Imaging

Setup

The speakers and stands arrived in larger, heftier boxes than expected. A few quick turns and the so called spikes were installed on the stands. The speakers were placed facing each other connected out of phase for initial breaking in. Further break in occurred in an auxiliary system that serves mostly for background music for another week. The speakers were finally placed in the listening room after about 100 hours of play time but continued to break in throughout the review period.

Getting new speakers to sound right when first placed in a room can sometimes be daunting. That wasn't the case with the Gracioso speakers. They were easy to place as long as I towed them in to avoid sound reflections off the side walls in my small listening room. Out of curiosity, I moved one around, then the other, etc, and each time a constant stable image was still there. The only tweak was getting the distance to the rear and side walls for the best bass and imaging but the best sound in my room was with them nearly four feet out from the back wall and nearly an equilateral triangle with the listening position. The speakers were slightly closer together than they were from the best listening spot. The rear port actually helped augment the bass as the best imaging was found where the best bass was found; just over three feet out from the rear wall.

During this process it was clear that rounding the front baffle to control diffraction of the sound off the face was helping. I could move my head around, bop it side to side, etc, and the sound and image was stable. This is good news as a speaker whose sound changes abruptly as I move my head is a pet peeve of mine. One of my criteria for a good speaker is being able to bob your head around without abrupt changes in the sound.

Most of the listening was using my Hephaestus monoblocks fed by the preamp of a Bryston B100, a Lite Audio DAC AM modified by Pacific Valve, and a Pioneer Elite DV47a CD transport.

So How Do They Sound?

Sitting down to listen immediately reminded me of the Merlin TSM speakers. There was just something about them that was similar enough that the Merlin speakers popped into my mind. They both share a sense of energy and attack combined with a smooth frequency response balance in addition to properly tuned neutral bass.

Further investigation revealed that the drivers all come from the same company, have similar crossover points and topologies, and both have rather inert cabinets. The Gracioso 1.0 speakers likely have an edge here with a more rounded front baffle and use the Elite series Morel drivers which is theoretically a step up.

The Gracioso's do not wow the listener at first, but continually captivate the listener garnering more favor as time passes. Several veteran audiophile friends came over during the review period and each was quiet until after about three or so songs - very unusual behavior. Usually they will offer and opinion or comment right away, but these speakers have a way of captivating you and drawing you in, but not because of gimmicky, hyper-audiophile qualities. There is no initial "wow" factor like the first time you see the Las Vegas strip. They are exceedingly smooth, have surprisingly good bass for a 6.5” woofer, and have a very open and natural sound. The music is able to come through in a clean powerful moving manner. This is the kind of speaker that one could own and listen to for a long time.

Just a tip, if a speakers “wows” you right away, do not purchase it until you have had a chance to listen for extended periods, perhaps as long as your longest listening session is likely to be. More often than not, a speaker that gives you that wow factor will become fatiguing after 30 minutes or so. You ears won’t feel tired and your eyes might not be dripping blood, but you will just feel like you don’t want to listen anymore and go do something else. That’s ear fatigue. You should be able to listen for hours without the feeling that you’d rather be walking the dog or mowing the lawn…

Imaging

The Acoustic Preference Gracioso 1.0 speakers image fabulously, likely their strongest area of many very strong areas of performance. I am a sucker for speakers that can present a realistic soundstage and take me into the performance. If a speaker cannot do this, I will dismiss it.

Instruments are easily placed within the soundfield as well as off stage. This review overlapped with a review of my Hephas (Hephaestus Audio class D monoblocks) as well as an upcoming review of the a Xindak tube preamp. The difference in soundstage depth between the Bryston 2B SST and the Hephas was very easy to hear. This is an indicator that the speakers will likely not be the limiting factor for imaging. Furthermore, the difference between the preamp section of the Bryston B100 SST and the Xindak tube preamp was also quite clear. I will leave most differences for the review but one preamp would flatten the soundstage to the point where one could not hear the true abilities of the speakers. This emphasizes the concept that people should start with the best speakers possible that work with their room and only then find electronics that match them well. It also illustrates how revealing the Gracioso's are.

This is a quote from my review of the Hephas but since it was also playing through the Gracioso speakers, it fits here too. Melody Gardot's, “Worrisome Heart” sounded impressive. The air and sense of space from the recording was rendered beautifully. The vibrato in her voice was more noticeable than I have noticed as well as the breaths she took in between the verses. In “All That I Need Is Love” on the same album, the notes in her voice rise up and down with lots of emotion. Through the Hephas, the speedy rise in her voice is captured perfectly preserving the feeling of the recording. One could easily make out the drums being hit with brushes and the cymbals sounded just right. Melody Gardot was placed up front and center with the instruments and drums clearly giving her the stage. When I came back to listen and double check my notes, I found myself just sitting and listening through half the album when I should have been joining my family for dinner. It took a three foot tall person with a big smile to come in and pull me away from it. Just the opposite of the “wow” factor above.

Bass from a 6.5” Woofer?

Once correctly set up in the room, the speakers provided surprisingly strong and accurate bass for a 6.5” woofer.

Can They Rock?

While listening to the aforementioned “Five Peace Band” recording I noticed that both of my reference speakers would start to compress at the high levels I would play this release at. The monitors use a 5” SEAS metal cone woofer and a SEAS 27TDFC tweeter with a second order crossover and notch filter. The full range speakers are an open baffle three way speaker using GR Research woofers and a B&G planar ribbon tweeter. The Gracioso 1.0 speakers were more free from compression in the treble than either of these speakers and the Gracioso's Elite series Morel woofer outperformed the smaller SEAS metal cone woofer which would start to bottom a little earlier.

The last time I heard the Merlin speakers, Bobby Palkovic played “Postcards From Paraguay” from Mark Knopfler's Shangri La on CD. I remember how accurate his VSM's were and how well it reproduced Mark Knopfler's vibrato when he sang “From Paraguay” later in the song. Remembering how the Gracioso's reminded me of the TSM's, I had to listen to this CD and it was reproduced as good if not better albeit less deep. It was both very accurate and very enjoyable. Later I found my wife listening to this CD when I got home from work and she commented on how well the air was reproduced and how well “Boom, Like That” rocked with a sense of power and funk.

I've been enjoying another CD lately that seems to cross the borders between jazz and rock. “Catching Takes” from Jamie Cullum on CD straddles the lines between audiophile music and fun music to which the rest of us listen. It's relatively well recorded with good bass and seemingly uncompressed, but the highs are always a little edgy. Either way, the music is entertaining.

Once I was listening to this CD and decided to shower before my wife and kids got home. The listening room is on a different floor so I left the music playing at a moderately high level. I still couldn't hear it over the shower and forgot that it was playing. While I was in the shower there were all sorts of bumps and thumps as if my family had come home and my young boys were rough-housing inside the house. I hurried my shower in an effort to put a stop to the wrestling. When I got out, I realized I was still alone and it was hard-hitting, accurate bass from the Gracioso's and Jamie Cullum.

Classical

The Acoustic Preference Gracioso's are very much at home playing classical music. Many speakers are not designed well enough to be able to do such divergent genres as rock and classical equally as adroitly. These image great placing instruments where they should be but also have a huge sense of detail without being in your face or annoying. The excellent midrange will be a plus to those who want to clearly hear the difference between a violin and a viola for example. Hmm. Earlier I said that imaging may be the Gracioso's strongest quality, but perhaps it's the midrange. I think I have to say this is the best midrange I have had the privilege of hearing in my home. Again, this speaker's qualities sneak up on you and seduce you. There's an addictive quality that's almost spooky. I actually found myself thinking about them at work and looking forward to spending time with them later that night.

Joshua Bell's “Violin Favourites & Virtuoso Showpieces” gets a lot of play in our home. It's mostly violin accompanied by a piano in the background and highlights involving music from Kreisler, Brahms, Paganini, Sarasate, and Wieniawski. The music was faithfully reproduced and quite enjoyable through the Gracioso's I was listening to “Liebesfreud” and “Liebesleid” from the second CD in the set and noticed something I had never heard before; somebody taking deep breaths here and there in the recording. I had never heard that before but once I did, it wasn't all that subtle.

Hearing new things in a recording can mean either good or bad things. In this case it was a good thing as it was just a function of the high resolution nature of the speakers. In some cases, people hear new things because the frequency in that range is emphasized and unnatural but these speakers are smooth enough to not be the case here.

I've been enjoying the Delos recordings a lot the past few years. It's a great way to find new music that you may like and they usually sound great. I plopped “Second Stage”, “The Symphonic Sound Stage, Vol 2” into my transport for both enjoyment and testing purposes.

One of the songs I always have to pay attention through is “Fireworks” by Stravinsky. The sense of space and placement of instruments was first rate as was the attack when the music would burst into energy from near silence. These speaker was able to reproduce the full scale orchestra even catching much of the bottom end of the spectrum. It wasn't the same as a true full range speaker and lacked the ultimate authority that a huge speaker or a subwoofer would provide yet it did a surprisingly good job considering it's size. I can't think of a speaker this size that could outperform these in terms of bass.