Erin's review for the March Audio Sointuva

[Mathias]

That said, this is a passive speaker that costs $3500-$4000 each.

Each? For a pair.

 

[Glen20]

Each? For a pair.

Pair.
So not in 8361 or D&D price territory unless you ignore most amp and dac reviews on here

 

[Holmz]

woodwork to die for.

They looked good to me, but I suppose people that like MDF will not abide them.
(I also like doing woodworking, so that helps to appreciate it.)

They were surprisingly good sounding in person.
I guess I need to go and look for which speakers have better than 6.7 or 7.3 scores to determine what else would be good to consider.

And it is a lot easier these days, than just driving and relying on mood as a way to determine what is good.

 

[mcdn]

I suspect the price is for a single speaker, and @hardisj has a typo in his review. Happy to be proved wrong but the previous iteration is AUD4999 per speaker: https://www.marchaudio.net.au/product-page/sointuva-speaker

Edit: see later posts confirming USD3995/pair. I heard a pair of the previous iteration in my home as Alan was kind enough to bring them over for listening, they really are quite lovely speakers.

 

[Vict0r]

I think something special is allowed to look, well, special. I wouldn't mind a finish like the one posted, anyway. Definitely something you don't see every day. If I had the cash to splurge on $8000 passive bookshelf speakers, and I was allowed to choose a finish, I'd get them in eye-watering teal or hot pink, though. Just to have something that looks as ridiculous as its ridiculously good measurements.

 

[tktran303]

Some ASR members really don’t know how to read measurements without Armir’s commentary. Or they’re not paying attention and don’t really know what else is out there.

This 1/2 cu foot speaker IS state of the art.
It plays louder and cleaner and is smaller than others 1/2 cu foot speaker.

Is this audio science review or 7moons beauty contest?

Besides It comes in any colour you want.

Did you notice how Erin is comparing the dynamic levels to the JBL M2- with its 15”
Woofer, and is about the size of a small refrigerator ?

And the Kii Three with its FOUR 6.5” midwoofers and FOUR 400W amplifiers can’t keep up with a single Purifi?
(Clue: Look and compare distortion and dynamic range (instantaneous compression tests))

The Purifi 6.5TT-X is a !super! midwoofer.
And the Satori beryllium tweeter in waveguide is one of the best. Good old fashioned cabinetry and crossover work.

Show me any Genelec as small they can play as cleanly and as loudly.

In fact, Genelec need to get their orders in with Purifi for their next superspeaker. I’ll give it 24 months…

 

[abdo123]

Let me break some good news: score is 6.9 which is stellar for a passive speaker.

         SPK auEQ                                                                                                                                          
-----------------                                                                                                                                          
NBD  ON 0.29 0.24                                                                                                                                          
NBD  LW 0.25 0.20                                                                                                                                          
NBD PIR 0.21 0.16                                                                                                                                          
SM  PIR 0.91 0.96                                                                                                                                          
SM   SP 0.99 0.99                                                                                                                                          
LFX       34   32                                                                                                                                          
LFQ     0.84 0.84                                                                                                                                          
-----------------                                                                                                                                          
Score    6.9  7.3                                                                                                                                          
w/sub    8.5  8.8                                                                                                           
-----------------                                                                                                                                          
+6.88 +7.32 March Audio Sointuva

An EQ doesn't help much so I also boosted the bass a bit and get the score up to 7.3.
As always you can play with the EQ to taste, i would remove the small ones and keep only 2 and even like that it would be worth listening to see if that improves the sound or not.

The speaker is really ugly but it should perform.

March did a great job.
View attachment 177332

Here is the EQ in details:

EQ for March Audio Sointuva computed from ErinsAudioCorner data
Preference Score 6.9 with EQ 7.3
Generated from http://github.com/pierreaubert/spinorama/generate_peqs.py v0.14
Dated: 2022-01-07-08:39:44

Preamp: -1.9 dB

Filter  1: ON PK Fc   156 Hz Gain -0.84 dB Q 3.87
Filter  2: ON PK Fc  2086 Hz Gain +0.94 dB Q 2.41
Filter  3: ON PK Fc  1296 Hz Gain +0.77 dB Q 5.97
Filter  4: ON PK Fc   208 Hz Gain -0.51 dB Q 5.29
Filter  5: ON PK Fc   127 Hz Gain -0.50 dB Q 5.85
Filter  6: ON PK Fc    41 Hz Gain +2.96 dB Q 1.35
Filter  7: ON PK Fc   105 Hz Gain -0.51 dB Q 5.89
Filter  8: ON PK Fc   265 Hz Gain -0.52 dB Q 6.00
Filter  9: ON PK Fc  1702 Hz Gain -0.56 dB Q 5.84

8.8 is a new record for Klippel NFS measured speakers right?

 

[Sancus]

Each? For a pair.

If that's true, I stand corrected. According to this post it's true this is the price per pair, and March never fixed the misleading website as promised I guess.

Anyways that changes my mind, this is definitely in the top 3 2-ways, passive or otherwise, for its size.

Some ASR members really don’t know how to read measurements without Armir’s commentary. Or they’re not paying attention and don’t really know what else is out there.

This 1/2 cu foot speaker IS state of the art.
It plays louder and cleaner and is smaller than others 1/2 cu foot speaker.

What makes you believe that "playing louder and cleaner" for a specific size is how you define state of the art? I personally think those things are considerably less important than low frequency CD or perfect directivity in all dimensions.

I mean you're free to prioritize what you want, but it's pretty childish to say people don't know how to read measurements when we know for a fact that distortion measurements are a useless disaster that often don't correlate to anything audible.

 

[thewas]

8.8 is a new record for Klippel NFS measured speakers right?

Nope, the ASR measured Genelec 8030C has 9.0.

 

[tktran303]

I personally think those things are considerably less important than low frequency CD or perfect directivity in all dimensions.

I mean you're free to prioritize what you want, but it's pretty childish to say people don't know how to read measurements when we know for a fact that distortion measurements are a useless disaster that often don't correlate to anything audible.

You have a right to your own opinion no matter how wrong your opinion might be.

There’s no known correlation of directivity with listener preference.

Reference; Sean Olive/Harman

The spinorama is very important but it’s a static graph whose main function is describing spectral neutrality (or lack thereof)

It doesn’t describe dynamic range limitation.

Have a close look at Erin’s Kii Three, and Dutch and Dutch 8c, JBL M2 distortion and dynamic range measurements and you’ll start to see the differences that makes this speaker so interesting.

 

[Sancus]

There’s no known correlation of directivity with preference.

You're a laugh riot. People offensively stating objectively wrong things go straight to my ignore list, and 100% permanently. One of the worst posts I've seen on this site. No correlation of directivity with preference. ROFL. Read Toole's book instead of posting slides you misunderstood. Directivity is literally the core of what makes a speaker good or bad.

 

[polmuaddib]

Great review, Erin and great speaker, March audio! Thank you.
I love the finish.
I still like Amir's represantation of distortion better then Erin's. Easier to compare. But that's just me nitpicking.

 

[tktran303]

Sancus.

Yes I’ve got Toole’s book. First edition.

Do you know the preference rating was created by Sean Olive?

The slide is written by Sean Olive.
Man, I’m out.

 

[abdo123]

You're a laugh riot. People offensively stating objectively wrong things go straight to my ignore list, and 100% permanently. One of the worst posts I've seen on this site. No correlation of directivity with preference. ROFL. Read Toole's book instead of posting slides you misunderstood. Directivity is literally the core of what makes a speaker good or bad.

He's right though, the model does not favor narrow directivity speakers over wide directivity speakers or vice versa. it only punishes directivity mismatches.

 

[retro]

About the price, here's a snip from the original Sointuva thread:

Initial pricing for a pair will be $3495 USD for painted finish (any colour you like) and $3995 for wood finish. This is significantly cheaper than the $5000 some were predicting earlier in the thread

 

[dasdoing]

I am a little suprised by all the praising because of the HF rise. I have seen other speakers beeing lynched here for less lol

 

[thewas]

The Olive/Harman score strongly relates to directivity, https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-100-review-speaker.29190/page-3#post-1019212

 

[tomtoo]

I am a little suprised by all the praising because of the HF rise. I have seen other speakers beeing lynched here for less lol

That HF rise is minimal. This think is linear to ca. 8 khz.Than it goes very slow up. Whit that some dB peak at 15khz,Thats more a littel air raising. And imo very hard to hear.

 

[tomtoo]

Thats a very audiophile speaker. Erin should send them to the Auduiophiliac. He should love them.

 

[YSC]

really nice one but somehow the on axis rise in high frequencies keeps me itchy