First impressions
Contents
These monitors are not difficult to power (88db sensitivity ) and that’s a plus in our book. But the lovely Keces E40 is not a great match. This little powerhouse amplifies the bass tones in such a way that the bass becomes boomy. The Haydn Jubilee produces a lot of punchy lows by itself which makes it ‘too much of a good thing’. A Rega Brio will probably not work well either. The Audiolab 6000A seems a better candidate because it is very linear all over.
We press play on our varied playlist and soon we are relaxing. The music has a realistic soundstage right in the middle of the speakers. The sweetspot is spacious and we hear a lot of detail. These are fast monitors that give a lot of insight into the recording. There is a high dose of energy and fun with a tight low-end full of punch.
Dynamics are rather limited with this compact monitor and of course there is not that much power present. But the music comes through so effortlessly and naturally that most genres sounds excellent. Bad recordings are not made nicer, but it never gets sharp. We enjoy the pure playback and have difficulty to sit still. These monitors play full of guts and passion and are certainly not wallflowers. They are always ready to throw a party.
Listen
We start with the new solo album “Between the lines” by Henny Vrienten. The song “Buttermilk with macaroons” is a current favourite but there are more gems on the album. The Haydn Jubilee let’s us hear all the nuances in the voice of this 71-year-old legend. The slightly grating aspect, the breathing in between and especially the timbre. The beautiful song Carnival is the best example of this. The voice is put dead center and the rich accompaniment sound sparkling which adds to the fun factor.
We take out “Soundmirrors” from Coldcut and it’s like hearing this album for the first time. So fresh and sparkling and above all so open and clear. It used to be quite a job to plough through the whole album but now the album is finished before we know it. It’s never compressed and because of the speed the Haydn Jubilee approaches perfection. The way this monitor organises the music is one of its biggest assets.
All elements are skillfully dismantled and come together again as a coherent whole. This is not a bare monitor because of that beautiful, tight bass that comes out of these little cabinets. With a lot of punch and enough impact so we don’t really miss anything. The small driver remains surprisingly stable and barely hardens when we turn up the volume but they won’t be able to fill a large space.
Female vocals this time from Vagabon, the alter ego of Laetitia Tamko, a Cameroonian multi-instrumentalist who has lived and worked in New York for some time. The MQA stream from the eponymous album sounds excellent and really brings out her beautiful voice. This recording is quite close-miced but it never sounds sharp or aggressive. At the same time, nothing is disguised or softened. In our rather sparse listening space female vocals can sometimes sound too bright but the Haydn Jubilee sounds ‘smooth as butter’. Everything just sounds so … right. We simply can’t describe it better.
Of course we also played classical music with a loudspeaker named after a great musician. And although we’re not specialists in the genre, we always listen to “Radio Klara” in the car to discover new music. We love Schubert’s chamber music more than Haydn’s actually and play his adagio for octet in Fa major for string quartet, bassoon, horn, clarinet and double bass. Here the rich timbres and the intimate character of the music are particularly striking.
Great orchestration and heavy metal are not ideal on any small speaker. You really need a bigger speaker for that. Although the Remaster of Megadeths “Countdown to extinction” sounds nice and tight and fast but with limited dynamics and power to be really convincing. A small speaker has its limitations of course.