Acuhorn SUPERLEGGERA GIOVANE '85

We were a big fan of Wilson, and had at one time considered the WITT ($8888) for our home. It's combination of dance club sensibility and a glimpse of hi-fi virtue, allowed us to think of it as a starter-level entry point into high fidelity.

The X1 Grand Slam was a fantastic loudspeaker, particularly with Mark Levinson No 32 preamp, No 30.6 DAC, No 31.5 spinner, and No 33 amplifiers, but slowed down remarkably with Mcintosh MC2KW amplifiers, to the point where we were getting better sound already with our $5500 Stax headphones, so the $200,000 or so hardly made sense.

At the other end of the scale is the Acuhorn Superlegera. It's, Giovane85 model is literally the anti-Wilson of speakers. It's got none of the mid-bass bloat that models such as the Wilson Watt Puppy or now Sasha W/P bring to the table. Perhaps a Watch Dog might even out the occasion, as we've missed the opportunity to hear a cross-xo'd contemporary Sasha but the Max 3 hasn't been auditioned ... so we can't judge the higher Wilson models. Though we love wisdom, we liked the Sophia (3) not at all.

It's a good time to discuss the SLG - Some pictures will assist.

Here is a shot of the interior. The driver is mounted, awaiting a horn.

Acuhorn's SL Driver. Detail.  Interior view.

Below, you can see the cabinet. Not the plywood construction, with a nice varnish. No X-material here. Everything clean, and spacious. Look at the port opening, and you can see the logic of the flow. Simple as well. A track of clean and simple living.

Superleggera Interior Detail - mounting for driver.

It's a solid arrangement. We like how the driver is mounted to the cabinet, and the bass plate is intellectually akin to Totem's Bruzzese's torrent magnet in scope and solid presentation. The horn is reminiscent of Restoration Hardware's glorious iPhone gramophone.

We like the Acuhorn. We like how the frequency response tapers like the legs of a dancer. It's got a slight bump [see the logorithmic graph], but none of the boom-tizz mid-bass bloat and high-frequency accent that you'd notice on a Sasha.

Reference:

http://www.stereophile.com/content/wilson-audio-specialties-witt-loudspeaker-specifications
http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/909