“There
is another kind of seeing that involves a letting go. When I see in
this way I sway transfixed and emptied. The difference between the
two ways of seeing is the difference between walking with and
without a camera. When I walk with a camera I walk from shot to
shot, reading the light on a calibrated meter. When I walk without a
camera, my own shutter opens, and the moment’s light prints on my
own silver gut.”
Annie Dillard, writing in her extraordinary book, Pilgrim At Tinker
Creek (Harpers Press) teaches about a way of seeing Nature that does
not involve the studying, analyzing or prying of what is observed.
Rather, it involves the quelling of our “inner commentator.” For
Dillard, Seeing in this purely present and exhilarating way is the
greatest of gifts (for those who wait for it): “When I see in this
way I see truly. As Thoreau says, I return to my senses.” For
instance, she describes walking one day at twilight and seeing a
cedar tree “with the lights in it.” The tree was at that moment
ablaze with reflected sunlight, which vanished as quickly as it had
begun due to the sun’s failing light. To be able to truly See the
“tree with the lights in it”, Dillard talks of allowing “the
Great Door to the present to open” not being consumed with one’s
inner thoughts or self consciousness, but wholly focused on that
present, fleeting moment. “It is at once a receptiveness and total
concentration … It is less like seeing than like being for the
first time seen, knocked breathless by a powerful glance.”
One of the great joys in listening to live or recorded music is the
opportunity to Hear in the same way as Dillard eloquently describes
her way of Seeing: “a pure devotion to an object”, fully engaged
in the innocent, present moment, open to every fleeting musical idea
and dynamic. In our audio systems, it is the loudspeaker, (with its
ability to transport the listener to a three dimensional world of
Sound), that may be the most important conduit that can make, (or
break) this Hearing in the purely present. If a loudspeaker is not
up to the task, either because of a failure of coherency, pitchless
bass, midrange colorations or unnatural treble performance, the
ability to truly Hear our favorite recordings is like Dillard seeing
her “tree with the lights in it” but then having it “vanish,
uprooted from the spot and flung out of sight as if it had never
grown.” On the other hand, if a loudspeaker design is special, and
if its associated electronics are a good fit, there is the
possibility of this gift of truly Hearing music in this
exhilarating, ever-present sense. Which brings us to the loudspeaker
that would be dear to Annie’s Dillard’s heart, as it is to mine:
the Hansen Prince v.2 Loudspeaker (the “Prince”).
Meticulous Preparations
The philosophy behind the Canadian company, Hansen, and its
energetic founder, Lars Hansen, is to produce loudspeaker systems
“with meticulous attention to materials and workmanship with the
goal of producing a musical signal as faithfully as possible,
allowing for the purest enjoyment of the original musical event.”
The Prince stands one royal tier below the statement King v.2
loudspeaker (the King”) in the Hansen Kingdom, but it shares many
of the refined design features of the King, as well as its exquisite
enclosure. The Prince is a three way, said to extend to 23Hz and
upwards of 23,000 Hz, with an impedance of 6 Ohms and a sensitivity
of 87dB. All of its drivers, (except for the 25 mm. high precision
tweeter), are designed and manufactured in house at Hansen’s
Ontario headquarters. The Prince and the King share identical driver
designs. The tweeter’s exact composition is not revealed, but what
is known is that the manufacturer who supplies it to Hansen utilizes
a complex configuration of magnets without the use of ferrofluid as
a coolant (unlike many other high end tweeter designs), thus
allowing its voice coil total freedom of movement within its
enclosure. Hansen states that all the other drivers in the Prince
are designed to mate perfectly with this high precision tweeter.
Their unique driver cones are composed of a complex sandwich, with a
first layer of resin mixed with glass fibers (forming an incredibly
inert material), a second layer of Rohacell (an extremely light
material) and a third layer similar to the first, with a different
density. These specialty cones are then suspended within Hansen’s
architectural frames utilizing precision rubber surrounds and then
attached to Hansen’s proprietary motor assembly, a product of
years of research to achieve the most accurate tracking possible.
Each of the Prince’s drivers is said to be capable of operating
more than two octaves beyond its crossover point, both low and high.
Adding to the sophistication of this design is the Prince’s
astonishing enclosure, identical again to the King. It is made of
multiple layers (each composed of up to 6 different materials) that
Hansen has dubbed its “Composite Matrix Material.” In its V.2
incarnation, Hansen has added to this Matrix a new layer of acoustic
dampening material. Each layer is meticulously hand applied into a
mold of optimum thickness and then the entire enclosure is finished
with a high gloss “Class A” finish, creating a gleaming,
statuesque enclosure. The Prince in striking silver finish is a
sight to behold in any living space. It is critical to note,
however, that the Prince does not dominate a living space as so many
other large reference floorstanders inevitably do. The Prince is
surprisingly compact in form, perfect for a medium sized room.
Moreover, the Prince is very easy to position. Following Harry
Pearson’s “Rule of Thirds”, and sitting anywhere from 7 to 10
feet at the head of the established triangle, the Prince required
very little manipulation to hit its stride beautifully. The Prince
performed optimally with a good deal of power driving it. It was
also an extremely revealing loudspeaker clearly articulating even
the slightest changes in the audio chain before it.
A Single Minded Trek
Everywhere I turned in my auditions of the Prince I was reminded of
Annie Dillard’s exuberant prose about “catching it while you
can”, that fleeting gift of truly Seeing Nature in a fully
engaged, exhilarating way. First,
I took a listen to James Taylor’s ode to Mother Earth herself, “Gaia,”
from his Hourglass CD [Columbia 67912). This particular cut
is an absolute sonic marvel, from the peaks of its soaring soprano
sax to its huge, layered soundstage with Taylor’s distinctive
voice silhouetted against hushed background vocals. Halfway through
this marvelous trek, Taylor uncorks a huge bass drum that
reverberates into a cavernous space, testing any loudspeaker’s
pitch definition and bass depth. I have heard this piece with
several, massively built reference loudspeaker systems but none
played it with such a dynamic, coherent picture as the Prince
accomplished. Sound projects and leaps naturally from the Prince
(without any sense of compression), most noticeably in its
all-important midrange.
Taylor’s
vocals and intonations were not only crystal clear and timbre -
neutral, but projected naturally from an underpinning of delicate
instrumental color that was all of one piece, a perfectly coherent
musical whole. Nothing artificially stands out of the mix, from
soaring, glare free soprano sax on top, to a brief swell of cello
color below. Notes begin, bloom and decay naturally and precisely,
without any overhang or lingering artificial coloration or lack of
clarity. When that huge bass drum unleashed its ferocious clap of
thunder throughout Taylor’s mountain range, I felt the pressure
right up in my chest as only the most dynamic, tuneful low bass can
provide. The deep foundation was there in all of its glory and
precision with the Prince, (even at low volume), the very best I
have heard in my room. I could not believe such thunderously low
bass precision and power could be delivered by such a relatively
diminutive enclosure sitting just seven feet away. Like Seeing
Dillard’s “tree with the lights in it” the Prince offered the
whole shebang of Taylor’s composition, the complete sonic picture
wrapped in a perfect coherent whole, top to bottom, with all its
inner workings and sweeping majesty.
Speaking
of majesty, there is nothing more majestic than the writing of Walt
Whitman incorporated into Vaughan William’s sprawling musical
vision of the Sea, in A Sea Symphony performed by Robert
Spano and the Atlanta Symphony and Chorus [Telarc 80588]. The first
movement, “A Song For All Seas, All Ships,” could serve as the
sole piece to review every aspect of the Prince’s sonic virtues.
Up top, the soprano voice of Christine Goerke was absolutely
gorgeous, with fragility, tenderness and silkiness that sailed over
the musical action below. The Prince’s tweeter is a stunner,
totally grain free and extended. It has the uncanny ability to stop
and start on a dime, going from perfect silence to capturing the
shimmer and decay of the highest triangle strike without any
artificial hangover or discernable coloration. In Vaughn William’s
vision of the rolling Sea, crashes of cymbals swelled from silence
to silvery crescendo to eventual decay without any hint of metallic
hardness or brightness.
Notably,
all of this high treble voice and instrument action remained
perfectly seamless and coherent within the complexity of musical
action below. In the midrange, the swells of Vaughn William’s
ocean waves are created by huge crescendos of strings and shining
brass underneath Goerke and Brett Polegato’s baritone. The Prince
rendered these mass groups of violins, violas and cellos fast and
articulate, with beautiful silky textures. Woodwinds were also
lovely and uncolored, articulate in their individual spaces. Down
deep, the double basses and bass drums were another highlight: full,
articulate and extremely visceral in their massive roiling and
bowing; precise and coherent in the full picture of wind and waves.
The Prince rolled out a bass foundation that was always supportive
of the action above it. Even at low volume, the Prince offered the
entire spectrum of Vaughn William’s grand vision: here was the
full sonic picture in all of its bombastic, dynamic power, as well
as its most innermost musical details. Finally, the soundstage
provided by the Prince was as panoramic and layered as Vaughn
William’s vision of the Sea: spectacular and deep. Also noteworthy
was the Prince’s placement of the Atlanta Symphony Chorus deep in
the stage, yet it also provided for that special spatial layering
and definition so that one could explore each section of this
glorious chorus across Vaughn William’s wide canvas.
Juxtaposed
to Vaughn William’s sprawling ode to the Sea is the intimacy of
Oregon’s beautiful portrait of Mother Nature, in their piece
entitled “Green and Golden” recorded live on their CD, “Live
At Yoshi’s” [Intuition 3299] and also recorded by the (always)
crack team at Chesky Records, on their Beyond Words [Chesky
JD130]. One of the secrets of Oregon’s brilliance is the synergy,
timing and chemistry between its members, who have been playing as a
unit for dozens of years. There is a give and take, a musical
camaraderie that is a joy to Hear. Oregon and the Prince share a
common bond: all musical action is in seamless motion and always of
one, unified musical piece; improvisation at its best. On both of
these Oregon recordings, the Prince seamlessly captured each
musician’s onstage position, uncovered all of the intricacies of
their individual and joint artistry, and snared the acoustic of each
recording venue. Most intriguing, the Prince was able to convey the
use of silences between musical phrases. At one point on “Green
and Golden,” Ralph Towner interrupts a particular phrase on his
acoustic guitar, letting it linger long enough to be picked up
delicately by Paul McCandless on his soprano sax. With other
loudspeakers, the whole fabric of this exchange can be disjointed or
unnaturally blended. Not so with the Prince, with its stunning
clarity and speed. Let’s also not forget bassist Glen Moore, whose
patented plucks, surprise rhythmic changes and deep plunges,
(spotlighted beautifully on “Leather Cats” from Beyond Words)
are simply devoured by the Prince, transmitting these bass lines
with sheer force, dynamic pitch definition and huge surrounding air.
Once again, with its prodigious bass foundation, the Prince offers
the whole (coherent) enchilada (top to very bottom), drawing us in.
Coming Home
At the end of this nature trail, I’ll conclude by evoking
something totally out of place on such a serene Nature walk with
Annie Dilliard: I am “Talkin Trash” here, provided by the
amazing and sorely missed jazz pianist, James Williams, and his
Sextet (featuring the great Clark Terry on trumpet and
flugelhorn) from their gem of a recording of the same name [DIW
Records 470150]. “Talkin
Trash” is a rollicking cut, featuring a ferocious Tony Reedus
snare beat, a driving Christian McBride bass line and Terry floating
over it all with his patented “talk” of mouth movements,
whistles, and tongue in cheek hits (including his patented “liver
lips”). Terry takes on McBride in a duel of vocals, laughter and
bass plunges (with Reedus refereeing with his light cymbal taps) and
Steve Nelson letting loose on vibes. Terry ends the number with all
sorts of vocal cacophony, including blowing air in our ears. Once
again, the Prince’s agility in maintaining the stable position of
the players, the bombast and definition of bass chords along with
the delicacy and subtle details of Terry’s vocal artistry, was
astonishing. This was the complete, coherent package, offering the
listener every nuance, true timbre and highest reach without glare,
congestion or compression.
Like Annie Dillard writing about Seeing a flock of starlings in
flight overhead (with thousands of birds remaining perfectly spaced,
as she “stood with difficulty, bashed by the unexpectedness of
this beauty”), the Prince does not allow complacency in listening;
it demands full attention and offers exhilarating rewards to those
who wait and Hear. The Prince is my favorite reference loudspeaker
to date, hands down. It is an unprecedented dynamic marvel in its
compact, gorgeous enclosure. The Prince proves that Hansen Audio is
clearly on to something very special in loudspeaker designs. The
Prince is also, unfortunately, very expensive and as the dollar
falls, continues to become more so. Although out of financial reach
for most of us, I still highly recommend and encourage an audition
of any loudspeaker in the Hansen kingdom (including their newest,
less expensive model, the Knight), for a taste of this
unprecedented, exhilarating Listening experience from Hansen Audio.
As Annie Dillard implores: “Catch it if you can!”
Specifications:
Frequency Response: 23Hz-23,000 Hz (+/-2dB)
Sensitivity: 87dB
Impedance: 6 Ohms
Termination: mono binding posts
Cabinet Finish: Hansen Class “A” luxury silver or black
Dimension: (H x W x D) 42” x 14” x 20”
Weight: 230 lbs
Company Information
Hansen Audio Inc.
100 Leek Cres. Unit 9 Richmond Hill, ON. Canada L4B3E6
Tel: (905) 731-8434
Website: www.hansenaudio.com
|