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Piega
P4XL MKII / P4L MKII /
P4C MKII / P1
Home-Theater Speaker System
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Description Model:
P4XL MKII speakers
Price: $3795 USD per pair
Dimensions: 47"H x 7’W x 9"D
Weight: 62 pounds each
Model: P4C MKII center-channel speaker
Price: $1375 USD
Dimensions: 6"H x 24"W x 8"D
Weight: 26 pounds
Model: P4L MKII surround speakers
Price: $2950 USD per pair
Dimensions: 39"H x 6"W x 8"D
Weight: 35 pounds each
Model: P1 subwoofer
Price: $1995 USD
Dimensions: 18"H x 14"W x 17"D
Weight: 68 pounds |
Description (cont'd)System Price:
$10,115 USD
Warranty: Five years parts and labor
Features
- Proprietary Linear Drive Ribbon tweeters
- Proprietary 5" Linear Drive Bass woofers
- Proprietary 10" Linear Drive Bass woofer (P1)
- Extruded aluminum cabinets
- Gold-plated binding posts
- Silver or black grilles
- 500W (RMS) amplifier (P1)
- Adjustable crossover (P1)
- Aluminum veneer (P1)
- Auto on/off (P1)
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The Swiss have clearly set the bar high in more than a few
specialty areas. And while this may not be the fairest of introductions due to the
expectations it sets, it does represent the preconceptions I had going into this review.
 So it is with Piega (pronounced pea-egg-a);
they must traverse a well-worn path in the footsteps of wildly successful companies
located literally just down the street from them in their Zurich-based facilities. I
certainly held visions of meticulously constructed and tested listening devices.
The system
Sanibel Sound’s Steve Davis (the US distributor)
delivered the $10,115 USD system personally and set it up in my large living room. I was
supplied with a pair of P4XL MKII mains, P4L MKII surrounds, a P4C MKII center-channel,
and a P1 powered subwoofer.
The P4XL MKII is a three-driver three-way design housed in
a brushed-aluminum teardrop-shaped enclosure. The driver complement consists of two
5" Linear Drive Bass (LDB) woofers and one Linear Drive Ribbon (LDR) tweeter. The
ribbon high-frequency driver is a proprietary Piega creation: They designed it, they make
it, and they are the only ones to use it. So if you want to hear what it can do,
don’t look for it in any other loudspeaker manufacturer’s lineup. According to
the company, the "ribbon tweeter consists of an extremely thin foil diaphragm moving
in a linear motion in a strong magnetic field," which, they continue, is manufactured
to "genuine Swiss precision." Steve Davis, wanting to insure reliability in the
field, "tried to break it" to no avail. There are stories in the industry of
exotic parts failing in large quantities, bankrupting companies in their wake.
Steve’s no fool. He has found the exotic LDR tweeter to be ultra-reliable. The P4XL
MKII mains, and all the speakers under review, have 89dB sensitivity and 4-ohm impedance,
as rated by the company. According to the specs, the P4XL MKII is good down to 35Hz (+/-
2dB).
The surround speakers, the P4L MKII, are similar to their
dearer brothers, except that they have one 5" LDB woofer each (bass is rated down to
38Hz). The LDR tweeter is the same, which is refreshing. You don’t get lower-quality
parts as you move down the line; you simply get less of them. The same ribbon driver is
used throughout the Piega lineup. Visually, the P4L MKII is just a touch shorter than its
P4XL MKII counterpart. Otherwise it looks identical.
Same story for the P4C MKII center-channel. It sports the
same drive units found in the P4XL MKII: two 5" LDB woofers and one LDR tweeter,
arranged in a midrange-tweeter-midrange configuration. It also has an included mounting
bracket for either wall or tabletop placement. Luckily, the center-channel speaker was
small enough that I could just get it on top of my monitor.  The silver-colored speaker looked right at home
on a Sony WEGA, blending in nicely in a way that exuded high-tech luxury.
The P1 powered subwoofer incorporates a 10" LDB driver
in a bass-reflex cabinet, aided by a 10" passive radiator. The woofer is driven by a
500W (RMS) amplifier, and it is all housed in an aluminum-clad enclosure to cosmetically
match the rest of the line. Around back there is the standard array of connections:
speaker-level and line-level inputs/outputs as well as an LFE input. The P1 features the
now industry-standard auto on/off mode, which is how I left it set throughout my audition.
Impressively, the P1 was quiet and unobtrusive at idle: no hum or thumping to intrude on
me when not in use. The P1’s -3dB point is rated at 19Hz.
The Piega cosmetics are somewhat different than
conventional speakers you’re used to seeing, but that’s changing. I can tell you
from my recent trip to Europe that aluminum is all the rage overseas. Several companies
produce either all-aluminum enclosures, or optional aluminum veneers for their MDF-based
designs. Piega has been doing aluminum for a long time, so it isn’t merely a faddish
fashion statement in this case. In the system under review, the aluminum is of the
extruded variety, and is brushed to a nicely styled finish. This is not, however, the same
as the cast aluminum found on speakers such as their flagship C40. Can you tell a
difference? Yes. But if you were in the market for the $30,000 C40, you’d certainly
hope there was some differentiation! The cast version looks more solid and substantial,
but it’s not a night-and-day difference.
I found the overall build quality very good: solid,
precisely made enclosures with what appears to be very close tolerances for all the
joints. The binding posts are good-quality gold-plated jobs that are located underneath
the cabinet. Although this is quite the pain for reviewers, I can see why they chose to do
this. If you had gone to the trouble to make such a sleek nuevo design,
wouldn’t you want to hide the connections that would otherwise spoil the continuity?
My samples came with black grilles, but I have since seen the same speakers with silver
grilles to match the enclosures. The silver looks much better.
Performance
The setup was uneventful, as was the dialing-in phase that
took place throughout the first week. I found the Piega speaker system remarkably easy to
place, and generally little difference in sound quality could be heard when I experimented
with toe-in and room-boundary interaction. I settled on a slight angling-in towards the
listening position for the mains, well short of being directly on-axis. Once I had the
channels balanced as closely as possible using my SPL meter, away I went.
For better or worse you typically fixate on the things that
jump out at you first. With the Piegas, it was definitely for the better and stayed
that way throughout the review period.
The pristine top end of the Piega’s sound struck me immediately
upon first listen. It has an airiness and out-to-the-limits-of-audibility frequency range
that is beguiling. Although I heard it right away, I had to listen for quite sometime
before I was comfortable with accurately describing this characteristic. I have had
occasions where an apparent airy treble was more a function of less body in the midrange.
A lean midband can trick an unsuspecting listener into believing that there is more up top
than is the case. When this happens, over time, you come to find this lean sound too
threadbare with most material. I can confidently say that this is not the case with these
speakers. It is extended and delicate, and it is most certainly not a byproduct of a
recessed midrange, as we’ll see later.
Listen to Gladiator’s musical score on DVD and
you’ll see what I mean. It sparkles with life and delicate shadings, particularly
through the film’s opening credits. Not splashy or forceful in any way, the Hans
Zimmer production just spreads evenly over you, floating in space like a cool mist. I
could not detect any compression or distortion either; exuberant volume levels were no
problem. Although complete in its presentation, the Piega’s highs were the antithesis
of bright or harsh. It was simply smooth and relaxed, but extended at the same time.
Those used to a hard bite on horns or percussion will need
to adapt to the less-forceful entry into the note as presented by the Piegas. This is the
top-end sound you want when you don’t want to miss anything, but don’t want to
be pierced through the temples either. Listen to Chesky’s Swing Live on DVD-A
to hear what I mean. This finely crafted recording is chock full of detail, and
you’ll hear it all on this system.
The midrange was clean and clear, if not quite as
pristinely produced as the treble. Vocal intelligibility was delivered with a workman-like
quality. In The Others, Nicole Kidman's screams at the movie’s outset were
frightening. Her children’s voices were presented consistently with the anger, fear,
or longing they were exhibiting onscreen.
Things were not quite as clear in the lower midrange,
though. The sound was a little too rich, overall, for my taste (and I’m not going
to use the chocolate analogy, so don’t tempt me). Although not bloated, it was just a
touch thick. This characteristic added more warmth to voices, such as those on the O
Brother, Where Art Thou? DVD, than speakers with a more neutral character would have
done. But, if you like your lower midrange with a hint of added bloom, this may not be an
unpleasant quality to you. With slightly thin-sounding software it could actually be quite
welcome.
 This warmth in the midrange carried
over into the bass quite well. Not ultra-tight or fast, the bass was solid and rounded
with good weight. The P1 subwoofer is a near-perfect match for the bass of the satellites,
providing a substantial underpinning for the system. Although I would have liked to hear
two subs in my very large living room, it was because the quality of what I was hearing
and feeling was quite high. The train-scene rumblings in Unbreakable energized the
room quite successfully, while the drums on the Eagles’ Hell Freezes Over DVD
were full of body, with good heft and spot-on tonality.
And likely the most important aspect of the system’s
sound was its excellent cohesiveness. Pans around the room were wonderfully connected from
speaker to speaker: no audible dropouts or anomalies to be heard. There are dividends to
be had by using speakers with such a well-matched tonal blend. It translates into great
performance in action sequences that use all the speakers to create a scene. Take Star
Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. The pod race was as seamless as I’ve heard
it, which added immensely to the scene’s enjoyment. The soundstage was expansive and
naturally layered, although without the laser-like precision some folks are addicted to.
Comparisons
Placing a system like the Piega home theater in context
takes a lot of explaining. In some areas, it’s as good as I’ve heard at anywhere
near the price -- hell, forget the price! Take the highs for instance: The clarity
is striking, while the extension and airiness are better than even the Von
Schweikert Audio system I auditioned in February, certainly no slouch in this
area. The Von Schweikerts were punchier in the midbass though, with a tighter, quicker and
dryer sound.
Compared to the Silverline
Audio speaker system I reviewed previous to that, the Piegas’ treble is just in
another league altogether. The Silverlines seem almost blunted by comparison, though taken
on their own one would hardly draw that conclusion.
As you get more into the midrange and lower midrange,
things do change. The Piegas can’t quite match the lower-midrange clarity of the Thiel MCS1
home-theater speaker system, which is priced in very close proximity. The floorstanding
nature of the Piega system does allow it to dig a bit deeper in the bass than the
Thiels. The Thiels counter once again with deft agility in the bass.
The Piegas cast a large soundstage spread evenly across the
entire front plane. This is in part due to the coherent nature of the system -- the
center-channel speaker blends in just right. Although more expansive than the Thiel system
in this regard, it can’t place images as precisely as the MCS1. Expansiveness or
precision: Take your choice, they’re both good medicine. The Piega system did produce
as seamless a sound as I’ve heard, matching even that of the Thiels, which has been
somewhat of a benchmark in that regard.
Conclusion
The combination of the Piega P4XL MKII mains, P4L MKII
surrounds, P4C MKII center-channel, and P1 powered subwoofer provided me with a delightful
home-theater experience. Think of it as a very good speaker system with an exceptionally
good top end. The build quality is quite high too, with the precision-engineered cabinets
highlighting the obvious pride this Swiss company takes in its work. If you like the look,
and I do, then you’ll find it blends in nicely with its surroundings. And although
fairly tall, the towers’ footprints are miniscule -- enhancing the possibility of
owning these even more if you or your significant other is space conscious.
Looking at the bigger picture, Piega has managed quite an
auspicious coming out over the past year or so. They have some larger models that take
their ribbon technology into the midrange, and an even cooler cabinet design in the C40.
The system I heard in my home is quite good, and will find favor with those looking
for its unique list of qualities. I suspect we’ll be hearing a lot more from Piega.
| Review
System |
| Receivers/processors - Krell Home
Theater Standard 2, B&K AVR307, Anthem AVM 20 |
| Amplifiers
- Krell Theater Amplifier Standard, Anthem PVA 7 |
| Source - Technics DVD-A10 DVD player |
| Cables
- Nordost |
| Monitor - Sony WEGA FD Trinitron
direct-view TV, PLUS HE-3100 Piano DLP projector |
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