the absolute sound
12/98, issue 115
The following are comments by John Marks:

Speaker Art Super Clef loudspeakers. Anti-trendy, two-way "bookshelf" design ($1,599-$1,700, depending on cabinet woodwork) that bridges the gap between mini-monitors and full-range. Heard at CES with Symfonia amplification and G and D Transforma digital source, the Super Clefs exhibited astounding dynamics, bass, and soundstage.

Gross' designs combine fourth-and seventh-order constant-voltage series networks with high-quality drivers in rear-vented enclosures. His speakers are articulate without being overbearing, engagingly musical, and surprisingly dynamic.

The $1,599 Super Clefs (8-inch cone woofer; 1-inch dome tweeter, custom finishes extra) are one up from the bottom of Speaker Art's line (all two-ways). Nothing, not even the anti-trendy size and shape (13 x 21 x 10 inches; 51 pounds each), has been left to inertia or chance. The result is, to grope for analogies, a more powerful, more articulate Fried Q that throws a much larger, taller sound-stage, in short, a discovery and a bargain.

Bob Gross recommends, after much experimentation, Wireworld Atlantis II (5m for $480) speaker cables, which are warmly revealing. Osiris' strikingly designed and meticulously engineered speaker stands ($486) did the supporting honors. How did it all sound? Playing Alan Silverman's new CD remastering of Judy Collins' "Someday Soon" (1968) made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.