Review part one. My Klångedang T1's have been playing for five days.
Background: During the last 20 years, I've listened to many different loudspeakers and seriously evaluated quite a few. The only ones that have stayed for long in living room, however, have been models from Linn. The reason for sticking with Linn has been that they've been the best at making me enjoy music. Not just listening to favourite albums, but also discovering new genres. I've been impressed by some aspects of other brands (such as the microdynamics of Quad electrostatic's), but as a whole, I've always felt Linn have had the edge and been the most enjoyable.
The last two speakers in my living room have been Majik 109 (magnificent allround speakers with an incredible value for money) and Akurate 212. The 212's are very detailed and accurate reproducers, clearly superior to the 109's. They are also more demanding of the system and installation. To really shine and delight, they need a great signal and very careful positioning. The 212's have been great for my work with electronics. When I needed five comparisons with 109 - for example make sure that component A is better than B - it's been enough with one comparison using 212. They are simply more accurate and less forgiving.
Enter Klångedang T1. It's a small two way speaker with a cabinet made of solid wood (mine is black ash). Not veneered fibreboards - solid wood. This is very unusual. Stands are of metal, filled with sand and with a foot of solid wood. Heavy and damped - this type of construction has never worked for me with any Linn speaker. Passive filters are of a serial type, housed in their own plastic enclosures. Again, very unusual.
An album I just rediscovered is The Magic Numbers 'Those the Brokes'. This was one of the first albums I played after connecting the T1's in my living room. I thought "What a gem! How playful and emotional, how could I have forgotten it?". I just heard it again, from start to finish, on Akurate 212 and on Klångedang T1. Both driven by Tundra Mono's.
Akurate 212 have an impressive clarity and precision. They sound dry and exact, I can hear every click and every ting and every rattle of a string. They're also a bit harsh in the mids (something I find that all 3K arrays are, on the 242 and 350 models as well), on some very specific frequencies. The first song on 'Those the Brokes' is 'This is a Song', and it starts with some rather annoying bell-like sounds that hit just that harsh spot in the mid of the 3K arrays. These sounds are probably meant to be nasty - and they sound nasty on all speakers and on all headphones that I've tried - but they do hit exactly in that weak spot of the 3K array. As the song continues, the 212 are impressive. Tight, controlled and fun. They sound very polished and precise. It's easy to get lost in listening to all the sounds.
Klångedang T1 sound very different from 212. Less damped, less dry and not as many details. Also less bright. But more importantly, they have a very different way of presenting the music. It's not straight, tone-by-tone separated and analytical, like the 212. It's somehow soft and organic, as if all sounds were fused into one stream of music, filling the room. First I think 'This sounds odd', but soon I realise: Everything fits together! The album makes a new kind of sense and I repeatedly go 'Aha!'. And this happens again and again, with every song. First: Hm, odd... Then: What a great song!
For instance: In the refrain of the first song I mentioned above, the band is singing
This is a song. And these are the words. When they do this, the bass guitar is playing a melody. And then a hihat is added, and then they sing in harmony. On the 212, I can hear all of that. But there's no Wow, no interplay that builds up a momentum. It's not bad, but it doesn't excite me either. With T1, there is better interplay, there is tension, a momentum building up and the song ends in a climax. I realise these guys are much better than I thought!
So, in summary: Klångedang T1 are not as polished and detailed in a HiFi sense as the best loudspeakers out there. Musically, they are among the best I have ever heard. They just pull me in and I can't stop listening.
Incredible!