STEREO TIMES – CES 2001 – SHOW REPORT – Ayon 52B Mono – by Henry Wilkenson

The last room that I visited housed the Lumen White / Ayon setup. The Lumen White Light speakers are a five-driver, three-way monitor system in handsome 1.2-inch maple wood cabinets and are not cheap with a sticker price at $28,000. If you were to look down at these speakers from the top, they would appear to be somewhat bottle shaped. From the front, both sides are curved inward so as to form a small rectangle at the rear. This unusual shape is probably what accounts for the absence of any audible cabinet resonance done through a very unusually shaped cabinet. The claimed frequency response is 28 Hz to 35 kHz. The nominal impedance is 4 ohms with a sensitivity of 91.5 dB. Active shielding eliminates noise. The design calls for no other cabinet damping. The crossover is likewise kept simple.

Driven by the Ayon 52B single-ended, class A, tube monoblocks, the sound of this system bordered on sonic magic. The speaker’s coherence is amazing given the fact that it uses five drivers. The bass was the best I’ve heard from any one box system as well as a number of systems incorporating outboard subs. The midrange was quite smooth and transparent, with a sweet top. The overall tonal balance was just on the warm side, which is fine with me. Of course this sonic manna does not come cheap: the White Lights go for $35,000 and the Ayon 52B’s for $18,000 the pair. If you ever get to hear this combo, you will understand why.