2026 Awards – Stand-mount Loudspeaker £5k – £10k

In the case of Fyne Audio’s mid-range 700 Series, the SP (‘Special Production’) suffix represents speakers that pack F700 Series cabinets with the Scottish company’s highest-spec drivers and in-house cryogenically treated crossovers from the more ambitious F1 range. Specifically for the F701SP stand-mounts, the driver configuration is Fyne’s IsoFlare point-source design, which here sees a 25mm magnesium dome compression tweeter in the centre of a 20cm mixed-fibre mid/bass cone. This ensures that the acoustic centres of both drivers align for optimal time and phase coherence with an isotropic radiation pattern. 

Notably, the main driver uses Fyne’s fluted roll surround, which reduces reflections from the edge of the cone. You then have Fyne’s ‘BassTrax’ diffuser, which deflects the downward-firing reflex port output into a spherical wavefront to reduce port noise and lessen placement constraints. This is all wrapped up in an elegantly curved and skilfully crafted cabinet that will attract those who prefer modern style. Of course, Fyne Audio also does a good line in ‘traditional’ and even ‘vintage’ loudspeaker designs, but this pocket-rocket is a perfect modern take on the point-source design, and in a loudspeaker as compact as this, it’s close to a true-point source as it gets!

Captivating directness

Right from the off, there’s an appealing directness to the F701SP’s delivery. Playing the Chaos Orchestra’s Giants Causeway, reviewer Steve Dickinson revels in the “immediacy and vitality here, a raw energy reminiscent of a live event: ebullient, free and unconstrained, raucous in the best sense.” Here, talented musicians are having a great time, and the F701SP “serve as our party invitation”. These are particularly communicative stand-mounts, where agility and focus are backed up with scale and energy. They walk the fine line between being exciting and overblown, featuring excellent timing, precise leading edges, a rich tonality and a natural sense of space, and establishing them as, Steve concludes, “versatile speakers of considerable talent”.

Reviewed in Issue 243

Fyne Audio • fyneaudio.com

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The Diapason Karis Wave are wonderfully more crafted than engineered. Produced in a limited run of 200, these striking-looking speakers are hand-carved from aged Canaletto walnut staves, inside and out, front and back, with waves, each unique in their form. They’re the lovechild of Alessandro Schiavi, who founded Diapason in the late ‘80s, and Antonio Comini, an experienced violin maker in the famous violin-making Italian city of Brescia. Unlike most other speaker cabinets that aim to be as inert as possible, the Karis Wave are honed to work with vibrations – harmonics in music.

Their 11cm Diapason-specified SEAS bass unit is directly connected to the amplifier – that path has no crossover components – while the 19mm SEAS tweeter has crossover circuitry featuring just three components. All internal wiring is Van den Hul SCS-12, and the speaker connections are bespoke Diapason.

Natural-born music makers

Diapason produces matching speaker stands that mimic the wave design, but whether you use them or not, the Karis Wave perform best closer to a rear wall than out in the open – not surprising considering their size. Yet even then, these compact stand-mounts don’t offer the most or very deepest bass, but low-end quality is in lavish supply. The advantage of small speaker units – their low inertia coupled to cabinet design – reveals itself in the absolute clarity and precision with which instruments are impressively projected into the room. Leading edges are sharp, followed by a faithful decay, with perfect handover to the next note. “The way the Karis Wave musically integrates everything results in something greater, bigger, than the sum of its on-paper specification suggests,” says Paul Soor. “It can be a staggering and addictive experience.”

Reviewed in Issue 240

Diapason • diapason-italia.com

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You’d be forgiven for assuming these loudspeakers are all-black makeovers of the Contour 20i based on their name and look, but doing so would be a great injustice to the design and the engineers behind it. The Contour 20 Black Edition are indeed based on the excellent 20i platform, though everything from the drive units and crossover to the cabinet has been given a significant facelift.

They are one of the most affordable models to feature the Esotar3 soft-dome tweeter found in Dynaudio’s flagships and thus benefit from the unit’s improved airflow over the Contour 20i’s Esotar2. The new 18cm MSP woofer’s use of a Neodymium magnet over the 20i’s larger ferrite one offers a much stronger magnetic flux. And the rear-firing port is much larger and extends deeper inside the cabinet for ‘better’ (rather than ‘more’) bass. What’s more, the revised second-order crossover, which delivers improved phase response and dispersion characteristics, enabling both drivers to remain in positive polarity, is tantalisingly close to the Rosetta Stone of loudspeaker design.

Destined to become classics

The classic Dynaudio honest sound remains fully intact; the excellent linearity, dispersion, accuracy and fidelity that make the Contours enduring loudspeakers are all there. But the Black Edition introduces what Alan Sircom describes as “something new, precise and enjoyable” – specifically, a level of speed and musical immediacy that catches him by surprise. In comparison, the originals seem to slow down transients and blur beats. “Music is clean and extended well into the bat-eared regions, and the level of detail and stress-free listening it creates is striking,” says Alan. 

While staying in the Contour 20i form-factor, the Black Edition is something very, very different and a bold departure from many Dynaudio designs, including those that also carry the Contour 20 name. Give the Black Edition models some amp oomph, buy the dedicated stands and embrace the noir essence of their deep, inky, stygian nature – you won’t regret it.

Reviewed in Issue 246

Dynaudio • dynaudio.com

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