On Ascension Day, the High End trade fair starts in Munich for four sonorous days, and the relevant crowds of visitors are already looking forward to new equipment from the hi-fi elite with the charm of the unreasonable. This year, however, the organizers also want to set a different accent: High end, according to their message, is not only for the budgets of oligarchs. It can also be down-to-earth and, if necessary, even affordable. To this end, they will be launching a campaign called "Sounds Clever" in the next few days, and all manufacturers who want to share this slogan are called upon to put together complete, playable and equally sophisticated complete systems at a package price of less than 5000 euros.
One of the first suppliers is In-Akustik, which marries devices of the Scandinavian brands Primare and Audiovector into a music ensemble of the rational class. The Primare I15 streaming amplifier and a pair of Audiovector QR3 speakers, connected to the low-capacity LS-104 Micro Air cable from In-Akustik for a total price of 3960 euros, will make the appearance.
Let's start with the electronics component: The no-frills low-rise building, available in black and silver, shows only the bare essentials on its solid, 6 millimeter thick aluminum front. Four tiny buttons turn on the device, select the sound source and adjust the volume, a delicate OLED display guides you through the most important settings and shows what's going on in fine green lettering. The back presents a wide range of interfaces. A pair of RCA jacks serves as an analog output. A second RCA pair accepts analog input signals.
Clean reproduction and attention to detail
Everything else works digitally: Three optical inputs in Toslink form, a fourth in jack form, two coaxial sockets and two USB interfaces maintain contacts to all suitable sound sources. A network connection can maintain contact with the router via a cable, wirelessly the connection works via WLAN. Suitable antennas are included in the scope of delivery, also for Bluetooth transmission. There are sturdy screw terminals for connecting the speakers. Inside the Primare, as the delicate design suggests, efficient switching amplifiers provide the necessary power; around 100 watts per channel are specified in the data sheets. The Google Home app helps to integrate it into the WLAN. Another app from Primare is used for source selection, fine-tuning and contacting streaming services. Pretty much everything that can be found on the Internet is allowed to play.
The loudspeakers in the set adorn the listening room with their delicate, slim design. You can choose between black, white and walnut veneer finishes. They distribute the music in two and a half ways: Two woofer drivers work in parallel up to the frequency 400 Hertz. At this rung of the scale, the lower specimen gets out, the upper one continues to play until about 3000 hearts. From there, the tweeter comes into play – an Air Motion Transformer that vibrates the air with a delicate foil diaphragm folded into an accordion. Audiovector also has the diaphragm vaporized with gold, so the eye can enjoy it. The bass reflex port of the speaker sits on the bottom; an air gap above the base plate releases the sound.
In the listening test, the Scandinavian team impressed with a remarkably clear, clean reproduction and attention to detail. Listening to voices and solo instruments with this system was a real treat. Powerful bass noise is not the core competence of these fine spirits, but you don't expect that from them at all. So: Mission accomplished, the rational package can call itself high-end.