Very natural, great on the bass notes, good soundstage...excellent value esp at used prices.

hard to find used...low SAF due to lousy black ash finish..spending another grand for a piano black finish..well..lot of money for cosmetics..

This is primarily a review of the K/L model although I owned a pair of J/L speakers prior to the K models. I had to get out of the J models as I moved to a small home and needed wall mount speakers hence the K models. Both of these speakers are wonderful and the main difference I can tell between the J and K is that the J has deeper and more natural bass (as it should since it is a much larger cabinet). Having said that both the J and K are wonderful speakers and my REL Strata sub is often turned off as it is redundant on some material. These speakers require only 6 or more good watts of power in a medium sized room.

Similar Products Used:

Spendor 2/3, Spendor LS3/5A, Thiel CS 2.2, Sequerra Met 7, Linn Keilidh speakers used with: audio note m1 phono preamp audio note conqueror amplifier audio note TT1/ARM2 vecteur L 4.2 CD

midrange, very open sound, drive, tuneful bass, stunning dynamics.

some coloration in lower treble

This is one of the tiny handful, if that many, of speakers designed for SE triode amps. The issue is flat impedance and not just efficiency. Horns (compression drivers) have very peaky impedance which results in aggressiveness on those peaks. So many compression driver horns despite very high sensitivity need a higher damping factor than triode amps present. The AN speakers are very flat in their impedance which is why they work so well with a se amp. They have the unrestrained dynamics good triode amps are capable of producing as a result. They also have a really wide open midrange given the very conventional looks of the speakers. Suprisingly powerful and very tuneful bass too. You hear the character of bass notes. But their real benefit is true compatibility with good triode amps. Then the lack of electronic artificaliality of this kind of amp really comes through. This is a speaker tailored to the amps, rather than the usual hi-end speaker design brief which assumes that the amp has an infinitely great dmaping factor and limitless current. In this sense they are real world speakers for triodes. They are not perfect, but since you can mate them with the inherently superior sonics of triodes the overall result is a musicality you cannot get elsewhere. This allows you to overlook (for the most part) any deficiencies in the speakers: some colorations. But you'll be enjoying music for once and not lamenting that high-end audio is a boring, rewardless hobby. And oh yes they do soundstage very well with good amps. Even instruments and voices panned hard left or right sound like they are comeing from behind and around the speakers. They are not perfect, but they are allow you the full pleasures of triode amps to shine so in this sense they are really great speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Snell K

Mid-range is clear, clean and perhaps some of the best without spending mega bucks. Have a warm, lush texture to the sound that is focused on being truely musical. I have owned the speakers for over a year, and it is around that sort of time that I normally start feeling ncomfortable about my products, however in this instance I feel I am only just begining to understand their capability.

Bass could be tighter, and dispite high sensitivity, demand a certain amount of current in order to maintain control over the larger bass lines. Can have a tendancy to overblow certain bass notes if time is not spent positioning correctly within the room.

Overall the AN/JD's that I own are top quality boxes with little competition at the price. They are capable of convey musical character to the same degree as many boxes several times the price. Speaking from an english perspective, then can have a tendancy to sound overtly british (Warm in the treble, foward in the mid range and all there down below, if not the tightest speaker on the market), and may not be to the average American taste.

As a point of interest and for comparison, I use a Myriad T-10 CD player, Rotel RB 970BX Mk II pre amp, two RC 971 Mk II power amps, Nordost Flatline Gold speaker cable, with Audio Note silver interconnects.

To conclude they deliver music with texture and vibrance, leaving only the devout "lab-test junky" unsatisfied.

Similar Products Used:

AN/K AN/E

AUDIO NOTE Model 2/L speaker system is as good as your equipment.See the HI-FI FARM web site

A friend of mine has a pair of these. I thought they were decent speakers. The cabinets are really cheap and cabinet vibration can easily be heard. I figured he paid between $400 and $500 for the pair. I was shocked to find out how much he paid. For sound quality these rate 2 or 3 stars. For value They shold not even be considered.

These speakers by the ultra High-End HiFi company Audio Note are (as the modelname describes) customized versions of Peter Snells legendary Snell J/II. The
speaker has excactly the same look and size (identical cabinets?) The speakers
boasts HIGH sensitivity, and therefore they are often used driven by tube amps.
It is not a colorless speaker. The cabinet is rather "wimpy", but not without a
cause. They have a wonderful midrange. Perhaps the best I`ve ever heard. The
Higher tones also sound smooth and wonderfull. The low-end does not suit people
who needs the floor to shake. They can go pretty deep, but it`s not a speaker
for the rock enthusiasts out there. The size of the speakers (just under 60cm)
means that you have to put them on medium hight stands (spiked offcourse) They
are biwirerable / biampable and definatelly looks their best with the front "cover" ON :) ..

Sound / music.
Running classical music, or accoustic guitar based folk / rock etc. through
these are a true revelation. The sound they make is just plain wonderfull!
Do you want them to play rock, grunge, metal or similar, they sound quite
screechy and thin (if you don`t own an amp with tone controls, and actually
WANT to use them :) (P.S. Well recorded music goes well, also if it`s of the
"harder kind")

I love these speakers. I play Accoustic material, as well as jazz, acid jazz,
trip hop, rap (yes, THAT works well as a matter of fact, the low end ain`t booming, but is definatelly low and dry) and well recorded popular material
such as Alanis Morisette, Soundgarden and Metallica (!?) fares pretty well.

Warning: You do not want these speakers unless you have top notch equipment to partner them. They just become more and more wonderful for each penny you put
in the rest of your hifi. I use them with AudioLab Pre/Power and find this
combination very nice indeed. The amp has enough guts to control them beautifully and has tonecontrols, so I can listen to terrible sounding recordings such as the Oasis releases and so forth...

Overall (as you might have guessed) I`ll change my other components many
times before I`ll change these speakers. Warmly recommended!