Group test: Floorstanding speakers £1,500-£2,000

Any floorstanders at this price level displaying any weaknesses would indeed be a surprise. In this group there was no nasty niff of an iffy performance but they all had characteristics which set them apart from one another.

Why would anyone choose a floorstanding speaker? The answer, apart from the quality expected at this price level, is room-filling sound capability and the larger enclosure giving them the ability to deal with any bass that any media can hurl at them. A larger-than-average room size is the floorstander's meat 'n' veg, but anyone keen on sound quality and high sound pressure levels in a smaller room might be interested too.

Just a simple test with any bass-filled disc will reveal lots about the bottom-end capabilities of these speakers and, whether the listener thinks one is more over-cooked than another could be down to the critical placement in the listening room and the quality of amplification. Big, solid amplifiers with good damping can make the difference between deciding that a speaker has tight or puffy bass response.

Many of us have also had practical experience of the differences in cabling, particularly the interconnects. In my experience, some phono cables capable of the greatest detail can have an attenuating effect which usually doesn't hurt the overall performance. Any doubters in this area can easily experiment just by swapping from the quality branded interconnect they will normally use to cheap 'dental floss' cabling. An easy way of doing this is to use a test disc with a well-recorded mono track. Use a different cable for each channel, and twirl the balance control for a near-instant comparison. Sheffield Labs test discs usually have at least one good monaural track along with phase and stereo focus tests. Easy areas to spot differences include vocal sibilance and decay detail.

The speakers were tested separately in pairs in an acoustically neutral, non-parallel medium-sized room using a Cyrus 6SE CD player and Canadian-manufactured Bryston amplification comprising the BP 26 and MPS2 preamplifier and power supply (£2,750 the pair), and the 4B SST C Series power amplifier (£2,950). Speakers and equipment were linked with Atlas Mavros Cabling. Three metre speaker cable (£1,355) and one metre pseudo-balanced RCA interconnects were used (£750).

All speakers were fully run-in and given some pink noise to detect room reaction using an Audio Control spectrum analyser. Sounds used for the listening test included mono and stereo tracks of speech and music recorded by one pair of microphones. CDs used for the reviews included Rebecca Pidgeon's The Raven, Tom Waits' Blue Valentine, The Sheffield/XLO Test & Burn-in CD and the main bass test was St Germain's Boulevard.

Overview Price: £1,899 More info: DALI Size: 880(h) x 162(w) x 251(d) mm Weight: 13.5 kg Drivers: 1x 127 mm mid-bass, 17x45 mm ribbon, 28 mm dome tweeter Frequency response: 42Hz - 34kHz Impedance: 6 Ohms Power handling: 200 Watts peak Sensitivity: 88dB/Watt DALI Mentor 5 The DALI (Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries) is the smallest of the group, and has über-build quality which includes impressively big knobs at the back (bi-wireable of course) forming part of an extremely high quality terminal plate which also supports an integrated crossover on its rear. It's shorter and slimmer than the rest but has about the same footprint courtesy of a largish mounting plinth. The enclosure has rounded back and front sections and grey-metallic speaker mounting panel which probably adds some decoupling effect to the construction. Within the metallic-finish panel there is a real metal flush-mounted section housing DALI's signature ribbon and dome tweeter array. Completing the attractive layout are two 5in mid-bass drivers with an unusual reddish-brown finish to the concave cones. The overall effect with the grille panel removed is a 'technical' look and feeling that the construction lives up to the price tag. Incidentally, there's a choice of only two real wood veneer finishes - Black Ash or a reddish-looking Cherry. DALI states that a linear impedance curve is a high priority and this is certainly borne out by the excellent frequency/gain balance and a pleasing linearity of output in relation to tweaking of the amplifier's volume control. The Mentor's excellent spatial qualities add to the airiness of the stereo image. A crude test of 'blindfolding' the ribbon tweeters proved how much they brought to the party. Breathy vocals and typical attached upper frequencies of a saxophone, for example, were enhanced. The first thing that needs to be said is about the bass performance which clearly holds up well against the others with much larger enclosures. Upper range bass in particular has a punch and solidity that completely vindicates the smaller cabinet. This side of its performance is surely helped by the use of small paired drivers which must have some influence in terms of quickness of response. The ribbon driver imparts its own unique character which gets away from a feeling of point-source sibilance and adds to the openness vocals and instruments in a similar frequency band.

Verdict Plus points Excellent build quality and style. Big sound from a relatively small package. Large plinth adds stability Minus points Tiny amount of resonant haze on some vocals but total concentration is needed to hear it!

Overview Price: £2,000 More info: Dynaudio Size: 1040(h) x 205(w) x 310(d) mm Weight: 23.5kg Drivers: 2 x 180mm mid-bass, 110mm mid-upper bass, 27mm tweeter Frequency response: 35Hz - 23kHz Impedance: 4 Ohms Power handling: 250 Watts peak Sensitivity: 89dB/Watt

It is unusually the only non-bi-wireable monitor in the bunch but as I tend to test all speakers with a conventional cable layout, this was not a problem. Anybody who wouldn't be seen dead without two pairs of cables presumably won't be in the market for these. Dynaudio defends its position on two terminals by stating that its crossovers are fine-tuned and optimised using advanced circuitry to achieve a properly balanced and smooth frequency response. This, they reckon, means that dividing the frequency feeds through bi-wiring or bi-amping is: “neither beneficial nor optional.” The former is of course open to debate, whereas in this case the latter is indisputable.

Common in this price range, we get real wood veneers with an excellent choice of Maple, Cherry, Rosewood and Black Ash.

The X36 is a reflex design in a very solid-feeling MDF enclosure with a 25mm baffle. Traditional hard taps with the finger reveals a nice dead knock with no resonance. It has a large air-flowed port at the back - just one of the reasons why they recommend at least half a metre side and rear clearance.

Twin bass drivers and a large cabinet add up to a massive bass performance in most room situations so unsurprisingly, they provide a pair of sponge port plugs to tame things down a bit if required.

This is a monitor with attack that demands attention from the outset but with enough control not to wear thin after extended listening. It delivers a sensitive top end without over-emphasis and a midrange unit that adds extra character to the performance, particularly to vocal content as well as a convincing bass performance which lacks for nothing. Its ability to deliver seismic levels of bass (acoustic plug for the rear reflex port is supplied) does beg the question (like the JBL) as to why two large mid-bass drivers are deemed necessary. The listener is rewarded with good stereo imagery when carefully positioned.