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Review 2 of 2 Summary:
I was searching for high end floor standing speakers to replace my Platinum Studio in my listening room. I like to have crystal clear treble and full mid range as I listen to operas a lot, and almost all sorts of classical music. I heard a lot about B&W Nautilus 801, but personally, I don't like the appearance of 801 at all, and the speakers are way over-priced, at least in Taiwan. One day I heard about ELAC spirit of music and saw them, my god, how elegent (in comparison to 801) they appear to me. So I brought a few CDs with me to my favorite audiophile shop in Taiwan. The CDs contain: Edita Grubarova-Queen of Coloratura (Teldec), Sutherland/Pavarotti in Donizetti' Elixir di Amore (Decca), Arnold's Band for Arnold (RR), Paganini Violin Concertos 1+2 (Dynamic), Cecilia Bartolli's Rossini Heroine (Decca), Botessini Double Bass Music (ASV), and a few others.
The speakers were driven by Linear Acoustic power amp and YBA pre amp. I played Paganini No.2 first and fell in love with the speakers immediately. I knew I found the sound that I wanted. The beautiful 1742 Guarneri violin tone is sweet, clear, but not sharp edged. There was so much detail in the music that I was not aware of before. Then I switched to Arnold. Incredibly prompt, deep and solid bass coming from the gallop track was far exceeding my Platinum tuned ears; and very good sound stage from this awesome recording. Next came Grubarova in Mozart's Queen of Night (Magic Flute). This is where spirit of music really shines. There is just no compromise, no comparison, for this queen of coloratura! So the listening went on and I ended up spending almost an entire afternoon in the store. My facial expression told the shop owner that I had to have this pair of speakers. Anyway, I left the store knowing that I needed to buy them, although the price is a bit over my budget. And I left with no budget to upgrade my power amp (I am usign Yamaha AX1 AV amp to drive my Platinum at the moment)
A week later, I decided to buy and arranged for the installation. The shop owner arranged an on-site demo from the ELAC distributor to show how much more I can get from spirit of music. So they set up two Linear Acoustic power amp (bi-amp) and a Linear Acoustic prototype pre-amp to drive spirit of music in my basement listening room. This time I started with Telarc's Carmina Burana. My jaw almost dropped when the bass drum hit. Now I fully know the kind of bass these speakers can produce. They helped me adjust the placement and also the switches on the back of the speakers to get the most natural sound stage, and adapt to my listening enviroment. The treble and the midrange is just sweeter than what I heard in the shop due to the superior accoustic in my listening room. After a couple hours they left my house. I had to connect the speakers to my own Yamaha. The kind of bass was no longer there, but I knew some day I will re-create it... I have a dream.
In my rating, I wanted to give it 5 stars since you don't get this kind of sound easily. But I am sorry that I don't get a bargin here in Taiwan since the mark up is quite substantial for high-end audio equipment. For folks in Europe or North America, I think spirit of music deserves the highest rating. Strengths:
Very very fine treble, natural soundstage, deep and solid bass if driven by good power amp, great potentail, fun to play with Weaknesses:
Really need to have good power amp for deep and solid bass production
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