As the boys and I—and by “boys,” I mean SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider and Ultra editor Jason Thorpe—finished our survey of PGE Narodowy, we wandered into Polish distributor SoundClub’s room. Though it wasn’t a part of the Super-System Alley we’d just checked out, the EgglestonWorks loudspeakers displayed were brain-meltingly good. They are also wallet-meltingly expensive. As the distributor is based in Poland, all the prices that follow are in zlotys.
What’s more, the music here was as repulsive to some of us as that played in the super-system rooms—read Jason’s overview to learn more about our thoughts on that. In this case, it was Hugh Masekela’s “Stimela (The Coal Train),” a song so overused in sound demos that it pushed Doug out of the room. My lack of audio-show experience worked in my favor, as it wasn’t irritating to me. In fact, I was duly impressed.
But why? By what? SoundClub brought a pair of EgglestonWorks Viginti V2 loudspeakers, and these were the 20th Anniversary Limited Edition version (zł240,000 per pair). The speakers were driven by a hulking—and aptly named—Boulder 2160 stereo amp (zł340,000). A Tenor Line1 preamplifier (zł900,000) served up a line-level signal, while an Air Tight ATE-3011 (zł90,000) did the phono-equalization duties. The turntable was a Brinkmann Audio Balance fitted with a Brinkmann Audio 12.1 tonearm (zł120,000 together). An Air Tight PC-1 Coda cartridge (zł25,000) completed the analog setup, which is what we heard. The system also had a Wadax Studio Player (zł190,000) handling the digital end of things, but it wasn’t in use while we were there. All cabling was provided by Swedish firm Jorma Audio.
The speakers sported a yellowish finish that could best be described as “mustard.” Actually, Jason offered a number of analogies that better described their color, but they mostly referred to bodily functions, and so aren’t suitable for publication. Needless to say, the palette wasn’t to our taste. The sound, however, made it easy to overlook the speakers’ aesthetics. As I sat near the sweet spot but not in it, I heard the speakers disappear and the soundstage extend from wall to wall, and it stretched as deep as I’ve ever heard at an audio show. The tone was bang-on too, and Masekela’s voice had a sense of realism about it that is easily lost in recordings and playback equipment alike.
The bass and the dynamics in this track, however, were what made this a room worth writing about, rather than simply another good room. At first, I thought the song was kind of quiet, with rather dull transitions between quiet and loud. Then I heard the song really get loud and the bass thump profoundly deep, and I was transfixed. Seriously, when you’re a hi-fi reviewer at a show, you hear enough stuff that it’s rare that anything will make you turn your head, but I stopped listening to Jason during one of Masekela’s “wheeeeeeeeee!” train whistles.
Normally, in an audio-show setting, most systems will deliver slam-dunk bass, breathtaking dynamics, or laser-cut imaging—but never all three. Heck, many systems can’t do even one of these. The EgglestonWorks-based system did it all. Nothing here is cheap, but based on what I heard, these condiment-colored loudspeakers are worth the price of admission.
Matt Bonaccio
Contributor, SoundStage!
