gloss-black Studio Monitors step up and over the existing three speaker models into a no-compromise range.

Just how crazy rich the most exotic crossover parts can get we appreciate with the stretch from $8'770 to $15'904/pr between standard to most loaded iteration. It's only the filter and hookup bits which change. Here anyone with a parts fetish must use their imagination. These items remain invisible. It would be interesting to learn what parameters beyond cost clients will employ to decide which version to get. After all, who of us has experience with how these Jantzen and Duelund parts compare at the ear? Even if we did have some generalized notions, we couldn't be sure they'd apply to this particular crossover and speaker. I'll expect that buyers will ask Hendry on how he hears the sonic progression. I know that's what I'd do. So let's.