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The $ensible Sound
Helping audiophiles and music lovers to spend
less and get more
Biro L/1
Manufacturer: Biro Technology, P.O. Box 582, Circle
Pines, MN 55014; 612/786-6643
Source: Manufacturer loan
Reviewer: Karl W. Nehring
Although these speakers came highly recommended by Frank Van
Alstine, who was so impressed by them that he became a dealer,
when I started taking them out of their boxes, it was immediately
apparent to me that the Biro Technology (this company joins industry
trendsetter conrad-johnson in modestly eschewing capitalization)
L/1 loudspeakers would have to sound pretty darned good in order
to justify their rather steep price. Although they certainly seemed
to be built well enough, they certainly were not possessed of
any aesthetic highlights that would seem to justify a price of
well over a grand. Their most prominent feature, a tweeter mounted
atop the cabinet a la B&W, was attached to a brace that was
screwed onto the cabinet in a functional but decidedly nonstylish
way. The cabinet finish, although a real oak veneer, was finished
in black satin, looking from any distance like the black vinyl
that is becoming popular among more budget-oriented speakers.
(This is one of three standard finishes, the others being natural
oak and rosewood-stained oak. Custom finishes are available at
extra cost, typically $100)*.
Needless to say, my first impression of these speakers was a bit
under-whelming.
On the plus side, however, I must point out that although the
L/1s did not seem particularly heavy, each speaker weighing in
at about 23 lbs. (the box size is 16.375"H x 10.25"W
x 11.5"D), the knuckle-rap test revealed a decidedly dead-sounding
structure that started to give me a little more confidence that
these little boxes might actually sound as though they were worth
their asking price.
The drivers looked good: A 6.7" mineral-loaded polymer matrix
cone woofer and a 1" metal dome tweeter. The woofer is reflex-loaded
with a port that opens on the front of the cabinet, and the two
drivers are crossed over at 3 kHz with a Linkwitz-Riley 4th-order
crossover. Affixed to the top of the cabinet just in front of
the tweeter is a small black hemispherical button to diffuse reflections
off the top of the cabinet.
On the rear of the cabinet are two pairs of sturdy gold-plated
five-way binding posts that allow for biwiring. Specified frequency
response for the L/1s is 42 Hz to 20 kHz +/-3 dB under typical
room conditions (58 Hz to 18 kHz +/-2 dB in free space), specified
sensitivity is 84 dB (in free space, more like 87 dB under typical
room conditions) at 2.83 V at 1 m, and the nominal impedance is
8 ohms, not dipping below 6 ohms.
Associated equipment with which I brought the L/1s to life included
the usual suspects: Marantz CD-63 CD player, AVA Omega III TOPP-DAC,
AVA Transcendence Series Two preamplifier, and AVA Omega III 440hc
power amplifier. The speakers were connected to the amplifier
with 10' runs of Kimber 4VS cable terminated with banana plugs.
Biro Technology recommends placing the L/1s atop 24" stands.
For my purposes, I placed them atop 24" platforms consisting
of two stacked milk crates per channel. I found that this left
the speakers slightly lower than I preferred, so I raised them
about another 3" by judiciously choosing books that when
stacked would result in a 3" height boost per channel. I
can't remember the titles, but the subject areas ranged through
philosophy, chess, and exercise -- three areas that working for
a living and listening to music simply do not leave enough time
for, meaning that these books were otherwise unengaged and quite
happy to have something meaningful to do when asked to serve as
key components of my stereo system.
The L/1s were placed about 4' from the back wall, 5' from the
side walls, with my listening position being about 7' back. I
experimented with toeing them in, but found that I slightly preferred
the sound with the L/1s facing straight ahead into the room, so
this is how I left them set up for the duration of my listening
sessions.
The first thing I noticed when I pulled the bananas out of the
Legacies and stuck them into the Biros was how much less efficient
these little speakers are. After living with the 96 dB or so Focus
speakers, the drop of nearly 10 dB was quite noticeable. Obviously,
all I had to do was to crank the preamplifier knob up a few notches,
as the 440hc, whose 220 watts per channel are pure overkill for
the Focus speakers (which in my room could probably thrive on
one-tenth of that amount), had plenty of power to drive the less
efficient L/1s to comfortable listening levels.
Given the size difference between the World Trade Towers -- I
mean the Legacies -- and the much less imposing Biro Technology
speakers, I expected the apparent soundstage to shrink when I
started listening to the latter, but this did not happen. Indeed,
the stage put out by the L/1s was impressive, as was the overall
fullness of the sound. The L/1s did not sound like small speakers.
I figured it was time to relax and start putting them through
their paces. This was going to be an enjoyable task.
But before I get started describing the performance of the L/1s,
let me dwell on this small speaker/big speaker topic for a paragraph
or so to try to make myself clear. Although many reviewers tend
to praise small speakers for their imaging ability, their ability
to sound "boxless," it has been my experience that many
small speakers tend to sound more like boxes than their bigger
brothers. I mean by this that the smaller drivers, which must
work harder to produce the same output levels, and confined by
a smaller air space behind them, often tend to sound overworked,
and when this happens, they call attention to themselves -- and
once this happens, the listener begins to hear the sound as coming
from a pair of boxes.
Then, of course, there is also the old audiophile superstition
about driver size. I saw this most recently on one of the internet
newsgroups, where someone was saying that the Focus could not
be good speakers because they had too many big drivers. This fellow
then went on to recite the same old pseudo-scientific tripe about
how small drivers are better because they are "faster."
Here we go again...simply put, "speed" is not a desirable
quality for a driver. Because momentum is a function of the square
of the speed, a driver that moves twice as fast is four times
as hard to stop, all things being equal, and more likely to distort.
What you want is not a driver that is fast, what you want is a
driver that is quick, reliable, and accurate (any ex-Pershing
missile folks out there?) within the frequency range it is assigned.
And for low frequencies, that means big drivers. Maybe several
of them. Better three big drivers loafing along than one little
driver puking its guts out.
Rest assured, readers -- the Biros never even got a queasy stomach
while they were guests in my home. Despite their small size, the
Biro Technology L/1s sounded much more like the big speakers that
I have loved over the years, with a full, natural, nonfatiguing
sound. The tweeter seems especially good in this regard, rivalling
the dome/ribbon combination used in the Focus. I heard no evidence
of the slight hardness that the sound of metal domes can sometimes
take on, and the crossover to the woofer was quite seamless.
Listening to Roy Hargove's trumpet on the Parker's Mood CD (a
review of this marvelous musical masterwork appears in this issue's
More Jazz Than Not) through the L/1s was a real treat, with the
L/1s able to project this sound with both precision and power.
This is a wonderful recording that really brought out the best
from the Biro Technology L/1s. You could swear that the recording
had been mastered in a studio that used the L/1s as monitors,
because everything sounded just right. It was hard to move onto
other recordings because this one sounded so good, and the music
was so entrancing that I just wanted to play it over and over.
Duty demanded, however, that I put Parker's Mood back into its
jewelbox and move on to other CDs in my collection.
While doing my duty, I discovered that the Biros also did a nice
job on vocals, particularly on those of the female persuasion.
I mentioned a while back in More Jazz Than Not that the Pope Music
CD recording of Lori Lieberman titled Home of Whispers is perhaps
the most neutral-sounding studio recording I have ever run across.
The Biro L/1s passed this listening test with flying colors, reproducing
Ms. Lieberman's voice with great clarity and without any sense
of heaviness or exaggeration.
On male vocals, there was just the slightest touch of heaviness
from time to time, but even when I did notice it, it was not really
bothersome. To put these remarks in perspective, think of speakers
-- and I emphatically am NOT talking about the L/1s! -- that have
a built-in boominess factor that makes male vocalists sound as
though they are singing into one of those microphones they use
at some radio stations to increase the apparent testosterone levels
of their talk-show hosts. The L/1s did nothing of this sort. Instead,
they seemed to add just the slightest bit of warmth to the musical
signal, and it may be this warmth that made them sound like bigger
speakers. However, the much larger Focus speakers, with two midrange
drivers each larger than the woofer in the Biros, sounded flatter
overall. In fact, until you put on a cut that really had some
low bass, you would swear that the L/1s were the speakers with
the three 12" woofers -- not the Legacies.
Out of pure curiosity, I did spend a little time experimenting
with the Legacy Steradian environmental processor in connection
with the L/1s, and it did allow me to dial in the speakers a bit
better, but they did not need the Steradian to sound very good
indeed, and of course for the majority of my listening, I auditioned
them just as a potential purchaser would, hooked up without any
additional signal-processing circuitry.
Another attribute that I enjoyed about the Biro L/1s was that
they seemed to have plenty of dynamic freedom. I could play them
reasonably loud without hearing them strain, and they also sounded
good on quiet passages.
Overall, then, I was impressed by these black boxes from Minnesota.
Although they have some really tough competition at their price,
with, for example, the outstanding Coincident Technology Troubadours
(to be reviewed in a future issue) coming in at not much more,
they should be able to hold their own in the marketplace once
people get a chance to audition them. In fact, thinking about
trying to judge their value brings to mind the time I had received
for review a pair of speakers with a driver complement quite similar
to that of the L/1s. These speakers were floor-standing, and they
sounded pretty good -- but not nearly as good as the Biros.
After I had listened to these mystery speakers for a while, trying
all the while to give them every opportunity to shine, but never
being really all that impressed by them, the designer called and
wanted me to tell him what I thought. Trying hard to be nice,
but also to be honest, I told him that although his speakers sounded
pretty good, I thought that they might be competitive at maybe
$1,100 or so; but at $1,600 (as I thought he had priced them),
I would have a hard time being enthusiastic about them.
Because I felt bad for the man, I impulsively just kept on talking,
telling him in a hurried, apologetic voice that I was not trying
to be negative, but that I really just wanted to give him some
honest and heartfelt feedback. If he could just get the price
down a few hundred dollars, I went on, closer to a grand, he might
have something.
At the end of my little speech, he informed me that I was wrong
about the price. I was hoping he was going to tell me that no,
they were not $800 each, but actually $800 per pair, and the story
would have a happy ending; sadly enough, he told me the speakers
were going to sell for $2,100 per pair. "Oh. Wow -- well..."
was about as much verbal fluency as I could muster in the light
of that startling revelation. I felt pretty bad.
But about the Biro L/1s, I feel pretty good. When Mithat Konar,
the designer of the L/1s, called to ask what I thought of his
speakers, I felt quite comfortable about telling him what I thought,
and now I feel quite comfortable about writing this review to
report my findings to T$S readers. These speakers are nearly neutral
tonally, they present a wealth of sonic detail, they image well,
they play a good amount of bass for their size, and overall are
just plain easy to listen to. They are not inexpensive, but they
offer good value. When I think of people paying more than four
times as much for Wilson Audio WATTs, for example, when most of
these folks would probably be just as happy if not happier with
the Biros, not to mention the $4,000 of extra change in their
pockets, I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. At any rate, I'm
quite confident that the majority of the people who are willing
to expend the effort to audition the Biro Technology L/1s will
find themselves willing to spend the money to purchase them.
-KWN
Follow-up comment from the reviewer
taken from Issue #63, Apr/May 1997, of The $ensible Sound,
p. 8.:
I must say that the [Biro Technology L/1s] are simply an excellent
value at their price. I find them superior overall to similarly
priced NHTs, the Vandersteen 2 series, and even more expensive
Polk RT20Ps. If anything, my review of the L/1s was not complimentary
enough. These are truly remarkable speakers.
-KWN
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