by Constantine Soo
The Nola Viper Reference II in true Piano Rosewood finish
($15,000 pair) came with outboard crossover, and as driven by the very
affordable Jolida JD1000P (100wpc, $2,000) amplification, produced a
very full-range sound that was imminently glowing in the midrange with
beautiful texturing on instruments. It was reminiscent of a
high-efficiency, single-driver loudspeaker as driven by an SET. For a
multi-driver design to be able to conjure up such characteristics was
remarkable.
This is indicative of a speaker design that is either meant to produce
such sound, or a fundamentally neutral one that reflected the
characteristic of equipment upstream. The Nola is a dipole,
open-baffle design employing custom Alnico midrange and tweeter
drivers. The external, passive crossover employs Mundorf 1,200-volt
silver/gold/oil capacitors, and all inductors are air-core
ones. Sumptuous.
|