For starters, the P-17's downstairs department had strictly additive value. It wasn't overbearing on quantity. Once both speakers had found their happy place in the room, there was zero boom. As soon as one gets used to this, it's very hard to look back. The very bottom had a lot of energy without emphasis intrusion on the higher bands. It's why the P-17 bass had proper shove and exceptional agility alike. Again, cubits of energy rushed at me which I found most enjoyable. The membranes moved with such ease that even the most difficult and complex bass shifts came off in an instant. To witness dynamic contrasts this clearly was nothing short of spectacular. My usual bass workout revolves around tribal, folk, ethnic and soundtrack music by Wardruna, Smadj, Alan Silvestri and the lot. Each and every time, the P-17 demonstrated proper downstairs attitude with no questions asked. Its bass behaved like the proverbial chameleon. It could be exceptionally agile, punchy and contoured. When the situation demanded, it could be slower, thicker and fuzzier as well. Still, a scenario where it got too watery never arose. On the contrary, some mellower bass-heavy music showed off fitter than with my reference semi-transmission line Boenicke W8.

Tough texturally complex and fast, that the W8 would have smaller bass came hardly as a surprise. The P-17 exerted much grander slam, substance and density. It was audibly feistier and bigger if far less elastic with the Sanders 2-piece combo which proved overkill. The FirstWatt F7 fixed that stiffness and skimpy texturing and injected missing fat under the already agile tissue which led to a very satisfying outcome. With 300B SET amplifiers this aspect would have been elevated even more I think. So the P-17 appreciated denser company. It should sing with everything but there was a substantial difference between the Sanders Sound Systems Magtech amp/preamp and FirstWatt F7. The Trilogy 925 should have fallen somewhere in-between yet didn't. It toned down the P-17 a bit but made the outcome even heavier than Nelson's F7. While the bass slowed down slightly, even greater authority was the reward. The FirstWatt already is a champ here which acts like a much more powerful brick than it really is. But with the P-17's mega woofer, the English integrated went to even weightier and more substantial lengths.

To hear bass slam this powerful, well-controlled, thick and saturated was an incredible experience. It's a rare thing to hear Colin Stetson's bass saxophone ("To See More Light") so massive. Not many speakers I know would pull it off so brilliantly. This wasn't artificial no matter the scenario. Yet I saw how denser electronics elevated the experience. The rest of the bandwidth behaved very civilized from the start to shun excess stiffness or dullness. The papery Dayton widebander as midrange was spot-on no matter the electronics. It served up vocals in very vivid and clear fashion. These speakers will sound withdrawn only when a recording demands it. Clearly there's a substantial voicing difference between Fiona Apple's "Container", Lorde's "Royals", Wardruna's "Kauna" and AC/DC's "Who Made Who". Key was how the P-17 sorted it all out easily and with clarity, colour and on-stage placement. There wasn't a shadow of doubt in my mind that Mr. Fikus wanted his first commercial speakers to be as informative as possible. Mission accomplished, case closed.

We should consider vividness another great attraction. Blixa Bargeld sounded convincingly calm and clear on "Sabrina" but to leave it at that would be poor sport. He sang as though right there in my listening room and a great bass line completed the picture. This was a one-man show and I had the golden ticket. Now let's visit the Raal case. This ribbon tweeter is amazing. First of all, it kept up with the other drivers. The treble was very informative, with generous weight and decays and no tizz or tinniness whatsoever. Treble quantity varied between amps. The Trilogy 925 was both softer but more substantial than the F7 but the overall quality stayed. "Gambling House Massacre" from Zatoichi OST showed a very delicate top-end finish but also exceptional presence and coherent integration. In fact this applied in general. This speaker was very coherent, with no emphasis on specific bands to suggest that Łukasz not only picked the right drivers but sewed them together nicely. I could flow with the music instead of focusing on certain parts. As far as the audible bandwidth went, there wasn't one bit that was tastier than the rest.