2021 Product of the Year Awards: Stand Mount Loudspeakers of the Year

Sonus faber Lumina 1 

$899

The Lumina is a vented box, two-way bookshelf speaker that measures a miniscule 5.8″ x 8.4″ x 11″ and weighs less than 10 pounds. It’s surprisingly small and lightweight, with a gorgeous fit and finish worthy of the Sonus faber name. The enclosure is wrapped in a soft, dark leather that feels great to touch and looks fantastic. Overall, reviewer DK thought the Lumina 1 was one of the most visually appealing pieces of gear he’d ever had in his listening room. Despite its compact size, the Lumina 1 sounded massive, with a palpable low end that delivered a satisfying foundation to the music. These are dance-able speakers, with a strong sense of rhythm that slips easily between genres, from classical to jazz to rock. The Lumina also scaled with the music and thrived on complexity as well as subtlety. The midrange was smooth and lovely with a nice upper-octave sparkle. DK was more than content to keep spinning record after record, so long as the Lumina kept on singing. Small but mighty, the Lumina 1 is our Stand-Mount Loudspeaker of the Year.

Audiovector R1 Arreté 

$6250

The only stand-mounted model in Audiovector’s R range of loudspeakers, the R1 Arreté utilizes the Danish company’s best air motion transducer (AMT) driver for the treble and a 6.5″ cone mid/woof in a two-way, bass-reflex design with a published frequency response of 38Hz to 53kHz. Thirty percent of the tweeter’s energy is directed backwards through a long tube (so there’s no untoward interaction with the radiation to the front), and this “Soundstage Enhancement Concept” helps to produce a captivating spaciousness. The “Arreté” designation refers to a grounding circuit that conducts mechanical energy away from the mid/woofer basket assembly and out of the speaker via an optional $850 cable, which conveys its load to a wall outlet. As expected, treble performance is airy and extended; bass is punchy and propulsive. The loudspeaker mates exceptionally well with a good subwoofer, allowing one to configure a system that will out-perform many large, single-box floorstanders that cost significantly more. Audiovector offers dedicated stands that add $979 to the final cost—with a gunmetal gray finish, they nicely complement any of the standard R-series speaker colors. 

MBL 126 

$12,900 (stands, $1390)

Musicality, transparency, and astounding spatiality underscore the brilliant MBL 126 Radialstrahler. The sonics of this omnidirectional stand-mount were characterized by sweeping ambience retrieval and 3D-like immersion and orchestral layering. Top-to-bottom response was seamless. As only an omni can, it approaches the complex relationship between imaging, soundstaging, and envelopment in ways direct-radiating transducers often only hint at but rarely attain. Symphonic music assumes a naturalism and spine-tingling immediacy akin to the real thing.  Low-level resolution and sensitivity to dynamic gradients abound.  As a four-driver three-way, credit the superb carbon-fiber, radial mid and tweeter for spinning the sonic silk. Both are grainless, airy, and harmonious. Like all MBL products, the 126 is crafted and finished with extreme precision and taste. Though small of footprint, the MBL 126 makes a truly grand statement—grand enough to earn our 2021 Stand-Mount Loudspeaker of the Year Award.

Polk R200 

$699

Polk’s Reserve Series hit sonic pay dirt last year at an astounding blue-plate price. By borrowing the best transducers from Polk’s Legend Series and placing them in a minimalist cabinet, this two-way compact cuts right to the heart of the music, with tonal balance and coherence in equal measures, paired to a backbone of dynamism and immediacy. It doesn’t shrink into the background, either, tonally or dynamically. Nor does it recess images via frequency dips and droops in order to manufacture a fictitious sense of soundstage depth. In low-end response, the R200 takes care of business. Sure, some of the glitter and gloss has been minimized. But the utilitarian design is well executed. A sleeper in the best sense—not showy, not expensive, but a musical, no-nonsense high-end player.