Eficion F300M Satellite Speakers Review

Let me start off by saying that about a year ago, I wrote the following words when describing the sound of the Eficion F300 speakers.

“The Eficion F300’s offer a far different sound and audiophile experience from my full range electrostatics.”

Ironically, in my first listening session one Sunday afternoon, the first notion that came to my mind was the fact that it felt like in some ways I had reverted back to the Martin Logan CLS IIz. Yes, despite the fact that the diminutive 3-way F300M speakers have identical drivers, cabinets, and crossovers to the top portion of the F300’s, the F300 and the F300M offer very different listening experiences.

Thankfully, the two siblings do share that same spectacular sense of top-to-bottom consistency, spacious but well-proportioned imaging and spot on front-to-back spatial cues that border on mimicking the effect that a binaural recording has on the headphone listening experience. Yes, it’s all there in the same gloriously generous portions as in the larger F300.  Even in listening to a pop commercial recording on CD like “Fashion Nugget” by Cake, the force of the drum kicks is so cleanly reproduced, and imaged so well spatially, that it’s easy to forget that these are little tiny speakers that may have limitations. These speakers have absolutely no problem with getting a groove on and displaying the array of instruments and sounds that are present on this track. Ever present is that utter liquid smooth-yet-highly detailed magic of the large Air Motion Transformer tweeter that is doing most of the heavy lifting.

Switching to a more intimate and largely acoustic recordings such as Katie Melua’s “Piece by Piece” from the album of the same name, or “If You Were a Sailboat” and “What it Says on the Tin” from her CD Pictures, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the F300M’s are as superlative and engaging as the full range F300’s. Indeed, their rendering of acoustic guitar and the tonal richness and purity of Katie’s voice are absolute goose bump material.

That said, it is in the mid bass and lower registers in which things take on a totally different feel. Whereas the F300 sometimes came across very slightly “lightweight” in the upper bass /lower midrange, the F300M, with port open, comes across as very slightly rich in the upper bass and then a bit dry and progressively lightweight in descending frequencies. This very dryness is what made the listening experience so very much reminiscent of the electrostatic full range CLS IIz. The very slight richness in the upper bass made acoustic guitar and male voices sound wonderfully full bodied and inviting, without a trace of any unwanted honkiness or muddiness. The masterful blending of air motion transformer and cone driver delivered the same level of smoothness, detail, and richness of tone that I have become accustomed to hearing, but with just a touch of added glow to male vocals, and stringed instruments: an effect that is quite appealing and not at all unpleasant.

Don’t get me wrong, the F300M’s do indeed have bass. In fact the bass response for a speaker of this size is nothing short of astonishing. When properly tuned to the room with just enough proximity to the back wall, the bass is fast, clean, tight, tuneful, and amazingly detailed; again, much like the electrostatic CLS.