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The second presents itself almost at the same time - as soon as we notice that there is no subwoofer but a very big bookshelf speaker. I mean electronica. Discs from Jarré, Daft Punk, Kraftwerk & Co. grew wings. They sucked me into their world in a warm quite dynamic and always attractive way. This was interesting because with large ensembles where many instruments play in unison, these loudspeakers get a little lost and relax any analytical separation for larger sound spots. I think—though it’s mere supposition—that this is a function of combining a high-mass midband with exceptional stereophony. The latter is not about the creation of sharply separated virtual sources as we won’t get highly palpable voices. It's rather about scale and freedom.


This will be the first or second thing we notice. The Castle has a large sound also in terms of sheer space. I got used to this exceptional quality with my top Harbeth model but the Castle showed how this can be accomplished for far less money. I’ll repeat, this is not the kind of sound one gets from speakers like the German Physiks HRS 120 Carbon. This is a more massive and potent way of building up space. Take Jarré’s Beautiful Agony about orgasm for example. A characteristic female voice is heard just behind us while rhythm and melody are in the front. Yet we also hear a strong beautiful sound just behind our head. This of course is a counter phase trick but it’s the kind of thing the Castle renders in a very tasteful convincing way. Perhaps the combination of fullness, control, depth and a really large space bubble made electronica so exquisitely and incredibly involving.


So we have a saturated very dense midrange and bass brilliantly merged with it. In fact it’s hard to talk about those two bands separately. Here they have become a single entity. Bravo! But, we now have to note a certain trait which will define the electronics used with the Castle. The tweeter in the Howard S3—a very pleasant ‘un without pins and needles or sharpness—is really not a very high-quality specimen. The large cabinet, splendid craftsmanship and gorgeous sound almost force us to utter statements like "it should really cost twice as much". But I think we (I) must cure ourselves from that kind of thinking. Today everybody tries to have sensible manufacturing, meaning cost cutting wherever possible to invest into only in key parts. And this isn’t merely symptomatic for China.

In this recipe the tweeter is the cheapest ingredient. Its reverb is not very long and the attack is slightly hardened. This is why it sometimes attracts attention to itself not with sharpness but a harder texture that’s not present anywhere else. It's why I would recommend linear electronics to drive the Howard S3, perhaps even slightly warm ones. I then would not worry about undue overlap between the character of the amplifier and loudspeakers. This won’t be an issue. Good electronics and the Castle will support each other, not fight. The loudspeakers are not very resolving or selective but even a warm tube amplifier—this can be divine!—won’t muddy up the sound. This will never become a boomy soggy sound.


Perhaps there won’t be too many details either but believe me, you won’t miss ‘em. These speakers offer something else instead - fullness, breath and depth. I would listen to them with a Music Hall 70.2, an Ayon Audio Orion II, Hegel’s H70 or the splendid Linear Audio Research IA-30T. I would think twice about using lower-power amps with small current output. In this case more is better. These are beautiful very well crafted speakers with a surprisingly even response. Their main assets are a brilliant midrange combined with fleshy bass, lack of annoying booming and rumbling and despite limited LF extension a wonderfully dense sound with exceptional stereophony. The drivers, especially the tweeter, are not the last word in resolution and selectiveness where Dynaudio for example goes much farther. Yet in terms of driver integration and their loading in this cabinet I give my full respect.