Musicality, soundstage, dynamics.

Not for the pipe and slippers folks that prefer a laid back presentation.

I have enjoyed owning B&W speakers over the past couple of years and have been impressed by their detailed presentation. However, I always felt something was missing in the overall timbre of the instruments. In auditioning many speakers it seemed there was the classic tradeoff of 'sweetness' vs. 'detail'. I think I have found the right balance for me in the Reference 3A MM De Capo.

How does it sound? In a word, natural. A piano sounds like a piano with a richness that is amazing. At the same time, imaging and detail are wonderful as well with the speakers disappearing and presenting a wide sound stage.

Listening to a particularly well played flute solo, I kid you not, the music brought tears to my wife's eyes. It is that good. I highly recommend you put this on your short list for audition.

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B&W, Totem, auditioned many others.

Clear, fast, articulate.

None, other than limited lower bass.

These are, hands down, the finest monitor speakers I have ever heard. Every instrument sounds real. The human voice is alive. I have used them with my WAVAC MD-811 (15 watt single ended) and my Sun Audio SV-2A3 (3.5 watt single ended). I can clearly hear and appreciate the differences between the two amps (they both sound wonderful but quite different). I was going to sell one of them, but now I'm going to keep both. It's like having two different guitars. The De Capos are keepers.

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Cabasse, Joseph Audio, Soliloquy, Spica

dynamic, fast, musical, liquid mid,

foam surrounds around woofer could be higher quality

One hell of a good speaker. I was ready to spend a great deal more. Considering the rest of my equipment is almost 20 grand I figured I would need to to spend some serious money on speakers to get the best out of my other equipment. I was worried my Sim Audio W5, almost 200 wpc amp would just overpower this speaker but on the contrary, it sounds so alive and real, it is shear pleasure to listen to music, even better then the tube stuff used to run these speakers at a couple of the shops I listened to. I won't go into to much detail as a lot of good description is below, All I want to communicate is that this 2 way sounds amazing. I find the bass very clean and articulate, atleast in my listening room (14 x 18) but I think Ref 3a are coming out with dedicated subs for this speaker. Mid range is liquid smooth with excellent detail and highs, perfect. I thought this speaker sounded better than the Merlin TSM which was my first choice. Perhaps it was just the equipment used. Go listen to it, it will throw you for a loop how such a 'inexpensive' speaker just kills stuff cositng 3 times as much, including most of the floor standers I have heard.

good listening

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Totem, Harbeth, Spendor, JM Lab, Dynaudio, Merlin TSM, Proac sc

Unbelievable imaging, liquid midrange, very quick

not for headbangers or the 1812 Overture

Super efficient (5 watts is okay), very small, excellent WAF. Need heavy stands.

This is the speaker I've been looking for five years. They don't try to do everything, but if you listen to jazz and acoustic stuff, and love the magic frisson you get from being there, these might be what you need.

Way too cheap for what you get. I almost didn't buy them because of the price. But they're very special. Well worth a try.

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Legacy Whisper, Red Rose, Sonus Faber, B&W, Revel, Celestion 7

dynamics, efficiency, transparency, life-likeness, bass

largeness for a stand-mounted design; basic black the only color; make it hard to sell higher priced stuff

First of all, I' m a high end dealer so I want to be up front about that. I'm writing this because, just out of curiosity, I wanted to see if anyone had written these beauties up since I'm a dealer of them and they're not too well-known. I was delighted to see some people had contributed and wanted to add my two cents worth.
I recently counted up and listed the speakers I have owned since the ninth grade and thus the rather startling (to me at least) figure above. I was thinking the number might be around 25 or something. The De Capos really are the "find" of last year, but what I'm saying here is that very few of the dozens of speakers on my list are better than the De Capos.
In fact, since I'm not a dealer anymore for Legacy, and so many reviewers out there crow about them,and since I have had just about all their products including Whispers, Focus, Signature lll's, Classics, not to mention the smaller ones, I can honestly say I would not trade these little speakers for any of them and I'm sorry if they don't like that assessment. Likewise, I don't wish I still had my B&W 801's, my Thiels, my Coincidents, my Harms Sound Labs, my...you get my point. The idea is trade back for, rather have than the De Capos for all my listening.
As a dealer, I'm always looking for gear that is special, maybe off the beaten path, but great, natural-sounding, effective, and value-oriented. It's sort of what my whole business is about, and I just fell in love with these speakers. I fully realized that lots of folks wouldn' t have heard of these, and I'd have to work harder to sell them than so many others, but, hey, wait ti' they hear them.
And, notice, you almost never see them in the used market (Referemce 3A products that is). Interestingly, since becoming a dealer, I have gotten a number of calls from owners of Reference 3A speakers who want to know if the new ones are better than the ones they own. It's amazing how these birds just won't entertain the idea of parting with their beloved old speakers. No doubt they have been out and around and simply haven't heard ANYTHING that was better or enough better, to make them think of changing speakers. I find this fascinating.
I have known about Daniel Dehay's work for a long time, and I had been looking for a speaker that was more efficient than most to use as a companion to some of the lower powererd tube amps I sell (Antique Sound Labs, Copland, E.A.R., Rogue). Something people may not know is that these speakers have essentially no crossover-the eight inch woofer is direct coupled to the amplifier. One always hears that crossovers eat up so much of the signal and restrict dynamics. The Da Capos prove this. They are so dynamic.
Everything that has been said below I have found to be true. Particularly heartening to me are the specific speakers others mentioned in their writeups to which
they have compared the De Capos. To me, those comparisons tell much of the story, since, though I will not name the speakers I have compared to the De Capos (for hopefully obvious reasons), the others reviewing this speaker have mentioned some of the top speakers out there. Their conclusions affirm my own and that feels good. Sometimes, and particularly when you're in the biz, you wonder if you're playing games with yourself or if you are really hearing what you think you are.
To be more specific, when I first heard the De Capos at CES two years ago, I didn't know what they were, was in the room to talk to Michael Chang (Chang LIghtspeed power conditioners), and I thought maybe there was some sort of surround sound thing going on in the room. I heard this great, holographic, open, soft, choral recording and just kind of made a mental note.
A day later when I came back to the room to say hello, I was taken by the sound and popped in my handy-dandy, home-brewed demo disc I carry with me to the shows so I can give stuff a little obstacle course to play through, and I was shocked at the sound. The main man of Divergent Technology had told me a little about these products before and I was finally getting it. So I ordered some up and offered them to my customers.
They are a problematic product though: I never show them FIRST if I have a customer who has big bucks to spend on speakers. No, I'm not out to gouge guys. On the contrary, I don't want to confuse them. It seems to me that the high end audio press has people convinced that anything worth taking seriously in the speaker category cannot cost less than about $6000 or more. So if they walk in the door wanting to spend that much on speakers, truly ready to spend that much because they have prepared themselves to do this, if they hear the De Capos, it screws up their mind. The overall sound is so damned good, they then expect the more expensive stuff to sound twice or three times as good. We all know that isn't going to happen.
So when they then listen to the higher-priced speaker they sometimes say, "They're not that great, they don't really sound much better than those little black speakers." Problem is, they wanted to spend $6000 or $7500 because they have the money in their "pocket" and so they leave disappointed. Not enough difference to justify the extra money. Alas the vagaries of being a dealer.
But-what happens is, they come back. They come back and want to hear them again because the other stuff they went out to listen to in their price category, at the other stores around, didn't sound very close. Strident, undynamic, inefficient, unnatural, mediocre soundstage, etc. And interestingly, when they hear the De Capos, and then oh, let's say the Von Schweikert VR-5's (oops!), they realize how great the VR-5's really are and how close the De Capos are to them and are ready to spend all of that money with me, whether its to buy the bigger speakers and that's it for the time being, or to buy the De Capos and some Rogue stuff or whatever.
Another thing-I have used these speakers as well as their big brothers the L'integrals, with some bruiser transistor amps, (Edge amps), and they kick ass. No crossover means being joined at the hip and when you lock onto an amp that does not have current limiting circuitry like the EDGE's, you will be shocked. I'm talking snare drum in the chest. Congas, anything percussive for that matter. Really fast, really defining dynamics, not to mention lyrical midrange etc., etc.
One last thing is that my other speakers are good sellers too and for all the right reasons that designers make various products instead of just one model: budget, beautiful cabinetry, diminutive size, full scale tight, accurate deep bass, floorstanding rather than monitors, not black in color, or room dimensions, but all with very good sound or they just couldn't compete with each other in my store.
But the De Capos are the music lover's best compromise, right priced, super fab speaker to get. So, tell everybody you know.

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71 pairs of speakers over my lifetime

Fabulous, highly resolved, non-fatiguing musical presentation with a great sound stage; good match for low-powered SET amps

Not very beautiful; limited bass resolution

These are truly phenomenal speakers. If you’ve been searching high and low for a reasonably priced and sized speaker (as I have), you owe it to yourself to audition them, if you can find a dealer. (In the SF Bay area, it’s Brian Rovinsky at St. Cecelia’s Sound Gallery in Hayward, a great guy with a lot of great products and a soft-sell approach that I appreciate.)

For their size (largish mini-monitors, stands necessary) and price ($2250 plus stands), the De Capo’s are unparalleled, in my experience. In fact, I haven’t found anything that compares at twice the price, unless you care a lot about deep, tight bass. The rest of the sound is so good, that I really don't care much about the non-optimal bass.

I’d never heard of these speakers until a month or so ago, even though I’ve been auditioning speakers for years to replace my much-loved Apogee Stages. I’ve found cone-type speakers that are dynamic enough, but they’re usually too “boxy” for my taste; I’ve found electrostatics that are clean, fast, and open enough, but they tend to be “anemic,” bass-shy, and lacking in dynamics.

These De Capo’s have a wonderful balance of attributes: punchy and dynamic, yet fast, clean and open, rivaling electrostatics and ribbons in their midrange presentation, in my opinion. Human voices are almost spookily well reproduced, and all instruments are presented with great “truth of timbre,” as Sam Tellig calls it. They throw a terrific soundstage, waaaaay beyond the speakers themselves, and have surprisingly strong and tuneful bass for their size. They’re also immensely musical and as non-fatiguing as they can be, while still providing huge amounts of high resolution acoustic information. They’ve given me about half of my CD collection back: not all, but most of those “unlistenable” ones that seemed to have too much hash and glare to be worth listening to.

And to top it all off, they’re very easy to drive: 92 dB sensitivity, with 9 ohm impedence and a flat phase angle. These speakers were made for low-powered SET amps. I’m driving them with a beautiful little 5 watt SET amp-preamp combination (Cary 2A3 monoblocks direct coupled with the Cary SLP 50B preamp) and getting truly amazing music out of them. The De Capos also worked very well when I just substituted them for my Stages in my older system (Audible Illusions Modulus 3A preamp and Rowland Model 1 amp), but they didn’t make the same magic as the Cary combo, which is quite remarkable. Altogether, they are great speakers for music-loving folks with a real-world budget and listening room.

An as-yet-undiscovered high-end bargain. Six stars on a five-star scale.



Cary 2A3 monoblocks (& direct coupled Cary SLP-50B preamp


Other amps: Rowland Model 1 (own), B&K 442 (owned), B&K ST-140 (owned), Cary 300SE monoblocks, Cary 300 SEI integrated, Audion **, VAC 30/30; several ARCs, Pass Aleph-3, Krell 300, and a bazillion other solid state amps

With the right speakers (like the Reference 3A De Capos that I bought to go with these electronics; see review) these are truly magical amps -- the best I’ve ever heard. It’s hard to put into words what makes them so special, but they clearly have the up-side of the “magic of tubes” without the down-side. That is, they have that wonderful liquidity yet are amazingly good at presenting high-resolution acoustic detail. The result is a very fast and clean sounding amp that is as nonfatiguing as they come. They present a big, open soundstage and have a surprisingly good, tight low end, at least when partnered with an efficient speaker that can reproduce information down there. In truth, I can’t separate the sound of the amp from that of the preamp, because they are direct coupled, and so function essentially as an integrated amp. But who cares? It’s am amazing state-of-the-art package, in my experience. If you’re an SET freak or just curious about what this SET stuff is all about, you should hear this amp with a really good compatible speaker to find out.

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Others I’ve owned or tried: Silverline Sonatinas & Sonatas, Magnepan 3Bs (owned), Dunlavy SC-IVs & Alethas; Aerial 10Ts; Apogee Stages (owned); Martin Logan Ariels & Sequels; Thiel C7s; Vandersteen 2Cs (owned); and many more.

liquid openess and transparency to die for!, Soundstaging / 3d front-to-back realism, AIR.

Not crazy about the supplied binding post, although rigid, will not house a number of spades. Piano gloss black is a stunning finish when perfectly clean, fingerprints show like criminals...These are nit-piks

I must concur with my esteemed audiophile colleague Steve.

Upon the first couple of passages heard with the MM deCapo, I new this was a winner. I have been using the Totem Tabu over the last while as my reference, a speaker which I highly admire for it's relaxed presentation and honesty, yet after a 4.5 hr. demonstration using familiar recordings and reference electronics, It became painfully obvious the Reference 3a MM deCapo was simply superior in every sonic description. I will not vocalize all the usual audiophilic jargon that we like to use, but tell you simply that I have heard a fair pile of speakers over the last 2 years at $2,500.00 - $6,500.00 CDN. and none have given me that sense of "rightness" like the deCapo.

For those looking for a speaker to make the neighbours put up a "For Sale" sign, look elsewhere, for those looking for a high order of musicality at a reasonable pricetag, look at the Reference 3a.

These speakers are a must audition, as I have learned, cross-overs can be evil things.

Based on sonics, build quality and price, I am forced to give the deCapo a full 5 marks, Bravo!

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Meadowlark Shearwater HOT-ROD, Totem Tabu, Silverline SR-15, MBL-321, the list goes on and on.....