I have now had about 16 hours of play on the new Sonora speakers.
I was using my previous speakers on Symposium Svelte shelf and Rollerblock JR+, this took the Peak Consult Princess to a different league.
So far with the new Peak Consult Sonora, I am using the supplied feet. When everything is all broken in, I may try using Symposium under it.
Since I have the Symposium Svelte shelf going spare and too small for the new speakers, I am using them under the Spectral cable box.
Sitting down and playing some music, I can hear more into what’s going on; a lot more revealing. Notes are better defined from top to bottom. The top end is crisp detailed and none fatiguing, I feel I can listen to these speakers all day without wanting to take a break.
The Princess can be a bit harsh when pushed, not that I push that hard often.
The bass end with the passive radiator is so nice and textured and evenly defined, not overloading the room or boomy. I can walk round the room and hear an even bass response, was not the case with the Princess.
Even at low volume, you can still hear the bass, with the princess I really needed to turn up the volume before you get good bass effect. The princess has a 5” bass / Mid driver and ported on the back, the Sonora has a 6” bass / mid driver and looks like a 7” passive radiator on the back. The passive radiator sounds like it’s doing a better job controlling the bass.
It's so much easier now to hear differences in recordings, even listening to the radio you can pick out more easily the different acoustics of different room / venues.
The Sonora appears to be very sensitive to rake and tilt angle, when I first set them up (not precise) the image appears to be more to the right. I checked and the speakers are about the same distance to my sitting position since the top slopes I was not able to check the angle properly.
So, I resorted to getting out the tool I use to set blade pitch on my radio-controlled helicopter, on checking one speaker was at 4.3 degrees and the other was 3.8 degrees rake angle, the tilt sideways was 0.3 degrees and 0.2 degrees the opposite on the other speaker. I then adjusted to 0 degrees side to side on both speakers and a rake angle of 4.6 degrees on both speakers, everything then snapped into focus. To my ears anyway, it may just be my imagination but those tiny deviation made a difference.
The construction of the speakers is just first class, everything is just solid and well put together. I must admit, they have really thought about the feet of the speakers, it’s miles ahead of what they used to supply with their previous speakers. It’s well designed and the ease of use / functionality is a pleasure to use. Tools for putting it together / adjust and are all included.
The combination of American Walnut / Acrylic / Leather looks good. For me the smaller Peak Consult speakers have always looked better than the bigger ones, maybe It’s just me.
I have always preferred stand mount speakers; in fact, this is the first-floor stander I have owned. Always liked the sound of stand mount.
This may only be the entry level into Peak Consult, but these speakers are far from an entry level speaker in terms of sound / build quality.
I am loving my new upgrade.
