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Listening Room
SMAS 11163). The famous “heartbeat”
in Time was slightly softer than with our
reference speakers, but its solidity was
impressive. The clock chimes that end
On the Run and announce Time were
perhaps a touch shrill, but we didn’t
much care. A lot of sonic layers were
overlaid on this recording, and the de
Capos rendered them sonically transparent,
so that we could hear right through
to ever more layers. The improvement
was so remarkable that at one point all
three of us burst out laughing. Wheee!
“It’s a different recording,” said Gerard
after it was all over.
We took the MM’s into the lab for
a one-on-one session with our test
microphone. The 100 Hz square wave
test (top left photo on the previous
page) looks rather good, with of course
the funny shape imposed by the room
itself. However the sides of the square
wave are straight, which is a sign of both
quickness and the absence of gross phase
errors. The top of the wave is also free
of artifacts. So far so good.
The frequency response is shown
Summing it up…
Brand/model: Reference 3a MM De
Capo-i
Price: US$2500
Dimensions: 38.5 x 28 x 33 cm
Impedance: 8 ohms
Sensitivity: 92 dB
Most liked: Astonishingly revealing,
stupendous dynamics
Least liked: Slightly elevated upper
midrange
Verdict: The small speaker for when
only a large one will do
in the large photo to the right. It looks
fairly good. However it confirms our
impression that the upper midrange
rises gently between perhaps 4 kHz and
10 kHz. The notches around 225 Hz and
450 Hz (one octave up) are caused by the
room.
The graph seems to show the low
frequency response going very deep, and
in truth it does. The sine wave photo on
CROSSTALK
the previous page shows a 35 Hz tone at
our full test level, and it looks virtually
perfect. There’s something we don’t see
often! A couple of Hertz below that
everything falls apart, of course, but
that is nonetheless an awesome exploit
for a speaker this size.
All speakers are built around compromise,
of course. What is amazing
is that the de Capo seems to have been
optimized for two conflicting criteria.
It has better dynamics and more bottom
end headroom than you can usually get
from a speaker this size. Yet the quickness
of transients, usually the province
of smaller drivers, is magnificent as well.
But then we always thought Daniel
Dehay was some kind of magician.
The dynamics and the quickness are
not the only items on the speaker’s list of
virtues, either. Good as it sounds playing
loud, it also has remarkable finesse when
it plays softly. That’s why we could hear
so much: tiny details never vanish into
the mush.
Making such a speaker affordable is,
frankly, a neat trick.
There are lots of speakers on the market
that I love (and far more that I detest, I need
hardly add). But I’ve always had a particularly
soft spot for Daniel Dehay’s speakers. The
first time I heard them, perhaps a dozen
years ago, I knew instantly there was some-
thing special about them.
And there still is, even if Dehay’s original
design is now serving largely as a template for
people who are sculpting new creations. The
lively dynamics are still something to behold.
The bottom end remains superb, against all
reasonable expectations. The transients are
quick, and with every recording there are
new delights awaiting you.
Is this “i” speaker truly better than the
original MM de Capo? Perhaps. Rereading
my notes, I see that I found the top end of
the original (UHF No. 60) not as refined
as I would have liked. This is a considerable
improvement. The bottom end seems
better too. Of course the upper midrange
is more prominent that I would have liked,
but perhaps in the acoustics of an ordinary
room that might have been less evident.
I still think this speaker is something
special.
—Gerard Rejskind
Very intriguing speakers. How would
you qualify speakers that reveal so many
layers of sounds and textures in music that
you thought you knew so well? I mean, can
speakers really bring performers forward and
spotlight them? These certainly did and they
did it with utmost ease, time after time.
Mind you, at first I questioned the highs
which sounded too sharp for my ears — compared
to those of the reference and ultimately
to live music — and seemed to affect female
voices particularly. But somehow I was more
amazed by what I was discovering in the
music.
Depth and space were particularly
convincing. And speed. Talk about lightning
fast speakers! They handled high-flying
percussion rhythms and tons of cascading
piano notes with razor sharp precision. No
Awesome! It’s the right word
That overused word means producing awe in an observer. And it’s what happens
when you hear this remarkable disc of a saxophone and organ in a vast church.
A justly famous recording on Proprius, also available on gold HDCD from First
Impressions Music.
blur, no mush. Great stability, great clarity.
—Albert Simon
Over and above a remarkable stereo
image, exceptional depth, and a generous
and pleasant spaciousness, these speakers
reproduce music with a refinement that
extends to every corner of the spectrum.
Strings are harmonically rich. Woodwinds
are gorgeous, warm and velvety. The
pipe organ is solid, giving the music a certain
majesty. The piano offers superb chromatics,
and transients are remarkably quick.
No stridency to the guitar. Choral voices
are impressive, with mixed voices that are
warm and round. The bottom end is ample
and solid, even if it can’t quite match that of
our reference speakers. Everything hangs
together.
But for a minor reservation concerning
the top of the spectrum, which can get just
slightly shrill now and then, I can say I liked
these speakers a lot.
—Reine Lessard
44 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine