HFA Audio Setup History 32 – More speakers – Late 2018-2020
For some time after Ben’s efforts as part of his Acoustic Matters services, I was happy with the Wilson system. But soon, annoyances crept up again. This was because as part of the main issue was addressed, other issues were now made more abundantly clear. I rotated the entire setup and listening position and even tried it sideways with the speakers having seen every square centimeter of the floor but I just couldn’t achieve the ideal balance. I already knew my room was difficult due to its multitude of standing waves that cause severe spikes and nulls, but the more I learned about acoustics in general, and my own acoustics in particular, the more it became unavoidable to conclude that the Wilsons, with their double-vented design, were never going to work ideally for me. Having finally admitted this to myself, this opened the door for new speaker experiences.
Kroma Audio
New experiences would soon materialize after Cayetano Castellano, whom I knew at that time as the manager of Artesania Audio, asked me if I wanted to come to Spain to report on an upcoming audio show. As it happens, next to managing Artesania Audio, Cayetano also takes care of international contacts for various other high-end audio brands and is also manager of the Audio Club Premier which organizes the EnoSound shows.
When planning my trip to the EnoSound show in Bilbao early in 2018, Cayetano revealed to me that he became co-owner and export manager for a new brand of high-end Spanish loudspeakers by the name of Kroma Audio. He said that they were really something special and that they would be one of the highlights of the upcoming show.
It was during their introduction at the Enosound Bilbao 2018 show that I first heard Kroma speakers, the range-topping Elektra model that I found to sound remarkable in several areas.
After the show and when I was back home, Cayetano called me up to ask me if I was interested in reviewing a pair of loudspeakers. Of course, I was interested! He proposed I review the next model down, the Carmen, that Ben had on demo in the Netherlands. The arrangement was quickly made and before I knew it, they were in my room.
The Kroma Audio speaker cabinets are fully made from white Krion, which is a Spanish variant of Corian, a sort of “artificial stone”. Krion is made of two-thirds natural minerals (ATH – aluminum trihydrate) and a low percentage of high-resistance resins. As Cayetano explained, it’s not that they are designing to a certain price point, it is just that this material that is responsible for a very large chunk of the speakers’ cost.
Carmen
As I found during my review in October 2018, the Kroma Audio Carmens truly excel in the fields of organic textures and natural timbre and they sound fabulous with acoustic instruments, percussion, and vocals but they sound equally impressive with hard-hitting R&B from Christina Aguilera and Lady Gaga. Also, and more pertinent to my situation at that time, their bass is not only fast, well-timed, and utterly coherent, it is also much more linear than that of the Wilsons.
In a direct comparison when switching back to the Wilsons, it became clear that they do sound more direct and less warm, but they are also quite bumpy in the bass, more forward in the upper midrange, and their treble is actually tilted up a little and edgy at times. The Kroma’s sound harmonically richer than the Wilsons and have more saturated colors in the lower midrange but they are much more linear and they definitely do not have any hardness in the treble.
My conclusion in the review was that the Wilsons have more of a technical approach and the Kroma Carmens are more of a music lover’s product. They made it easy to relax and enjoy the music while performing much better in the bass, despite my room’s difficulties.
As the Kromas had gone back to Listening Matters, I found that I was no longer enjoying the music with the Wilsons as much as before. It all just sounded technical and sterile and this triggered the idea of getting a pair of Carmens for myself but getting a new pair was financially out of the question. In speaking with Cayetano, it was arranged that I could purchase a demo pair at a price that I could almost afford. Early 2019, Ben van Leliveld delivered the pair to me and set them up and for a good while, I was extremely happy.
Early 2019 – Doubts
Today, I still stand by my original conclusion in the review but thinking back, I can see how the Carmens’ musicality and magic as well as their ability to perform better in my room swayed me while drawing me away from the core of my listening, which is to have as open a window on the music to allow me to hear absolutely everything that goes on in the system. I will admit that my decades-long hobby has led to some occupational deformation, which increasingly made me desire utterly neutral-sounding products. Even though the Carmens absolutely shine when it concerns immersive music enjoyment while being quite resolving and remarkably refined, more and more, I became less enamored with their richness and warmth. It’s not like they didn’t sound nice, it’s that they made everything sound nice.
Although I had closed the chapter on the dipole adventures, this turned my thoughts back to the Martin Logans. The 11A’s were not perfect, but they were clean and transparent and neither edgy nor hard and neither smooth nor warm. But wait, what was the next best thing? Indeed, the 15A’s!
I really did not want to return to dipoles and their associated dependencies and disadvantages, but now, I vividly recalled how much I enjoyed those big boys and I fondly remembered how awesome the Logans’ bass was, even with the speakers positioned at the most difficult end of my room. And if I recalled it correctly, the 15A’s had even better bass than the Carmens.
And so, when a great opportunity for a used pair arose, I decided to forego sanity and add a pair of ESL 15A’s to my system. Now, I could use either the Logans or the Kromas, precisely as my mood dictates or the application requires. I would use the 15A’s for the moments that I craved utter transparency and neutrality, and the Carmens for when I wanted to experience music on an emotional level and not consider any technicalities. In addition, the Carmens would be great for use with amplifiers that were not ideal for the Logans, such as tube amplifiers.
This solution worked quite well and the Logans delivered on their promise of deep yet well-behaved bass and fabulous transparency, but increasingly, the Carmens were sitting on the side. The Logans are large but relatively lightweight and they are very easy to move around. But increasingly, the prospect of dragging their 100kg weight to the listening positions, withheld me from listening to the Carmens. Quite literally, a long evening of moving them around on my own to find the ideal spots gave me a hernia, which I have had to deal with for a long time. Of course, the speakers were not really to blame, but rather my sitting occupation coupled with a sitting hobby, mixed in with lugging heavy objects around.
Next: More RTFS and first contact with Magico
Hello,
It’s fun and interesting to read about your hifi adventures of you and to a lesser extent of your hifi buddies. I am looking for installment number 2. Loosing your job is a cliffhanger. Curious how you got through.
Nice to hear you enjoy reading about my adventures. Part 2 is in the making but first, a couple of reviews have priority.
Hi what’s your thoughts or hearings on atc50 active towers I have gd m1audio pre on your advice and holo may
Just about to receive mano ultra 3 from rob magna
Christiaan, it would be nice to read some 2023 update about your system, maybe you find some time to write a little bit. Thanks and kind regards, Balazs
Yeah, I’m way behind on that and it’s on the to do list but I just can’t seem to find the time. Reviews always take precedence and right now, I’ve got 6 to do and more coming…