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Emotiva Airmotiv T1 Loudspeaker

Emotiva Airmotiv T1 Loudspeaker

Seeking: A lasting relationship with a loudspeaker for under a grand. Familiar? It’s a recurring goal among enthusiasts pursuing performance but also looking to tap the brakes on the budget. Typically there are two choices. One appeals to the purist audiophile region of our brain that seeks the musicality and finesse of a fine-boned compact monitor. The other, shall we say, more reptilian side stumps for the stomach-churning, neck-snapping, roof-rattling indulgence that only a multiple-driver, cinema-ready floorstander can offer. We’ve all been there. Is there a middle ground? Something like a twofer?

Permit me to introduce the Emotiva Airmotiv T1—a tower design on the smaller side of medium, standing a little more than three feet in height. The largest in the Airmotiv Series, the T1 is a four-driver system in a bass-reflex configuration with a rear-firing port located near the foot of the back panel. The driver complement comprises a single 5.25″ midrange and dual 6″ bass transducers, both with woven-fiber cones. The tweeter is not the typical one-inch soft dome but rather a 32mm folded ribbon that Emotiva-watchers will recognize from the brand’s active Stealth line of studio monitors. Rarely encountered at this price point, lightweight ribbons offer sonic advantages over their dome brethren in distortion and transient response.

The T1 enclosure is all MDF, well braced, and topped off by a heavy 25mm front panel, which firmly anchors the drivers. The T1’s profile is further buttressed by a faceted baffle designed to minimize diffraction in the mid and upper octaves. Utilitarian, textured vinyl replaces traditional gloss coats on the side and back panels, but the front is nicely finished in multiple applications of satin-black lacquer. The removable grilles are magnetically attached for a clean look.

Sonically, the Emotiva T1 has attitude—a big, brawny sound that energizes listening spaces with engaging midbass output and potent dynamic thrust. Its warmer somewhat darker overall balance makes it a loudspeaker that paints the emotion of a performance in broader brush strokes, which is what often the case with speakers that try to produce the full frequency spectrum. This would be in contrast with many smaller two-way monitors that trade low-frequency extension and bass dynamics for higher resolution of mid- and treble-range sonic minutiae.

Musically, the T1 just brings it. As a result, orchestral performances take on new urgency and gravity. The brass and wind volleys in Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” [Reference Recordings], for example, came across as open and unrestricted; the top end was detailed and sweet; and bass drum and timpani strikes were heavy, impactful, and nicely scaled.

On pop music, such as the black-water-deep opening bass line of Leonard Cohen’s “You Want it Darker” from his eponymous final album, the sheer volume of air generated by the T1 made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. On Mary Gauthier’s “Camelot Motel,” the tuneful bass line was just as firmly established, while Gautier’s drawling vocal was captured with all the sympathy, humor, and affection for the displaced and damaged characters she often writes about. As I cued up the DSD file of Cat Stevens’ “Hard Headed Woman” via the Playback Designs Syrah and Merlot server/DAC tandem (review forthcoming) I was impressed with the realism of the swift acoustic guitar transients and, once again, the bass foundation that the T1 produced.

In tonal balance the T1 projects a well-cushioned, “bottom-up” signature defined by grippy lower frequencies, an expressive lower midrange that allows a cello or bass viol full breath and exhalation, a relaxed vocal range that neither forces singers into your lap nor shoves them to the back wall, and a round, sweet, transparent top end. Vocal presence tends to register a row or two farther back from a neutral listening perspective, so the overall impression is a slightly subtractive and forgiving presentation. Although ruler-flat frequency response was not within reach, the T1’s balance was very easy on the ear.

 

The jewel in the T1 crown is its ribbon tweeter, and indeed it is a thing of beauty to hear—airy, textured, and transparent. Favorites like James Taylor’s “Places in my Past” and the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” rang true with well-defined tonal color and harmonics. There was a fully integrated ease and naturalism to both female and male singers, with none of the “duck-and-cover” rising-treble hijinks of so many modestly priced speakers. The excellent vocal articulation from background singers was another fine attribute. In general, articulation without hype or coloration was an important virtue of the T1—all the more so if one’s aim is to use the T1 for home cinema dialogue.

Even with the mix of ribbon and cone driver technology, the T1 exhibits good inter-driver coherence—an area that trips up many multi-driver speaker at all price levels. In an earlier day, mixing ribbons with cone transducers was not only a rarity; it was often ill-advised. The transient speed and low distortion of ribbons contrasted too sharply with the then-sluggish performance and colorations of traditional dynamic drivers, and the resulting mismatch couldn’t be ignored. This was especially true in the low frequencies where cabinet resonances drew further attention to the problem. This is why ribbons were better paired with smaller, faster cone drivers in smaller, more rigid cabinets. While the T1s showed occasional minor transient discontinuities, overall they exhibited very few of these issues.

A side note: Since the T1 is little more than three feet tall, be sure to use the included rubber footers or spikes, which not only improve bass response and imaging but also lift the tweeter and midrange to better align with the listener’s ear. Without the feet, top-end response darkens slightly, and loses some its crystalline sparkle.

Lest expectations begin spinning out of control, the T1 doesn’t quite hit the bullseye in every sonic criterion. It misses some of the textural, tonal, and dynamic linearity of an expensive studio monitor. Transparency is very good but as the music descends into the upper- and midbass there are hints of dynamic reticence and traces of cabinet noise that cause decays and reverberant information to be slightly reduced.

At more than a hundred bucks less, the Elac Debut F5 (Issue 260) could be Emotiva’s toughest competitor. Both are studies in “slam” with weighty bass response into the thirty-cycle range. However, the F5 is a bit more forward in the studio-monitor sense, and the tweeter distinctly drier than the free-flowing Emotiva folded ribbon. Both speakers lose some transparency and imaging precision to modest cabinet colorations, and both represent unimpeachable value.

By the often serious standards of the high end, where folks regularly tap an equity line to pony up for a set of cables, the Emotiva T1—with the occasional compromise—hits big-time paydirt. When you find a near-full-range loudspeaker with some high-end musical cred that will also take you on a high-octane sonic ride for just shy of $700, what’s not to like? A great twofer? Count me in.

Specs & Pricing

Type: Three-way, bass-reflex floorstander
Drivers: 32mm folded ribbon, 5.25″ mid, (2) 6″ woofers
Frequency response: 37Hz–27kHz ±6dB
Nominal impedance: 4 ohms
Sensitivity: 88dB
Dimensions: 8.33″ x 37.6″ x 11.6″
Weight: 40 lbs.
Price: $699/pr.

EMOTIVA CORPORATION
135 Southeast Parkway Court
Franklin, TN 37064
emotiva.com

Neil Gader

By Neil Gader

My love of music largely predates my enthusiasm for audio. I grew up Los Angeles in a house where music was constantly playing on the stereo (Altecs, if you’re interested). It ranged from my mom listening to hit Broadway musicals to my sister’s early Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Beatles, and Stones LPs, and dad’s constant companions, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. With the British Invasion, I immediately picked up a guitar and took piano lessons and have been playing ever since. Following graduation from UCLA I became a writing member of the Lehman Engel’s BMI Musical Theater Workshops in New York–working in advertising to pay the bills. I’ve co-written bunches of songs, some published, some recorded. In 1995 I co-produced an award-winning short fiction movie that did well on the international film-festival circuit. I was introduced to Harry Pearson in the early 70s by a mutual friend. At that time Harry was still working full-time for Long Island’s Newsday even as he was writing Issue 1 of TAS during his off hours. We struck up a decades-long friendship that ultimately turned into a writing gig that has proved both stimulating and rewarding. In terms of music reproduction, I find myself listening more than ever for the “little” things. Low-level resolving power, dynamic gradients, shadings, timbral color and contrasts. Listening to a lot of vocals and solo piano has always helped me recalibrate and nail down what I’m hearing. Tonal neutrality and presence are important to me but small deviations are not disqualifying. But I am quite sensitive to treble over-reach, and find dry, hyper-detailed systems intriguing but inauthentic compared with the concert-going experience. For me, true musicality conveys the cozy warmth of a room with a fireplace not the icy cold of an igloo. Currently I split my time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Studio City, California with my wife Judi Dickerson, an acting, voice, and dialect coach, along with border collies Ivy and Alfie.

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