Page 69 - Hi-Fi_News_-_December_2020 video

A FAMILY BUSINESS
Lu Kang Audio is new this year to the UK market, but the company – based in
Tapei City, Taiwan – isn’t a fresh-as-a-daisy startup. It was founded over 30 years
ago by Frank Shi, beginning as an importer of ‘high-end’ audio brands. This is an
aspect of the business that lives on – it currently distributes Comet DACs from
US marque Exogal, amplifiers from Hong Kong’s JE Audio, and Odiosis cables

via French company Omerin – but the decision was made in the 1990s to begin
developing its own loudspeakers. More recently the baton has been passed from
Frank Shi to his son, Rox, who is responsible for the design of the Spoey models,

its first to be sold outside of Taiwan and its international calling card. Described
as ‘a gift to music and all who listen,’ the speakers are, we’re told, the result of a
lengthy driver selection and tuning process.

Both drivers are sourced from Denmark, with precision. But against these positive
a nation whose GDP seems successfully traits there’s a laidback feel to the sound
based on the audio industry and Carlsberg that renders it suited to some musical
lager. The high-frequency unit is from genres more than others. Never is the
tweeter specialist Hiquphon, while the Spoey230 inclined to go on the attack – a
bass/mid is a ‘custom’ version of an subjective viewpoint borne out by PM’s Lab
AudioTechnology driver, the company Report [p71], suggesting the performance
launched by Ejvind Skaaning (also the of this top-of-the-range standmount is
founder of both Dynaudio and ScanSpeak). more fine wine than fi zzy pop...

The Hiquphon tweeter is its premium
OW4 model, which features a six-step IN THE SPOTLIGHT
platinum-colour coating and multi-layer The Cult’s Electric album [CD; Sire 9
internal damping claimed to extend its 25555-2] found the post-punk act
response down to 2kHz, and up to 22kHz, transformed into a UK version of AC/DC,
with dispersion controlled via its shallow by way of a stripped-back production
waveguide. For the woofer, Lu Kang’s from Rick Rubin. Standout track ‘Lil Devil’
Rox Shi has combined AudioTechnology’s is about as sparse as it gets, giving the
C-Quenze 23I driver design with the Lu Kang Audio pair little to do. It had
company’s Flexi series polypropylene cone. no trouble unpicking detail, such as
This driver is reflex-loaded via a central the sparkling tambourine that occupies

front-facing port, as is the case with the stage right, or the grit in Ian Astbury’s
step-down Spoey200, although the entry- vocal. Furthermore, the simplistic drum
level Spoey155 has a sealed-box alignment. accompaniment sounded tightly timed,
The speakers, says Lu Kang Audio, intertwining with the eighth-note bassline.
have been ‘designed to work within any Yet while the riffing guitar should be

environment (within reason)’, although the star of the show here, biting and
Whole Note Distribution suggests a snarling, via the heavyweight Spoey230s
50cm clearance from rear and side walls it sounded curiously polite. Raising the
as a minimum. Following this guidance, volume helped, pushing the speakers to be
and with the cabinets approximately more aggressive, but only to a point – I still
2.5m apart, I didn’t even get into toe- wanted a little more midband energy to
in experimentation – the imaging was accompany my 1980s rock ’n’ roll.
thrillingly on point from the get-go. Naturally, I found other tracks to be
more in the speaker’s comfort zone, and
ARTISAN AUDIO began to appreciate its astute handling
These artisan speakers deliver an insightful, of complex, nuanced material. The varied
expansive performance without a trace of a percussion of ‘Graceland’, from the
rough edges. They have obvious immediate 25th Anniversary Edition release of the ABOVE: A soft-dome ‘platinum coloured’ 20mm
strengths – low frequencies, as one might eponymous album [via Tidal HD] benefi ted Hiquphon 3/4 OW4 tweeter is paired with a
expect given the cabinet size and ported from the clarity, detail and snap of the 230mm C-Quenze driver from AudioTechnology,
bass/mid unit staring you in the face, have speaker’s far-reaching tweeter just as reflex-loaded through a large, front-facing port

extravagant depth coupled with a purity Donna Summer’s disco anthem ‘Hot Stuff’
of output, while the resolution and sense [Tidal HD] was funky and infectious. the music. In Led Zeppelin’s ‘Heartbreaker’
of space at the other end of the frequency [Led Zeppelin II; Atlantic 28930313],
band is captivating. As said earlier, they PORTRAIT OF SOUND when everything stops to make way for
seem to image without effort, too, building It’s the Spoey230’s lavish imaging that Jimmy Page’s one-take guitar solo, he
a soundstage with depth and width that is its calling card, however, the cabinets was placed dead-centre on a wide stage,
lets you visualise instrument placement locking in step to paint an artful picture of notes reverberating left and right. ‘Rock

DECEMBER 2020 | www.hifi news.co.uk | 69