FOCUS/LOUDSPEAKERS

Cash? No thanks, I’d like a Czech!

Xavian XN 125

VERDICT Good grief. Amazing.

SUPPLIED BY Extraordinary AV (021) 552-0014

WEBSITE www.extraordinaryav.co.za

I love small speakers, so I ran these straight away and was immediately aware that we have something really special here. I had to take them out of the system shortly afterwards for a bit as I had some other speakers to review, but I was very keen on getting the XN125s back into place.

Why? You may well ask. And ask you may. However, ask not, is what I say, listen you must. Listen and definitely ask not!

And that, if I could leave it at that, would be the end of my review. But since I am not paid by the word, I have to waffle on about what these speakers sound like, how they react to music, their presence, etc., etc. – the usual check list that one goes through as a reviewer to try and give you, the wretched reader, a sense of what music is conveyed through a set of speakers.

Recall the Soliloquys from not so long ago? That was an amazing, if expensive speaker. From an amazement and involvement point of view, these are as close as dammit. Just different in their own way, and this is the wonderful thing about hi-fi. Anyone can hear anything and only a few things will turn them on. Some will be expensive, some will be cheap. And some will be Czech!

For me this is a tremendously exciting speaker. Let me attempt to explain why.

The starting point has got to be the bass. I have been accused of being bass biased and it’s not true. Inches are not everything (those who don’t have them would seem to think otherwise), but with a 130 mm mid bass driver in an enclosure that is 275 x 180 x 285 mm, you would be forgiven for thinking that these speakers might suffer from a little bass envy.

Not so! I was stunned by the response that I got from them mounted on my faithful Eagle Audio speaker stands. Perhaps my room has something to do with it but the speakers were not close to the back wall - in fact they were quite well forward, about two foot away and well away, over four foot, from the side walls. But the bass response was amazing. I had a sealed box subwoofer in the system at the time and I am not joking when I say that I had to check if the thing was on or not.

That’s actually a tribute to the sub – look out for it in an upcoming review – but it also says volumes for the XN 125s. Those little drivers work overtime and you don’t need a big amp to get a lot out of them. They respond eagerly and convincingly and it became a good party trick to ask people to try and guess how deep my sub was reaching, without it even being turned on. Unbelievable stuff.

But bass issues aside, I do think I got lucky in that my room and my stands suit the speakers. Don’t expect the same from your system. What you can expect though is a room full of music that is accurate, sweet, on the money each and every time and completely enthralling.

You have to be careful. These speakers will destroy a less than standard system and a bad source will be tantamount to musical carnage: they are that revealing. Being light and easy to drive means to a certain extent that you will get a measure of the bad stuff in your system being exposed more than it might normally be. Don’t blame the speaker, look elsewhere. I certainly had to. Seldom have I heard my Harman Kardon 1400 being put down so ruthlessly into its place, and this is an amp I know intimately and love to bits!

85 dB sounds a little low for an overall level and a difficult load for an amp. But these are bi-wireable speakers and I strongly suggest you go that route, as it opens up the tops a little more whilst defining the mids an extra touch. And all the amps I hooked up to these speakers had no trouble whatsoever. They do seem to break all the rules, do the XN 125s.

Forget about the time aligned sloped front baffles. Forget the build quality, the size, the binding posts, the hand crafting from top to bottom (excluding the drivers), everything. None of it is important and the unimpressive spec sheet even less so. What counts is what these speakers sound like, and they are nothing short of the find of the year this far.

William Kelly

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