The five loudspeakers in this test group sit squarely in the middle of the mainstream speaker marketplace, costing between $2000 and $3700 per pair. While it's certainly possible to spend much more, this sort of outlay does pay for considerably more than the budget basics, and the result is an impressively varied and interesting group of speakers.
That said, cost constraints are still evident. Although the B&W and Nbien floorstanders both feature real-wood veneer finish, as does the German standmounts from ALR Jordan, the two French floorstanders from Focal and Triangle both opt for synthetic surfaces.
While that would seem to place the advantage in B&W's court, its ‘real wood' looks significantly more ‘synthetic' than the
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lovely timber used by Nbien. And the two French models both go to great lengths in supplying cast alloy plinths to ensure optimum floor coupling.
Although the standmount would appear to be at a disadvantage in terms of material value for money, especially if the cost of stands has to be added, the choice between a compact standmount and a much larger floorstander is by no means a straightforward one. While the floorstander will usually offer an advantage in bass extension, it will also tend to have more cabinet coloration and less precise imaging, as well as looking bulkier in the room.
It's hard to define a country of origin in our globalised world, where bits and pieces can be made and shipped from just about anywhere. Visiting factories anywhere around the world, one will nearly always find ‘made in Taiwan' stamped on crates containing magnet metalwork like polepieces, and that's just one of several possible examples.
If components may be sourced from – and even assembly undertaken – virtually anywhere these days, do speakers still retain some form of national identity? Not necessarily national, but certainly each brand needs a corporate identity and culture, and that seems to be rooted in its research and development department, wherever that might be located.
