ESTELON X Diamond

The X Diamonds’ cabinets are slightly concave so the listening axis is not far away from the speakers. I found 3-4 meters to be an optimum, however, it may be different for your room. Still, the Estelons will thank you for at least a 30m2 room to breathe.

I usually spend quite substantial amount of time by listening to pink noise signals. They are very revealing about soundstaging precision, tonal colorations or balance. These signals were absolutely hilarious through the Estelon X Diamond; in its correlated mono version the signal was projected as a narrow slit between the speakers, in its uncorrelated stereo version it filled the room wall to wall, room removed. In either instance it was impossible to derive where the speakers - the sources of the sound - were in the room. The real music tracks only acknowledged that the X Diamond imaged superbly – the instruments and people were carved out in space with great precision, the music stopped to be an audio illusion, rather it became a real thing.

The Estelon X Diamonds vs the YBs, in the very same room and with the very same equipment, one standing next to other:

The differences between both the Estelons were expected to be marginal, but they were not. The YBs are great speakers, controlled, clean, authoritative and resolved. When I auditioned the YBs I doubted that such a performance could be bettered to a significant degree. But that happened to be the case: the X Diamonds were better in every aspect. The YBs were audibly more constrained, flatter and less airy (still much more dynamic, open and transparent that most competitors). The biggest improvement was in the ease and natural flow that the X Diamonds exhibited. These loudspeakers set a new benchmark for what I consider the highest fidelity.