Rocky Mountain Audio Fest: Welborne Labs/Cogent
October 23rd, 2006 — By Jonathan Valin
What would an audio show be without a few genuine oddities? I’ve already commended one exceptional-sounding example—the Omega Max Hemp speaker. Here is another—slightly more extreme—instance. The $58k Cogent True-to-Life two-way horn loudspeaker—a genuine giant combining a horn-loaded mid/bass field-coil driver that works from 300Hz down to about 50Hz with a horn-loaded mid/tweet field-coil driver that works from 300Hz up to 20kHz. Bi-amped by Welborne Labs DRD45 and DRD300B SET amps and fed from a vintage Studer deck, the “True to Life� rather earned its name. Though definitely a single “sweet spot� loudspeaker, in that spot it had remarkable lifelike presence on voice, violin, piano, and guitar. I ain’t likely to review this number—it’s just too damn big. But it’s worth an audition if you have a wide room and can find the Cogents at a hi-fi shop (or more likely) at another hi-fi show.
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I love th odd stuff (especially toobs)
Comment by Donald October 26th, 2006 @ 12:08 amI listened to this system 3 times over the weekend. Absolutely wonderful. Lifelike, even versatile over a range of material. The previous review emphasizes the speakers, but the speakers would not sound good without good electronics. The Welbornes powered the speakers (110 db sensitivity) generously with transience and delicacy. I heard phenomenal opera, jazz and acoustic. I’m out for some Welbornes soon.
Comment by Robert Henson October 26th, 2006 @ 8:53 pmI agree. Welbourne Labs’ suite is always one of my favorites to visit @ these shows, for their equipment’s ability to convey a rapturous musical event from a recorded signal. But this year’s pairing of Ron’s amps & the Well-Tempered tone arm with these superlative horns was a real treat. In the admittedly tight sweet spot, the sonic image was simply holographic. Had this system been deployed in a properly-sized room, one can only imagine how dreamy that sound could’ve gotten.
Comment by RiP November 1st, 2006 @ 5:06 pmRiP