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YOUNGER'S WORLD

Feed a signal to a speaker and it should be able to reproduce it, whatever the medium or source. This has been the conventional wisdom, and it makes perfect sense to me. I know the arguments on the other side of the debate though. Some would say that speakers all involve tradeoffs to one extent or another; most are optimized for a specific purpose. Well, this makes sense to me too. I certainly would not expect a bookshelf speaker to be able to reproduce a 20Hz tone, but I would expect it of a subwoofer or full-range tower. There are good examples on both sides of the argument, even though the theoretical ideal is oftentimes superseded by the practical reality.

It was this very subject that intrigued me going into the Silverline home-theater-array review. Silverline models have garnered praise from a number of SoundStage! writers whose hearing I trust. This seemed to bode well for them, but they had not as yet produced a system designed specifically for home theater. Would Silverline speakers fare as well with movie soundtracks? If so, would it mean that this system is not a pure music-making machine like some of the others? There are lots of questions to answer. Hmmm.

I asked Alan Yun to choose a system he was confident would perform well in the theater, and he did not hesitate in assembling one. The Corona II, SR16, and Center Stage arrived in walnut veneer ready to take on the likes of Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, and an assortment of characters who love to talk, blow things up, and generally make a lot of noise. And no, my description is not incomplete -- there is no subwoofer. Yun feels the Corona IIs are capable of producing enough bass for home theater. This is how the system was submitted, so I did not augment the bass with my subwoofer

The array

The system under review is based on the Corona II, a largish three-way speaker with a centralized 1" soft-dome tweeter flanked by two 4" midranges, flanked again by two 8" woofers. The speaker itself is narrow but deep and slants back away from the listener. The SR16s are a two-way bookshelf design that is similarly slanted. Each speaker possesses a 1" tweeter and a 6" pulp woofer. They appear close in overall width to the main speakers, which makes the system look cohesive when set up. In other words, it’s not just a thrown-together-looking kind of thing, but an attractive ensemble that will enhance the right decor. The last model of the bunch is the Center Stage center-channel speaker. This is a somewhat conventional-looking box that holds three drivers: two 6" midrange drivers and one 1" soft-dome tweeter.
The veneer is finished very nicely to a smooth, though not glossy degree. The cabinets appear well made, which you would expect at the price point. Each speaker came with two pairs of copper binding posts for biwiring, although I did not use this configuration during my audition. Supplied spikes are also included for the Corona II, and these thread into the bottom of the cabinet

OVERALL SOUND

I started the review with a few music DVDs. This allowed me to get a good handle on overall performance, coloration (or lack thereof) of voices, and continuity from one speaker to another. The first thing that I noticed was a full, rich midrange. Male vocals leaned slightly to the warm side of neutral, possessing a full-bodied sound that gave weight and structure to voices. When a male voice was guttural, that’s how it sounded. This is in contrast to many systems that are detailed but lack apparent weight and realism. Not only were vocals tonally correct, they were placed properly within the soundstage as well. What was evident from the start was that I was getting a solid center image with plenty of vocal projection into the room. I tested the system in both 5.1 configuration and in phantom mode and the results were similar. The Corona II could place voices precisely, but with the Center Stage added, vocals became more solid, with even more weight. James Taylor's Live at Beacon Theater showcased this midrange prowess to good effect. The scale throughout the vocal range was very close to what one hears in real life. This, I surmise, comes from the ability to move the requisite amount of air while having a solid lower midrange/upper bass. As well, the sound never became overly thick or plodding. This midrange characteristic would prove important with movies too.

Moving to the frequency extremes, I observed solid low bass that was never boomy or muddy. It did not have the sheer punch of some larger, more potent systems I have heard, but was not slow, lightweight, or plodding either. There seems to be a good combination of low-frequency extension and midbass agility in the Corona II. Neither quality was state-of-the-art, but both were present to a degree that served the music well.

The treble was clear and smooth. It did not possess the last bit of detail and air that is found in the very best systems, but it also displayed none of the bright, spitty quality that many speakers seem to possess. This made various rock recordings in my collection listenable over a longer period of time than is usually the case with speakers having a less refined treble. Everything I threw at the Silverlines was handled without confusion. The Dave Matthews Band's track "Crash into Me" from Crash [RCA 07863 66904-2] was clear and focused with no congestion, which is a testament to the speaker system since this song is the epitome of busy music.