Just about every aspect of the range-topping TAG McLAREN F1 avant garde speakers  requires you to think again,from the shape to the construction to the jaw dropping price.these speakers cost 14,000 pound a pair or,in the special pearl white finish of the review pair you see here,15000 pound. 

They weigh 65kg apiece ,and while they’re smaller than they tend to look in pictures,at just on 1.3m tall,their depth and curvaceous form means they need space to breathe.what’s more ,while the company claims the speakers,with 87.5db/w/m sensitivity and 60hm nominal impedance,are happy with a minimum amplifier power of just 15w, we wouldn’t suggest them as the ideal partner for that single-ended valve amplifier. Indeed, they respond best to electronics with serious welly and bags of current in reserve.

We’re sure it won’t cause any ructions at TAG McLAREN audio HQ in Huntingdon if we say that the F1 avantgarde speakers are more a precursor of what’s to come from the company rather than ideal for use with it’s current electronics line-up. We certainly wouldn’t consider driving them with the present  F3 series amplification, even though the power amps would seem to be up to the job, at least on paper- we stuck with our trusty KRELL CD / pre/ power combination for this test, making use of the 300w per channel output power on tap. The TMA F1 amplification, due later this year ,will be more in line with what the speakers need.

There’s more on the design and construction of the speakers in our STYLE and SUBSTANCE panel, but the first thing you’re likely to notice about them, apart from the outlandish styling, is the fact that the speakers ,despite being a three-and-a-half-way design, are equipped only for single –wired use. The company says it looked long and hard at the benefits of biwiring and other multiple connection systems,and came to the conclusion that such an approach brought no real benefits. However, the modular nature of the crossover, mounted along with lead ballast in the speaker’s base, means it will be possible to adapt it to active use at a later date if the company wants to.

Setting up the F1 speakers is no mean task, and in the WHAT HI-FI? Listening room took the better part of a day of adjustment, listening, marking positions on the floor, then another change and so on. As already mentioned, the speakers need room to breathe-the port for the low bass vents into the space between main enclosure and the plinth, while a rear-venting port tunes the upper bass. Then there are the weights: the bass driver can be tuned using a choice of them bolted to its centre, increasing the mass here reducing the bass response. In our listening room, which is occasionally prone to over-excitement with speakers giving serious low-end clout, the heaviest weights did the trick.

Toeing the speakers in and tuning them to the room was a long job, but very much worthwhile: set up about right the F1s sound impressive ,but getting them <dialled in> just right brings the        performance up to jaw-dropping, spine-tingling, what else have we got to play?’ levels.

Quite simply these big  and complicated speakers image like nothing  else we’ve ever heard, and offer a directness of communication with the music that eludes many a simpler design. That’s the mark of great engineering : too often multiway speakers  seem to have too much design time spent solving one problem while creating another, with the result that the construction – and the sound- seems like a  conglomeration  of compromises. At best , the sound doesn’t  hang together too well; at worst  it’s all too easy to hear the drive units handing over to each other. There are no such problems here.

A  varied programme of music has been put through the F1s during their time with us, from the sparkling jazz of Dee Dee  Bridgewater’s live at yoshi’s set  to the scintillating superstar blues of BB KING and ERIC CLAPTON’S riding with the king, and from PETER GABRIEL’S complex ovo to the simplicity of solo piano. And every time the F1s have thrilled us with the scale of the music they deliver – not just the hugeness of an orchestra or the blast of  electric guitars on the king and CLAPTON set ,but the natural weight they deliver even with a solo voice or instrument.

And the focus they offer is amazing!  Quite apart from the glorious instrumental timbres singing out from thin air between, around and beyond the speakers, the most  magical thing is the way the presence of a performer is delineated, and remains locked in position. Close your eyes and you can visualise  where the performer is placed, while the way a voice is fixed  even against  lush strings or, as on the DEE DEE  Bridgewater disc, against seriously enthusiastic drums, is quite startling.  In fact, these are speakers to have you wondering just  what the forthcoming multichannel sound formats will bring to the party, so spacious and three- dimensional is the sound on offer.

Yes, the F1s will rock hard, and drive to levels to amaze – provided, of course, your amp is up to the job- but  even more impressive is their attack, their precision, their sheer realism. Listen to a bass guitar or drums, or the interweaving  guitars of  GOD and the BLUES BOY, and we’d defy you not to be moved by what  these speakers can do; change the style to some massive attack,  orchestral music and they’ll blow out the walls of your room and present a totally credible impression of massive musical forces arranged before you.

Finesse in bucketloads comes as part  of the deal, even amid a huge orchestral sound : if the microphones and the recording engineer caught the most subtle tap of percussion or the tiniest  figure in the woodwind, the avantgarde  F1 speakers will deliver it. It’s a presentation the listner soon comes to take for granted, revelling in it until it becomes the  norm. and that’s the point when going back to any other speakers will prove quite a wrench.

CONCLUSION

TAG McLAREN’S F1 AvantGardes are breathtaking speakers, and they prove beyond doubt that their amazing  shape is no gimmick, but rather form following function. Well, almost : we’re sure the need to make them grab the attention before a note is played wasn’t  exactly a million miles from the designers’ minds!

If only we had 15,000 pounds to drop on a pair of speakers, and about the same to get suitable partnering equipment, be assured we wouldn’t hesitate for a moment. Life’s so unfair sometimes, isn’t it?

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