Aspen Acoustics Lagrange L5 MKII ribbon dipole speaker system

L5 MKII in production

Dear reader, here is my advice in this matter: if you are not comfortable with your investment in a speaker’s production imponderables in pursuit of a unique experience, then buy a Salk Sound speaker. If high bling factor is hugely important, look into a Fleetwood, OMA or similar brand. Also, you either have the money to play with or you don’t. No manufacturer needs bullshit games on payments, especially a fledgling company. If I were Scott, I would have a no B.S. policy that any missed payment deadline forfeits place in the build queue and obtains immediate refund, no exceptions, and I recommend he get it in writing. He’s new at this, and I want Aspen Acoustics to succeed as much as any other audiophile equipment maker. I’ll advise him, and any other micro manufacturer, in this article on these matters because I do not want small businesses to get blindsided by unanticipated problems.

I just finished the review of the highly commendable Salk Sound S 9.5, and that speaker, too, is a bargain for those seeking a traditional transducer that will hold value. However, there are some for whom money is not an issue and who are not scared by the uncertainties of valuation. They have as their goal novelty and extreme performance, and I state plainly that the L5 MkII is a higher performance speaker in terms of cleanness, detail retrieval, and sheer beauty than any other $10K speaker I have heard. It is an outlier and, yes, in my opinion, holistically it is superior to the Salk Sound SS 9.5 and the Vapor Joule White. It does not take a back seat to the King Sound King III, and is commensurate with the Legacy Audio Whisper DSW in terms of enjoyment, though not in terms of absolute performance. That is why I bought it. I am not willing to wait five years for an aesthetically perfect set, but wish to have the experience now. I want the experience of being early in ownership of a new genre of speaker.

A new genre of speaker

Now that we have the challenging realities of such products addressed, let us move on to the glory of this novel design! Surely there are particular joys involved with the L5 MkII that compel my interest. There are plenty of joys to discuss! I have heard a lot of hybrids of dynamic, panel, and ribbon speakers. Some of the most noted are Sanders Sound, MartinLogan, and Eminent Technology. Magnepan has even been known to have relented and developed a dynamic bass tower, though I did not see it on the company website.

When I assembled my first decent HiFi nearly 30 years ago, I looked for the most popular and most cheaply attained speakers I could afford; I have experienced the resale concern. The first two brands I used, aside from previous cast off, garage sale, and bargain basement types, were Vandersteen and Magnepan. Over time I became frustrated by the performance of both of them. I sought a fix, a speaker that blended their strengths and ameliorated their weaknesses. The solution was a hybrid, the Eminent Technology LFT-8B, my first hybrid speaker of many. Hybrids are not only unique, but may be uniquely superior to conventional designs in several performance parameters. That is the case with the L5 MkII.

I hereby am introducing a new genre, i.e., type or category, of speaker, which I call the Disproportionately Large Tweeter, or DLT, design. What do I mean by that? It is a dynamic speaker having a ribbon tweeter that is vastly disproportional (size-wise) to the rest of the design, particularly the midrange driver. Note the plethora of speakers that use what are deemed appropriate-sized tweeters of a variety of technologies. I struggle to think of a speaker brand specializing in a tweeter that is physically outsized in a nearly obnoxious way. I do not here refer to the line source design wherein an array of smallish mid- or mid-bass drivers are placed alongside a large ribbon driver. In dynamic and hybrid-dynamic speakers, typically the tweeter is diminutive, whether cone or ribbon, and if the tweeter is an array, it is usually physically proportionate to the midrange and bass, as is seen in panel speakers. Why build a speaker that sported a prominent tweeter that dominated visually as well as physically? Scott did so in order to get specific characteristics that only larger ribbons can provide. Just as the large bass driver in the earlier L5 did not provide the sonic character of a panel speaker, neither does a 6.5” dynamic midrange, but it mates very well with the outsized ribbon, and its dynamic character is moderated by the sheer size of the ribbon. The closest example of the DLT genre I have seen previously has been in another speaker I own, the King Sound Guitar Speaker! Its approximately foot long electrostatic tweeter is mildly disproportionate to the mid-bass driver, but not to the same degree as the L5 MkII. The small ribbons I have used in speakers such as the Vapor Audio Joule White and the Legacy Audio Whisper DSW Clarity Edition do not produce the air, openness, or nuance of the Kindt 34” dipole ribbon. The only tweeters that have sounded as spacious and effortless have been used in large panel designs with planar magnetic or electrostatic midrange drivers.

L5 MKII ribbon tower

What does a DLT design sound like?

Hearing the DLT configuration of the Lagrange L5 MkII is a bit like touring a foreign land. Even though the recordings used for assessment are familiar, the soundstage culture of the speaker is distinct. Chiefly, there is a new aspect of delineation of the placement of instruments and voices associated with the larger ribbon and localized midrange. It strikes my ears as perhaps closer to a rendering of what an engineer in a studio might hear in terms of the spatial relationships of the performers.

The speaker fluidly transitions ever so subtly from localization to non-localization, and does so within pieces of music, and at times carries both of these characteristics. Before you think yuck, stop to consider that particular elements of music are meant to pop, to stand out, while others are to provide a canvas of sound. I smirk when I see declarations by panel fans that they are the most accurate speaker genre. What nonsense! The more experienced and unbiased of the industry know that every genre of speakers has its inherent strengths and weaknesses; preference for varied combinations of characteristics are what becomes an individual’s best speaker.

As an example, consider the traditional dynamic speaker with its cabinet. Solely from a standpoint of performance, not aesthetics, the cabinet resonances, the contribution of the hollow space, is distinctly different from an open baffle, panel, or omnidirectional design. An audiophile either accepts this or rejects this, and the decision, along with other such decisions as the size of the midrange driver, the frequency extension of the bass, whether the speaker is full range (one driver) or a multi-way, and the types of drivers (i.e., ribbon, soft dome, or metal dome tweeter, etc.) contribute to the conclusion of what is the best. What happens when a new genre of speaker appears? It is compared to the rest, and personal decisions are made as to how realistic it sounds.

A simple geometry illustration may help to grasp the sonic changes to the soundstage associated with the DLT design. Imagine that the classic sound signature of a floor standing speaker system is a square pattern, roughly as tall as wide. A panel speaker or larger line source speaker about 6’ tall will produce a perceived enormous square, and a squat speaker system —here I think of speakers such as the Volti Vittora —will produce a lower, wider rectangle oriented parallel to the ground. An omnidirectional speaker is simply a mess in terms of precise sound stage; it trades the localization of performers for the enveloping sensation of being immersed into the performance. I call it the mushroom cloud soundstage. These are generalizations, not to be considered as definitive for all models and brands. Exceptions can occur, but these are classic results of such speakers’ soundstage presentations.

Enter a new shape, the triangle! With the tall ribbon tweeters placed to the inside of the larger bass/midrange towers, the resultant driver pattern resembles a triangle with the longer inside and apex to the outside. I did not place the tweeters to the outside of the mid/bass cabinet, though it can be done, similar to reversing L/R positions of Magnepan speakers. I did not experiment with that alternative positioning because it would further distance the midrange driver from the tweeter, I presume causing less coherence. I also presume it would spread out the sounds of cymbals, triangles, and other high frequency instruments wider than what I consider normal. When I owned Magnepan speakers, several times I tried positioning the tweeters to the outside and always reverted back to an inward positioning.

The sound radiating from all these different shapes of soundstage is not constrained such that the stimuli force such imagery in the mind. I am discussing these shapes to help you grasp some of the nuances of the DLT speaker. As the L5 MkII plays, the space between the tweeter towers is absolutely filled, complete, not having gaps or recession that can happen with dynamic speakers. The triangle image in my mind has the hypotenuse oriented vertically to the inside, not the outside.

A good example of how homogeneously filled this space is can be heard with good recordings of keyboards or vibes. I love the sound of vibes, as it reminds me of my grandmother, who played xylophone. On a good system one can immediately distinguish between the xylophone’s wooden keys and the metal keys of the vibraphone. Dynamic speakers struggle to accurately capture the keyboard intact. They tend to group the keys in LCR orientation, while a panel or dipole design with a wider dispersion can pull off the feat better. The tall ribbon of the L5 MkII performs a similar trick as the King Sound King III’s vertical tweeter array, in that because it is so nuanced, it captures the tiny spatial clues of what happens between them.

Here is where the attenuation of the tweeters plays to the advantage of the L5 MkII. As the output of the tweeters is brought up, the airspace between the towers is intensified and deepened. Microdynamics jump out, depth of field is greatly enlarged to hear back into the recesses of the venue. The most minuscule aspects of activity are brought forward. However, as with all tweeters, the trade-off is more treble output tipping up in frequency balance, especially vocals, so the owner picks the Goldilocks setting for optimum airspace and not too much brightness. The attenuation effect is powerful, allowing any combination of components and cables to be moderated to suit one’s tonal taste.

One might think the large ribbons would perhaps interfere with the midrange performance, but I did not find that to be the case; rather, I found that it enhanced midrange performance. Comparing to traditional dynamic speakers having smallish ribbon tweeters, the overall sense of spaciousness and resolution of the minutia of the performer’s activity in playing was superior to any traditional dynamic speaker of similar price point, and most at higher price points, I have reviewed. In most cases, the outer edge of the triangle where the localization of the ceramic midrange drivers occurs and effects intended to be heard as distinctly introduced, is perhaps best called “attention grabber” as sounds in the left and right channels present themselves. The triangle soundstage does not rip properly seated elements out of their space and deposit them to the edges, but rather slightly accentuates the aspects of the performance where left and right speaker separation are sought in the performance.

Just when you think you have the nature of the DLT mastered, it surprises you with a fresh take on a well-known performance. An echo of a drum whack is heard resonating off an opposite wall, a whisper in a backing vocal is moved forward, the up elevator synthesized sound in Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine” has right and left particularities. This speaker keeps me on my toes, because I hear a myriad of little things, each in their spot, that evade more traditional speakers. Vocals are particularly fascinating, as the DLT is as good as the horn or concentric speakers I have used in opening up the voice and gaining intimacy in singing, however without the same degree of dynamic intensity. Contrary to the normal complaint in regard to ceramic midranges, that they are cool sounding, in this design the midrange brings in richness and warmth to the precision of the ribbons. I did not hear the phantom image shift or become lopsided with solo instruments or vocals intended to be placed in the center. I did hear a very generously-sized center image, and gorgeously placed backing vocalists in the proper channels.

L5 MKII crossover network

Won’t this combination of drivers screw things up?

When my audiophile friends first heard the PureAudioProject Trio15 Horn1 Speaker in landscape orientation, which were lofted atop custom Sound Anchor stands in order to turn them parallel to the ground as discussed in the review, I intentionally blindfolded them. I knew that if they saw the setup, they might have a negative bias toward it. As they listened blind, they commented on how right it sounded. But when the blindfold was removed, then the doubts started coming, not from the sound, but from the sight of the speaker. Visual bias is a big deal in this hobby, confirmed by people who love seeing tubes, some who do not want to see bling because they think the product is excessively built, and some others who can’t stand to see drivers but must have them covered with a grill. Still others think they hear more from a component with a meter and a dancing needle. None of these assure better sound, but all are visually driven impulses. The challenge for the individual who seeks ultimate performance is to overcome visual biases. Initially it can be a challenge to trust the design of the Lagrange L5 MkII, as the visual perception is that it might screw up the sound. However, the auditory perception is that perhaps other speakers are screwing up the sound, and the L5 MkII is getting the sound right!

Anticipating the question, “Won’t this combination of drivers screw things up, ”I ask, “What do you mean by screwing things up?” Fans of dynamic speakers think panels are screwed up, while fans of panels think dynamic designs have the problem. High efficiency enthusiasts feel lower efficiency speakers are messed up. Horn fanatics are convinced that dynamic and panel speakers are a disaster. Line source enthusiasts crow to the world that they have the best speakers. On it goes, with everyone gloming onto their favored genre.

I try not to be bigoted in terms of speakers, dismissing some for a certain design principle, but to judge them holistically. I see performance tendencies in genres of speakers, but accept them as inherent in the design. I think it is unnecessary and severely biased to sweep away entire genres of speakers as though unfit for serious listening. To that end, I declare the DLT genre of speaker not only suitable for the ardent enthusiast, but in some respects superior to other popular designs!

The scary truth is that when one hears the DLT array of the L5, it becomes obvious how lacking, or shall we say screwed up, in certain parameters the other genres are!  The DLT in the L5 MkII screws up certain things a lot less than the others; in other words, it outperforms them. It achieves much of the big of panels without the screwed up stretching of the center image. It gets the LF and bass macrodynamics without the popping of a cone driver in your face. It gets the sheer precision of a cone and ribbon working together better than any combination of midrange and smallish ribbon tweeter from any manufacturer I have ever heard —and I have heard dozens upon dozens of them. It has some of the dynamics of a horn speaker without the horn’s throaty, small point source effect. It achieves much of the coherence of a full range speaker, but without the oft limited frequency extension. The DLT is a new bag of tricks, many of them impressively captivating.

Does the L5 screw up anything? If you cannot stand slot-loaded bass, but have to hear a popping driver, then you will say the bass is screwed up. If you can’t take the spatially extended treble of a large ribbon, as opposed to a point source, then you will say the treble is screwed up. If you want zero sense of location of a midrange driver, then you will insist the midrange is screwed up. All speakers exhibit characteristics that are considered strengths to some and weaknesses to others. Overall, I hear scale that is not quite as big as with big panel speakers, a center image that is not quite as coherent as with full range speakers, and dynamics that are not quite as great as bigger horn speakers. But I know of no other genre of speaker that can even do all those things! The L5 MkII gets remarkably close on all these aspects, and assembles them in its own geometry of sound.

Take note, all you time alignment defenders. A friend and his wife who are hardcore Vandersteen enthusiasts, owners of 3A Signatures, have heard several of the speaker systems I have had over the years. The husband, Mike, commented about the L5 MkII, “Of all the speakers you have had, I like these the best.” His wife, Anne, initially was troubled by things sounding “separated,” but after I adjusted the tweeter output down so as to let the midrange become more prominent, she said the speaker no longer had that characteristic. They both were stunned that an unexpected design resulted in such agreeable sound. Mike conjectured about how the L5 MkII might sound in their listening room, a sentiment he has never expressed prior.

I know for certain that the ability of the bass to send a shockwave to pressurize the room is very important to this couple, and as they played their demo pieces with LF we discussed the capability of the push-pull 10” active bass. Even the larger Legacy Audio Whisper does not have quite this degree of sheer power. The fact that Mike was considering what they would sound like in his room is powerful testimony to the impact the speakers made on him. For Mike it has always only been the 3As with a pair of Vandy subs, and for him to mentally toy with anything else is evidence of how impressed he was, and how the speakers got the job done without jettisoning the perceived advantages of a Vandersteen design.

Since we are on the topic of Vandersteen speakers, the question might arise which models of Vandersteen speakers might have approximation to the L5 MkII. This is pertinent, considering that both Vandersteen and Scott are out to give the buyer a boatload for their money. The combination of oppositional, slot-loaded subwoofer, highly refined midrange, and brilliant enormous ribbon tweeter propel the L5 MkII past the lower end of the Vandersteen lineup. The model that may compare best to the L5 MkII is the KĒNTO Carbon at $39,475. There are two distinct differences that would be manifest, the number of drivers and the type of tweeter.

The KĒNTO Carbon employs Vandersteen’s proprietary “Perfect Piston” 4.5” Carbon fiber/Balsa/Carbon Fiber midrange, and a woven fiber 6.5” mid-woofer. Distinctly different is the L5 MkII’s single Accuton 6.5” ceramic mid-bass. The tweeters are the most extremely defined, with Vandersteen using a 1” transmission-line loaded Carbon dome, versus the Aspen Acoustics speaker sporting Scott’s own 34” ribbon.

Given these driver sets, I would expect the KĒNTO Carbon to have more weight in the mid-bass, and perhaps more texture as well. I would expect the L5 MkII comparatively to have cleaner mid-bass, as it eschews the use of two drivers and a crossover in that region. I believe the imaging of the L5 MkII would be superior, due in part to the enormous ribbon, which not only aptly images the center cleanly but allows for a wide range of manipulation of the treble and, consequently, the sense of brilliance, air and microdynamics. The bass performance might be the closest of all aspects of these speakers, given that they are both powered, oppositional, slot-loaded designs. While I believe there would be fundamentally different experiences hearing these two speakers, and that they would each hold their own in different aspects of performance, the L5 MkII would be properly considered a strongly competitive product to the KĒNTO Carbon. That a $39,475 speaker is compared to the L5 MkII, a difference of $30,975, is complimentary of Scott’s design and execution. Skeptical readers will scoff at such an assessment. How can a startup with no history be compared to such a venerable speaker company? The answer is “technology.” The one who employs the newest tech, well, wins. I have called the DLT (Disproportionately Large Tweeter) design a novel approach, and it has advantages that, when executed in the most efficacious arrangement, challenge more traditional speakers in the respects I have highlighted.

This situation reminds me of the unfolding of the Legacy Audio i.V4 Ultra Amplifier review, another situation in which employment of a different technology is winning the day. In the case of the i.V4 Ultra, its tricked out class D design is walking over some heavy hitter amps, including the Pass Labs XA200.8 pure class A monoblocks. The disparity in price to performance between the i.V4 Ultra and the XA200.8 is even more extreme, a difference of more than $36K. I share more about this amp and the Lagrange L5 MkII below.

It should be pointed out that I am not out to harm manufacturers. Wherever a new technology arises, there will be fallout. Some manufacturers will benefit, while others see possible stressors. This is the simple movement of the marketplace, and it is unavoidable that my assessment has impact. I do not attempt to harm companies, but I also provide an unflinching assessment of the products I handle. It is up to the community to decide whether my assessment accurately reflects my conclusions. In other words, I have no disdain, no agenda against Pass Labs or Vandersteen. I have owned Vandersteen speakers in the past and consider them not only iconic but legendary in the value and sound quality given to the community. Similarly, the Pass Labs XA200.8, which I reviewed and loved, I consider the finest solid-state class A amp I have handled, and until the arrival of the i.V4 Ultra, I did not perceive any performance shortcomings.

The emergence of new tech can be brutal in its influence upon the marketplace. There are new technologies coming on line continuously, and the L5 MkII and i.V4 Ultra are representative. I predict that they will flourish; in the case of Aspen Acoustics, many things have to go well for Scott, but I also see uncommon wisdom and pragmatism in him. Vandersteen will hold its own due to the variety of preferences in the community. I have spoken with Pass Labs in a bid to get them to aggressively work on designs of class D topology, because I don’t want them to be blindsided by the tsunami of change that I believe is coming. I consider it part of my responsibility as a reviewer to discuss with manufacturers what would benefit them when I make a sweeping statement, or value a much lower cost product as superior. Do I think that this assessment will blackball me from future Pass Labs reviews? Will it give the impression to the uninformed that I have moved downward in the pedigree of amps used for reviewing? Yes to both questions, and I am willing to accept that. I go where the tech and implementation leads me, and what happens as a consequence I accept as part of the process. Meanwhile, I build escalating systems and learn superior methods of establishing them, which is my primary goal. In one sense, I wash my hands of the manufacturing, marketing and sales aspects of the industry, but I do not search for ways to play God and drop bombs on companies. I do, however, enjoy finding distinctly worthy niche manufacturers and giving them exposure.

Now the main event!

Let’s get to the systems and sound! One might think that the combination of slot-loaded bass, primary midrange on the front baffle, and large ribbon might sound disconnected, incoherent. Wrong; it is a matter of incredulity to sit before such a speaker and hear what strikes the ear as superior integration of drivers! The design is counter-intuitive, but then again, many things in this hobby can be counter-intuitive, such as my Schroeder Method of Interconnect Placement, wherein two conjoined interconnects handily outperform a single interconnect.

Essentially the L5 splits the difference between the classic dynamic speaker and a panel speaker. Recalling that Scott’s goal is to create the sonic signature of the Apogee panels, there is much of that character heard. The slot-loaded bass is diffuse enough to fool the ears into thinking it is panel bass. However, and this is important, the precision of the bass is much superior to most large panels. In what ways? The power, cleanness with extension, and tactile nature of the oppositional powered 10” subs in the L5MkII are superior to panel speakers, except for the largest of hybrid types employing similar powered bass. I suspect the L5 MkII could give a speaker like the Sanders Sound Systems Model 10 a big run for the money. Having heard the Model 10 a few times, I would not put its cleanness and precision ahead of the L5 MkII, and the Aspen Acoustics speaker has a less cramped listening position. I am impressed at the svelte, well-textured low end of the L5 MkII, which has more resolution than I had expected.

One of the reasons I gave up on Vandersteen subs was that I could not get enough resolution out of them. The Vandersteen low end was woolly, indistinct, such that I could not find long term pleasure in it. I expected much of the same indistinct bass from the slot-loaded L5, but I sense it is as clean as the Vapor Audio Joule White’s 11” forward firing Audio Technology woofer, and with far more authority. When I play music with upright or electric bass, spending a fair bit of time listening to Marcus Miller’s pieces such as “Detroit” and “Redemption,” his subtleties of finger movement and the fullness of the notes are as rich and textured as when heard through the Legacy Audio Wavelet and Whisper speakers. However, it takes eight 15” woofers for that speaker to generate a similar presence. There is more ease to the bass produced by the Whisper, as far more cone surface area is involved, but the cleanness of the L5 is every bit as good. An array does not yield as fundamentally pure a result as a speaker having fewer drivers, but there are aspects of macrodynamics that cannot be attained with a smaller number of drivers —it is an absolute trade-off, and there is no perfect solution to gain both characteristics. In the region of the mid-bass on up through the midrange, the L5 MkII has cleaner, more coherent sound than the Whisper, because it is not using multiple mid-bass drivers.