When I visited Pass Labs’ Nelson Pass at his Sea Ranch California hideaway, I was completely taken by his studio reference speakers; which, consisted of Cube Audio 8″ F8 Magus full-range drivers mounted on an open vertical baffle. Mounted face down on a small horizontal baffle about 5″ above the floor was a slot-loaded 15″ Eminence woofer. The woofer was separated from the wide-open full-range driver by an LX Mini active crossover and driven by a First Watt F7 amplifier. I told Nelson I could retire a happy man with that system.
When I returned to Brooklyn, I went online and fell into the Cube Audio full-range paper-cone driver rabbit hole. On their website, Cube Audio states, “We believe that full-range speakers can create an illusion of live music that multiway loudspeakers struggle to match. Amazing soundstage, absolute holography, magical midrange, open and direct sound that gives you the most emotional presentation possible of your favorite music.”
That statement pretty closely matches my experiences with full-range drivers–especially theirs.
At AXPONA 2019 and now at High End 2019, Cube Audio demonstrated their beautifully finished complete speakers, like the €16,000/pair Nenuphar that I would die to hear in my own system. It plays recordings and projects sound with an unfiltered, unmitigated directness that is unimaginable until you’ve experienced it. It plays fresh like mountain stream water and puts you close to the performers. It seems fast in that nail-the-whole-transient way. It plays classical music with subtlety, texture, and vivid elucidation. When the Nenuphar plays rock and blues, it does so with an eager sense of punch and boogie.
The Nenuphar was driven by Tektron’s €6000 TU 2A3/50S-I Reference amp. The source was Lampizator’s Big 7 DAC (€11,000).
This system generated giant, highly detailed soundstages and extraordinarily textured voices and instruments.
This Cube Audio system was different from other systems at the show. It sounded clearer and more direct, less muted or processed. The Cube Audio Nenuphar’s straightforward directness stimulated feelings of closeness and intimacy with a variety of recorded programs. Very satisfying.
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