Though in the market for a small speaker, I’m not a monitor guy at heart. Now I’m sure those $22K Magicos are revelatory and all, but I’m American. I want a speaker that can really rock and roll. I want a speaker that can get me out of my seat and dancing. I want a speaker that can move some air.
I want the sound of power. And for that, size matters.

And yet, I’m a greenie. Big cars are inefficient. Same is true of McMansions and other offenses to organic life. But loud-speakers...bigger usually means more efficient, more output per precious watt -- American cool!

And yet, again, I’m married. I cohabitate in a reasonably-sized house. Behemoths are tolerated only in the dungeon (VMPS RM40s/basement), but hey, it’s my dungeon. The rest of the rooms require portion control, or what another in the house might call sanity. Meaning that the room isn’t about the speakers. Meaning that they’re not standing like stunt pylons in the middle of the room, but rather, are close to the wall behind them.

Not ideal placement for many designs, but decidedly ‘real world’. To wit, in visits to a hundred or so audiophile home setups and countless stores over the years, a constant is how often speakers are near the wall behind them. Rarely do we have the space and permission for ‘ideal’ speaker placement. This does not obviate proper placement, but is simply a nod to how speakers are actually placed and used, how we live. As such, in the course of reviewing, I placed the speakers as per the manufacturer's instructions, as well as close to the wall behind, and have noted the changes in sound quality where meaningful.

Over the last four months, I’ve spent anywhere from a few minutes to a few months listening to the following monitors:

Aurum Cantus Volla
Amphion Helium2
Amphion Argon2
Amphion Ion
ATC 10A-2
ATC SCM11
Ars Audio Do
DeVore Fidelity Gibbon 3
Proac 1SC
Sonus Faber Concertino Domus
Von Schweikert VR-1
Zu Tone

Over the next few months, reviews will appear on those I’ve spent some time with in my home, using the following systems:

System 1
Source: Squeezebox3 into the digital coax input of a Cary 303/200 upsampling CD player. Songs encoded using Apple Lossless.
Amplification: Nuforce IA-7 integrated amp

System 2
Source: Meridian 598 transort using MHR (Meridian High Resolu-tion) digital output to processor
Preamp/Processor (DAC): Meridian G68
Amplification: Llano Trinity 200 wpc tube/SS hybrids
The wall behind the speakers in this room is treated with sonex-type foam and bass traps in the corners. Absorbative panels hang on the side walls at the point of first reflection.
Cabling is generally of the Canare/Blue Jeans variety w/DH Labs T-14 to the speakers.