Colibri Acoustic C2 horn hybrid compact loudspeaker Review

Colibri Sat with Sub in black gloss; Frame in chrome.

The Colibri’s chirp

Few people have more interest in the name of this speaker than me. I am a Christian, a Creationist and Intelligent Design proponent, and have written extensively on novel features in nature that are extremely improbable for a material process to make. The Colibri, a type of hummingbird, is a marvelous example of how animals are exquisitely designed. Avantgarde Acoustic, the parent company of Colibri Acoustic, has participated in the trend of companies drawing comparisons to an animal in naming their product (Remember Puma athletic shoes?). Based on my experience with the Colibri C2 High Performance Compact Loudspeaker, the name is aptly chosen. The opening page of the website shares that the Colibri flaps its wings 80 times per second, has a heart rate of 400-500 beats per minute, and as for flight, “In terms of body size, the Colibri is the fastest animal in the world, reaching speeds of 400 body lengths per second during courtship flights – by comparison, modern jet fighters can only reach 150, generating G-forces that would knock out even the best pilots.” I will add one more amazing biological feature that the company did not note; to conserve energy, at night the hummingbird enters torpor, a near hibernation state in which the metabolism slows to approximately 1/15 of the active, alert state (Source: Wikipedia, “Hummingbird”)! I love that kind of information about nature, as it shows evidently astonishing design! Avantgarde Acoustic picked a fine representative of the animal kingdom as the namesake of the new speaker.

I was enthused about the information being shared, as the opening paragraph on the company’s website continued, “The Colibri is also highly musical. There is no other bird that can chirp as…” – that’s where the paragraph ended! Truncated, without a concluding thought and no icon to access the remainder of the lesson, I thought, “This is torture! I had to know about the chirp:

Greetings, God’s Peace, I am reviewing Colibri C2 for Dagogo.com, and my initial reaction is KUDOS! Fabulous work! I can tell already this is a stunningly designed speaker with unusually high performance. I have only begun to draw out its capabilities, but already in the first system I have set up, it surpasses my larger tower speakers of different genres in many parameters of performance! If the subs are as well designed, this is a monster product!

But… Please finish the webpage description of the Colibri’s chirp! Don’t do this to us! What is unique about the Colibri’s chirp?  🙂

Blessings,

Douglas Schroeder

dschroeder@dagogo.com

The next day, Colibri’s website was amended to include the full text. Nice, quick recovery.

What is the unusual characteristic of the Colibri’s call? Can it chirp more rapidly than any other bird? Is the sound of its chirp faster propagating through the air than other birds?” The answer is that the Colibri can chirp higher in frequency than other birds. That is a characteristic of the Colibri not mimicked in the speaker, as the company lists a loose specification of its frequency response as 70Hz – 19kHz, well below the standardized 22kHz target for tweeters.

Before you shudder with horror that a high-end speaker doesn’t reach 22kHz +/-3dB, I assure you that no distress will be felt listening to this speaker’s treble. That is a good thing, considering I cannot count the number of high-end speakers which have treble that cause distress due to being overbearing. It is not uncommon for me to spend time specifically adjusting a system’s sound because a speaker’s upper end performance is too prominent, brittle. Frankly, the exquisite tonal balance of the C2 makes me wonder if the standard specification of 22kHz +/-3dB, an extra 3,000 Hertz, is necessary! Evidently not according to Avantgarde, since the C2 is heralded as a transformative product which outdoes traditional speaker designs! In my listening, I could detect no shortcoming in its upper-end performance. But I am happy with less sizzling treble. I don’t need high frequencies piercing my ear, like a laser in the eye, to know a cymbal is being played. Likely, some critic will conclude the C2 lacks top end sparkle, but I disagree. I am grateful that the C2 is not brighter, because poorer and harsh recordings were mercifully not piercing in the treble. More about that in a bit.

A word about loose specifications; it is a disappointment to see Colibri use a loose specification for frequency response. When I assess a speaker, I want to see the tight specifications, couched in parameters of +/-3dB (or better yet, +/-2dB), because speakers are being made and sold that do not have great performance. Some companies are using a standard of +/-6dB, which tends to mask diminished capacity of the bass. I also do not see a specification for nominal impedance, but the C2 is an eminently easy speaker to drive. My standard listening level calls for less than half of the amplifier output usually needed to drive a speaker like the Kingsound King III electrostatic.

The C2’s treble does not truncate at 19kHz but begins to tail off at that point. Perhaps the speaker has a specification of 22kHz +/-6dB. If so, it’s not doing badly in that department, certainly no worse than dozens of other companies which make their specifications nebulous. I would rather work with a speaker that begins to tail off at 19kHz than one which tails off on the low end four or five decibels sooner than expected. Usually, softness in the specifications involves the bass, and in this instance, I would not be surprised if the C2’s tight specification for its bottom end is 75Hz +/-3dB. That is very high for a bookshelf/monitor type speaker, but there is a lovely method in the madness. Note that Colibri has a matching, as in designed specifically for use with the C2, subwoofer. I will share more about how the design parameters of the C2 work with a subwoofer in a bit.

It is unusual to see specification softness at the top of the frequency range. The bottom line for the consumer is, how does that tailing off above 19kHz affect the sound, is it a problem? In a word, no, and when all the considerations of design are thought through, it may prove to be a virtue for music connoisseurs.

Quick tour of the C2

The speakers arrived in many layers of plastic sheath surrounding a sturdy box and foam insert system that kept them from all harm. Unpacking was unceremonious, and assembly obvious, as there is only one piece of hardware, a bolt to insert and tighten when attaching the unitized, shiny black stands. Initially, I was concerned about the strong but lightweight nature of the stand, but I forgot about that soon enough once I heard the C2 sing. To attach the stand, I set the speaker on a table (I put a protective layer on the table as a safeguard to protect the table’s surface), with the speaker’s back protruding over the edge, which made it easy to lock the stand onto them. I carried the assembled speakers and stands by grabbing the integrated bottom handle on the speaker’s front and the locking assembly on the back. It’s refreshing to pick up and move a speaker versus sliding a hand truck underneath a 200-pound tower speaker and wrestling it in or out of the listening room.

The C2 has an industrial-romantic speaker vibe, merging a cabinet that looks like a narrow metal crate with a flared lip and integrated handles with the timeless flare of a horn. I like the contrast, as it breaks up the monotony of skinny tower speakers. I like the grooved circular lock that allows alternative orientation of the speaker. I haven’t tried it, but I intend on orienting the speakers on a 45-degree angle just to see what will happen. I suspect Colibiri would not endorse it, but who cares? It’s harmless and fun! It is also how you learn unexpected things about performance and system development. For instance, would the speaker sound appreciably different if the angle on it placed the bottom woofer to the inside or the outside? It may, and I will learn about it for myself. It’s not every day that you can orient a bookshelf speaker on a 45 degree angle! For someone who has turned practically every speaker possible 90 degrees to create a Landscape Orientation – I had Sound Anchors build me custom stands to hold up to 4’ long speakers horizontally. If you want to see them and some speakers in a Landscape Orientation, check out my virtual system, named “Doug’s Audio Den”, at Audiogon.com –  it is too tempting to ignore.

Regarding the speaker and stands, there are a couple of minor adjustments that can be efficacious. Remove the handsome plastic grills which are held on magnetically if you want better sound quality. I was surprised at how much more bass presence and warmth emanated from the C2 sans grills. Do not listen to industry members or hobbyists who assert that removal of grills has no effect on a speaker’s performance. It would have been a shame had Colibri fixed the grills onto the speaker. Thankfully, the company has enough high-end sense to allow their removal. When audiophile friends visit, I may conduct an informal test, allowing them to hear the difference in performance with and without the grills. The aesthetics of the speaker leap with the grills on, but since the speaker is in a dedicated room, they remain unused. If I had to display the speaker in a high visibility domestic environment versus my private listening room, the grills would come off every time I listened.

There is no obvious, easy way to grab the grills for removal, so I use one of the prongs of the binding post jumpers to hook them from behind and pull them out far enough to grab. The jumpers will likely never be used again since the initial single wired listening session, so they will make for fine grill removal tools! I encourage all owners of the C2 to follow suit; there are few good reasons to use jumpers, especially the stock jumpers, when many benefits of bi-wiring or passive bi-amping await the owner.

The other gross adjustment to the speaker is necessary due to my height. At 6’ 4” I am a tall listener. I found the speakers at 9’ from my listening chair were aimed a bit low for my taste, so I slipped ¼” wooden drink coasters under the front of the stands. I know, it’s such a refined, audiophile-approved method (I’m being facetious)! Without entering extended discussion on the matter of the efficacy of footers, propping up the speakers brought them into ideal alignment with my ears and unlocked more of the glory of its performance.

Later in the review I swapped the custom Colibri stands for my generic bookshelf speaker stands, which are a full foot taller. They do not incorporate a baffle slope, but as they put the speaker’s center in line with my ears it is not necessary. The lifting of the soundstage was discernable and appreciated. The speaker became warmer and more tonally balanced as well, since the vector for the midrange/bass drivers was equidistant in relation to the tweeter. A taller stand is complementary to the C2.

The binding posts at the rear of the speaker are shiny gold and strong. I detected no weakness when cinching down on spades. The only indicator of polarity of the posts were diminutive black and red rings, which were not obvious due to the posts being recessed. Higher visibility indicators of positive and negative posts would be beneficial. I was concerned that since the posts are recessed into a square cavity, I might not be able to attach spades with longer heat shrink collars, but there was enough room to finagle the spades and attach them. Be aware, you will want a fair bit of flexibility and length for the leads of your spade terminations that they can be maneuvered to approach the binding posts from all angles. Otherwise, it might be difficult to connect them. It’s not the end of the world to connect banana adapters to the spades but for the best sound quality, avoid it if you can. I found the speaker’s binding post layout reasonable.

My one concern for long term ownership would be how to clean the high gloss black horn without putting micro-scratches on it. From the Owner’s Manual for the Avantgarde TRIO G3 and SPACEHORN: high gloss surfaces are to be cleaned with a dry, soft fabric duster and to remove fingerprints, use a “glass detergent”, which I presume means glass cleaner. Never use alcohol, thinner, or abrasive cleaners. If it’s good enough for the TRIO G3, it’s good enough for the Colibri C2.