Great fun at our weekly Audiophile Night last Thursday when our listening centered around Pi Speakers' 4 Pi speakers (
https://www.pispeakers.com/Measurements/fourPi.html) designed and kitted by Wayne Parham built by Michael Lundy’s Uilleam Audio (
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=164355.0). This auditioning opportunity occurring thanks to the grace of the owner and a window of opportunity with the speakers just being finished and awaiting shipping.
This 4 Pi set is specified with the good stuff:
Woofer - JBL 2226H,
Horn - Pi Speakers H290C with added NoRez damping,
Compression driver - B&C Speakers DE 250-8.
The custom craftsman built enclosure features double thick 1 ½ inch front baffle allowing flush mounting of the 15” JBL woofer. Finish is oiled and waxed leopard walnut veneer. My photos only begin to do justice to Michael’s craftsmanship and finishing work.
Summary ReportSound of the 4 Pi is magnificent, delicate, insightful, organically textured, dynamic far beyond the norm all with maximum full tilt boogie.
Detailed ReportFor the night’s listening my system was configured with the 4 Pi speakers driven by ACG 1000 series mono amplifiers with energy pack cap banks. Control and source was PS Audio Steller Gain Cell DAC fed from media center running JRiver on Win10. Short time precluded exploring analog. Lacking the taller stands typically used I improvised with marble slabs and closed cell foam blocks resulting in a throwback to 1960s lowboy floor speaker practice.
Having heard Wayne’s personal 4 Pi excel at Lone Star Audio Fest with Audio Note tube SETs the question had occurred how the 4 Pi gets along with solid state. The plan hatched left my 2A3 amp dark in the corner to hear what the 4 Pi does with 500 watts of class-D power. The answer is it does many wonderful things very well indeed.
Fifteen inch JBL woofer bass is big fun bass. The 4 Pi’s reproduction of drums, the bass end of pianos, electric and acoustic bass along with the scope and scale of orchestras and jazz big bands answered any doubts if a big heavy speaker that needed two of us lifting to transport was worth all the effort. And jazz and rock drum kits, the 4 Pi is a kick drums best friend. The air moving capability and high efficiency of the 4 Pi tracks bass transits with a startling speed. Lest one think its all boom and rumble that power is combined with delicacy and accuracy that reveals inner details and musical textures with ease.
Transition from woofer to the horn and compression driver was seamless, this is expert crossover design in action. Vocals and mid-band fidelity are a known strong point of high efficiency speakers and the 4 Pi delivers the presence the type is known for. High frequencies have the extension, speed, air and delicacy one expects from a good horn. Speaking of good horns the Pi Speakers H290C horn never exhibited even a trace of PA speaker honk. Its other impressive party trick was imaging, even with the low stand height the images were projected at a natural height. When checked with a mono track image was perfectly centered at the height of the center of the HDTV’s screen. Stereo images were projected all across the stage firmly rendered for the two listeners in the sofa wide sweet spot. Thanks to the wide controlled dispersion the third guy out taking his turn sitting outside the sweet spot still enjoyed a useable image. The 4 Pi would be a great speaker for family movie night.
And all too soon it was time to tear down the system and pack up the 4 Pis to head back to Michael’s shop and from there onto what I am sure will be a thrilled new owner. Congratulations to that owner on his wise decision selecting the team of Wayne Parham and Michael Lundy to obtain what by any measure is a dream speaker.
