Hi-Fi: THEOPHANY – M3b Stand-Mount Speakers – Review – 76

Back in January 2007, After Gary Pearce returned the Theophany M2 stand-mount speakers he’d reviewed for issue 55 of Tone, they mysteriously found their way to my place for a few weeks. I distinctly remember a feeling of bewilderment when I fired them up, and wondered how these Kiwi-made speakers had bigger and tighter bass than any stand-mounts I’d previously heard.

I had a similar reaction with Theophany’s new M3b stand-mount speakers. The bass convinced me that the subwoofer in the corner of the showroom was on but it turned out to be as inert as a lump of coal. Theophany’s Garth Murray has again managed to extract more from a compact speaker design than the immutable laws of physics would seem to allow; or maybe such laws just don’t apply in Christchurch.

The M3bs are unmistakably from the Theophany school of design: curvaceous, elegantly sloping and well built to the bargain. Driven by Audiolab’s 8000 series components or even a Pioneer LX AV receiver and Blu-ray combination, they exhibited the trademark Theophany character, sounding big, dramatic and involving.

The M3bs are plainly impressive performers but it was only when I got them home that I actually grasped how towering their abilities are. With the sources and amplification moved up a level by my Yamaha A-S2000 integrated amplifier, Marantz SA8260 SACD player and modified Technics SL1210 turntable, the speakers absolutely vanished into the soundstage, disappearing even more completely than my Theophany M5 Series 2 floorstanders do, hanging musicians in the air with disconcerting solidity and lifelike effect.

This combination proved captivating, hooking me over and over. The first night I had them, I wanted a quick listen to relax after arriving home close to midnight. More than an hour later, I realised I’d just burned through all seventeen tracks of oneof my desert island discs, Nils Lofgren’s Acoustic Live. I worked through my music collection searching for weaknesses but I came up short. From a wide range of acoustic music playing quietly late at night to carefully selected dynamic workouts with the throttle cranked wide open, the Theophanys were up to any challenge, being mellow or wildly bursting with sound and rocking out like crazy as required.

When I put my Viganoni and Viganoni Sachem power amps into the system the M3bs went ballistic, lifting their game still further to display clarity and dynamic agility that made a Saturday afternoon listening session into one of the most enjoyable I’ve ever had at any price. I was so exhilarated that I ended up wondering if I could award them five and a half stars.

Besides the driving musicality and tight bass (they go down under 40Hz, according to Murray), there’s a wide soundstage and tangible imaging courtesy of the upward-firing drivers. The super-quick transient response makes for startling dynamics and attack, and the levels of resolution and transparency expose the textures and detail of the music like good headphones, especially with vinyl.

The M3bs are best in a moderately sized room as they don’t sound quite as titanic as the M5 floorstanders, but like most stand-mounts, you won’t notice that the very bottom of the frequency range is missing, and the M3bs go as low as many floorstanders. In any event, the flagship M5s are a much bigger and more expensive proposition that will appeal to a different buyer.

This review could have been short and sweet but the editor insists on us actually doing some work, so you had to read the screed above. The short version reads as follows: the Theophany M3b speakers are nothing less than the superb M5 Series 2 floorstanders shrunk in the wash, with a major portion of the performance of their big brothers for well under the half the price. If for some reason the floorstander selection from Theophany won’t work for you, these will.

BRETT GIDEON

TECH SPECS

M3b
Stand-mount Speakers
$2999

TYPE: Two-way stand-mount loudspeaker
TWEETER: 25mm ferro-cooled silk Torridial with neodymium magnet
BASS/MIDRANGE DRIVERS: 2 x 130mm twill woven glass fibre
POWER HANDLING: 150W RMS
FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 34Hz-25kHz (+/-3dB)
IMPEDANCE: 90dB/1W at 1m
DIMENSIONS: 442 x 238 x 345 mm (H/W/D)
WEIGHT: 9kg each
FINISHES: Various real wood veneers plus painted finishes

CONTACT

www.theophanyloudspeakers

PROS

• Sonic excellence

• Big-hearted performance

• Stylish looks

• Kiwi made

CONS

• Pass

VERDICT

• An amazing small speaker. At this price I’d give them five and half stars if I could

This Review is from Tone Issue #76.