This is a review of the original Soavo 1 and not the 1 PN. From what I have laerned, the latter has had the midrange, bass and crossover slightly changed and offers a more analytical sound than the original. The looks are the same, although the 1 PN only comes in high gloss piano finish.

This is a rather big floorstander, but a very elegant one. Looking a bit like a sculpture with non-parallel sides all over and a very, very nice finish. Mine is in dark brown birch veneer, which is very discrete. Taking off the front cover makes them very visible however, with the units being white. They are said to have been under contruction for several years before launched, making sure the result was as good as possible.

You might think that a speaker of this size demands quite a bit of squaremetres to act well, and I have no doubt that they can do well even in large rooms, but in our livingroom which is only 4 by 3.5 metres they sing perfectly as well.

Listening to this speaker is magical in more than one way. The fact that there is no apparent sound from the enclosure at all, makes it very easy to pin out the contribution of each unit and at the same time all the parts work so seamlessly well together that you are left with a big coherent soundstage in front of you. This is indeed a truly musical speaker! The bass is fast and lightfooted and weighted just right. With the port at the front you can even place them quite close to the rear wall without messing things completely up. The midrange is very detailed and at the same time somehow laid back, and the treble is light as air, sweet and detailed. Even when playing loud you can still pick out every little detail. The speakers' ability to change pace, to go from crescendo to stillnes in a split second is flawless. The music flows so naturally, that it becomes just as natural to switch between listening to the entire orchestra and choosing to follow a single instrument making its way through a symphony. Or a pop song for that matter.. Just like you would do at a live concert. Theres is a perfect balance between the ability to deliver every little detail and not pushing them into your ears. The Soavos simply deliver this complete image, and somehow let you decide how far into the music you want to go. This means that they also work very well as background noisemakers at a birthday dinner or when relaxing with your girlfriend ( teaching her to love them).

Being a high end product, each part is of cause of very high quality. You can read a lot about this elsewhere, so I won't get into that. The most fantastic thing is, however, how the Yamaha engineers have acomplished a final result that is superior even to the expected sum of these parts. No doubt, they really did spend all those years listening and tweeking.

Pros: Looks and above all a truly musical and perfectly balanced fullrange reproduction of all kinds of music.

Cons: You will benefit from choosing an amplifier with lots of muscles and a wide soundstage.