Issue 154 / June-July 2005
hp's Workshop
Updates
No need to linger here. Carl Marchisotto, Nola's designer and an
alumnus of Jon Dahlquist's old company, has, over time, made several
revisions to this statement speaker system. The drive units have
remained the same, hut the crossovers have not. Marchisotto has made
three updates to the crossovers integral to the main towers. The
separate crossover to the ported bass towers, an old Dahlquist
DQLP-10, remains the same. I have no idea what internal changes he
made to the three-way external units this time, but I do know he has
devised a better isolation system for each unit, as well as
sexier-looking wood enclosures.
Do I hear a difference? Well, he has enhanced even further the sense of continuousness and coherent soundfield from about 40Hz (the towers' lower limit) up. I already considered the Grand Reference the most continuous hybrid I've experienced. I call it a hybrid because it is a combination of cone drivers and a series of true ribbon tweeters, which now are better integrated than they were before. It's a case of improving on a good thing, even though any discontinuity previously there was quite minor-few even noticed it.
That said because, otherwise, the revisions to the Grand Reference occurred during the time when the new and more revealing gear became part of the chain. And this was a period in which I, temporarily, as it turned out, thought I had lost my reference and so, without having the old crossover boxes to re-insert in the system, I can't judge the overall degree of improvement.