I’m sitting in my living room, recovering from knee surgery, left leg elevated and heavily bandaged, listening to my SongTowers, and wondering – does Vicodin enhance aural perception? And then to my satisfaction I remember that the STs sound great even without opiates.
In their internet postings, Jim and Dennis make clear that perfecting the SongTower midrange was a central design goal. Did they get it right? To find out, I queued up my favorite recordings of acoustic guitar and female voice, two “instruments” that are emblematic of the midrange. Both recordings, as it turns out, can project quasi-holographic stereo images, but they require a system with transparent midrange to complete that illusion.
For acoustic guitar, my reference is “Krushevo”, a collection of Macedonian folk songs performed by guitarists Vlatko Stefanovki and Miroslav Tadic. The setting for their performance, an oddly-shaped cathedral-like monument in the former Yugoslavia, finds its way into the sound of the recording. Of the 10 songs, “More Cico Rece Da Me Zeni” best captures the interplay of the two guitars in this space. The SongTowers allow the guitars to bloom and render the interior of the building. The players exchange solos and melodies, and the tone resounds. My engagement deepens, and I wonder who crafted these guitars and what woods were used? How large is the interior of the monument, and where in it did the players sit? If there are clues in the recording, the SongTowers reveal them.
As I listen, I become aware of a shortcoming of my previous loudspeakers, the otherwise capable Von Schweikert VR-2s. On familiar records (and these comparisons are only from memory and thus subject to the usual biases) the STs seem more transparent in the midrange than the VR-2s. The VR-2s portrayed music with a pleasant warmth, but in the shadow of the SongTowers that warmth now seems a veil and a coloration.
Because of their transparency the SongTowers are a godsend for great recordings, but they are less forgiving to poor ones. The VR-2s were kinder to some of my compressed, poorly transferred rock CDs. Perhaps more listenable on these recordings, but ultimately less satisfying.
I’m also noticing that with the STs, the soundstage remains more stable from different listening positions than it did with the VR-2s. The latter imaged nicely from the sweet spot, but the soundstage shrank at other locations in the room. Not so much with the SongTowers: one of the upsides of using smaller mid-woofers is less “beaming” in the upper midrange.
How well do the SongTowers reproduce the female voice? To investigate, I dial up Diana Krall’s superbly recorded “Love Scenes”, focusing on the first track “All Or Nothing At All.”
A speaker given to sibilance will show it on this record. The balance struck in the SongTowers is the ability to capture the subtle rough edges, the “smokiness” of Diana’s voice, without devolving into unnatural sibilance. The dulcet heart of her singing is beautifully rendered, the humanity of her performance unconstrained. Credit the artistry of engineer Al Schmitt (as well as producer Tommy LiPuma) for crafting the aural illusion of a small jazz club with candlelit ambiance. The recording anchors the performers in a three-dimensional sound field. The backbeat hangs on Christian McBride’s bass lines - round notes expand from the wooden hollow of his instrument. Russell Malone’s guitar frames a counterpoint to Diana’s voice, its tone rich with melancholy. The SongTowers enable this recording to soar in the way that its makers intended.
That’s all for now, but I’ll return soon with one more installment. Stay tuned . . .
(Note: all listening trials were done sans Vicodin, just to make sure. Indeed, the SongTowers are a pain killer in their own right . . . )
