Cheap Red Rose Music Spirit Studio Monitors, LS-1 FS (French Sycamore, Pair) (Electronics) Price

Levinson has had his hands in high-end audio for more than 30 years now, and his deep commitment to musical rightness as well as sonic accuracy serves the Spirit well.

The Spirit, also available in rosewood, is all about smoothness and detail, muscularity as well as sensitivity. In our listening, the Spirit showed itself capable of being nearly all things to all music, as the music and our recordings required. Its appreciable bass output extends below 50 Hz, and--largely because of the speaker's uncanny way with sound--we found that only the most bass-intensive music (dance and techno music, certain organ works) demanded a bigger speaker.

Key to the speaker's success is its tweeter, a hand-formed aluminum ribbon rather than the traditional small fabric dome. Voices and acoustic instruments sound downright holographic, their natural harmonics both present and balanced, owing as much to the high quality of the crossover (which splits the incoming signal between the 5-inch woofer and the tweeter) as to the speaker's impressive high-frequency extension. Sounds often lost or unnoticed in playback through lesser speakers seem to appear out of nowhere, giving important (if subtle) spatial cues that help define a sense of space around the music.

If the tweeter sounds delicate, know that it is--you won't want to blow on it or place the speaker where it will be in danger of being bumped or jostled. Keep the speaker clear of TVs and computer monitors as well, since the tweeters require strong magnetic fields that can distort video signals.

Red Rose makes short, custom speaker stands for the Spirit in French sycamore, rosewood, and transparent Plexiglas, though they also sound great on sturdy ear-level stands.

The only caveat we noted in listening is the distance from the speaker to the listening position. For best effect, the Spirit deserves to be heard relatively near field (from five to eight feet away) and in a fairly nonreflective environment--carpeting and bookshelves are a plus. The off-axis response changes pretty radically along the vertical plane, so be sure to position the pair carefully, according to your taste or to the sage guidelines in the Spirit's manual.

Even at more than a thousand dollars a pair, the Spirit is not just a strong value, but a true bargain. You won't find anything approaching this degree of refinement and musical ability at anything close to this low a price. If you're serious about music, the only question you'll have later is how you ever lived so long without it. --Michael Mikesell

Pros:

• Jaw-droppingly refined sound
• Holographic stereo "imaging"
• Impressive bass heft for their size
• Superb drivers
• Simple setup
• Premium-quality cosmetics and construction

Cons:

• Slightly limited bass output
• Off-axis sound changes quickly