Proper bass with dynamic freedom, natural tonality and musical insight Few hi-fi components read from a more conflicted job sheet than the standmount speaker. Put yourself in its place. Number one, you need to persuade your owner that, however tempting, being tucked away on a bookshelf isn’t that great an idea if you’re expected to give your best performance. Second, having avoided that dusty corner cosying up to Ian McEwan, the stout pillar you’re now perched on eats up as much floorspace as a floorstanding tower so, yes, the pressure’s on to deliver sonically. Third, whatever it takes, you’ve got to make that tautly dimensioned, inherently low colouration cabinet with its attendant rhythmic agility, two-way driver coherence and much vaunted imaging ability really count. And fourth, when it comes to…
