October 2009 Reviewed by Vince Hanada	Angstrom Loudspeakers Suono 300S / 200S 100SD / ALFT-12S Home-Theater Speaker System

Description Model: Suono 300S main speaker Price: $399 USD each Dimensions: 34"H x 7"W x 3"D Weight: 17.6 pounds each Model: Suono 200S center-channel speaker Price: $299 USD Dimensions: 24"W x 7"H x 3"D Weight: 9 pounds Model: Suono 100SD surround speaker Price: $249 USD each Dimensions: 14"H x 7"W x 2.75"D Weight: 11 pounds each Model: ALFT-12S subwoofer Price: $599 USD Dimensions: 18"H x 17.5"W x 16"D Weight: 72 pounds

Description (cont'd) System price: $2194 USD Warranty: Five years on speakers, one year on subwoofer electronics. Features Tuned MDF enclosures with fabric grilles (black, silver, or white) 1" soft-dome tweeters 4.5" treated-paper-cone woofers 12" paper-cone woofer (ALFT-12S) 150W amplifier (ALFT-12S, manufacturer rated)

When I reviewed Angstrom Loudspeakers’ Obbligato Renaissance home-theater speaker system ($10,996) and discovered them to be formidable performers in the multi-kilobuck range, I was anxious to hear what else this Canadian company had to offer. A quick e-mail to president Tony Gray resulted in three models from Angstrom’s Suono line of on-wall speakers being sent my way, along with one of their subwoofers.

The Suonos are quite different from the Obbligato Renaissances, and, at a total system price of only $2194 USD, cost less than a fifth the price. And on-wall speakers are much more room-friendly, for higher consumer appeal. But how did they sound?

Suono 300S

The Suono 300S is among the slimmest dynamic loudspeakers I’ve seen. Sure, electrostatic panels are thinner, but how Angstrom managed to fit four conventional drivers in a space only 3" deep is beyond me. The enclosure, made of MDF, is as solid and inert as they come. The 300S is 34" high, which perfectly matches the height of a 50" flat-panel TV on a stand, or a 58" flat screen without stand. Entirely covering the speaker is a grille sock of fine-mesh cloth in white, silver, or black. The drivers are arranged in an unusual order, with a tweeter at top and bottom, and two 4.5" woofers between them. According to Angstrom, these tweeter positions permit a better blend with the output of a center-channel speaker placed above or below the display. The 300S is a 2.5-way design, its tweeters crossed over at about 3000Hz to the upper woofer, the lower woofer handling only deep bass.

At top and bottom of the Suono 300S are smoked-glass endcaps, the bottom one removable to reveal the binding posts. These are disappointing: spring-loaded terminals with holes that don’t admit banana plugs or spade lugs, which meant I couldn’t use my usual WBT-terminated speaker cables. Instead, I used a set of nonterminated cables. Believe it or not, the 300S has a port on one of its narrow sidepanels, near the bottom. Because the 300S is so shallow, the port is only 1.5" in diameter.

Suono 200S

Though the Suono 200S is similar to the 300S, it has no port, only one tweeter, and its largest dimension is 24". Its woofer-tweeter-woofer driver array makes the 200S ideal for center-channel duties when it’s laid on its side. If you’ve got a 37" or 42" flat-panel TV, then the 200S, used as a main speaker, will visually match it better than the Suono 300S. Because the 200S will most often be used as a center channel, the wall-mount bracket on its rear panel can easily be unscrewed and rotated 90 degrees.

Suono 100SD

The 100SD is the multipolar surround-channel speaker in the Suono series. It’s 14" high, has a woofer-tweeter-woofer driver array on its front baffle, and a tweeter on each of its two narrow sides. The 100SD is also equipped with a switch to attenuate the front tweeter by 5dB for a more diffuse effect, if desired. Angstrom’s website and literature state +/-6dB, implying a three-way switch, but my sample was labeled "0/-5dB." The 100SD is similar in features and looks to the other Suono speakers, right down to those dreaded spring-loaded speaker posts.

ALFT-12S subwoofer

Angstrom’s ALFT-12S subwoofer has a 12" front-firing woofer in a nearly cubical (18"H x 17.5"W x 16"D) enclosure of MDF; a glossy top panel gives the sub a bit of style. The rear panel has both a single LFE and stereo inputs, as well as speaker-level inputs and outputs. There are volume and crossover-frequency controls, and toggle switches for phase and auto on/off. The woofer is driven by a 150W RMS amplifier, with a massive finned heatsink around back. A single port on the bottom extends the sub’s low-bass output.

Setup

For a system comprising wall-mounted speakers, the Angstrom Suonos were dead simple to install. All Suono models are fitted with a diamond-shaped plate for mounting them on walls. (Matching wall plates are provided.) There are four holes for mounting, but the screws are large enough that two will suffice. All you need are a drill and a screwdriver: Drive two screws into the wall to secure the wall plate, then slide the speaker’s plate down on top of it. The plates are forgiving; if one isn’t completely straight, you can straighten it out when you slide the speaker on. When I’d done this, the speakers felt solidly and securely fastened to the walls.

Because all of the Suonos were mounted on walls, their distances to my seating area were a bit greater than usual -- about 12’ to my listening seat for the front 300Ses and center 200S, mounted to the left and right of, and under, respectively, my 92" projection screen; and about 10’ for the 100SD surrounds, which were about 7’ off the ground.

Sound

When I sat down to watch and listen to some movies, the first thing that struck me about the Angstrom Suonos was their synergy. In Zen-like fashion, the outputs of the front three speakers jelled together as one. Hearing the HD DVD edition of Batman Begins through the Suonos was a treat. Scenes such as chapter 5, in which Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) hones his fighting skills, were especially gratifying -- the front soundstage was a single wall of sound rather than sounding like the outputs of three separate speakers, a cohesion undoubtedly assisted by the additional lower tweeter in the Suono 300S. The swung sword sounded as if it were cutting through my room, and the cracking of the ice sounded as if it were actually happening, somewhere in the distance beyond my walls.

The 200S center-channel has a horizontal D’Appolito-like driver array; as is typical of this arrangement, it could sound rolled off when I sat to one side or the other of the room. Still, within a 15-degree window in front of the center speaker, dialogue was especially clear. Throughout Batman Begins, I never strained to understand Alfred (Michael Caine) or Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman). And the bass was weighty enough that those male voices sounded real.

One of the more outrageous uses of surround channels is in the soundtrack of the HD DVD edition of Hot Fuzz. Throughout this movie, every little sound is seemingly set to 11 on the surround mixer, but the Suono 100SD surrounds proved up to the task of conveying this aggressive soundtrack -- a helicopter flyover at the end of chapter 3 was particularly enveloping. This scene transitions to a rapid series of sound effects ranging from a passing train to falling rain to creaking doors. The Suono 100SDs proved adept at the realistic reproduction of sound effects both diffuse and direct.

Every sound effect in Hot Fuzz is also accompanied by aggressive use of the LFE channel. While the Angstrom ALFT-12S subwoofer provided bass that was loud and low enough to fill my room, the quality of that bass was a little loose -- it tended to resonate throughout my listening space. Take, for example, slamming doors, of which there are plenty in Hot Fuzz: The ALFT-12S tended to make these effects linger too long, and when a bunch of door-slams happened in quick succession, the result was boomy bass. But the ALFT-12S costs only $599, and its performance is on a par with other subwoofers at or near that price.

Comparison

An on-wall home-theater speaker system very close in price to the Angstrom Suono system is the Paradigm Cinema 330, which I reviewed a while back, and which comprised the Cinema 330 mains and center and Cinema ADP dipole surrounds. The subwoofer was Paradigm’s UltraCube 10, for a total price of $1914, which compares favorably with the Angstrom Suono’s $2194.

With lifestyle-oriented speakers, one of the biggest factors is appearance. For looks and unobtrusiveness, I give the nod to the Angstrom Suonos. Although the specs list the difference in the speakers’ depth as only 1.125", the difference, in person, is huge. The simple black-cloth grilles of my review samples gave the Suonos an understated elegance that didn’t scream "speakers"; in comparison, the Cinema 330s look plastic.

The two systems have similar neutralities of sound. Cabinet colorations, the bane of many lifestyle speakers, were practically nonexistent in the Angstrom Suonos, and only slightly noticeable with the Paradigm Cinema 330s. The best compliment I can pay any lifestyle speaker is to say that it sounds like a decent bookshelf speaker. This was particularly true of the Suono 300S, which had deeper bass than the Cinema 330. When I listened to Sam Cooke’s Night Beat (CD, RCA/Legacy 69551 2), the singer sounded especially real, the Suono 300Ses producing a nearly holographic image of Cooke in the front soundstage. I don’t recall hearing this with the Cinema 330s.

Both systems were also excellent at surround envelopment, and were among the best I’ve heard in this regard -- most lifestyle systems don’t have bipole or dipole surrounds. The Paradigm Cinema ADP, however, would better suit some rooms, as they take up a lot less wall space.

Compared to the Paradigm, the Angstrom subwoofer came up short in bass response. Although the UltraCube 10 is smaller than the Angstrom ALFT-12S, with only a 10" driver, the Paradigm produced tighter bass.

Conclusion

With its home-theater speaker system of on-wall Suono models, Angstrom Loudspeakers has produced one of the best, and best-thought-out, lifestyle speaker systems I’ve had the pleasure of hearing. Nor do the Suonos’ good looks mean compromising on sound quality, as you usually have to do with lifestyle speakers at or near this price. If you’re in the market for on-wall speakers, I can’t think of a better system to recommend.

Manufacturer contact information:

Angstrom Loudspeakers
135 Anderson Avenue
Markham, Ontario L6E 1A4
Canada
Phone: (905) 294-9383
Fax: (905) 294-7670

Website: www.angstromloudspeakers.com

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