Note that this is a discontinued product. You may want to visit the brand's page here to browse their newer products.
What reviewers think
Magazine reviewers and YouTubers have tried this product—so we've summarized their strongest opinions below.
Product Strengths
- Sensational detail and musical involvement
- Breathtaking imaging and soundstaging
- The design enabled them to be used well back, positioned close to the rear wall
- Weight and control ensure that every element of the sound is readily apparent
- Cabinets resist flexing and resonance
Product Considerations
- AVID suggests 40-400W as the recommended output
- At 114cm tall on their dedicated stands, and weighing 100kg apiece with an all-up shipping weight of 150kg per speaker, they are tall and heavy
Takeaway: The AVID Reference Three speakers deliver a performance as monumental as their build, projecting sensational detail and musical involvement. They deliver a sound easily the match of many larger floorstanders.
Compared to their other products
We think it's helpful to understand how this product fits into the brand's full lineup (below). To learn more about these products, visit the brand's page.
Ingenium-turntable
- Positioning: The entry-level model aimed at budget-conscious users.
- Description: Offers a reliable belt drive mechanism and basic isolation features that help deliver clear sound in smaller rooms. In comparison to the other models, it provides essential performance without advanced engineering details for those who need simple functionality at a lower cost.
Diva-II-SP-turntable
- Positioning: A mid-range model that builds on the entry-level design with enhanced mechanical features.
- Description: Introduces an improved suspension system and refined tonearm design that help boost tracking precision and stability over the Ingenium. Compared to other products in the lineup, it offers a balanced step up in engineering for medium-sized setups.
Volvere-turntable
- Positioning: A mid-to-high tier option focused on greater mechanical stability and refined performance.
- Description: Uses an upgraded motor control and enhanced isolation measures that result in steadier operation and improved sound reproduction. In contrast to the Ingenium and Diva-II-SP models, its superior build quality and technical improvements suit buyers looking for a noticeable upgrade in performance and precision.
Acutus-reference
- Positioning: A high-end reference model designed for dedicated audiophile listening environments.
- Description: Features precision machining and an innovative motor system that markedly reduce vibration and enhance accurate tracking, setting it apart from the lower-tier products. Compared to the Ingenium, Diva-II-SP, and Volvere models, it offers advanced isolation and refined control.
Acutus-reference-mono
- Positioning: The flagship model with the highest level of engineering refinement in the lineup.
- Description: Features a bespoke mono-block design that significantly improves channel separation and minimizes interference, distinguishing it from all other models. Compared to the Acutus-reference and the rest of the range, it provides the most sophisticated circuitry and tonearm system.
Read the reviews
Reference Three
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Manufacturer's notes
Natural beauty
The integrated stand reduces unwanted room interaction and provides a large resistance mass, especially important with certain floor types.With the Bass drivers elevated from the floor there is less low frequency distortion, more noticeable within a smaller listening environment. For many, the Reference Three has proved to be the sweet spot in our range, offering fabulous clarity, realism and a natural beauty.
spellbinding
Outstanding musical clarity is achieved with a natural sounding tweeter. The grille has a pattern of holes to minimize horn effects and a titanium bobbin offers a tonally balanced and accurate sound with exceptionally fast transients. Bass is optimised by reflex loading from below the cabinet to reduce room positioning issues and our vibration damping techniques leaving you with music that is spellbinding.
- HF DRIVER: 1x 28mm (Titanium Voice Coil Former)
- MF/LF DRIVER: 2x 160mm (75mm Titanium Voice Coil Former)
- FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 35Hz - 22KHz ±3dB
- SENSITIVITY: 88dB @2.83V/1m
- RECOMMENDED POWER: 40 - 400W
- IMPEDANCE: 6Ω
- CROSSOVER TOPOLOGY: 2.5-WAY, 2ND ORDER
- CABINET CONSTRUCTION: ALUMINIUM PLATE. ALL INTERNAL VOLUMES SEALED WITH O-RING GASKETS
- DIMENSIONS: (CABINET) 590 x 230 x 525 (HXWXD) (OVERALL) 1140 x 460 x 605 (HXWXD)
- FINISHES: BLACK WITH CHROME TRIM, STAINLESS STEEL FEET
- NET WEIGHT: 100 KG
Our take on the brand
Used
Avid Hifi
What if you spend a bit more?
Our Reference range offers the very best that can be achieved in accuracy and musicality. We are honored that these models are some of the most awarded loudspeakers in the world. They combine advanced materials with cutting edge science and engineering. Designed without compromise, their singular aim is transporting listeners into the heart of the music.
Sonja 3.2 is a true, reference loudspeaker, delivering the life-like, natural sound which is the hallmark of YG. Capable delicate holographic imaging while still recreating concert scale audio, it is one of the very best loudspeakers in the world. With the revolutionary Lattice tweeter, twin BilletCore midrange drivers and our innovative Ultracoherent crossover, it combines an astonishing sonic performance with exceptional engineering and craftsmanship.
The Reference speakers are structured from high-grade aerospace aluminum, machined in-house to an incredible precision. The speakers are meticulously hand-built by experts in our Colorado workshop. The Reference 3 models include new technologies and design innovations based on novel theoretical models, detailed multi-domain simulations and thousands of hours of listening. The end result: loudspeakers which convey every nuance of emotion, each musical cue from the tiniest micro-detail to the visceral impact of the most thunderous crescendo.
An entirely new, hybrid Lattice tweeter uses a novel airframe in a specially-selected aerospace alloy, machined by YG Acoustics. It delivers exceptionally low distortion over a huge bandwidth, with wide angular dispersion to support a large sweet-spot. Groundbreaking, third-generation Ultracoherent crossovers apply a deep understanding from simulation to deliver performance never before possible. Our BilletCore drivers use advanced motors and cones machined in-house from solid billet, offering some of the highest performance and lowest distortion in any driver available today.
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Our Summary
Product Strengths
- Exceptional build quality using aerospace-grade aluminum
- Creates a holographic soundstage
- Delivers every genre with exceptional clarity and authority
- The design strives to editorialize the signal as little as possible, letting the music flow
Product Considerations
- Substantial investment required
- Considerable weight—145kg per speaker
- Demands thoughtful amplifier matching, requiring a lot of power to shine
- Requires optimal room placement
Takeaway: The YG Acoustics Reference Sonja 3.2 speakers are a masterpiece of acoustic engineering, providing a realistic, precise, and effortless sound experience. If one wants to hear their favorite music at its best, these speakers could be worth the investment.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Starting as a personal side project, the design and breakthroughs we achieved merged into what is now our frontrunner in our speaker portfolio. The initial idea of the project was to design the best possible bass loading module (basshorn aside), to be used with a new horn design we had in the works. The hybrid open baffle / aperiodic bass loading outperformed my expectations, and lead us to push the company design and manufacturing resources to this project, to be our new main speaker offering. This effort resulted to a new diffraction-less midrange horn, as well as our new horn/dipole ribbon tweeter design. Add some crossover technology borrowed from our top speaker the Contendo, and we present to you the Aurora!
Our Summary
Product Strengths
- Surprisingly free of horn colorations
- Very rich, present, and neutrally balanced
Product Considerations
- The reviewer was sitting too close to hear them at their best in the small room
- Looking a bit like something the Borg might have invented
Takeaway: The Aries Cerat Aurora Reference is a unique, horn-loaded speaker that sounds surprisingly good. They were considered the most interesting and novel new speaker at the show.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Our Reference range offers the very best that can be achieved in accuracy and musicality. We are honored that these models are some of the most awarded loudspeakers in the world. Designed without compromise, their singular aim is transporting listeners into the heart of the music.
Celebrating the twentieth anniversary of YG Acoustics, XX 3 is a unique product: an ultimate performance loudspeaker that will redefine what you think is possible. Benefitting from the latest in driver and crossover technology, it offers the highest possible sound quality from a single tower design. It is an acoustic, scientific and engineering marvel.
The XX 3 delivers incredible accuracy and realism from the deepest bass to the highest treble: the finest micro-details placed exactly in a broad and deep holographic audio space; unmatched scale and faultless timing. Each channel has our revolutionary Lattice tweeter and seven BilletCore drivers, all driven by our most extreme Ultracoherent crossover.
The Reference 3 models include new technologies and design innovations based on novel theoretical models, detailed multi-domain simulations and thousands of hours of listening. The end result: loudspeakers which convey every nuance of emotion, each musical cue from the tiniest micro-detail to the visceral impact of the most thunderous crescendo.
An entirely new, hybrid Lattice tweeter uses a novel airframe in a specially-selected aerospace alloy, machined by YG Acoustics. It delivers exceptionally low distortion over a huge bandwidth, with wide angular dispersion to support a large sweet-spot.
Groundbreaking, third-generation Ultracoherent crossovers apply a deep understanding from simulation to deliver performance never before possible. Our BilletCore drivers use advanced motors and cones machined in-house from solid billet, offering some of the highest performance and lowest distortion in any driver available today.
Our Summary
Product Strengths
- Exceptional build quality
- Incredible bass
- Product is not an inferior DAC to Gordon
- Beats the Blackback at soundstage
- Connectivity options are strong
Product Considerations
- [Pricing complaints removed]
Video review
Our take on the brand
Experience Clarisys Audio's Auditorium for ultimate sound quality. Boasting neodymium magnets and a double-sided bass panel, double-sided midrange, and double-sided treble. All drivers are 100% identical, giving you perfect coherence. The Impedance is 7ohm on average and never drops below 6ohm! The ribbon midrange starts at 600Hz and is a multi-segmented 7-trace design with 42mm width--the widest ever put into a speaker. The three-trace ribbon tweeter starts at 9000Hz, and the rigid aluminum substructure prevents flexing. High-quality copper foil internal wiring ensures exceptional signal transfer and musicality. Each speaker weighs 604 lbs plus an external crossover, which is color matched.
Our Summary
Product Strengths
- Experienced a 'wall of sound' from the speakers
- These speakers do not need room treatment
Product Considerations
- Extremely well-built, resulting in a thousand-pound shipping weight
- Speakers purchased at Audium come with a service, where if the buyer has issues, someone will fly to the buyer's home and fix them
Takeaway: The Audium speakers offer a phenomenal sound experience without needing extra sound treatment in the room. The build is solid, and the company will even fly to the buyer's house to fix them.
Video review
Our take on the brand
What else competes at this price?
Our Summary
Product Strengths
- High sensitivity and easy drivability
- Clean performance, neither sterile nor colorless
- Better at reproducing the spatial information on stereo recordings than the Altec
- Considerably smaller and thus easier to place—and to live with, in an aesthetic sense
Product Considerations
- Less colored than the Altec, with a less peaky lower treble
- Very heavy (231 lbs each), which makes installation difficult
- High price
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- The Altec loudspeakers were more colored than the Alumine, with a peaky lower treble
Takeaway: The Stenheim Alumine speakers offer a clean and detailed sound in a relatively compact size, while the Alumine Five offers even greater sensitivity in a floorstanding design. If high sensitivity, easy placement (Alumine), and a clean sound are valued, these speakers could be a good fit.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Our Summary
Product Strengths
- Unique design where form follows function, resulting in a contemporary and sleek aesthetic
- Incredibly tight, impactful, articulate, and controlled bass response with impressive dynamic power and clarity
- Seamless integration of midrange and tweeter via the M-Array, creating a virtual point source for maximum imaging and soundstage
- Exceptional clarity, transparency, and detail retrieval across the entire frequency spectrum
- Soundstage is incredibly wide, deep, accurate, and immersive with instruments placed precisely in a three-dimensional field
Product Considerations
- Significant power from amplifiers is required to perform optimally, with recommendations ranging from 200 to 1600 watts RMS
- The Hyphn is a large and heavy speaker, needing a decent-sized room and strong flooring
- Sensitivity is rated at 86 dB, which is considered low and necessitates high-power amplification
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- Vs Sonus Faber: Hyphn has a far more forward-sounding presentation compared to the more relaxed and recessed soundstage of Sonus Faber
- Vs JBL Everest DD67000: Hyphn's bass is not as 'huge' as some monster high-end speakers like JBL's Everest, but it is tighter and more tuneful
Takeaway: Monitor Audio's Hyphn is a state-of-the-art loudspeaker with a unique design, delivering exceptional clarity, deep bass, and a wide soundstage. If unrestrained performance and a forward-looking aesthetic are desired, the Hyphn is worth considering for an immersive listening experience.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Our Summary
Product Strengths
- Impressive midbass solidity
- Remarkable fidelity at lower volumes due to the alacrity of its drivers
- Comprehensive and dynamic sound signature with plenty of detail and clarity
- The newly developed tweeter allows for faster response and a frequency range that easily extends to 28,000Hz
- Features a modular design, offering flexibility with passive, iTron active, and all-in-one wireless streaming versions
Product Considerations
- Integrating the Spacehorn subwoofers requires careful alignment
- High-quality source components are needed to match its performance level
- Some reviewers found that the iTron amplification did not produce the requisite bloom and musicality for classical and jazz music
Takeaway: The Avantgarde Trio G3 speaker is a top-tier audio system known for its exceptional sound reproduction and flexibility with different configurations. If you appreciate high-quality audio performance and aesthetics and want a sound system that sounds exciting and sophisticated, it is an excellent option.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Our Summary
Product Strengths
- An all-encompassing sound keeps listeners rooted to their seats
- A unique 360° sound wave design creates a natural balance of direct and reflected sounds
- A truly huge, yet meticulously crafted, soundscape is created
- Not physically evident in the aural landscape, offering a sound that seems to have no origin
- Integration of the woofer's and melon's outputs was far smoother than previous models
Product Considerations
- High-powered amplifiers capable of delivering ample amounts of current are required due to its insensitivity (around 80dB)
- Placement can be tricky, needing more space away from room boundaries than some rooms can provide
- The biggest problem has always been the audible lack of seamless integration between the bass box and the stack of omnis atop it
- A 'chesty, compressed, almost grainy midbass coloration' can be exhibited if placement and other factors are not optimized
Takeaway: The MBL Radialstrahler 101 E MkII loudspeaker offers a distinctive and immersive listening experience thanks to its unique omnidirectional design. It can fill the room with a natural and balanced sound, creating a captivating musical soundscape for the listener.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Our Summary
Product Strengths
- Upgradable from older Model 7 versions, representing long-term value for owners
- Features a 'CounterForce Bass' system with opposing woofers to minimize cabinet movement and improve clarity
- Offers extensive bass adjustments for room integration, including 11 trim pots for precise frequency adjustments
- Time-and-phase coherent design ensures that all drivers move in unison
- Provides a relaxed ease and warmth that fosters musical engagement
Product Considerations
- Sensitivity is relatively low at 85dB, requiring a powerful amplifier to achieve its full potential
- Requires careful rake angle adjustment for optimal performance
- Bi-wire capable, the mandatory HP-7 filter costs extra
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- Vs KEF KC-62 subwoofer: Both use counter-opposing force woofers to stop cabinet movement
Takeaway: The Model Seven XTRM is a technologically innovative speaker designed for music lovers. It offers powerful bass, harmonic beauty, and exceptional tonal realism, making it a worthwhile investment for those seeking a high-fidelity audio experience.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Note that this is a discontinued product. You may want to visit the brand's page here to browse their newer products.
What reviewers think
Magazine reviewers and YouTubers have tried this product—so we've summarized their strongest opinions below.
Product Strengths
- Sensational detail and musical involvement
- Breathtaking imaging and soundstaging
- The design enabled them to be used well back, positioned close to the rear wall
- Weight and control ensure that every element of the sound is readily apparent
- Cabinets resist flexing and resonance
Product Considerations
- AVID suggests 40-400W as the recommended output
- At 114cm tall on their dedicated stands, and weighing 100kg apiece with an all-up shipping weight of 150kg per speaker, they are tall and heavy
Takeaway: The AVID Reference Three speakers deliver a performance as monumental as their build, projecting sensational detail and musical involvement. They deliver a sound easily the match of many larger floorstanders.
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