YAMAHA Soavo 1
Floorstanding loudspeakers
Yamaha proves once again that it needs to be counted with. The Soavo 1s are - at their price region - seriously designed speakers with good value. They combine full range floorstanders with monitor-like focus, all packed in nicely designed enclosures. Maybe not the high end yet but close to it.
Function and form
Considering the year in which the Soavo 1s were born I liked that the tweeter was mounted into a metal subpanel that is embedded into the MDF cabinet. Today such a solution is not exceptional but back then it was rather highendish. The 25mm aluminum dome driver blends with 13cm polymethylopenten-cone midrange driver and two 16cm bass units of the same design. The baskets of the drivers are die-cast and feature oversized coils that reminds me of Dynaudio. The bass is augmented by a front-firing reflex port. The speakers are bi-wirable.
Bass management
Expect a very seamless presentation from the Soavo 1s, which is a good achievement with four drivers. The bass is neither bloated nor tilted up, the balance of the speakers is quite neutral. Sounds like the Soavo 1's designers optimized the design by listening tests and exploited the budget limits in full.
Don't expect weight - the bass frequencies have quick roll off below 35 Hz, but if you can afford the luxury of loud listening then cranking up volume helps keep the sound juicy and with sufficient punch.
Clarity & delicacy
When I listened to the Soavo 1s I liked how analytic they were with good recordings. The smaller sibling of these speakers, the Soavo 2 monitors, sound a bit different despite they share the same tweeter and construction principles which is a mystery to me.
Tonal accuracy
The mids are probably the biggest strength of the Soavo 1s. They are very detailed but not cold or sterile, and amazingly integrated into what I heard from the bass and highs. The sound was exhibiting monitor-like incisiveness and accuracy but human voice was very natural and rich, as were strings of a symphony orchestra or a piano in Diana Krall's recordings. The Soavo 1s do not rob anything of its natural beauty and timbral colours.
Spatial resolution
No wonder that to enjoy precise soundstaging the listener needs to pay attention to the speakers' proper placement and toe in. I liked them the most when the drivers were firing straight to my ears. The more paralel the speakers were the less tactile the sound was. I do not why it is like that but I found the Soavo 1 (and the Soavo 2 too) to be quite directional so please spend some time to optimize them in a room.
Recommended resellers
K+B Expert, Praha tel. +420 272 122 259,
Manufacturer's website: http://www.yamaha-hifi.cz/
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