AudioSolutions Overture O305F MK3 speakers review

Gediminas Gaidelis and his speaker company AudioSolutions need no special introduction. AudioSolutions has managed to find a permanent place in our industry and the brand’s success is not a happy accident, but the result of years of hard and meticulous work by Gaidelis. 

With each new product, Gaidelis and his team at AudioSolutions push their products to a higher level and up the speaker value scale. 
I’m always excited to learn and hear how far Gaidelis speakers will go with each new upgrade or launch, and when I was asked for the opportunity to review the AudioSolutions Overture O305F speakers, I gladly accepted. 
Not just out of curiosity. The most important thing is that we need high-performance, high-quality, affordable speakers and high-end audio products in general, not only to keep people tuned in but also to help more people get started in our beloved but still niche industry.

MEET THE OVERTURE O305F

Overture O305F is a three-way speaker system, heavily braced, featuring the all-new Sectional-Box-in-a-box enclosure inspired by the award-winning Virtuoso Series speakers. 
Here a few of the highlights:
  • High-flow bass reflex port with highly rounded flange
  • ER Cone midrange and woofer inspired by our most popular Figaro Series speakers
  • Silk dome tweeter with famous mini horn
  • Phase linear crossover with extra thick copper PCB
  • High-quality coreless copper coils
  • Completely redesigned solid binding posts and a set of spikes
Overture MK3 is a third-generation entry-level loudspeaker from AudioSolutions. Overture MK3 carries the O3 designation and replaces the older MK2 version called O2. The third series Overture brings a completely new look compared to its predecessor. These rather drastic visual changes mark completely redesigned speakers – a cabinet, drivers, and crossover structure. Audiosolutions sees the new Overture as the ultimate marriage of art and technology.
Overture O305F is a 3-way design floor-standing loudspeaker equipped with a custom silk dome tweeter, an ER cone midrange driver, and two ER cone woofers. The overture is equipped with sharp, carpet penetrating spikes for stability and improved performance. You’ll also find protective caps for the spikes in the set, in case you want to place the speaker on hardwood floors. The spikes are M6 threaded, this standard allows the customer to experiment with a different type of spikes or damping feet to their liking. 
The binding posts were upgraded to solid binding posts that are finished in beautiful satin silver. These binding posts can accommodate even the thickest high-end cables made today, providing a good grip when tightening and most importantly, a good path for signal transfer without loss. 
Overture MK3 is offered in two standard colors Gloss Black and Gloss White. As additional options, we offer three types of wood textures – oak, mahogany, and wenge.

SECTIONAL- BOX -IN- BOX CABINET

The Overture MK2s were designed with a self-locking enclosure construction, which at the time was quite a breakthrough compared to typical non-complex enclosure designs. Because of the great potential of the self-locking enclosure, the AudioSolutions team developed another type of enclosure – the box-in-a-box structure. This enclosure type is used in their award-winning Virtuoso loudspeakers and is remarkably rigid, yet has extremely good damping characteristics. 
Recognizing the flexibility and potential of box-in-a-box enclosures in general, AudioSolutions decided to adapt this expensive technology for their more affordable entry-level products. 
The Overture MK3 uses Virtuoso enclosure technology and features the Sectional-Box -in-a-box enclosure system. The entire enclosure consists of two intersecting enclosures – a lightweight inner box and a heavyweight outer box. 
The polyurethane layer between the two boxes acts as a damping material. The thin but rigid inner box provides the necessary support for the structure itself, transferring the energy of the radiated return wave to the outer box layers without storing the energy in the material and preventing the return wave from being reflected to the listener. 
Fast energy transfer is essential to prevent low-Q oscillations, which can last a relatively long time and ruin accurate sound reproduction. To illustrate low-Q oscillations, think of swings where energy is stored for a long time and the oscillations decay slowly due to the high mass and lack of damping. With just one swing, you have long-lasting vibrations that are undesirable in cabinets. Therefore, the energy is transferred from the inner enclosure to the outer enclosure, which has a large mass to absorb the received energy (compared to the inner enclosure), and low internal stress forces and thus high damping properties to convert the energy to heat as quickly as possible without creating unwanted, long-lasting vibrations. 
However, these two layers alone cannot provide efficient energy exchange and dissipation into heat. This is why the third layer between the outer and inner enclosures is so important – a polyurethane layer connects the two enclosures (which are separated by a fraction of a millimeter) and provides additional damping due to its high viscosity. 
This layer not only acts as an additional barrier to energy being converted into heat as it travels from the inner to the outer box but also helps the high-mass outer box stop moving quickly. 
To illustrate the principle of operation, we can imagine that a swing is suddenly stopped with the help of a soft cushion.

MINI-HORN

All of the AudioSolutions speaker series are equipped with the Mini Horn load. This is a special treatment for soft dome tweeters. Soft dome tweeters are known to have high distortion when used at loud levels. The distortion increases exponentially because the center section of the dome stops moving at certain levels and frequencies, causing it to flex uncontrollably through the suspension. 
This is due to the soft nature of the dome. Some manufacturers use an ark over the tweeter dome with damping material touching the center of the dome to dampen this unwanted flex. The problem with such a system occurs at different listening levels. It is simply not linear, since the force with which the center of the dome is struck by the damping material is fixed and does not change with tweeter’s excursion. 
Others use stiffening materials such as titanium bracing glued to the dome. This solution is far better, but it is not without its flaws. While it stiffens the structure, it increases the mass and thus the inertia of the dome, which affects the impulse characteristics and sensitivity. 
It is also quite expensive to manufacture with low tolerances, so the electrical and acoustic parameters would not differ between samples. 
AudioSolutions mini horn, on the other hand, is much more efficient to manufacture and to repeat production quality with low tolerances. 
Mini-Horn is based on acoustic damping, which is also present in conventional horns. AudioSolutions carefully measure at what frequencies the tweeter begins to bend and send out an avalanche of distortion. 
Mini Horn is calculated and manufactured to the desired specifications to attenuate these frequencies. The result is proportional damping of the tweeter’s movement. The louder it plays, the more damping it receives from its own radiated sound. This is called acoustic impedance and is highly dependent on the shape of the mini horn. 
Another positive aspect of Mini Horn increases sensitivity (because of – the horn) and does not decrease sensitivity (because of the restriction of movement) as in the previous examples.

THE MUSIC

Gary Burton And Chick Corea: Crystal Silence is one of the label’s most important classic albums for ECM Records. Manfred Eicher has managed to more than skillfully capture the magic of the majestic interplay between Corea and Burton. 

“Crystal Silence” can sound too congested too quickly, with a sparse instrument formation, but AudioSolutions Overture O305F protected the sound not garishly colored, but with a much needed and properly balanced aural shimmer to the complex tapestry of sound.

With Dean Martin – Dream with Dean the AudioSolutions Overture O305F speakers reproduced Dean’s rusty but silky voice without glare. Something I didn’t expect and shouldn’t normally occur in this price range. Dean’s aura was vividly palpable and with unexpected showily quality. 

In a properly balanced system, Dean should enchant you and be subjectified at once. AudioSolutions Overture O305F allowed Dean Martin to interpret with an instantly identifiable, high-quality reproduction.

This was confirmed in a lasting way with Julie London’s “Cry Me A River” from the album Julie Is Her Name. London’s voice was immediately present with familiar qualities that are. Overture O305F presented “Cry Me A River” in a newly accomplished way, without being disenchanting, and with an enchanting wanderlust.

It was interesting to observe how well the AudioSolutions Overture O305F speakers could handle dynamics and how well they disappeared into space. This was particularly evident with St. John’s Night on Bald Mountain, “A Night on the Bare Mountain” (original version) Eiji Oue, Modeste Moussorgsky – Mephisto & Co. 

Overture O305F threw an impressive stereo field projection that not only held the dynamic punch with outstanding authority. AudioSolutions speakers were able to paint “A Night on the Bare Mountain” with a dramatic atmosphere and technicolor, classical quality. Too often Moussorgsky’s masterpiece can sound lifeless, lacking inner energetic radiance. Yet… It was quite a feat to observe AudioSolutions Overture O305F project a vivid landscape pictorially, rather than a dull and analytical soundscape in which thousands of tiny details are lost.

When speakers are not properly balanced, Leonard Cohen – Nevermind can seem like an unsung affair. On the contrary, the AudioSolutions Overture O305F speakers instantly sparked a deeply emotional connection to Cohen’s composition. 

The AudioSolutions Overture O305F speakers can in no way be described as musically inconsistent. On the contrary. With their radial core, they resonate through albums and tracks with far greater authority and involvement than expected, with far greater intimacy and emotional release than should be the case, and with a trailblazing dazzling variety. That alone catapults the O305F speakers far beyond mediocrity and the ordinary.

CONCLUSION

The AudioSolutions Overture O305F features a beautiful and clever design. A review sample came with a black faceplate, while the rest of the speakers’s panels are finished in an instantly recognizable AudioSolutions’ scratch-resistant grey graphite color. I appreciate this combination as it has an understated elegance and the speakers maintain their distinct, sculptural aesthetic with surprising elegance. 

They project the realistic scale and feel of space with just the right size of instruments and performers. This rarely happens, regardless of the price of the speaker. 

With the AudioSolutions Overture O305F speakers, the sound was able to spread up to my 3.2m high perforated ceiling and escape from the 5.4m high sidewalls. 

There is the seamlessness where you don’t hear the familiar effect of drivers kicking in, but the music always comes out as one harmonious whole. 

With AudioSolutions Overture O305F the music comes to you at the same time. Yes, something we all take for granted, but it just isn’t always so. Again, regardless of the price. 

It is very impressive how Gaidelis has managed to remove all the limitations that could be attached with the Overture line in connection with the price and create such a meaningful and great sounding whole. 

AudioSolutions Overture O305F speakers come with a certain cinematic, hummable quality that I have never experienced in floor standing speakers in this price range. Despite their given proportions, the O305F allows for wonderfully differentiated dynamics and a magical intersection of the golden triangle of timbre, tone, and color. 

I was more than pleasantly surprised by how solid and coherent the AudioSolutions Overture O305F speakers were able to reproduce the music. And there is that special continuity in music reproduction that invites perpetual music enjoyment and rediscovery of the music collection, again and again. Another stand out feature, that wasn’t expected.

To label AudioSolutions speakers anything even close to entry-level would be a great disservice to Gediminas Gaidelis and a great understatement of the surprisingly refreshingly potent inner core of the Overture O305F. It shows how cleverly everything has been combined into a seamless whole. 

AudioSolutions Overture O305F speakers deliver the elemental and fundamental qualities with refined attention, mindfulness, and a higher level of enjoyment that magnifies the listening pleasure.

What these Gediminas Gaidelis’ proud creations can do for their given price is far beyond the ordinary and deserves a special highlight. It is only fair to acknowledge Gediminas Gaidelis’ achievement with AudioSolutions Overture O305F speakers with something unique. I award the Overture O305F a combined 2021 Best Buy and Highly Recommended Product awards. 

While reviewing the Overture O305F speakers, I had a light bulb moment. They made me rethink some core values and attributes of the big-size speakers. Yes, some qualities are hard or impossible to achieve with smaller speakers, but when the overall primary qualities are properly addressed, those attributes become so strong that a few ob Goliath qualities don’t feel imperative and a genuine David attributes in the form of the Overture O305F allows the music to unfold properly. This will certainly set up my future explorations of similarly sized speakers.

Not everyone wants to talk openly about overloading the listening room. During my travels and visits to numerous trade shows, events, and showrooms, as well as private listening rooms, it is a fact that most high-end audio listening environments are severely overloaded with speakers that are far too large. 

Large speakers need an appropriate, usually larger, setting to fully develop and not acoustically burden the room and accentuate room modes. Even some of my colleagues in the media industry are not sensitive to this issue. But that is another topic, perhaps worthy of a separate and prolonged article. 

We all prioritize our high-end audio setups according to our priorities. That said. A thoroughly treated acoustic space with properly sized speakers is something that certainly needs to be said out loud and addressed more often, as it is the key to getting the most out of speakers and associated high-end audio paraphernalia. 

Matej Isak

PRICE

– 4100 EUR for a pair

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

  • Dimensions (HxWxD) : 1110mm x 250mm (421mm with feet) x 390mm; 43.7 x 9.9 (16.6) x 15.4 in
  • Weight : 39 kg/88 lbs each
  • Shipping weight : 43 kg/106 lbs each
  • Sensitivity : 91 dB @ 2.83V 1m
  • Nominal power handling : 160 W rms
  • Maximum unclipped power handling : 320 W;
  • Impedance : nominal 4,0 ohms
  • Crossover frequency : 500 Hz; 3000 Hz
  • Frequency response (in-room environment) : 33-26000 Hz
  • Drivers : 2,5 cm silk dome tweeter, 15.2 cm ER paper cone mid, two 18.3 cm ER paper cone bass drivers

CONTACT

AudioSolutions 
Verkiu 36, 
LT-09109 Vilnius
Lithuania
Tel: +37066226342