VanL Speakerworks Silhouette speaker Review

First Watt J2 in “Faux Mono” Mode

If there is a most admirable characteristic of the First Watt J2 Amplifier’s sound, it is the air it makes. Does that sound like a weird description of an amp’s operation? The “air” I am referring to is the amount of spatial extension to the envelope of air surrounding an instrument or voice, as well as the volume of air in the recording venue. The J2 is exquisite at rendering recording spaces larger and acoustic envelopes of instruments and voices larger. It is a wonderful amp to consider as a companion to the Silhouette. Better yet, get two of them.

There was only one problem. Being accustomed to higher power amps, I was not content with the downplayed macrodynamics as a result of moving from high-powered amps to one having 25 watts-per-channel. The bass is less concussive and there are hints of fuzziness that begin to appear on each note. This is not a fault of the amp, but rather a reality of moving to an amp like the J2 with a Damping Factor of 20 versus one like the Belles ARIA Mono Amplifier that has a DF of over 2,000! That is a massive divergence, and speakers behave very differently on account of that design parameter.

How do I know Damping Factor makes such a big difference? I am currently working with the Gold Note PA-1175 MkII (review forthcoming), which has selectable DF of 250 or 25. The user can switch between them on the fly, hearing instantly the tighter (DF of 250) or looser (DF of 25) grip on the drivers. The tighter the “grip”, the tauter the sound, and the looser the grip, the more slack the sound. This translates into what many would call “fast” versus “laid back,” and it can roughly be compared to higher DF being characteristic of solid-state amps and lower DF being characteristic of tube amps. When listeners suggest the First Watt J2 sounds like a tube amp, much of that perception is attributable to the amp having a Damping Factor of 20.

Coming from a setup wherein I was using the Benchmark Audio AHB2 Amplifiers (DF of over 1,000), the J2 Amps in comparison made the Silhouette sound lethargic, as there was both a reduction in power and damping factor. Consequently, I had to make a move. I cheated by going “mono” with a stereo amp. As I had with the Wells Audio Innamorata years ago, I put both amps in the system, but left one channel open and used the other to drive the speakers. The entire power supply of the J2 was purposed for the one channel. This is a nifty way to improve the overall sound of the speaker over a stereo passive bi-amp setup.

Do not misconstrue what I am about to say. You can get sweet performance, loaded with tonal richness, but you cannot get the most out of the Silhouette in terms of transient response and dynamic impact, nor bass refinement by going lower power. Short of finding a workaround such as I used with the J2, you will need to add a more robust amp to bring out these attributes, and they are well worth pursuing if it is your passion.

Putting this section of discussion in context, the Silhouette is a “listener’s speaker,” and by that I mean it is voiced to elicit pleasure at absorbing the music holistically. It does not call undue attention to itself visually or acoustically, but within its physical limitations it does a fine job of eliciting appreciation for either genre of sound, the harder hitting, detail oriented approach or the softer, laid back approach. It can retain its finesse in either capacity.

Rolling through some sounds of the Silhouette

I don’t need the real thing. At least that’s what Kandace Springs says in “Don’t Need the Real Thing.” Maybe Kandace doesn’t need the real thing, but I do, or at least as close to the real thing as I can get! Her voice is the real thing when it comes to sultry jazz singers. She reminds me of Roberta Flack singing “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”

The Silhouette is surprisingly good at vocals, I mean really good. John has used few extremely expensive crossover parts in pursuit of the ideal design. The website says the crossover parts are of a grade used in speakers costing over $100K, and I believe it. Kandace’s voice flows off her lips like honey dripping from a spoon, and the golden tone is impossible to ignore.

In a strange twist the closest sonic experience I have had to the Silhouette was the Magnepan .7 Speaker, a magnetic panel, open-baffle design. I can’t say that the Silhouette had any less openness and generous scale than the .7. In my recollection it has as much resolution, and most assuredly more presence at the low end. Like the .7 the Silhouette is a power hungry little bugger. You will want plenty of power to push these speakers, unless you care vastly about tonal richness and less about dynamic presence. The case can be made very well that a lower powered amp, specifically a tube amp, with lighter listening levels would be scrumptious. I did not do that pairing, but I strongly suspect from the character of the speaker it would take to such a pairing better than other small towers I have reviewed.

Luxury mode

These speakers are not capable of pushing into ultimate reference speaker category, and I doubt any 3’ tower is capable of it. One senses the leaning toward generality of the bass, the nod toward completely revealing upper end. What this speaker does so well is place me into “luxury mode,” a completely at ease demeanor that opens up my mind to the performance.

Just prior to placing the Silhouette in the room for another go, I removed the PureAudioProject Trio15 Horn 1 speakers. Upon first listen to the Silhouette my ear noted the shrinking of the experience – of course, because a 6.5” mid/bass driver and 1” soft dome will not execute like a 1” horn with twin 15” woofers! Yet, even though there was a downscaling, the enjoyment factor was still there. The suppleness and gentleness of the design oozes from the speaker.

Think Vandersteen’s lower line with ultra high class. Think Magnepan’s lower line with even better resolution.

Jeff Golub’s “Stockholm” breathed so well, every lingering note having a latency-fulfillment relationship to the next. It is a treat to hear the musculature of the Benchmark AHB2 revealed to such a degree on a $3,900 speaker. The Class AAA technology strutted its stuff with spirit stirring cleanness and vivid color through the Silhouette as Pink Martini played “Ohayoo Ohio.” The Yoshida Brothers’ “Cool Spiral” simply had more to the strings than I had known previously. There was an actual fullness to the bare bones Japanese Shamisen.

Suggested combinations of gear

I had several pleasing setups with the Silhouette, but I will suggest two in particular. These pairings of components align with the minimalist design of the Silhouette, and the performance gels perfectly. It involves a beautiful digital source and an integrated DAC paired directly to amplifiers without a preamp. The digital source, a two-box solution comprised of the Small Green Computer sonicTransporter AP i7 4T and SONORE Signature Rendu SE make for a more affordable stab at state of the art digital. Having used this setup with several systems following the review I am impressed at its rock solid stability in operation with Roon and Tidal, and its blend of precision and refinement sonically. It has been a Rosetta stone to other components, allowing them to translate to exceptional performance.

The two integrated DACs in use were the Benchmark DAC3 DX and the Exogal Comet with upgrade Plus power supply, paired with a couple of Benchmark AHB2 Amplifiers in Mono mode. To gain full advantage of the Silhouette both amps were needed. The AHB2 is incredibly clean and loses nothing by going Mono. This jacks up the robustness of the Silhouette.

Petite towering achievement

The Silhouette is a precious jewel; I still can’t get over how refined it sounds! John isn’t bluffing when he says the speaker was designed to perform at a level of ones costing multiple times the price. I do not think that can be accepted as a blanket statement of the Silhouette’s low end and dynamic tolerance of LF. But it most certainly is true of everything from 60 Hz on up. The Silhouette is a champion effort, on a par with the work of much-vaunted industry gurus. The Silhouette has an uncommon blend of Chicago practicality and New York elitism, but most importantly it excites the imagination. This is a wonderful small tower! Recommended enthusiastically for the audiophile who thought they could never attain premium sound on a budget.

Associated Components:

Source: Small Green Computer sonicTransporter AP I7 4T and SONORE Signature Rendu SE; Salk Audio StreamPlayer Generation III with Roon interface
Streaming Music Service: Tidal premium
DAC:  COS D1 DAC + Pre; Benchmark DAC3 DX; Exogal Comet DAC and Plus upgrade power supply; Eastern Electric Minimax DSD DAC Supreme with Burson, Dexa NewClassD and Sparkos Labs Discrete Opamp Upgrade Exogal Comet DAC and Plus upgrade power supply
Preamp: TEO Audio Liquid Preamplifier; Cambridge Audio 840E
Amps: First Watt J2 (two); Exogal Ion (PowerDAC); Benchmark Media AHB2 (two); Belles ARIA Mono Blocks; Gold Note PA-1175 (two)
Integrated: Redgum Audio Articulata
Speakers:  Kings Audio Kingsound King III; Legacy Audio DSW Clarity Edition; Kings Audio King Tower omnidirectional; Vapor Audio Joule White 3; PureAudioProject Trio15 (Voxativ and Horn 1 versions)
Subwoofers: Legacy Audio XTREME HD (2)
IC’s: TEO Liquid Splash-Rs and Splash-Rc; TEO Liquid Standard MkII; Clarity Cable Organic RCA/XLR; Snake River Audio Signature Series Interconnects; Silent Source “The Music Reference”
Speaker Cables: TEO Cable Standard Speaker; Clarity Cable Organic Speaker; Snake River Audio Signature Series Speaker Cables;
Digital Cables: Clarity Cable Organic Digital; Snake River Audio Boomslang; Silent Source “The Music Reference”
USB: Verastarr Nemesis; Clarity Organic
Power Cables: Clarity Cable Vortex; MIT Oracle ZIII; Snake River Audio Signature Series; Anticables Level 3 Reference Series
Power Conditioning: Wireworld Matrix Power Cord Extender; Tice Audio Solo

Copy editor: Dan Rubin

Manufacturer’s Comment:

First of all, I’d like to thank Dagogo and Douglas for giving my Silhouette such an in-depth review, and exposure to the public.

The crossover is a series network, but it’s a  capacitor-less design, this design turns the tweeter on much earlier than most x-overs. There’s only two foil coils and one resistor in the entire x-over, simple and very phase coherent, using point to point wiring.