One of the strange things about loudspeaker design is the importance of ‘passive’ design features – the bits that aren’t electronic at all.

Think passive radiators and bass refl ex ports, for example. Indeed, the cabinet itself is also a passive feature that very much affects performance.

The Acoustics3D Emergence 2.1 has a unique passive feature, one that provides marked acoustic treatment of the higher frequencies. Of course the electronics side is vitally important, and this whole system is made possible by advanced digital signal processing.

The company calls it a fractal dispersive lens, which it says creates an ‘acoustic hologram’. What it means is that this device offers a different kind of stereo imaging – one that is less affected by the acoustic space of the installation. The intention is to achieve a purer sense of the stereo image and a much larger listening area in which the stereo imaging remains coherent.

LISTENING

There was a range of perceptions, depending largely on what was played. Let’s start with the lower end of the quality scale.

Densely recorded material – music with lots of stuff happening and little ‘space’ or ‘air’ in the recording – sounded normal. There wasn’t much to distinguish the sound from other highquality loudspeakers, as long as the system was run within its limits.

Sounding normal is not a criticism. In fact, for a system with 50mm drivers, this is something of a triumph.

The sound was tonally balanced and with surprisingly extended bass.

If you are used to a full-range system, you would notice that the deepest underlying fundamentals of the kick drum and bass guitar are absent. But you generally get the first harmonic of the deepest notes at least, and that is musically satisfying.

The ‘wall of sound’ style of most recordings, particularly of pop and rock music, don’t allow the satellite speakers to do their thing in terms of stage depth and imaging subtleties (for the obvious reason that these aspects are not present).

But if you have recordings made with tenderness, then you could be in for a treat. For a long time I have been using the Livingston Taylor album Ink to test high-quality loudspeakers. The music is bland, but the recording – especially the 96kHz, 24-bit LPCM DVD version I use – is immaculate. There is a minimal microphone array, no processing and complete purity.

This system delivered it with a beautifully round sound stage. Each element of the music was in its place, front to back and side to side.

There was an unusual forwardness, in which the sound seemed to be front/back centred on a line forward of the speakers, and the main vocal seemed to float a little above the rest of the sound.

The left-right imaging was not razor sharp, which is a marked difference from high-quality conventional loudspeakers.

Instead of any given instrument seeming to emerge from a highly focused point between the speakers, it came from a rounded area. Perhaps perversely, this made the sounds seem more tangible.

Moving off to one side was interesting, as Acoustic3D claims that off-centre imaging is strong. It was indeed strong, with a clean sound stage at a wide angle, but it lost that sense of realism. I played the general image and resolution test from the Chesky Gold set-up disc (released in the days when Dolby Pro Logic was the bees’ knees of surround sound).

This has percussionists circling the stereo microphone. On most speaker systems sitting properly in the sweet spot, the percussionists do approach down the side of the room and cross overhead, acoustically, or slightly in front of the listener. It’s amazing what some stereo recordings can deliver. This system was easily among the best, with the percussionists clearly passing behind the listener. Usually this demands the listener to be right in the sweet spot, equidistant from the loudspeakers.

Generally, when I move a metre to the right and metre back the whole effect collapses.

However, these speakers kept it up. The circle followed by the musicians became an oval, but still they passed in front, down the sides and behind me. Pretty impressive.

This system excelled at realism, with a greater sense of an indefinable presence. My reference speakers are more accurate on frequency response and distortion levels, but not quite in the sense of ‘being there’.

But of course I must mention levels. In my large listening room – well damped, so it can present a challenge to loudspeakers at high levels – I was playing Money from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon at a very high level, and something odd happened.

About every third bass note was missing. I was playing one of the six digital versions that I don’t usually listen to (the CD layer of the SACD), and I thought there might have been a mastering error.

But it turned out to be the electronics of the system protecting itself. Basically, on those particular notes the electronics decided that the subwoofer was going to be over-driven, so it cut them.

It did it so smoothly – no clicks or pops or other markers – and left the satellites producing their sound uninterrupted.

It was as though elements of the music had been omitted. It may be wise to fi rst establish the upper listening levels in your environment using familiar music. If you play unfamiliar music too loud, you may be unaware that some of it is missing.

With a measurement microphone close to the subbie, the bass response was even from 240Hz down to 60Hz, below which it rolled off at 12dB per octave. The subwoofer produced 44Hz at 6dB down, which is incredible for a small unit.

This review involved late samples, so there may be minor differences in the production units, which are due to appear in May. Readers should locate a store and have a listen – they are likely to be impressed.