Hi Everyone,
I have to say that we really are being spoilt with quality speakers at the moment, from the discovery of Atlantis Lab recently to the new Sonus Faber Olympica’s and now something a little different, the Azzolina Audio Quark Speakers.
So where to begin, well in full YouTube style disclosure I was contacted around 2 months ago by Azzolina Audio to say that we had been recommended by a fellow HiFi Colleague in Portugal, where Azzolina are based, to be a dealer for their speakers and they offered to send me a pair of their Quark speakers to try for free, at first I must admit I was going to say no as I have speakers literally coming out my ears at the moment, but as I’ve always said in HiFi you need to have an open mind and be willing to try a variety of things otherwise how can you ever find anything new and exciting, so after a little research online I agreed and said to Azzolina to send them over if the offer still stood so now I am delighted to say that we have the Azzolina Audio Quarks on demo for our customers to experience, and man am I glad I agreed to have them sent in as they really are very good indeed.
The main thing that peaked my interest when reading online was that they are very efficient at 92db so work very well with low powered valve amps and with my new’ish love of everything 300B I was keen to try them on our Trafomatic Rhapsody and Western Electric 91E along with a new valve brand I am trialling, Fezz Audio who do a lovely 300B amp for £4,500.
So once they arrived we excitedly opened up the boxes to find what is a very stylish looking speaker which when on their custom stands look very unique, I really like how the speaker and the stand look together, nice to see something different, priced at £5,000 for the pair they seem pretty decent value, I was told by Azzolina to experiment with them, not just on kit at a similar price but also on equipment at a higher value as they really respond well to highend electronics, so we started off with Accuphase, then Nagra, Bel Canto, the Chord Ultima Integrated and they sounded fantastic on all these but once we switched to the Trafomatic with its 300B’s things went to another level.
These speakers really major of delicacy and insight, they are fast and agile with vocals sounding so real, I was playing Nick Cave’s Idiot Prayer and I have to say that I have very seldom heard him sound so ‘in the room’ they may not have the most bass depth out there but the bass they have is very articulate and detailed, these are not about banging out the latest dance tunes, although I will be testing them with a REL Carbon connected up next which I think will work a treat, but without a sub if you want a speaker to pull you into the heart of the music and portray the soul and heart of a recording then these are 100% worth an audition, they have an air and delicacy to them that is quite addictive with a live energy which suits my tastes 100%.
I am so glad that I agreed to give the Quarks a try and I am excited for our customers to come in for a listen as I can really see people falling under their spell.
Please find a link to Azzolina Audio on our website, we are just finishing off adding them to our site + a link to the Quarks on Azzolina’s site and a few pictures below of them in the shop –
https://hifilounge.co.uk/product-category/brands/azzolina-audio/
If you’d like to come in for a listen anytime please feel free to get in touch to make an appointment.
All the best,
Regards,
Paul.
