Audio Physic Tempo IIIi loudspeakers. (Equipment).

Distributor: Immedia, 1717A Fourth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710; Phone: [phone] Fax: [phone] www.immedia.com

Price: $3,495/pr in standard black ash; $3,745 for optional finishes

Source: Distributor loan

I'm always on the lookout for speakers within the price range of my reference Legacy Classics. It's not that I'm unhappy with the Classics; quite the contrary, it's just that I'm forever infected with the upgrade bug. I once had the opportunity to audition a pair of Audio Physic's top-of-the-line models, and was very impressed. I thought that there might be a more affordable speaker in their line that was a beneficiary of the trickle-down-theory, that is, one could get some of the sound of the more expensive speaker in an "entry-level" model.

OK, $3,495 for the Tempo IIIis is not exactly $2,695 (the price of a pair of the Legacies), but the fact that the Audio Physics are imported from Germany could explain some of their higher price. They are also very unusual-looking speakers -- their unique cabinet design could also contribute to their higher price. Plus, once one is spending this kind of money, what is another $800? (Only kidding, but everything is relative, I guess.)

Technical: Audio Physic has had the Tempo in their line since 1985, its latest incarnation being designated "IIIi." Improvements over the older models include a tweeter that is a totally new design. Its "ring radiator technology," claims Audio Physic, "results in superb midrange dynamics and excellent high frequency resolution." They claim that the tweeter used in the Tempo IIIi has an upper frequency limit of 60 kHz. The woofer and midrange drivers work in parallel and are equipped with "the latest generation of air-dried Nomex cones." Their diecast aluminum baskets and "linear drive technology result in low distortion and high detail resolution even at the highest sound pressure levels."

All the drivers are decoupled from the cabinet, and the tweeter is in a separate pneumatically isolated chamber. The front and the back walls are parallel, yet slope back at a 7-degree angle that is said to make the drivers behave in a "phase-linear radiation" manner.

The port of the Tempo IIIi is on the bottom of the cabinet, and attaching a U-shaped base to the bottom of the cabinet allows the port to fire towards the floor. A pair of gold-plated five-way speaker posts is located close to the bottom rear of the cabinet. The Tempo IIIis are not bi-wireable.

Their impedance is 4 ohms, sensitivity is claimed to be 90 dB, and frequency response is stated to be 34 Hz-40 kHz (no tolerance specified). The Tempo IIIis are about 41" high, 7" wide, and about 10" deep. The base measures 10" x 12", but this small footprint measurement is misleading because of the slope of the cabinet. Still, they are relatively small to medium sized full-range floor-standing speakers. The finishes available are cherry, American maple, rosenut, and black ash. The small grille that covers the three drivers is removable, and that's how I did all my listening to these speakers.

System: The Audio Physics were auditioned in my main system, which consists of a digital front end of a Pioneer DV-525 DVD player used as a transport feeding the Perpetual Technology P-1A/P-3A upsampler/DAC combination connected to a Monolithic PS2 power supply. LPs were spun on a Basis Debut V with a Lyra Clavis DC or Van den Hul Frog cartridge mounted on a Tri-Planar VI tonearm. The preamp was either an Audible Illusions Modulus 3a or Balanced Audio Technology VK-3i, and the power amp a Krell KAV-250a. A Velodyne HGC-15b subwoofer augmented the speakers at times. Everything was plugged into PS Audio's Power Plant AC regenerators except for the turntable and subwoofer, which were powered by a Chang Lightspeed CLS 9600 ISO power conditioner.

Setup: In the Tempo IIIis' manual are very detailed and lengthy instructions as to what the optimum setup should be for these speakers. I could spend some serious space describing this 8-page booklet dedicated to this subject, but I think it's sufficient just to say it could be very helpful in getting the most from these speakers. Lo and behold, their recommendations are extremely close to the way I already have my speakers set up in my listening room. So, as with the Legacies, they ended up along the long wall of my rectangular listening room just about 3 feet away from that wall, and quite a distance from the side walls. My listening position was about as far from the speakers as they were spread apart up against the opposite damped wall.

Sound: Since the Legacy Classics have been my reference for such a relatively long period of time, I thought that an easy way to describe the Tempos would be by their deviation from the sound of my reference. Of course there were differences, but they were so similar in their all-important midrange it was uncanny. Sure, the sound was coming from a smaller speaker, but the soundstage of the Tempos was superior to that of the Classics. This sizeable soundstage enabled the smaller speaker to some extent compensate for the larger driver surface area of the Classics and fill the room with sound (the Legacies have six drivers as opposed to the Audio Physics' three). Still, the image sizes were smaller, but a realistic picture of the musical event that was originally recorded was portrayed. The midrange sound of the Tempos had extraordinary realism for a dynamic speaker, and at the same time each instrument passing through them was very true to the source.

This transparency was very refreshing. Many speakers I've auditioned over the years make compromises that upset their midrange in favor of a "smooth" or "attractive" sound. Not the Tempos. If the recording is good, they sound good, and if not, they reveal the recording as such.

This midrange quality was especially noticeable on small jazz ensemble recordings. I spent quite a while playing LPs and CDs on the Prestige, Milestone, and Blue Note labels of groups from the 1960s through the early 1970s engrossed not only in the amazing playing on these discs, but in the way the Tempos were able to draw me into the music. I think this was largely due to the midrange, so important in giving horns that either you-are-there or they-are-here realism.

During this period I had my musical elitism on hold, listening to more straight-ahead jazz than I usually do. Artists such as the soul/jazz of tenor sax player Rusty Bryant, the extraordinary pianist Bill Evans, and the lyricism of trumpeter Donald Byrd spent lots of time running through my system. The Tempos' midrange was spot-on, with no frequencies being artificially boosted or lessened by the speakers. It was totally up to the recording.

Granted, frequency aberrations aren't what one usually thinks of when one is speaking of the midrange of a pair of speakers. Yet I'm at a loss to describe them in other terms. Perhaps "midrange purity" is a better way to describe it, because that's what so impressed me about these speakers.

How did they perform on larger groups of instruments? Pretty darn well, actually. On the classic Fritz Reiner/Chicago SO version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition the orchestration gets rather thick at times. The tympani strokes on the Gates of Kiev section were easy to discern, even if they didn't have the same amount of attack as on the larger Legacies. Through the Legacies they also sounded a bit more separated from the rest of the orchestra in the sense that they occupied more of their own sonic space. But lest this seem to be a negative criticism of the Tempos, I should point out that through them, all the instruments, including the tympanis, were to scale. The orchestra was spread out across the front of my listening room in a very realistic manner. This piece of music also demonstrated that the Tempos could be played very loudly without much strain and without much change in their overall character until the volume got out of hand.

I think it's important to once again describe the attributes of these speakers in the soundstage department. If one looks at the photo of these speakers one will see that they were designed with the drivers located at the top of a cabinet. Plus, it seems as if they were designed to be as narrow as possible. These speakers' mini-monitor-like soundstage was incredible. Combined with an image size that, although smaller than my reference, was bigger than any speaker this size had a right to be, made for not only some very enjoyable listening sessions, but a stay in my system for much longer than most do during a review period.

The soundstage started way back behind the rear wall, filled the space between the two speakers with a multi-layered sonic picture, and surrounded the two speakers. It wasn't exaggerated (although it may seem as if I am describing it as such) but appropriate to the recording. Well-recorded ensembles were placed appropriately across the space between and beyond the speakers, and a pop recording's studio concocted soundstage would separate the instruments into distinct locations, with pinpoint imaging if that is the way the recording presented them.

One of the greatest attributes of these speakers is their high level of refinement in the treble. They were more extended than my Classics, and these ultra high frequencies never became fatiguing. Again, they seemed very true to the source that fed them. The sparkle that came from cymbals and other metallic percussion was very convincing.

On some speakers with what I'd call "super-extended" treble, the instruments with a lot of this high frequency energy sound as if they are separate events from the rest of the recordings. Many respected high-end speakers have this trait, so I guess this is a somewhat acceptable design practice. But if one were to use live music as a reference, one would clearly hear that this is not the case in real-life. Thankfully, the Tempos never exhibited this characteristic.

If I had to make a negative comment about the Tempos it would be about their lowest treble. The crossover points aren't given in the speakers' specification sheet; but I wouldn't be surprised if the crossover between the midrange driver and the tweeter was where this anomaly was located. A hardness or even a slight boost in frequency response was evident on many recordings. This trait was not noticeable on every recording, but if I put on a digitally recorded CD it would be more obvious, and manifest itself as an apparent boost in the frequencies in this region.

A CD that is an excellent recording is by Danilo Perez on Verve, Motherland. A great album of jazz/funk with a-strong South American influence, this CD was mastered by none other than Doug Sax. Still, when playing the recording through the Tempo IIIis, I heard a tad of a rise in the frequencies around or just below the lower treble. This was noticeable mostly on Mr. Perez's piano. But please, let it be known that I'm splitting hairs here. This is an excellently recorded CD being played on excellent speakers.

Another complaint (or rather an observation) is that the Tempos don't even try to reproduce deep bass. Actually, that's more of a compliment. I'd rather rely on a subwoofer to supplement the bass than to have a speaker try to fool me into thinking there is more bass than actually being reproduced. The bass didn't seem to go as deep as specified, but still, it was a very tight, pitch-specific, and had no "mid-bass hump" that seemed like it was coming from a cabinet resonance, or a shrewd speaker engineer's imagination. The bass went low enough to let me know what was going on in the low frequencies with enough heft to convey the message of the music.

My Velodyne subwoofer was a nice match. There wasn't much of a sonic seam between where the Tempos left off and the Velodyne took over. I had the crossover of the subwoofer set to a little less than 100 Hz and located between the two speakers, but closer to the right one.

In my review of the Legacy Classics way back in Issue 64, I stated that there wasn't a lot to say about the Classics' sound because they approached the sound of real music so often. The same can be said about the Audio Physic Tempo IIIis. Transducers such as these come into this reviewer's home far too infrequently. I had these speakers set up in my listening room for much longer than any speaker I can think of besides my reference. Therefore, it was very revealing when I switched back to the Legacies.

I suppose the number of drivers in the Legacies has more to do with it than anything else does. The Classics have practically as much driver surface area on the rear of their cabinets as the total of all the drivers in the Tempos! There was such a greater sense of envelopment, or rather, that I was brought closer to the music. It was as if I were listening to the speakers in the near field as opposed to the opposite side of the room with the Audio Physics. It is difficult to describe -- but I could hear more detail from the recordings with the Legacies at the same volume. I don't want to make too much of this. I think those with tastes more in the mainstream than myself, especially those who don't crank up the volume with power orchestral, electronic, and hard rock as much as I do will find the Tempos quite enjoyable.

The combination of a practically flawless midrange, seemingly limitless treble, extraordinary soundstage, and good looks makes this speaker an easy recommendation. To recycle a cliche, although these speakers might not be for everyone (and which ones are?), those with small to medium listening rooms and with musical tastes that aren't too aggressive might find these speakers to be nearly perfect.