I asked Kee how Colin had signed off on the Progeny for going into production.
"Colin was excited to release the Progeny," Kee affirmed. "He had finalized both the sound and physical design and was waiting for the final prototype to receive its cabinet polish. Sadly, Colin died before this occurred but I know how pleased he'd have been with the finished product."


I'd bet of course that Kee was intimately familiar with the sonic priorities and sound Colin valued. Did the Progeny incorporate all of these?
"Colin had been working on a smaller model of our flagship product, the Paragon, for some time. His desire for a neutral sound with a smooth and rich midrange, expansive soundstage and dynamic bass response have all been achieved in the Progeny."

As a newer design, I wondered what aspects of the Progeny set it apart from the Paragon.
"Whilst the Paragon was Colin's pride and joy, he understood that not everyone had the space to accommodate such imposing speakers. The Progeny, which means 'descendant', was Colin's attempt at delivering exceptional sound quality in a more compact form. The subwoofers of both the Progeny and Paragon are independent of the treble, midrange and bass drivers. However, the Progeny has fewer drivers and a smaller subwoofer than its antecedent. The Progeny has one midrange and one bass driver compared to the double midrange and bass drivers of the Paragon. The Paragon features a separate cabinet to house its subwoofer, the Progeny's subwoofer forms part of the main cabinet and is isolated in an internal compartment. The Progeny's subwoofer is similar to our top-end Signature Impact2 subwoofer while the Paragon's is a push/pull design. The subwoofer low-pass for both models is 80Hz."

The Progeny are usually delivered in large wooden crates but Kee Whatmough and her partner John personally delivered my loaners, taking the opportunity to enjoy the World Heritage natural wonders and the accommodation and culinary delights of the Blue Mountains region where I reside. Unloading the speakers from the van, lifting them up the four steps onto the deck and through the front door to the listening room was a considerable exercise in logistics — they are heavy 80kg+ beasts. A pneumatic lift trolley and plastic conduit rollers were indispensable tools as was muscular brawn and the resultant nervous sweat beads. Minus the lift trolley, that's how the pyramids are said to have been built.

Cruise control. My recently acquired phenomenal Gryphon Antileon EVO amplifier was on duty for its inaugural review as part of the Kramer reference system. In the context of the Progeny's semi-active design, it would be more than comfortably cruising just driving the frequency spectrum from the mid bass on up. And indeed, the Progeny reveled in the way it communicated both components' qualities in the mids and highs. I was struck mostly by the separation and extraordinary detail the mid and tweeter drivers were able to resolve in a totally coherent non-brash manner.

It was obvious how these were large speakers but the inter-driver blend—most notably from the mid-bass on up all the way to the tweeter's extreme extension as far as I could hear it—was expertly unified to produce somewhat of a disappearing act in terms of tonal, imaging and soundstage fusion. The lower bass can be made to join the party in various ways. Its adjustability provides the possibility, if desired, for further excursions (pun intended) into all manner of subtleties or excesses. Acoustically, your room may demand a certain level of low frequency output and no more while your choice of music or just your mood at the time may determine the level of bass power desired in a given listening session. At the turn of a knob based on personal taste and enjoyment as an antidote to the philosophically untenable concept of accuracy (although, should you entertain that idea, the Progeny will comply there too), this speaker gives you choices.