Returning to my Bass Test playlist, the low end now sounded more like I expect. Those synth-bass notes in the James Blake tune moved some serious room air. The electric bass in the left channel of Aretha Franklin's cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (from ARETHA, Atlantic/Rhino, Qobuz 24/96 stream): same thing. And one of my favorites on the playlist, "Memphis Soul Stew" from King Curtis's King Size Soul (Atlantic/Rhino, Qobuz CD-resolution stream), sounded especially lively, with Tommy Cogbill's funky bassline punching out of the left speaker. The very bottom of the bass was never as firm and strong as through my B&W 808s, but I sat closer to the Andra 5s and that made up some of the difference. I was ultimately satisfied with the Andra 5s' low end.

These EgglestonWorks speakers excelled with my Imaging Test playlist (footnote 5). Los Lobos's "Kiko and the Lavender Moon" from Kiko (16/44.1 FLAC, Warner Bros./Qobuz) played with all the jagged details of each instrument, the clearly delineated two-voice vocals in the center. "Blue Nile," from Nature by Dave's True Story (16/44.1 FLAC, BePop Records/Qobuz), cast a wide, high, deep soundstage, with Kelly Flint's dream-hazy vocals carrying the day. The Andra 5s didn't paper over the late 1980s upper-midrange gloss on Southern Pacific's cover of Del Shannon's "I Go to Pieces" from County Line (16/44.1 FLAC, Warner Bros./Qobuz); it spotlighted every nuance of the group-harmony vocals. With Natalie Merchant's "The Peppery Man" from Leave Your Sleep (24/88.2 FLAC, Nonesuch/Qobuz), every voice was precisely placed in the soundstage, and the tuba and bass clarinet tonality was very realistic. Willie Nelson's voice on his cover of Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust," from the album of the same name (24/88.2 FLAC, Columbia/Qobuz), was less "whiskey and leather" than I expected, but his words were articulated and his guitar played in such a realistic way that it was as if he were 8' in front of me, between the speakers.

Backwaters by the Tony Rice Unit (Rounder/Craft CR00916), a genre of music Rice called "spacegrass," played punchy and peppy, emphasizing the group's masterful musicianship. The group's version of the jazz standard "On Green Dolphin Street" was particularly enjoyable. With its extended twin fiddle solos, the song led me to imagine Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs setting up shop in the Hot Club of Paris, jamming with Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli.

Once I got to know and understand the Andra 5s, they rewarded me with deeply revealing listening, bringing forth interesting details from favorite tracks.

The Andra 5 sound tends toward detailed and revealing. Recordings that can stand up to sharp focus and honest reproduction of their tonality will shine. Poor recordings may sound worse than they do through more forgiving speakers. EgglestonWorks' stated goal is "to re-create a musical experience so vividly and accurately that it evokes the same emotion as a live performance." The Andra 5s succeed at that if that emotion was captured in the recording.

Link do recenzji: Eggleston Andra 5 – Stereophile

I began my listening as I had with the Dianne -- with “Tall Trees in Georgia,” from Eva Cassidy’s Live at Blues Alley (CD, Blix Street 10046). The EgglestonWorks Diannes had captivated me with this track due to their amazing ability to create a deep soundstage in my room. Well, soundstaging turned out to be one of the Andra IIIs’ strong points as well. The larger speakers were able to re-create all the depth that the Diannes got so right, while also producing wall-to-wall width -- some of the widest I’ve heard in my room.

The Andras’ bass response was able to fully energize my room so that the acoustic space -- in the case of the Cassidy album, a jazz club -- was even more palpable: I could literally feel the dimensions of the physical space. With the Diannes, I was able to only imagine it. This is a clear example of why low-bass capability isn’t just important for reproducing bass instruments. You need deep bass to pressurize a room, something that’s absolutely critical when playing live recordings because the acoustic signature of the venue, be it club or concert hall or opera house, has so often been captured on the recording. The Andra III did deep bass, if perhaps not quite down to EgglestonWorks’ specification of 18Hz. In my room, the Andra III was 3dB down at 20Hz, which is very respectable. The bass was more round than ultratight, though this might depend somewhat on the room in which it’s used.

The ability of the Andra IIIs to position images on the soundstage was impressive in its specificity: aural images of instruments and voices were precisely spaced and placed between room center and right speaker, and room center and left speaker. Performing “These Bones,” from I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray (CD, Warner Bros. 46698), the singers of the Fairfield Four were positioned in a wide arc across the stage. In terms of dimension of soundstage, the Andra IIIs were as adept as any pair of speakers ever deposited in the Music Vault.

The midrange wasn't just good with vocals. Jim Brickman’s “Generations,” from Songs Without Words: A Windham Hill Collection (CD, Windham Hill 11212), was smooth and continuous -- his acoustic piano was reproduced with excellent clarity and tonal neutrality. It wasn’t ultradetailed or spotlit at any particular frequency that I could detect, but it was simply beautiful in the naturalness of its sound.

To sum up the Andra III in a phrase, it was wholly listenable. The Andra III didn’t sound like a product designed to win awards for technical precision; it sounded like a speaker that music lovers can kick back with and enjoy over the long haul. I found I could listen to my best recordings and get a healthy dose of overall high fidelity, along with extension at the frequency extremes, but that I could also enjoy most any album, regardless of engineering pedigree. The midrange was the most neutral aspect of the Andra III’s sound, and with good recordings, that’s where it shone. When I put on something recorded by David Chesky or the folks at 2L, I heard a palpable, richly figured midband that delivered the magic we all want to experience from our audio systems.

What also set the Andra III apart from other systems I’ve recently heard in my room was its ability to throw a magnificent soundstage. Some folks over the years have dismissed this trait when compared with such significant areas of sound reproduction as tonality and dynamic range, but when I heard the Andra IIIs cast a soundstage that gave me the breadth and scale of a live performance in my listening room, I just couldn’t ignore how simply enjoyable that experience is. I’m not really sure what in the speaker’s design accounts for this ability, but I sure did appreciate it in the listening.

Link do recenzji: Eggleston Andra III – UltraAudio

Link: Eggleston Andra III – Ultra Audio – Select Component