REVIEW FROM: HI-FI WORLD - MAY 2002

REVIEW FROM: HI-FI WORLD - MAY 2002

WOODEN TOPS


Diapason's stylish 'speakers demonstrate that hi-fi can indeed be domestically friendly and a work of art. Simon Pope stands back to admire the Adamantes III.

When it comes to aesthetic design traditionally no one does better than the Italians - and that's not iust limited to haute couture or motor vehicles. Some of the most stylish and enduring looks in hi-fi over the past decade or so have originated in the land of Verdi, pasta and Ferrari. One of the most striking aspects of Italian hi-fi and one that is consistent throughout the designs of various manufacturers is the use of real wood. The likes of Opera, Zingali and Unison Research make thorough use of the material, the latter company even to the extent of remote controls. Diapason are also co-patriots and fellow users of the stuff. Based in Brescia, the company are a fairly small, specialist outfit, their whole range consisting of merely five models: the entry level Karis, the strangely named Nux (floorstanding version of the Karis), plus the Adamantes III and the top of the range Adamantes Anniversary limited edition. The last in the range is the Kentron centre 'speaker.As the name suggests, the Adamantes is now in its third guise and it was the company's first project back in 1985 .There's something about the look of these 'speakers that reeks of traditional craftsmanship. They are constructed from solid wood and feature a unique and highly attractive 'diamond' bevelled front baffle with a permanently fixed metal grill over the two drive units. The cabinets themselves are made from solid "Canaletto" walnut hardwood staves produced entirely by hand. They are then assembled in a particular way that attempts to make the structure rigid and free from resonance. The 2B dedicated stands are in a certain way an integral part of the design, as the 'speakers sit in three metal recesses on the stand via the three metal studs found on the bottom of the cabinet. This also benefits the sonic attributes of the Adamantes.
As well as the immediate appeal of the aesthetics there's something else which makes Diapason 'speakers slightly different from the norm. The last decade has seen them work on their Direct Drive technology, which allows a direct connection between the amplifier and the bass unit. This eliminates the use of a low pass filter and the traditional disadvantages that come with it, such as loss of efficiency and phase rotations.
The cabinets are hand-made in house, while the drive units come courtesey of Seas, modified for the company in their suspension.
The Adamantes III is a bass reflex design with a fairly wide rear firing port and there are two sets of very high quality 24Kt gold plated speaker terminals. The crossovers are hard wired with Van den Hul oxygen-free silvered copper cable and do not use printed circuit boards. Only polypropylene capacitors are used to minimise signal colouration and loss.
All these features of design result in a 'speaker that concentrates on providing simplicity with a high
efficiency. It is as well suited to valve amplifiers as solid state designs, Diapason claim.
Just as the design of the Adamantes appears to be as simple as possible, so the sound reflects this. There is something very un-hi-fi like in this 'speaker; it appears to make music as simply and effortlessly as possible. On its dedicated matching stands and powered by Quad's two- forty valve monoblocks, the Adamantes IIIs delivered a full and deep sound with surprisingly deep bass. Paul Weller's Stanley Road on CD showed that the diamond bevelled baffle really contributes to very fine imaging, with the wide mix of the album well captured. Acoustic guitars were another highlight, being detailed and transparent, showing that the Adamantes work well with valve amplifiers in this respect. Where the sound tripped up slightly was with vocals, which sometimes sounded a tad strained at high volumes.
Where the Adamantes came into their own, I found, was with smaller scale intimate music such as John
Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' on vinyl, or the Florestan Trio playing Faure and Ravel's piano trios on a Hyperion SACD. The former showed this to be a 'vinyl 'speaker' reveling in the smoothness and fluidity that jazz on vinyl brings. Coltrane's tenor sax didn't suffer in the way that Paul Weller's voice did; it never became strained or pushed, but remained sweet, smooth and warm.
Good detail was present in the drum kit and the upright bass was natural sounding and deep voiced.
The classical disc, meanwhile, was forward sounding and vibrant with good sense of liveliness and vibrancy. The Adamantes tended to concentrate more on the instruments as opposed to the fine acoustic of the HenryWood Hall, so the recording lost a little of its naturalness, but overall tonal balance was fine.
The Adamantes, in true Italian style, could be described as a little quirky in that they play some recordings (namely good acoustic ones) better than others, such as processed rock recordings. Here they can sound slightly compressed and hard, so they won't suit everyone. When the frequency range is extended however, theses 'speakers are sophisticated and rounded.
Sound wise they are for lovers of chamber music and iazz, where they can sound very sweet indeed.
However, they do deliver in the bass department so dance and rock fans won't be completely disappointed.
Other sonic attributes include excellent imaging and a high sensitivity that makes them easy to drive and a good match for most amplifiers, especially valve designs.
When it comes to looks they are a work of art, especially with the 2B dedicated stands (at an extra £ 475) which are actually a part of the design- they are superbly built and finished and look a million dollars, or should that be Euros?

Diapason Adamantes III £ 1999


MEASURED PERFORMANCE
With a heavily contoured cabinet free from sharp planar changes, plus a frequency response where the mid-band is pushed forward, these'speakers will likely project well and set up good images. There's quite a lot of variation in their response though so there may well be a certain amount of colour in the sound. Whether this is acceptably euphonic or otherwise can only be determined by listening tests.
The tweeter is in good balance with at the rest of proceedings; there should be no sharpness in the sound.
The bass unit peaks up a little at 40Hz and the port peaks at this frequency too. I suspect the 'speaker will have quite pronounced bass as a result. Just above this frequency though there is the usual dip down that precedes the peaking of an under-damped system. In practice this helps emphasise the lower peak.Again bass will be more characterful than is often the case nowadays, but not less entertaining necessarily.
As a load the Diapasons dip down to a low 3ohms and they average 5.3ohms. This means the 'speakers draw current and will benefit from being used with a sturdy amplifier. Not surprisingly sensitivity was high 88dB.Are they suited to valve amps? Only if they have a 4ohm tapping.
The Adamantes IIIs will probably have a lively sound with good projection. They're accurate enough, but need a good drive amplifier.

NK


WORLD VERDICT

Not cheap but superbly built and fine looking. The sound won't be to everybody's taste but is very sweet and favours acoustic music.

Excerpt from: Digital Home Video Theater no. 17, October 2000, Italy


DIAPASON FROM TWO TO FIVE CHANNELS

The appeal of absolute quality.

By Bebo Moroni


Diapason is one among the 3 or 4 "noble brands" of loudspeakers Italian production. Its a distinguished and precious handmade brand, that chose not to stoop to the consumer market and to dedicate its products to a high target, thanks to its "total quality" philosophy. The results of this policy can be seen ( and above all heard ) by everybody for more than 10 years: excellent products both in manufacturing and performance, characterised by very elegant appareance designs which reflect the equally important technical and musical aspects within. Are there any compact loudspeakers today that are original in design and manufacturing? Very few, but the Diapasons are absolutely among them.
The little company based in Brescia by now exports all over the world and , as in few other cases, international critics agree unanimously about the product quality of this small but remarkable company.
Yours truly has for many years used the Adamantes model among his reference speakers, and even today he is often surprised when listening from time to time to discover something new and enjoyable in the music.

The Adamantes is a two-way loudspeaker of compact dimensions, with an unusual and often imitated shape ( of course without tha same results ) , that owes its name to the the multi-faceted front baffle, shaped in the form of a " diamond " (which gives the cabinet such a delighful and special appearance). This shape allows the speaker to virtually avoid all standing waves and to provide a circular emission of sound waves around the speakers, simultaneously assuring excellent phase linearity. (...). The Adamantes is a little loudspeaker that has all the finesse of an excellent little speaker, together with the emotion and depth of an excellent big speaker. It is one of the miracles of the Italian production.

From some time Diapason has been involved in Home Theater and Multichannel through the production of two central channel speakers, the Centro and the Kentron, that can be matched to other different models as front and rear speakers, from Adamantes to Micra, including the new and in many respects miraculous Karis.
Karis is not at all a make-do speaker or a speaker dedicated just to rear channel use. Actually Karis is a mini-monitor of excellent quality, quality that is also indicated by its price. Its construction is even more impressive than the Adamantes, from which Karis takes the multifaced front pannel.

In this system, the Adamantes is capable of going down to well below 50 Hz , and to do so seriously ( try for yourself if you doubt it). Taking into consideration that the height of the Adamantes is just 36 cm, with same depth, and only 26 cm wide; and the Karis a little over 25 cm, with the same depth and only 18 cm wide. It is impossible not to be amazed.

Central channel Kentron uses a very generous midwoofer, a polimetylpentene 15 cm unit, perfectly matched to the usual 20 mm treated silk soft dome. The Kentron front port reflex is very usefull for the placement of this kind of speaker, namely at the same height as the video source, and enables it to give excellent performance from a relatively compact speaker.The appearance perfectly matches with the other speakers ( Adamantes &Karis), through the diamond form of the front panel that made the Kentron an extremely elegant object. Looks are always very important, certainly for the front pair of speakers but especially for the centre-channel speaker which is right in front of our eyes.

Listening Session

As I mentioned earlier, the performance of the Adamantes in stereo configuration is not a surprise for me, even if each time I listen to it I find out something new. This III series adds to the usual characteristics of tonal purity , excellent dynamics and superb bass frequency performance, more punch and speed, that gives the speakers a better defined sound. The excellent portrayal of soundstage, that the Karis shares with the Adamantes, is another strong point of this multichannel system.

The delightful Karis are very similar to the Adamantes, not only from the appearance point of view, of course. They have the same speed and resolution , only the midband is logically a little more evident but never disagreable , since physics has its rules. The marked midband of the Karis is matched and balanced by an upper range that is wide, refined and very sweet despite being extremely precise. Bass is fully in evidence despite the very compact cabinet dimensions, and has good weight and worthy punch. The Karis gives a performance of excellent musicality matched with a sound resolution that will give satisfaction to the most demanding listeners too . It has a very wide and clear sound image and easily reproduces the soundstage with a convincing portrayal of the true dimensions of the various elements within it.

Starting listening to the system by "Waterboy"(...) Immediately I have a feeling of great youthfulness matched with an exciting efficiency of the sound effects when required. The dialogue is very clear, perfectly balanced and the action phases move easily within the acoustic space to add realism to the visual scene. (...) I note the detail in the bass in the range not covered by the subwoofer and the excellent spatial definition. And I immediately understand what will be the most exciting characteristic of this system: its ability to disappear from the environment leaving just air in motion , only to reappear smoothly but with great effect when called upon.

The naturalness of the direct recording in "I Say A Little Pray For You" sound is very hard to reproduce for any home theater system, but here the Diapasons become truly amazing: the feeling is just really to be there, in the restaurant, at the table with the other people, in the center of a crowded hall. The musicality is disarming, the dialogue, first whispered then much louder, is very realistic and perfectly captures the different sound levels.

Then in "Contact"(...) .The scene where Jodie Foster is subjected to the agony of shaking in the small "time/space boat" has all the required dramatic effect. Elsewhere we listened to uproar and our nerves have been sorely tried by much booming and shrieking, and we immagined that we felt emotion: here we can really feel the anguish of that sounds and we can share the panic and the anxiety with Jodie Foster during her trip to the unknown.

For the ultimate test, listen to this system with the famous ÂAº, pure and long, from the soundtrack of "Eyes Wide Shut" by Kubrick. The piano is the most difficult instrument to reproduce: listen to the way the armonics develop, the attack and sustain of the note , and the way it vibrates in the air. This alone should be enough to convince you that the Diapason is a multichannel system far and away above the norm. And I mean the highest norm.

Link to other test:
http://www.tnt-audio.com/casse/adamantes_e.htm