October 2024

World Premiere Review!
MACO MACARIA Open Baffle Loudspeaker Review
A soundsational experience that puts you close to the soundstage.
Review By Rick Becker

   Coming around a corner at Capital Audiofest in 2023 I was stopped in my tracks by an incredible-looking open baffle speaker in grey granite. The large 15" full-range driver on top looked vaguely familiar but the speaker itself was a completely fresh design. Before I could figure out who the manufacturer was, a lovely familiar woman appeared at my side. It was Deborah Ann whom I had met at the Toronto Audiofest in 2022. There, she had been showing magnificent sounding open baffle speakers from Lii Song (China) driven by a Galion tube amplifier, made in China but voiced by Thomas Tan in Canada. I was eager to review the Lii speaker but she was hesitant about the possibility both in Toronto and again when we met at AXPONA the next year, as she is technically only the Canadian distributor for Lii Song. Looking at the new Macaria, I immediately understood this was a surprise she had coming.

This time she was more than happy to promise me a World Premiere review, but alas, a couple of creepy video reviewers snuck into her studio before me. ("Creepy video" was the term we used in broadcast television, back in the day, for the new portable video – first in reel-to-reel black & white, then color, then color cassette, then in camcorders, and now in smartphones and helmet cams.) But read on as I assure you I have more to share than has been revealed in the video interviews.

The design of the speaker had been nearly finalized but they needed to establish a website and procure some sales from early adopters. By the spring of 2024, they had a room at Axpona which received several accolades from the online press. On a return trip from Michigan for the high school graduation of a granddaughter I swung over to Toronto to have a listen to a final production sample. My wife excused herself to peruse the Soma Chocolatemaker shop a few doors down on Brock Avenue. I handed my compilation CD to Armando Reyhez, the designer of the speaker, who put it into the player of a high-quality system that was mostly solid state as I recall.

The proprietary drivers of the MACARIA were manufactured by Lii Song to Armando's specifications. I was hoping for a magical experience reminiscent of the Lii speaker I had heard a couple of years earlier, but it didn't happen. In the medium-sized room, the bass was too strong and the music was rather coarse. But I felt it was worth a try to proceed with a review. It was such a wonderful design.

While there, I also had a look at the other baffle options: white quartz, solid wood (walnut, maple, ash), and birch plywood. Each material presented a different look while maintaining the same stately profile. The stone baffles are within a small fraction of 2" thick and the wood baffles are 2.25".The quartz baffle is a composite of a 1.25" and 0.75" layer. The walnut, ash, and maple are solid kiln-dried wood to prevent splitting over the years. The birch ply with 32 layers offers an attractive entry-level price point, less than half the cost of granite. The granite and quartz baffles are offered in a natural or polished version and the wood baffles are offered in both a natural and gloss version.

The standard version, referred to as the "Grounded Base" as seen on the wood baffle above, comes with small vibration feet leaving the bottom edge of the baffle almost on the floor. An optional powder-coated stand made from laser-cut 0.25" steel with larger vibration-absorbing footers from VIABLUE (Germany) raises the baffle over 4". It is referred to as the "Floating Base" and comes with a $499 upcharge. The pricing is all laid out in detail at the bottom of the review.

A prototype of the external crossover revealed the massive custom capacitors which explains why the crossover is so large and heavy. To pick it up you would think it is made of steel, but it is actually an aluminum housing. Dual sets of VIABLUE binding posts allow for bi-amping and a captive loom of high and low pass wires allows for selection of 4 Ohm or 8 Ohm speaker resistance. Armando stressed that he did not compromise on the selection of components for the speaker. I noted the brass acorn cap nuts used on the crossover and for attachment of the drivers, as well as the +/- 1% resistors from AudioPath.

My fascination with open baffle designs goes back to the World Premiere of the Tekton Design OB 4.5 (August 2009), which happened to be the first-ever review for Eric Alexander's new company. That review was followed by the World Premiere of the PureAudioProject Trio 15 TB (April 2015), the first review for Ze'ev Schlik's new company. Then came Rich Pinto's fabulous Treehaus Audiolab Phantom of Luxury open baffles on live-edge slabs with Rullit refurbished vintage drivers (February 2022), another World Premiere. And more recently (May 2024) I wrote about the Linkwitz LX521 active open-baffle system which I have praised with Best Rooms Awards at Axpona and Capital Audiofest. The MACO MACARIA follows some very impressive companies, but within the small niche of open baffle speakers the visual design can play a more significant role in differentiating one from another.

By late spring my life was jammed with reviews still to be finished for the July and August issues, the 9-day annual Rochester International Jazz Festival at the end of June, a family vacation in the Adirondacks the first week of July, and a 25th-anniversary trip to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia the following week. I begged Armando and Deborah off until late July for delivery. They delivered the fully assembled speakers, blanket-wrapped in an SUV. Armando is strong and he was able to lift the speaker out of the SUV and lower it onto my upholstered hand truck. We wheeled them up a few steps into the dedicated listening room. But I would caution you that handling each speaker is typically a 2-person job due to the large size and distribution of weight. The wood baffle versions are somewhat lighter as you can see in the specifications far below. Once upright on the optional stands, which you really should purchase, the speakers are easy to "walk" into position. Retail buyers will receive the speakers in custom wood crates, fully assembled except for connecting the crossover (which is straightforward and relatively easy.)

We positioned the MACARIA where most speakers go in my room and faced them straight forward. Perhaps due to the whizzer cone in the center of the full-range drivers, this didn't work well, so Armando aimed them just outside each shoulder so they crossed behind my listening chair, boosting the treble to an appropriate level. Much later, with further experimentation, I found that spreading them a bit further apart and moving them further out from the front wall increased and tightened the bass and allowed me to move my listening chair closer to the back wall, further out of the flow of traffic – a welcome change. Yes, it is counterintuitive to strengthen the bass by moving a speaker further away from the front wall but with the open baffle design this also shifted the bass node, placing it into a more favorable position. The end result was an equilateral triangle, 8' on each side (measured from the center of the drivers), placed 4' ahead of the front wall.

I was able to achieve a more stable and focused soundstage by having them spread further apart. Since they were oriented on the long wall of my 30' x 15' room, there were no side-wall reflections less than 6ms to worry about. With a null to each side of open baffle speakers, you can ordinarily place them closer to side walls. Aiming them toward the listening position typically reduces side reflections even further. I tried aiming them directly at my ears. This produced a little better resolution and soundscaping, but the treble was too intense, so I went back to aiming them just outside my shoulders.

When I entered my long listening room from either end the music was much quieter than with more typical wide-dispersion box speakers and the volume intensified up as I approached the listening position. The MACARIA are not wide dispersion speakers, nor do they require you to sit on a pinpoint, but the listening chair is certainly the sweet spot in the room.

While positioning them gave me a much more favorable impression than my initial experience in Toronto, I was still not overly impressed. An email to Deborah confirmed they had not been fully broken in and she recommended at least 200 hours. This was not unreasonable as the surrounds of the full-range drivers, which looked like a W-shaped fabric, were exceptionally stiff. I hooked up my hot-rodded Sony tuner to a DoukNobsound NS-05P attenuator ($60, not reviewed, but highly recommended) to drive my AGD Class D monoblocks and ran the music 24/7 for over a week (quietly at night.) This saved wear & tear on my tube gear and kept the house cooler without running up the electric bill. It also gave me a block of time to get out on my bicycle and boost my fitness level.

Deep Listening
In an effort to achieve a more comfortable sonic signature from the MACARIA, I ran them with a variety of amplifiers covering a Good-Better-Best spectrum. The speaker seemed very fast, ran deep in the bass, and presented a "You-are-there" sonic signature of being up close at a live performance. This was especially enticing with live recordings from concert material. But it also became tiring after more than an hour or two. The use of different power amplifiers made substantial differences. I'll share my findings in chronological order and hopefully, you will find something that relates to your rig or your preferences.

AGD Audion Monoblock Amplifiers
The AGD Audion monoblocks are a Class D amplifier featuring GaNFET transistors which deliver a very fast rise time and outstanding transparency. They also have a significant damping factor which showed up as a very realistic tight bass. This was evident not just on drums, but also on deep organ music, producing reasonable output as low as 20 Hz notes on "Master Tallis's Testament" on John Mark's Pipes Rhode Island CD. The music was highly resolved with the Audion, easily revealing complex or more obscure lyrics on my compilation CD, but the notes seemed to have a sharp edge to them and the soundstage was overly transparent, revealing too much detail whether I was listening to LPs or CDs. The Audion is a much better match with my long-term reference Kharma speakers and the more recently reviewed Acora, which are much more expensive speakers. I kept thinking that for solid-state amplification, a Pass amplifier might be an interesting choice.

In an attempt to make listening more palpable, I asked Theo Stack to send me the M6 adapters to attach his Auva footers to the MACARIA. As with all speakers on which I have tried these footers, the resolution improved very significantly, but this didn't change the overall comfort level with the MACARIA or lengthen the tolerable listening time. Reverting to the VIABLUE isolation footers was an improvement with the MACARIA.

I also removed the Stack Auva footers from beneath my LampizatOr DAC to back off on the resolution, and I switched the new Synergistic Research PowerCell 8 SE from Blue mode to Red. The combination of these modifications put the music further into relaxation mode while still maintaining excellent transparency, resolution, and dynamics. I could also have tweaked the sound by swapping the two American 12AU7 tubes in my Backert Labs Rhumba Extreme 1.4 preamp, but I had more amps to try.

Eddie Wong Monoblock Amplifiers
In search of something warmer, I switched to my Eddie Wong monoblocks with parallel 300B tubes that put out 18 watts per channel in Class A SET mode. These amps drove the Kharma speakers with tube-friendly resistance of 8 Ohms and 89dB/W/m sensitivity very nicely. With the significantly higher sensitivity of the MACARIA, these were almost muscle amps, at least in the upper bass through the treble range. As with most 300B amps, the mid-bass softened, and the low bass was mostly just hinted at. But throughout most of the music range, there was plenty of power with the SPL meter consistently dancing at 92dB at the listening chair, and peaking at 100dB without noticeable clipping.

There was decent bloom and a more holographic soundstage. The music was warmer but still retained a high degree of resolution and that ‘You are there' feeling from the inner detail in the midrange of the 300B tubes. Yet, while the music was more inviting with greater warmth, listening to music with such transparency and dynamics was still both physically and emotionally demanding. The parallel 300B monoblocks were a step up into the Better class, but there was still a way to go.

In a closed room half the size of mine, a good amp with a single 300B tube per channel, typically putting out 8 watts, would likely perform as well – as long as you don't get into head-banging territory or insist on heavy organ music.

Bi-Amp'ing With AGD And Eddie Wong Monoblock Amplifiers
The external crossover for the MACARIA is a brick of aluminum with "MAC" inscribed on each long side and the 1.75" "O" of "MACO" cut out as a design feature, like a window, but also offering ventilation, though it never gets warm. The layout of the components inside the crossover eliminates the possibility of fingers or small hands ever contacting the internal wiring. The cut-out "O" is also seen on the front plate of the base at the bottom of the baffle and is repeated behind the baffle on the floating bass. Given the open baffle design and the placement out from the front wall, it is easy to position the crossover near the speaker. The cable harness is hard-wired to the crossover and the speaker ends are terminated with banana plugs which slide into holes on push-to-open binding posts. The internal wiring and cable harness are silver-plated copper from VIABLUE, and the banana plugs are also from VIABLUE.

At the other end of the crossover are the dual sets of high-quality VIABLUE speaker binding posts that allow for bi-wiring as well as a set of VIABLUE jumper cables for use with a single speaker cable. Hooking up speaker cables for either single or bi-wire is very easy as the binding posts accept banana plugs, spades, or a bare wire, and they are well-spaced from each other. Furthermore, the entire crossover can be moved for easy access to the posts. Three optional VIABLUE vibration-absorbing footers (also used on the "Grounded Base" configuration of the speaker) were supplied on the review samples to elevate the crossovers a bit and provide traction for slippery surfaces. A standard footer is normally supplied.

I hooked the Eddie Wong monoblocks with parallel 300B tubes up to the proprietary MACO M-15 full-range driver on top with the Silversmith Fidelium ribbon cable (16 Ga.) which is every bit as good as Greg Weaver claims in his review. For the proprietary MACO B-15 woofer below the full-range driver I used the heavier 12-gauge Synergistic Research Atmosphere Excite SX speaker cables with the AGD Audion monoblocks, which put out 200w into 4 Ohms. Since the input sensitivity of the AGD monoblocks is less than the 300B monoblocks, I had to install my vintage Musical Design SP1 preamp between the Backert Labs preamp and the AGD monoblocks to boost the level of the bass drivers.

In doing this, the midrange on upward became more transparent and more resolved. This is a common consequence of installing a subwoofer. After balancing the bass, it was clearer and more resolved, as well as more taught and powerful. With the Synergistic Research power conditioner still in the red mode, the music became a bit warmer while still being high resolution. Combining a tube amp on top with a solid state amp on the woofers, there was a slight discrepancy in the tonal quality of the two frequency ranges but it was easy to overlook in comparison with the benefit of a deeper, stronger and more musical bass. "Master Tallis's Testament" rocked with the solid 20 Hz notes and the crescendos in this organ piece seemed to reduce the clipping of the 18-Watt tube amps that were now driving just the full-range driver on top.

Of course, using an integrated amplifier between the Backert preamp and the speaker would have achieved the same end. This setup worked basically like a tone control, allowing me to adjust the bass level to my personal preference. Fun! An active external crossover would have been another solution, as would using two amplifiers with identical input sensitivities, eliminating the need for the additional preamplifier. The bottom line here is that bi-amp'ing makes a significant contribution if you are using a relatively low-power tube amp for the full-range driver.

Bi-Amp'ing With Eddy Wong Monos & Coincident Turbo 845 SE Int. Amp.
Swapping my Coincident Turbo 845 SE integrated amp for the AGD monoblocks in bi-amp mode eliminated the need for the Musical Design preamp and produced the best sound up to this point. The bass was more liquid and had more tonal color. There was still a slight difference between the 300B tubes on top and the 845 tubes on the woofers but it was very easy to ignore. The bass went down to the deepest organ notes (20Hz) on "Master Tallis's Testament." When just that low note was being sustained the amp was fine, but when a crescendo developed the amps clipped noticeably. None of the music on my compilation CD presented any problem, nor did other rock music or Hearts of Space on NPR that are part of my regular musical diet.

Coincident Turbo 845 SE Integrated Amplifier (Alone)
Switching to my Coincident Turbo 845 SE integrated amp alone with 28 Wpc Class A, SET mode produced a more powerful sound than the 300B monoblocks, though the soundstage shrank a little and was a little less precise. It produced deeper, more powerful bass but by itself, it couldn't handle the 20Hz organ note very well. Much of the warmth and 3-dimensionality of the musicians and soundstage of the 300B monoblocks was retained but the music was slightly darker than with the 300B monoblocks, lacking some air at the top end. The resolution was still great and the overall sound was almost as good as bi-amp'ing with the 300B monoblocks.

The tighter bass more than made up for the slightly less precise soundstage and slight loss of air at the top end. I was even able to put the Stack Audio Auva footers back under the DAC and swap the Synergistic Research power cord for the Audio Sensibility Signature SE copper power cord that I had installed to warm up the sound a bit. These two changes produced an improvement in the resolution without the treble becoming too sharp or making the ‘You-are-there' sound signature overbearing.

Manley Laboratories Mahi Mahi Monoblocks
Practically by accident, I discovered another great amp/speaker combination. I had dusted off my Manley Laboratories Mahi-Mahi monoblocks that I had been saving for one of my sons-in-law who never developed an interest in audio, much less music. I hooked them up to the MACARIA to be sure they worked fine before putting them up for sale. Much to my surprise, they sounded much better than I recalled when I reviewed them years ago. Looking back, however, I realized everything in my rig has either been upgraded or dramatically hot-rodded since that time. It's an evolutionary process that most audiophiles and all reviewers go through.

The Mahi put out 20 watts each in triode mode and 40 watts in ultralinear. I appreciated the additional power of ultralinear, but the tonal quality of triode mode was the winning ticket for me. The ultralinear mode accentuated the sharp edges of notes that became tiresome while the triode mode softened them up slightly and gave the music a healthy share of liquidity that benefited the MACARIA. Using a quartet of EL84 tubes in each Mahi with the MACARIA provided a good portion of the benefits of the SET tubes used earlier while providing a tighter bass and continuity of tone from top to bottom. I considered bi-amp'ing with Eddie Wong's 300B monoblocks on top but I had to draw the line to finish the review.

An irresistible "what if" struck me and I whipped out a bunch of my affordable, high-value Soundeck footers to try beneath the VIABLUE UFO footers on the Floating Base. It was an easy install so I tried both the small round version and the larger square version seen above. Normally, under spikes or against the bottom of components, the smaller round footers outperform the larger version. But this particular application was different with the large donut footprint of the VIABLUE footer. The most obvious improvement (though it was small) was in improving the resolution of the treble where cymbals in particular can become irritating when over-used by rock drummers. It is an affordable tweak that helped with the speakers on my carpeted floor. If you are on a concrete or wood floor, your treble may be sounding fine without any help.

Which Amplifier Worked Best? Plus A Bit Of Fine-Tuning
Given the general descriptions I've provided, I expect you can make your own choice. We all have our preferences (or priorities) for sound quality and budget restrictions. I make no apology for being a tube guy but with the granite plinth version of the MACARIA, I would strongly urge you to lean in that direction. The white quartz plinth should perform very close to the granite as I have learned from the Acora QRC 2 quartz version of that same Acora design in granite. The wood versions, weighing considerably less than the granite and quartz, are likely to sound a little warmer based on my experience and I look forward to hearing them at shows. I expect they would be more successful with solid-state amplification than the granite or quartz versions, but the only way to know for sure is to try them.

The MACARIA is very much like a thoroughbred horse in that it is sensitive to every change and tweak. Open baffle speakers are often that way. Being a di-pole design with music bounding off the front wall behind them they have a transparency that only comes to box speakers at a much higher price. The music comes out into the room to fill the space between you and the speakers, rather than jumping out from behind the plane of the speakers. They are predisposed to give you that "You are there" experience.

The Synergistic Research Vibratron is an expensive tweak that achieves that feat with box speakers but I was surprised to discover it made very little difference with the open-baffle MACARIA. (It wasn't available to me when I reviewed most of the other open baffle designs.)

Another variable that I hinted at was the use of copper cables. The MACARIA are equipped with a VIABLUE harness with silver-plated copper between the crossover and the drivers. Most of my rig is strung with silver cabling from Synergistic Research. My tuner has a captive copper power cord from Audio Sensibility and I tried the copper flagship power cord from Audio Sensibility on my DAC. In both cases, the use of copper cords brought the sonic signature more in line with my preferences. Perhaps adding copper interconnects would have contributed even more. Again, fine-tuning can make a considerable difference.

Thoughts On Design
I'm not the only one who has praised the strong design of the MACARIA. As I said at the beginning, it stopped me in my tracks when I first came upon it. It is very stately, a balanced blend of sophistication and minimalism. The optional Floating Base elevates the plinth from the floor adding stature like a fine painting hung on a wall. It also improves the sound quality and facilitates ‘walking' the speaker across a carpeted floor.

Unpolished granite is also an option. When I saw the polished version in Toronto I was a bit disappointed but having lived with it for weeks I've come to appreciate its elegance. The light plays beautifully on the beveled edges surrounding the drivers and flecks of minerals sparkle under light. The black Cambrian granite (anorthosite, from Saint Nazare, Quebec) is an igneous rock formed in the Precambrian era about a billion years ago. It disappears when listening in the dark with only a reading light aimed at my lap. With its formal look, the polished granite goes very well with the chrome metal on my Codia Acoustic Design equipment stand. The unpolished granite will have a more organic, natural, and casual look more befitting of a Massif Audio Design rack, for example.

The granite, either unpolished or polished, is a neutral color that will fit many décor schemes. The standard quartz version is white, which is also neutral and applicable in many schemes whether you are going for contrast with dark walls, or a more monochromatic look for a more serene visual effect. Other colors of this metamorphic rock, which is also sourced in Quebec, can be special-ordered at extra cost, based on availability.

The wood choices are solid walnut, ash, and maple as well as birch plywood. The wood plinths are available in a natural or gloss finish. Here again, the gloss look is more formal while the natural finish is more organic and casual. The birch plywood version can also be custom-painted in a color of your choice at an extra cost. The metal stands and exposed back sides of the drivers are only offered in black and the phase cones are always a reddish color as shown in this final production review sample.  The available options allow for a wide spectrum of styles to create a very attractive listening room. Dusting off my interior decorator hat, I can say this is one of the finest designs available in North America today. The many photos on their website will help you visualize these possibilities.

The separate, enclosed crossover and the wiring harness with the ability to bi-amplify the speaker are very functional, well-made, and easy to work with. Other open baffle designs have chosen to incorporate the crossover on the speaker itself and route the cabling less conspicuously on the back side of the baffle. That said, it didn't bother me at all, but I don't have kids or pets floating around the room. If it raises your anxiety, try a few black zip-ties and call me in the morning.

The stability of the granite speaker with the floating base was very good. Casually bumping into it on my carpeted floor caused it to rock slightly but the resistance felt from doing so alerted me to stop moving in that direction. Intentionally bumping into it with the goal of knocking it over will likely be successful, but the same can be said for many other speakers. I never worried about it.

The acoustic design of the speaker (aside from the obvious open baffle) is atypical in that it uses a full-range driver and a supplemental woofer that is crossed over at 300 Hz with a second-order crossover. Both are about 13.5" in diameter, measured from the front, and both feature paper cones. Frequency response is specified as 35Hz to 16,000Hz. The bass region down to just below 40Hz measured superbly flat as you might expect with my 30' long room. Below that, it rolled off nicely with 20Hz organ notes still being respectable when driven with an appropriate amplifier as I mentioned earlier. Bass-heads will delight with a bi-amping configuration that allows them to adjust the bass separately.

My in-room SPL measurements taken at the listening chair indicate a rather steep roll-off from about 9kHz. This correlates with both my perception and that of a respected audio friend that there is a lack of overtones in the upper treble. As the saying goes, this was an act of omission, not an act of commission and after a day or two of listening, I disregarded it.

The area from about 15 kHz on up, where we get much of the sense of air was quite suppressed. This was especially notable with the deep black background created by the Synergistic Research power conditioner, active ground system, and the LessLoss BlackGround and BlackGround for Speakers in my rig. But the lack of output at the very high treble is not unusual among speakers – nor is it a problem for many older adults who make up the vast majority in the high end. Still, speakers with a tweeter more commonly have greater SPL (sound pressure level) in the 9 to 15 kHz region in my room. The little bird on my shoulder kept wondering what this speaker might sound like with a tweeter or super-tweeter on top. Sibilance, which shows up in the mid-treble was seldom a problem, though it did show up on occasion.

The sensitivity of the MACARIA is given as 92dB/W/m, but after installing it in place of a 92.5dB speaker without touching the volume control, the MACARIA came on a lot louder, suggesting the true in-room sensitivity may be closer to 94dB/W/m. I thoroughly enjoyed listening with 18 Wpc from my Class A SET monoblocks in my 6000 cubic foot room in an open floor plan with volume dancing up at 92dB at the listening position and occasional peaks reaching 100dB. If you are a fan of large-scale classical music or organ music at 100dB or more, you will probably appreciate more power.

Value
In an age when "luxury shame" is causing reluctance among some affluent buyers to exhibit signs of their wealth, the MACARIA offers a luxurious-looking speaker in a modest size that doesn't come close to scraping your ceiling or filling up your room – except with authentic, life-like musical performances. At well below $20k or even a third of that, you can plant the Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift, or your favorite philharmonic into a medium to large (but not too large) room. (Actually, a "too large room" remains to be tested.) The birch plywood version at a relatively entry-level price point and less than half the price of granite, represents an exceptional value in the line. It broadens the potential market for this new company that seems destined to make its mark in high-end audio. And we all know that once they grow and become established, the prices will rise.

It should also be noted that their materials are sourced from Canada. The granite and quartz come from Quebec. The ply and solid wood varieties are sourced from various provinces, depending on the type. The final assembly is done in Toronto. And of course, all the R&D was done in Canada.

Given they are sold factory direct, you can appreciate they would cost much more if sold through dealers. This also means you will have to travel to hear them. They were at Axpona earlier this year and they will be at Capital Audiofest in November. They also have plans to establish ambassadors around the country who will offer the opportunity to hear the MACARIA in their homes.

Plan on setting aside some money to adjust the MACARIA to your liking. It is a very transparent speaker that will likely reveal some qualities of your components you may wish to tweak with fuses, footers, tubes, or cables – but you were probably going to be doing that eventually, anyway.

Summary
Armando Reyhez, founder and designer, along with Deborah Ann, co-founder and CEO, have created one of the most visually attractive open baffle designs available today. The sonic signature of this type of design is something every audiophile should experience as it exposes the kind of coloration delivered by most box designs. The MACARIA delivers excellent transparency, resolution, and dynamics. Being very tube-friendly, it opens the door to the palpable liquidity, tonal color, and 3-dimensional soundscape that lower-powered tube amplifiers can bring to the music.

More than most other speakers I've heard (and they are legion), the MACARIA delivers a ‘You-are-there' sound experience that puts you close to the soundstage. It is not a speaker for everyone, but rather for those who relish the experience of live music and being up close and personal with the musicians for a more emotional connection with the music. I highly recommend you audition the speaker at length in the type of plinth that appeals to your sense of décor or your budget. The different materials will likely impact the sound in ways I could not experience in this singular review. That said, I eagerly await the opportunity to hear the speaker with a wood plinth and look forward to hearing their room at Capital Audiofest in November.

Specifications
Type: Open baffle loudspeaker
Frequency Response: 35 Hz to 16 kHz
Sensitivity: 92 dB/W/m
Impedance: 4 or 8 Ohm (user selectable by cable connection)
Dimensions With Floating Base: 19.7" x 46" 19.9" (WxHxD)
Weight: Birch is 23 kgs, with Granite being the heaviest at 55 kgs.
Price: As reviewed $14,180 
   Birch Plywood: $6332
   Maple $9532
   Ash $9532
   Walnut $10,932
   Quartz $12,432
   Granite $12,932

Upgrades:
   Gloss finish (wood and ply models) for an additional $489
   Polished finish (stone models) for an additional $749
   MACO Floating base by adding $499

Company Information
MACO
122 Brock Ave
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M6K 2L4

Voice: (647) 270-5496 
E-mail: contact@macoacoustic.com 
Website: MadlyAudio.com