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Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 4.00 votes

Price Paid:  $3900.00 from Overture Audio

Summary:
This writeup is for the Tempo IV which is a totally different louspeaker than the III. In my opinion this is an excellent loudspeaker! Imaging is the best I have heard. It actually presents three dimensions. The image extends higher than the speakers themselves giving a good illusion of reallity. They have very good to excellent detail in the midrange without sounding overly bright which is a common problem with high resolution speakers. The bass is unbelievably good. the two 7 inch woofers(per cab) really go deep and the sound is very tight! Wife factor is very good and the finish on my pair was absolutely perfect. This company actuall gives directions on setting these puppies up. They go into quite a lot of detail on the subject whcih is very helpful. You really forget you are listening to loudspeakers when set up properly. These are not cheap but they are not over priced either. You are getting what you pay for with them. All in all one of the best loudspeakers in this price range and the best that i have owned and i have had a lot of em!

Strengths:
Great bass. Great imaging. Very good midrange clarity. Good looks.

Weaknesses:
Not cheap. Not sold everywhere, may be hard to find. these are what I called a protected brand. Forget about internet sales. it wont happen.

Similar Products Used:
B&W 703

Price Paid:  $3400.00

Summary:
I listend to the tempo III LE. A great speaker which is beautifully designend. Great looks. The high section is nice and sweet, low section is very good as well. A good soundstage, but ofcourse there must be something wrong. The mid section is too soft and not as bright as you would expect in a speaker of this price. My old speakers of 500,- euro's a piece preformed much better in the mid section! It could be the speakers still had to run in because they had just been playing for a few days in the shop. For the record: I used an arcam alpha 10 amplifier and an arcam alpha 9 cd player. And I didn't bought it.

Strengths:
The high section goes high but remains sweat to listen too. Great looks

Weaknesses:
Speaker seems out of balance. The mid section is too weak and not so bright.

Similar Products Used:
nothing yet

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Good soundstage, but eventually a bit too cold. Virgo III is far more better speaker, also when the price is taken into account.

Strengths:
Control, resolution & finis hquality

Weaknesses:
Too cold, a bit synthetic

Similar Products Used:
Audio Physic Virgo III

Price Paid:  $1850.00 from Used from Audiogon on-line

Summary:

I purchased these speakers used on-line after looking and listening for many months and many hours repeatedly. This review, however, is in two parts: pre-Cary CD 303/200 and post-Cary CD 303/200.

When auditioning these speakers at Sound By Singer in NYC, and their demo equipment (Krell, primarily) they sounded great with some music and really great with other. They are stunning in appearance, especially compared with a lot of the other speakers I had auditioned (see above); they also had a footprint that suited NY apartment living. The other speakers I really liked were the Proac Response 1.5s (fast, great highs, excellent all around sound), but aesthetically they were not as pleasing and just I couldn't get the initial impressions I had of the Audio Physics out of my head--there was something gorgeous about the sound. I ended up buying the Tempo IIIi's on-line, as the list price increased from $3000 to $3750 during the fall of 2001, and a pair popped up on Audiogon.

Using a Sony CDP XA1ES CD Player (Stereophile Class D rated a few years back), these speakers sounded great on certain recordings (no pattern, really: jazz, always great; some rock ok, some rock bad; classical, ok; indie girl rock/ska (wife's taste) ok, sometimes), soul/r&b/oldies, case by case) and really bad on others. On the good recordings, the soundstage was magnificent, the instrument and vocal detail dazzling. When bad, the speakers sounded muffled and flat. There was no definition to the sound, no space between instruments--it was as though the performers were playing in a box of tissues. This went on for the first six months of ownership and I began thinking I had made a mistake.

Enter the Cary CD 303/200, a 35 pound beauty, a week ago. The Audio Physics, now backed by the Cary and its 24/96 upsampling, opened up and have performed splendidly, remarkably (even my wife said something). The sound is akin to how I remember the autions at Sound by Singer. Good recordings sound great and bad recordings sound great, too. For the first time in a year I find myself thinking about going home so I can begin listening to all the CDs I had left on the shelf because they just sounded so bad.

One of the knocks on these speakers is that they are a little lean in the bass. I'm not a huge fan of bass, but appreciate it when necessary, and the Audio Physics deliver plenty of bass for my musical tastes. With decent equipment (B&K ST-202 amp and Pro-10 pre-amp), a good source and cables, the Tempo IIIi's create a very confident listening experience: instead of waiting to hear faults, I keep hearing increasingly richer music.

Strengths:
tremendous detail and definition, soundstage, mid-range

Weaknesses:
deep bass on some recordings

Similar Products Used:
dynadio, thiel, proac, b&w, jmlab, sonus faber, meadowlark, revel, joseph

Price Paid:  $3745.00 from SOUND BY SINGER

Summary:
When I began to listen to speakers I considered the Thiel 2.3's and B&W 804 which both are in the same price range.My new electronics consisted of Musical Fidelity A3CR amp/preamp.At first I thought I loved the Thiels but after extended listening they seemed a little "too" clinical. The B&W 804's were next but once I heard the 803's (which I could not afford)the 804's sounded a little thin. This listening was done at Innovative Audio through Naim gear.
I wound up buying the Musical fidelity gear at Singer and to audition it the salesman used the Tempos. I had never heard of them before.
It was not a long audition but there was something about them that immediately pulled me in.
I wanted to compare them to what I had listened to at Innovative but that was not possible. After a couple of more auditions at other dealers I ordered a pair from Matthew at Singer.
Right out of the box these speakers sound amazing.
I can't imagine them sounding better after the break in period but time will tell.
My living room has turned into a symphonic hall with great accoustics and a different artist appearing nightly.
I stronglu reccomend auditioning these if you are looking in the $3400 price range.

Strengths:
UNCOLORED DETAILED SOUND.TREMENDOUS SOUNDSTAGE. TOTALLY MUSICAL AND INVOLVING. BEAUTIFUL MAPLE FINISH

Weaknesses:
NONE

Similar Products Used:
thiel
b&w
dynaudio