FINK Team Borg episode 2 – resistance WAS futile

I got two coffins made of wood fibre. Are they ancient Egyptian mummies or something else? I thought I got speakers from Germany? Hmm. With the hex-key I was able to open the coffins and yes, there they was. Still they didn’t look like a speakers. They didn’t look exactly as Daleks, but there were kind of off similarity.

Unpacking and connecting

Getting the speakers out of the box and into correct position was quite straightforward. Connecting speaker was also a simple task. They are bi-wired so I used high quality Furutech Jumper Fluxes. QED jumpers were provided, but my idea was to avoid compromises. I also really like those jumpers, they are extremely good alternative to bi-wiring in my opinion.

The boxes are heavy, the speakers are quite heavy too. Under the speaker there are either spikes or rounded dull screw ends. Those rounded ones also damages normal wooden floors, so some protective measures are needed. In back panel there are also two adjustments. First one is for bass control, three positions. First is for high damping factor transistor amplifiers. Second position is for amplifiers in general and third one for tube amplifiers only. The second control is + / 0 / – adjustment for overall treble balance. I used the neutral position but I’m about to test + position someday?

I used Borgs in several places, most of my critical listening was conducted in my relatively small home listening room (about 12 square meters). I also listened to them in my big showroom which happens to have a echo of a smallish church! It seems that Borgs are not sensitive for the room. The only issue I encountered was a certain muddiness if the speaker were too close to the back wall. From half to one meter minimum  (depending of the room itself) is my recommendation.

BORGs’ sensitivity is quite high at 87 decibels  with 2,83V, so a very different kind of amplifiers can be connected with these. I used mainly the excellent sounding KORA TB-200 amplifier. Borgs’ general impedance is about 10 ohms so in that sense, too they are relatively easy to drive. The source was Silent Audio’s excellent sounding Münich M1 server with internal DAC, the turntable was Bergmann Magne with HANA Umami Blue. At my showroom Borgs were driven by Electrocompaniet setup with huge AW 800 M amplifiers.

Sound of Music and one test signal

Ok, let’s get to a more serious business. From the very start the sound was extremely captivating. The resistance was indeed futile! In just few minutes the decision was clear: I want these! I was more than a bit surprised, because I had experience from the previous Borgs. They were excellent, but this was something new!

The sound was ”total”. Nothing to add, nothing missing. Separate instruments sounded more accurate than ever before. The timbre of the instruments was just as it should be. For example applauds in live recording were worth listening. I could talk about integration of treble and mid/bass speaker or implementation of the crossover, or lack of box resonances. But no, I’ll focus to the sound, which was something new in the level of accuracy, natural timbres, adequate tonal balance and wonderful imaging. 

The sound is never hard. Some times Borgs even seemed to be a bit soft side of neutral. The bass responce was very good at real life conditions. Both in the huge and small rooms they reached 25 Hz. No problem with organ music. Of course there are some limitations on bigger rooms with the sound level, but Quincy Jones version of Snoop Dogg worked quite well as I demonstrated these in 80 square meters room at  Hi-Fi fairs in Helsinki. 

Tom’s Diner re-experienced

I’ll take one example. I think nearly anyone is familiar with Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner from the Solitude Standing album. The Borg version was the best i have ever heard. The information about Vega’s voice and the ”room” surrounding it was simply phenomenal. Usually some echoes are heard, but now I was able to spot the back wall of that ”space”. Now the singing voice was somewhat separated from the space information. 

Also the bigger scale orchestral music worked surprisingly well. The timbral accuracy also helps to spearate instruments and instrument groups from each other. This also brings three-dimensionality into game. But unlike some electrostatics, the space is formed naturally, without any forwardness or aggressiveness.

Oh, Boy, these are fine loudspeakers. My resistance was indeed futile!