Waveguide Loudspeakers

I had the chance to compare the Amphion Xenon's up against the Zingali Overture 4's.

The Zingali's were 'crisp and hot' compared to the Amphion's 'laidback and smooth' sound. I liked the Zingali's vivid picture but the Amphions had a very natural and musical appoach that made me love them a tad more...

The Zing's can be a touch too forward at some times - they need a very smooth amplifier to tame then I recon...

Both of them coped very well with differt genres music and responded well in the rather large room.

I like the Amphion Xenon's very much - you can listen to them for hours and hours... they have absolute poise and grace... the Overtures exposes all. If the recording is bad then the exprience is bad.

Both extremely good speakers and is ultimetly up to personal taste - I must say that above mensioned speakers give most other high-end speakers a run for their money by far...

(other equipment: Mimitism amplifier, Consonance Opera Amps, Mactone 300b Amp, Tom Evans pre-amps, Raven AC turntable, Scheu Reference Turntable, Tron Seven Pre-amp, Harmonic Technology Cables with Oyaide power cables)

Kind regards,
Dewald Visser

I wouldn't disagree with the above description of the Zingalis I own, but I'd add that the "forward" character described above by DV only becomes apparent at pretty high spl (IMHO). I suspect that, as the volume goes up, the woofers begin to compress more quickly than the horn loaded tweeter. Other than this phenomenon, The Zingalis strike me as quite neutral octve to octave and much less colored than some other horns I've heard (e.g. SAP).

Martykl - your spot on. They do get a wee-tad shouty at very high SPL levels - but they are one of the best sounding horn speakers I've heard in a very long time. The timbre is extremely neutral.

It is said that they use modified JBL compression drivers in the tweeter section of the Zingali's.

DV

The best high frequencies I have heard from a waveguide loaded unit was undoubtedly the Gryphon Trident.Absolutely neutral and completely character free.
Sphere.