Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Vienna Acoustics Haydn Speakers by James Mancini

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Looking for a solution to the ever-recurring problem of mid-priced hi-fidelity in a limited space, I happened upon a pair of these little gems at my dealer's showroom.

First impressions: Build quality is excellent, with very nice real-wood veneers on all sides, and a large metal plate on the back, housing the crossover and two gold-plated 5-way binding posts. The serial numbers are hand-written on the back panel, a nice homey touch. I bought the black to cheap out a few bucks and match my decor better, but the rosewood finish is stunning (see picture). They are also available in Beech, which I didn't get to see.

The woofers are "XPP Cones" although what that is I can't fathom. They appear to be made of a transparent plastic-like material with a slightly rough texture. You can see right through them to the spider and surround, which appear to be made of black metal, with large rubber surrounds (this thing has some serious extension for such a little woofer!). The supplied grills are a very fine and soft mesh, and appear to impart no significant coloration. There is a sizable, tapered port on the back of the cabinet. The cabinets are solidly constructed and heavy, and are unresponsive to knuckly rapping.
Upon hooking them up, I discovered that the 5-way binding posts are far too fat for use with any reasonably sized spade lug. This is the audiophile trend, I suppose, since I seem unable to find any modern equipment that a "regular" spade lug will fit. The speakers are not bi-wirable, and according to the nicely-done instruction book that accompanies them, "Our crossovers are configured as an organic whole, intended to optimize every known aspect of driver integration." The manual continues in this tone for several pages managing to impart some useful information in the process about recommended placement, toe-in, amplification, etc.

Well, enough of that, what about the sound?

My dealer had these speakers wired to Krell 300i and a Krell CD player with some moderate sized cables (I forgot to note the type, but they were slightly smaller than a garden hose). The sound was dynamic and transparent, and I had to check more than once to see if there was a sub attached! There was amazing bass extension for such a little speaker. I was struck by the "naturalness" of the sound - it was very realistic, and I found myself listening to the music, and ignoring the speakers - a very good sign!

After taking them home, some frquency sweep testing actually showed a significant in-room bass response down to about 30hz(!). In my room, the speakers are very near a corner, which undoubtably helps: A cabinet this small shouldn't make such bass. In my small room where these speakers live, they produce surprising dynamics; I was actually startled a few times with recordings that had previously been uninvolving. As an aside, I listen nearfield, about 30" from the speakers, with the speakers about 32" apart at ear-level (they sit on my elevated desk riser).

I find the mid range to be very natural and transparent, among the best I've heard from non-electrostatics (my main system employs the excellent Martin-Logan SL3). The treble is slightly laid-back, but with a lot of zing when required. They produce a very soft and musical sound with warm electronics, but I am under the impression they would not be kind to poor electronics; after about a month of living happily with these little gems, I replaced my beloved NAD 314 amplifier with a Jolida 502B tube amplfier. A slightly "tizzy" and bright high-end became evident. The lack of this effect on the NAD electronics leads me to believe that it is an artifact of the not-yet-broken-in Jolida, and I did not consider it here.

I listened to a variety of music, from Tom Waits to Suzanne Vega, Cowboy Junkies, REM, Don Ross, even some hard-rocking tunes from Offspring. The speakers were very well behaved (unlike my dog), displaying control and finesse when called for, and cutting loose and jamming when that was needed. On the beautiful and detailed recording of Sara K's "Miles Away" from the Chesky CD "Closer than they appear," she practically came through the speakers into the room. Offspring rocked, but the limitations of that mix above 16Khz are very obvious, indeed; Not too painful to listen to, but definately revealing of poor recordings.

The laid-back high-end makes for fatigue-free listening, even nearfield.

If you haven't already gathered, I like these speakers a lot. I compared them to several others in the price range (Dynaudio Audience, JosephAudio RM7). These sounded better to me: The Dyn's were too analytical, the Josephs were nice but not quite as "clean" a sound. I found most speakers in this price range too large for my office space. After considerable searching of the <$500 price range as well, I found these to be the best for my purposes: Gentle, musical, space-efficient, and sharp looking; and at only twice my intended budget for my office system (this is actually pretty good compared to what I usually do on audio equipment :-).

The speakers seem easy to drive to very loud levels; I prefer to preserve my hearing (I suffer from occasional tinnitus from a stint in an artillery regiment and need to be careful), but the speakers manage to keep a coherent image even at loud volumes using relatively low-power amplifers (the NAD was 35W, the Jolida 60W).

The specs are hard to find on-line, so I'll include them here:
Impedance - 6 Ohms (nominal)
Frequency Response - 42 Hz to 20 kHz
Sensitivity - 89 dB
Recommended Amplification - 25 to 180 Watts
Dimensions (W/H/D) - 6.7" x 13.6" x 10.2"

REVIEW: Vienna Acoustics Haydn Speakers Review by James Mancini at Audio Asylum