Quotes about from audioMUSINGS - August 1998.

For the full review, email audioMUSINGS at audiomusings@earthlink.net

I've always been highly impressed with Australian hi-fi products, having auditioned and purchased numerous components from Down Under through the years. After auditioning the Note Perfect Symphonies, I knew that I would continue in that tradition.

The Symphonies are one of an entire line of speakers manufactured by Note Perfect. Although the Symphonies are beautifully crafted with an elegant enclosure, I was much more interested in a unique characteristic of these speakers, namely that the midrange driver has only an inductor in its signal path rather than the usual resistor, inductor, and capacitor. In other words, the midrange driver is wired directly to the amplifier with just the inductor (other than the speaker cable itself) in the circuit. This is accomplished by using a small internal sealed enclosure for the midrange driver that prevents it from having high excursion when low frequencies pass through its voice coil. The upper end rolls off via the inductor. The woofer and tweeter have crossovers, but it is the midrange signal that our ears are most sensitive to, and so, this is where the clever effects of a (nearly) crossoverless design are manifested.

The rear of the enclosure has a metal dome tweeter with a 6 step control. This allows a "presence" or "ambience" adjustment of the high frequencies, and it lightens the soundstage, which is especially useful in small listening rooms. The speaker binding posts are complex, allowing for tri-wiring, bi-amping, and also, if you are really cranking the system, there is a binding post that inserts a capacitor (gasp!) into the midrange driver circuit, and which will prevent any unauthorized excursion of the midrange driver due to high volume. The speakers are 4 Ohms nominal, which means you need an amplifier with a good power supply, but at $7,500/pair for these things, I would think that any consumer in his/her right mind would be pairing them with a terrific amplifier anyway.

We listened to the Symphonies using solid state equipment and CDs. I have to say right off the bat that they sounded like they were being driven by tube amplifiers, with the most lucious midrange I could possibly imagine. I used the rear tweeter adjustment to get a huge soundstage even though the room was relatively small. The silk dome tweeter kept the upper end smooth, and the bass was nice and tight, but oh that midrange. I'm sure that the felt pad around the tweeter and midrange driver, along with the tapered enclosure, made a difference in the mid and high driver interaction, but the lack of a capacitor in the midrange circuit has to be the most important contribution to this sound (capacitors result in smearing).

When it comes right down to the basics, just think about this for a moment. Manufacturers spend months, years, and a lot of money getting the source, the preamplifier, and power amplifier, as well as highly engineered cables, to handle the music signal very carefully with minimum degradation. They make a point of saying that there are no capacitors in this or that circuit, and then what do we do? We put capacitors, resistors, and inductors right in the path just before the signal gets to the speakers! We must . . . must . . . spend more effort in developing speakers with no crossover components in the path. The Symphonies have made headway in this, but a music system with no capacitors or inductors used as crossovers before the power amplifier or after it would be achievable with a digital crossover. Using the digital signal from a CD player, DVD player, or from analog sources converted to digital (A/D), the crossover separates the audio signal into two or three (or more) spectrum parts based on user input. For example, 20 Hz - 250 Hz, 251 Hz - 3500 Hz, and 3501 Hz - 20 kHz could be selected and sent to three power amplifiers for tri-amping a three-way speaker. Slope could be chosen for the specific drivers and enclosure. There would be no phase shift. It would be nice to have it done in 32 bit with 4 MHz clock speed to allow a flat response all the way to 100 kHz.

Of course, it is not as simple as just removing the crossover and building a small sealed enclosure for the midrange driver to make a great speaker. The sound of the Symphonies is a result of total engineering design, not just midrange. Although our ears are most sensitive in the midrange, we can hear the bass and highs too. If they are not right, a clean midrange is useless. The Symphonies have everything just right, and that is something unusual.

Now, I am not going to waste time explaining how 1:24 into track 6 of such and such a CD, the french horns had a lot of "air". We don't do that kind of thing at Secrets. Being a fan of popular singing, I thought that the Symphonies would make a big difference with music sung by the likes of Natalie Cole, which they did. But, what surprised me was how much difference they made with instrument solos such as saxophones and trumpets, particularly when the microphones were close to the horns. The old platitude about being "in the room" doesn't give justice to the sound of these speakers. The horns were in my lap. With so much midrange, I worried that it might come out nasal with some music, but it didn't. Again, this is a careful blending of the midrange driver output with the other two drivers in these speakers. The Symphonies can be ordered with a built-in 150 watt amplifier for the woofer (one in each enclosure), which allows your own amplifier just to concentrate on the midrange and tweeter. This pushes the price to $9,000 per pair.

I'm going to keep this review short and sweet. The Note Perfect Symphonies are not available in many stores in the USA, but I think that they will start showing up here and there, and maybe everywhere, soon. If you come across an audio shop that is smart enough to be carrying them in the future, please give yourself the pleasure of auditioning them.

Hello. My name is Sakis Anastopoulos, owner of Digisound mastering, based in Melbourne, Australia.

Over the past 6 months I had a good chance to test and evaluate many monitors that were designed for mastering applications. These monitors were from different manufacturers and their price range from AU$4000-$50,000.
During the evaluation period of 6 months I was able to test these monitors under extreme processing conditions at various BIT depths and sampling rates and under critical listening sessions. To my surprise many of the so-called "reference" monitors they were everything else but a 'reference' - may were in fact quite poor. Also to my surprise quite costly monitors fell into this category!

I am not a millionaire and therefore I had to choose very carefully the monitor that will fit within my budget and that will enable me to do my job with precision.

When mastering the engineer must be able to:

1- Evaluate the master with precision.
2- Make the right decisions when processing.

Well, most of the reference monitors that I tested were lacking in accuracy at one stage or another. Some had very good frequency response but their soundstage was not detailed, some had good soundstage but many dips in various frequency ranges. Mostly, though, the midrange was very colored.

Choosing a mastering monitor is not an easy task. There are far too many things that the monitor has to be tested for and this takes time and knowledge and most of all well trained ears.

So, after all these tests and time spent choosing the right one for you how do you know that you have end up with the right monitor? Which is the best out of all?

THE BEST MONITOR IS THE ONE THAT WILL HELP YOU TO MAKE ALL YOUR DECISIONS ON.

This monitor will be with you because you are comfortable evaluating, processing and mastering with it. This monitor will give you the confidence that you need at the critical mastering stage, that your masters are going to translate equally well when played back through different monitoring systems.

Can your mastering monitors do all this? Is it hard to find such monitors?
Well, read on as the following one was the ultimate for me and is my right hand when mastering.

THE BRAND

I came across the NotePerfect homepage (www.noteperfect.com.au) about 8 weeks ago, and since I was in the market for new monitors I checked out all their models that I thought were suitable for my application.

Dropping a simple e-mail request for information to Mike Kontor made the first steps towards my testing his products.

Mike Kontor is a very down to earth and knowledgeable guy. He stands beside his products and he's there to help you choose the right one. He is not the salesman that you'll find in your Pro-audio store insisting that this is the right monitor for you because the rest of the recording or mastering studios have all got it as their reference monitor.

Mike was kind enough to let me test 3 of his monitors and I am grateful for this kindness.

THE "ALPHA"

This is a great nearfield monitor very well priced and suitable for any tracking and mixing applications. I was amazed by it's performance and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone who's looking for a monitor for these applications. It has incredible bass for its size and outperforms well known PRO AUDIO monitors costing mnay thousands of dollars.

THE "VIRTUOSO"

Now, this is a great midfield monitor suitable for mastering applications. Its bass is fast and accurate, with a detailed soundstage and killer mids and highs. Very well priced and it's design will help you install it in a room where space is an issue. It's exactly the same as the model below but without the same bass extension. I love it and I challenge anyone who's in the market for mastering monitors to find anything in this price range. Even monitors double its price won't give you the performance of the Virtuoso. The treble output is adjustable, a real boon.

WOW. I don't know where to start and where to end with this one. I can easily write a book full of compliments about it. Whatever values you are looking in a mastering monitor you are going to find them in this one. If you think that your monitors are accurate enough having a listen to the Symphonies will make them sound colored. This is the ultimate in reference monitoring with fast and accurate bass response, killer mids and highs like the Virtuoso model and unbeatable soundstage. There's this monitor and then the rest. It stands on a league of it's own and helps me make my decisions fast. I COULD NOT IMAGINE MYSELF MASTERING WITHOUT IT.

Mastering is the art where the mastering engineer has to face the challenge of bridging the gap between the performer and the listener. This is not an easy task and therefore in order to let our ears make all the right decisions, here at Digisound Mastering we choose to use the Note Perfect Symphony.