I had my first contact with the loudspeakers from the Krakow manufacture Sound&Line a few years ago, and the first product I listened to, were the floorstanders… Pretorian. Presented by me in Audio they created my view on the company for long. Later, in June 2004 (issue nr 2), so in the very beginning of existence of the magazine HIGH Fidelity OnLine, I tested the model Centurion, and in December 2005 a test of the loudspeakers Guardian appeared. Besides the Latin military nomenclature all those constructions have one thing in common: the use of a transmission line. This is a quite new method of reducing pressure on the back side of the diaphragm, as it was patented in 1965 by Arthur R. Bailey (it is sometimes wrongly attributed to Arthur Radford – according to: “Hi-Fi Investigation”, Hi-Fi News, September 2007 [vol. 52, No. 09], p. 100-102) and thoroughly described on the pages of Wireless Word: A.R. Bailey, A Non-Resonant Loudspeaker Enclosure Design, Oct 1965, p. 483-486. In its time revolutionary, but nowadays not commonly used way to ventilate the speaker enclosure, mostly due to the high cost and size of the enclosure, not fitting in the modern ascetic (or just empty) interiors. A problem is also the tuning of the line, and getting rid of the parasite resonances, that appear on its length. A badly tuned line, like in some older TDL designs, can only make things worse. On one hand we get a really low reaching, and big bass, but on the other the mass is sounding loose from the rest of the frequency range, as if we would have 2 different speakers, and the bass one would be shifted in phase.

Starting with the first listening session in the S&L facility confirmed that the company (meaning its designer and person responsible for the final sonic shape, a Krakow citizen, by birth and choice, Mr. Marcin) was able to combine seemingly non-combinable things, like: agility of the bass, its saturation and coherence with the rest of the frequency range. I am writing “Mr. Marcin” although we know each other well. I want to state that clearly – we are acquainted, befriended and meet quite often. I hope, that I gave a few sleepless nights to all, that follow conspiracy theories everywhere and every time, so that they are able to conceive at least a dozen of bribery scenarios, that will be worth as much as a politicians word of honor. This is my addition to the Polish political circus. On one hand I understand, the postulate that the reviewer should hide in a bunker and write his or her reviews from there, reviews of products, that he or she would not even see, so that nothing influences the final judgment. On the other hand, you have to know, that almost all leading branches of research using that way of researching have stand down from the tries of separating the researcher from the subject, including anthropology and philology. Because the researcher cannot be separated from the subject. The only thing that a honest researcher-editor can do (and I try to be like this as long as I can) is to inform about everything and try to separate those two things within him. I hope that I am able to do this successfully. We can even say, that when I test a product of somebody I know, then he is handicapped, because I will thing five times over every praise, listen six or more times to something, so that there will not be a trace of doubt in it and even afterwards, I will watch out, that it would not look like I am favoring any brand in any way.

Anyway, the subsequent tests of the S&L loudspeakers are separated by large timeframes, because this company, like Audiowave, is a creation of passionate people, working privately, and finding there their fulfillment, because on a daily basis they are busy with completely different things. With this in mind, there is no chance for quick appearance of subsequent new models. If this would be like that, then those should be avoided, as those would probably be not worked out. In a company like S&L the design, tuning and finalizing of a loudspeaker is a process laid out for years. So there is enough time to make adjustments, reevaluate the first enthusiastic reviews, and return to the design work. The tendency to keep the running models in production as long as possible is also natural – finally if something is good, then why change it? Some adjustments and face lifts are always in (no constructor can sit still and do nothing…), but until they do not reach a critical mass, the name does not change. That is the genesis of the new version of the Pretorians. As discussed with the creators, the Duos differ from the older version by having the edges of the front baffle cut, some changes were also made to the 3rd order cross-over to improve phase response, and the shape of the transmission line was improved.

SOUND

The S&L loudspeakers are really big. When they were placed next to the used by me Harpia Acoustics Dobermann, quite big speakers, it turned out that they are higher and deeper. The front baffle is much narrower, but this is understandable – the Dobermann bas is coming from a powerful 230mm (counting the diaphragm and suspension together) driver and by the Pretorian from a 155mm one (with the same way of measurement). The shape of the Pretorian is impressive, but it can be seen fully from the side – when looked upon from the front – they look like stand mount speakers on a high pedestal. And frankly speaking, they sound like that too. The speakers are glued together perfectly. The sound is fluid, coherent in the whole main frequency range. This is the way good stand mounts sound. Here we have something more – the volume of the sound is much bigger than from any king of a stand mount speaker, and the bass is true and strong. The comparison with the Harpia shows, that it does not go down as far, but for example with the KEF iQ9 it can be heard, that the Polish construction can hit better, than the British, otherwise very nice, speakers. The bass is never lazy, it is not muffled and it just anoints the ears as the extension of the midrange, not separated from the base sound. It was shown best with the recording “Georgia On My Mind” from the disc Five Songbirds (First Impression Music, FIM048 VD, HDCD24), starting with a perfectly recorded contrabass. Due to the Pretorian it was saturated and compact. Not only the saturation but also the compactness must be praised especially, because even with the slightly over-bassed, full of the lowest sounds, sampler of the company Stockfisch Records Closer To The Music (Stockfisch, SFR 357.40006.2, SACD/CD) this range was not spilling out, when needed it was longer, but in general we can talk about some positive self-restraint.

The other frequency end can also be called restrained, what makes the main emphasis in the sound to be laid on saturated, strong midrange. Due to that the sound is always nice, and every disc can be comfortably listened to. It is just as if rubber bands would be placed on steel wheels of a carriage. On one hand we would not feel the road fully, meaning we won't be able to tell 100% when and where the unevenness of the road was, but it is easier to observe the landscape moving outside the window. The last disc from Justyna Steczkowska Daj mi chwilę (SOS Music/Jazzboy Records/EMI, 00060, CCD), which is not a masterpiece of mastering, because it has rumbling bass and many times plastic timbre, sounded beautifully. The Pretorian handled the bass without problems, and showed the midrange from its better, warmer and vivid side. Also the large volume of the sound was helpful, because the sound was just like the sound engineers probably wanted it to be, big, slightly warm, intimate. The disc Judy Garland Judy at The Carnegie Hall (Capitol, 27876, 2xCCD) sounded in a similar way, and it was probably recorded a bit higher, with a better separation of instruments, but having quite an intimate character.

Because the Pretorian, like every loudspeaker, have their character. Because I am using Harpia Acoustics speakers for some time, I am acquainted to an incredibly clean, quick sound, without a trace of compression of dynamics. The Dobermann (and earlier the Marcus) have one characteristic, that is lacking in the fantastic, although also having some shortcomings, Uno Picco from Avantgarde Acoustic, or the new version of Reference 205/II from KEF, and also in the Pretorian: the midrange-treble passage is somewhat thinned, not allowing to sound with such a large volume (not in terms of sound pressure, but size of the drawing) as I would like them to have. There is no juiciness there, like it is in the Sound&Line constructions. This is the thing, that together with the character of the bass and the treble, allows for placing the Pretorian next to the Marcus and have the listener choose – there is no possibility, that somebody would like both constructions. Some will be enchanted with the continuous and cultural sound of the S&L, others will not be able to sacrifice the speed and precision of the Harpia to have that.

Because the Pretorian sounds a bit slower than the metal construction. It is not a slow down per se, but rather one has the feeling, that the sound takes time before it explodes, like in the recording “Austurias” from the disc Suite Española of Albinéz (Decca/First Impression Music, FIM XR24 068, XRCD24). This gives an effect of significant mass, and the orchestra reaches really big size, but there is no immediate hit like in the Harpia. Maybe I exaggerate a bit, because besides the Raven ribbon in the new Ancient Audio and Wilson Audio loudspeakers, we won't get such dynamics and openness. Maybe only electrostatic speakers can start and stop in that way. But we have to have a reference point... Also the way the treble, or rather upper midrange is different here. The level of that range is slightly lower and does not have such a high energy like a metal dome. The quality of the cymbals, for a soft dome, is excellent, but it concerns its higher subrange. The lower subrange, where it meets the midrange, is a bit matted and not that resolving. Such kind of presentation is – maybe surprisingly – quite an asset, when it comes to choosing the amplifier. It will be easier to decide for something – as long as the amplifier is of high quality. The Harpia are very picky when it comes to that, as they show the filling of the sandwich eaten by the guy assembling the CD player. The Pretorian are different – their resolution is quite high, because the differences in realization of the disc Five Songbirds were clear, but they equalize the dynamics slightly, thus leveling out slight realization errors and problems with compression.

Maybe I should have written this earlier, but it is never too late: this is not the sound I like most. It is not that those are not good speakers – o gosh, I do not want to sound it that way: those are really splendidly tuned, sounding with very good culture constructions, that I can blindly recommend, as they will do no harm to anybody. I just like the speed and openness of the Harpia better. Those are equal speakers (Pretorian and Marcus) but with extremely different personalities. Neither one or the other is perfect and have their weaknesses. It cannot be hidden, that in the Marcus and the Dobermann much can be improved (I am comparing to the best sound I ever heard, so in some way a comparison to live sound) and a grieve a bit about that. This is the way I think warmly about KEF Reference 205/II. But with the given price they cannot be accused of anything, and the true fight must be carried out on the level of expectations, habits and preferences of the listener. I have chosen, but this should not influence your choices, because this is not a zero/one world, black and white, but has an indefinite amount of grey in between. And that is why being an audiophile is an ingenious thing. And completely not grey...

DESCRIPTION

The Pretorian from the company Sound&Line are mighty floor standing, two way speakers with a transmission line enclosure. Both drivers come from Scan-Speak – the dome is a splendid construction and the midrange cone is a beautiful diaphragm from uncoated paper with characteristic cuts forming a spiderweb. Those are meant to kill the diaphragm own resonances. The transmission line has the enclosure conceived by Sound&Line, and its outlet, in form of a rectangular opening, is located at the lower end of the front baffle. The enclosure is made from thick MDF. It is splendidly reinforced with the transmission line, so it is extremely muffled when finger tapped. On the underside a closed chamber is visible. The cross-over is flooded with some material, sensitive to pressure – first of all to protect intellectual property, but also to minimize vibration of the elements. Let us mention, that similar are done by Sonus Faber. The whole is supported on large, messing spikes, and natural veneers was pated on the cabinet. It is laid very thoroughly, but I cannot say anything about the final quality, as the test unit made some rounds, that were quite visible on the enclosure. And only the not really nice looking screws holding the midwoofer should be exchanged immediately. The loudspeaker does not have a grille (and will not have one), but the commercial units will have a company logo on the front and a name plate on the back.

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