MEET THE FIGARO
One cannot argue about the fact that there are already more than enough speaker companies taking care of the steady demand for the natural wood finishes and veneers. Gediminas wanted to follow the ongoing trend of the interior design and gradually, but surely pointed his manufacture and speaker designs towards more contemporary outlook. The Audiosoluitons head honcho strongly believes that classical shapes and finishes are not fitting well into the modern surroundings of the younger generation. THE INNER HEART
“This is typical problem for speakers under 10000Eur. Our Self-Locking cabinet is designed in completely different manner. It is possible to achieve much greater sonic properties with only little more expenses if engineer knows what he is doing and financial department approves for couple more bucks in self-cost. The key concept in eliminating unwanted vibrations is combine materials with different resonant properties so they damp each other. Simplest way to do that is to use different thickness materials or make sandwich of different materials. We did both. Figaro cabinet thickness varies from 18mm up to 50mm in different areas, and starting from middle way to all back speaker part is made from sandwich materials (in the back of speaker maximum pressure is always present and this is critical area). Combining materials is nice, but we stepped further, we modeled every surface in speaker and made its vibration analysis as a whole, so we can see how important is joints between different surfaces. It is remarkable what modern software can do. It is a very big difference between simple glue joint between two surface edges and our Self-Locking joint. Without Self-Locking joints cabinet was good but not perfect, after calculating our joining technique cabinet became almost monolithic.”
MY WAY OR THREE WAY
The usual soft dome tweeters can (and do) start distorting too quickly at the greater playback volumes. Figaro M implements the mini-horn and waveguide that undoubtedly helps with the “shaping” of the highs. Gediminas also picked slightly smaller tweeter driver for ensuring the faster transient response in the higher spectrum. THE GRILL MASTER
In high-end audio loudspeaker’s grill serve as more or less the necessary evil and consequently the sound presentation will highly likely be changed in a not exactly subtle way.
Audiosolutions constructed their own “stealth grille” for the Overture series based on their analysis and understanding: “The main concept of grilles is wrong starting from a scratch. That’s why people are forced to remove grilles when they are listening to speakers. Our protective grills share a unique technical decision where one speaker has two different FRONT BAFFLES (one with protective cloth other without) which shares the same geometry.”
With anything in a stand before the speakers’ drivers, the front baffle geometry changes and alterers the early reflection as well the originally sonic direction It’s a compromise, to begin with.
“When scientists are talking about reflections, standing waves, scattering etc. the key variable here is geometry. It is geometry to blame for all effects of poorly designed grilles. By applying typical grills on top of front baffle you change speaker geometry and what is most audible is first reflections from plastic grill mesh or from MDF edges which is usually 1cm thick as minimum.”Audiosolutions’s “stealth grilles” employs the same geometry for both front covers. Its actually more spot on to call them baffles as Figaro M speakers’ grills were actually projected from the ground up as an integral part of the front baffle. So, when they’re exchanged the geometry is exactly the same and as planned originally.
Gediminas ensures that the difference cannot be measurable and audible evaluations confirmed it.
VARIETY IS THE KING!
THE MUSIC
Even non-casual listener would certainly place the ECM tag on the Batik – Headland and for the proper reasons. It’s a terrific album with a mightier sonic nucleus and an excellent reference for classifying any high-end component. With speakers evaluation, there is no pardoning when the system is already set up at the appropriate level. They’ll either handle Batik’s sonic enormousness or won’t. Despite their given size, Audiosolutions Figaro M speakers have preserved the required grip intact. In order to really shine many sonic requirements are needed to be met with Headland as it also heavily challenges the rendition of spatial presentation and frequency balance.
Figaro M speakers have demonstrated their adequacy to distribute the sonic energy properly across complete spectrum. The metallic percussions’ sphere can too easily evade from the control in the same form that bass can, yet Figaros’ enclosure and tuning have granted a grander than expected purview of music’s information.
This album distinctly evinces the advances and benefits of Audiosolutions’ specific Self-Locking cabinet construction.
Wes Montgomery – The Alternative Wes Montgomery compiles the alternate non-releases takes for previously published albums on the Riverside label.
Especially Stairway To The Stars and Milt Jackson’s vibraphone playing takes the song’s opening instantaneously to the celestial spatial spheres. This particular clarity and ethereal quality of vibraphone never fail to excite me to delve further with any speaker under evaluation. Audiosolutions Figaro M’s balancing act was at once acknowledged and my listening notes page was relatively dense with my mind’s metaphors and words’ permutations.
Yes, Figaros’ have passed the initial spatial and resolution analysis with a higher grade. Stairway To The Stars has greatly facilitate further under the loupe evaluation. The timbral structure of Vibraphone is no exactly easy to convey. The acoustical cue density aims for a more accomplished performer. And so does the remarkably exceptional atmosphere of The Alternative Wes Montgomery. Again, without the required density of acoustical cues the degree of believably cannot be attained, yet Figaro M speakers were adequate to deliver an unanticipated level of contextualized atmospheric impact.
The same continues for the discernible timbral quality. With Figaro M speakers it was not just about the compelling sum of quark like decays and delays, but about reaching it scrupulously close to the point of realism. And Figaros have espoused it daringly and with the finer grasp of genuine fundamentals, that are indispensable for the enticing reproduction.
Tanita Tikaram – Ancient Heart is another one in the personal collection of the safe side of melancholy aural journeys. This Tanita’s debut album is still as sharp and influential as it was back when it was released. I’m certain people of my “decent” age” remembers album’s chart-topper Twisting My Sobriety.
The whole album is recorded more than adequately for the regular pop album, yet Ancient Heart holds nothing that would classify it as common. It still astounds me what then 19 years old Tanita Tikaram managed to accomplish artistically with this record. Album represents quite a few particular sonic demands, most notably it immediately discloses the way speakers can bear the impact with the well-recorded studio music.
There is something about this record, that demands proper loudspeakers’ voicing when it comes to the vocal. It’s not exactly simple to establish a believable vocal interpretation, that won’t disintegrate when its mixed with the numerous instruments.
The research of determining Figaros’ chameleon-like universality ability was further confronted with the portrayal of Ancient Heart’s metallic percussions. The rides, hi-hats and the rest of the iron percussion paraphernalia were recorded, mixed and equalized with an expert engineer touch allowing them to embody natural timbral propensities as well as stand out airiness.
Twisting My sobriety shares some resemblances with Tracy Chapman‘s Fast Car from, another extremely powerful debut album from 80’s that was recorded above average expectations and is sonically is even a few steps above the Ancient Hearth. After all the years this song still sends shivers down my spine on each playback. Tracy Chapman self-titled debut album keeps powerful message across the whole record and with the current climate it appears like it was recorded yesterday. It’s very dear album of mine for many reasons and one of the getaway records I’ve played on my deliberate no-strict-end journeys…
With this timeless gem, the referencing quest is in the segregation of the instruments and a rich formation of bass guitar. The bass will subtly find the problematic acoustical nodes before you even have the time to realize. Figaro M speakers have allowed lower octave notes to form captivating and refreshing control. Instruments had enough acoustical cues to constitute a fixated and righter than expected three-dimensionality.
The next challenging track Across The Lines can instantaneously clear any deceptions of many speakers designers about the achievement of their beloved speakers. One of the factors to especially look for (when all is set right) is the fretless guitar like tone, that will take the control of the room with the energy around and far beyond the speakers. No, this exact momentum doesn’t take place with every speaker, but it did with Figaro!
Behind The Wall holds the same uplifted positions for yours truly as Susan Vega’s Tom’s Dinner when it comes to the studio vocal analysis and Figaro M have again and again shown its assets and uplifted standing! No matter how simplified human vocal might occur, it’s not! Even non-live, studio recorded vocals will illustrate the foibles of the voice’s formants. Audiosolutions Figaro M speakers never skip over to the spheres of analytic dissection of vowels and consonants. This can be elucidated via spectrogram, but going deep into subject matter is not an objective of this review. Most importantly Figaros didn’t modify the constitutional parts. This cannot be asserted for many speakers priced way beyond Figaro M. That tell A LOT!
CONCLUSION
It’s never easy to establish a worthy replacement for any audio product. The usual undertaking in high-end audio always follow the money traits and a heftier price sticker comes mandatory. Acting completely contrary, Gediminas Gaidelis managed to create a more affordable speaker line with the choicest attributes of the preceding line and most importantly with the key elements expected and required from the contemporary high-end audio loudspeakers. 
Unique removable grills were already mentioned above, but it’s more than worthy of bringing them up again. With most of the speakers, the grill is regarded as a stylistic hubris. A compromise, that is most often a must aesthetically wise. Audiosolutions Figaro M speakers grills were developed with a lot of attention. Each pair of speakers comes with two set of covers/grills. Usually one can immediately detect the variation when the grill is in place. Well, that’s not exactly the case with Figaro M speakers. Both of the grills were constructed from the ground up to provide diffraction-less sonic uniqueness, that is not in the way of the sound…
Audiosolutions Figaro M speakers and Gediminas Gaidelis deserves to be recognized and appreciated for the efforts and what they are representing musically and price wise. Yes, I do love exotic, esoteric and consequently, sky-high priced high-end audio products, but I’m no snob when it comes to the down to earth high-end audio products, that make all the sense and are of importance to our industry. Figaro M speakers are a clear reminder of a too often neglected aspect of the era; the affordability and a real-world value. PRICE
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions (HxWxD) : 1120mm x 272mm x 470mm; 44.1 x 10.7 x 18.5in
Weight : 41 kg/90 lbs each
Shipping weight : 45 kg/99 lbs each
Sensitivity : 91.5 dB @ 2.83V 1m
Nominal power handling : 140 W rms
Maximum unclipped power handling : 280 W;
Impedance : nominal 4,0 ohms
Crossover frequency : 400 Hz; 4000 Hz
Frequency response (in-room environment) : 32-25000 Hz
Drivers : 2,5cm silk dome tweeter, 15.2cm ER paper cone mid, two 18.3cm ER paper cone bass drivers