Duet15 Horn1 Review by Steve Huff

00:00:01 Hey everyone, welcome back. I am going to talk about the PureAudioProject Duet15 horn speakers. Before we get going on the Duet 15 horns, let me just catch up my history with horn speakers. Goes back to the ‘9s for me. Mid9s, I’d say. Maybe it was 96. I’m not sure of the year. Maybe it was 98 even. Um, I remember seeing a pair of speakers, the Aventgard Unos. Now, these had a big horn up top, a middle driver, uh, and a powered sub at the bottom. They had a metal framing. They looked a little bit

00:00:34 artistic, a little bit modern, a little bit industrial, but the looks of these speakers really caught my eye. And I remember reading about them, saying, uh, they’re great with all music. Even AC/DC was sounding amazing. I went to a dealer’s house back in the day. It was I’d say it was 1998 maybe. Uh I went to it could have been even a different year but it’s it’s around that time. Went to Upland California. I lived in uh Phoenix, Arizona at the time. Uh and I went into a Mr. Kevin Deal’s home and to

00:01:09 his living room and he had this set of unos just up against the wall placed together. The next room over he had all his tube gear cuz he sold gear. He still does he still does sell gear. Um, and he had the duos set up in that room and he told me, “Oh, those are my favorite speakers right now. They were a beautiful blue color.” I sat in that spot for a minute and I listened and they sounded heavenly. They sounded really good. He had some Ricky Lee Jones playing, I think, coming back to me off of Pop Pop. And I had my friend with me.

00:01:40 He’s like, “Whoa, these sound really good.” But back in the ‘9s, I wasn’t fully versed yet on how everything worked and how synergy was a thing and how room setup was a thing. So, I went out there and I said, “I’ll buy those Unos. They were his demos. I think they were $7,800.” Kevin walks out in his pajamas, which was cool, real guy. Give them $7,800 cash. He counts them out on top of a box. Uh, helps me load them into my van. Or maybe Jared. He had a guy named Jared working for him, I believe. Helped

00:02:12 me load them into my van. Away I went home. I set them up and uh I put them in place and I just admired the beauty of these speakers. They just look so unique and I love unique. People would come over and say, “Wow, those are some crazy speakers.” Um, but I had to find an amp for them. These were really easy to drive and I wanted to power them with a tube amp, something that was really beautiful but lowowered. I contacted Gordon Rankin at Wavelength Audio at the time and he made me a pair I think they

00:02:44 were called the Cardinals if I’m not mistaken of monoblocks. They were 300B amps and uh it took a few weeks to make them. And in between that time they sent me a Duetto. I think it was the stereo version just to try out. And uh the Duetto sounded really good with those horn speakers. But there were some things that I was like I’m not sure if I’m going to dig these long term. Long story short, the Cardinals came, hooked them up, and what I heard, I was not happy with. I heard a lot of coloration,

00:03:16 and horns tend, especially horn speakers of the past, tend to have a lot of that coloration, the megaphone effect, and that kind of takes away from the music a little bit when it’s really has that kind of effect. To add to that, the bass from that powered subwoofer was barely putting out any bass. So, I was hearing a lot of that upper end, which does and did become fatiguing. Now, I did love live recordings on these. They sounded absolutely alive and live, but it was the bass that was lacking. And later, I

00:03:51 found out in life it was just the room I had them in. It was a big open living room area that was open to the kitchen. And it just was not a good space for those speakers. that space did not allow the bass to flesh out. And I didn’t even try positioning them. I just put them up against the wall. I think I had a source of a CD player, maybe a Levenson CD player. I don’t remember the model at the time. But over time, I was like, ah, I grew fatiguing of this sound and I was like, I don’t know if horns are for me.

00:04:20 Two years later, I sold them. Over the years, I tried various horn speakers, mostly from Klitchch, Cornwall 4, Cornwall 3, Heresy 4, Heresy 3, Forte 3, Forte 4, and I really enjoyed all those K Clipch speakers, but some of those speakers, the Heres 3es, the the the Cornwalls to some extent, they still had a little bit, just a little bit of that coloration. But overall, the Clip speakers have come a long way since the old days. Like their new models, the Lascala AL6, even the AL5s had very little of that coloration. But the

00:04:54 Lascalas have a weak point, which is the bass. In any case, time goes on. Not too long ago, I reviewed the OO Audio Icon 12s. Now, these are stunners of a speaker, but they’re almost $24,000. They are a horn design with a big 12-in woofer. And they deliver anything and everything I could ask for. As I said in the review, from a whisper to a roar. They could strike like Thor’s hammer. You know, these are these are beautiful speakers, but they’re very expensive. They’re a little bit large and they’re pretty heavy. They’re 120

00:05:28 lbs each. Um, I still have these speakers. I acquired them for my main reference system. But over the last few weeks, I’ve been listening to these Duet15s, the horn model. Now, previously, I reviewed the Duet15s with the Voxactive 1.6 driver, and I love that speaker to death. I think it’s an amazing value if you’re looking for an open baffle kind of sound. Now, these are open baffle speakers. And when I was asked if I wanted to review the horn version, I immediately got excited because I really

00:06:01 really still in my heart love horn designs. That’s why I bought the icons. Now, the icons have zero coloration uh in their voice. They are just beautiful. They project beautifully. And I was curious if the Duet 15s at almost one-third the cost could deliver a similar smooth fullerbodied horn kind of sound. And I wanted to know if I would like this horn more than the Voxactive 1.6 because I declared the Duet 15s with the Voxactive 1.6 to be speakers I will keep for a long, long time. And one of you I just heard somebody laugh out

00:06:38 there and no, seriously, I’ve had them since I bought them. I have no desire to move them. They are so good and I feel that way about the icons as well. But I was curious if the horns would sound a lot different from the 1.6 uh or just a little bit different. And one cool thing about Pure Audio Project, if you’re someone who have bought the Duet 15s with one of the other drivers, they allow you to upgrade to the horned version. You just simply buy a new baffle. You buy the horn. You keep your current base drivers, your current

00:07:13 frame, your current feet, and you also get the new crossovers. So, you can order these and simply disassemble your other version to take the base driver out, put it into the new baffle because the horn version does require a different baffle. So, anyway, all of this arrived over a period of 2 3 weeks when you order from Pure Audio Project. If you didn’t see my first video of the du at 15s, you can watch that because I go over building them, putting them together, the ordering process, and all of that. I won’t rehash that here, but

00:07:46 um I I I swapped the parts from the older version into the newer version, and within less than an hour, I had the Duet 15 horns. And the first thing that struck me was, “Wow, these look awesome. I just love the way horn speakers look.” My wife said, “Oh, it looks like lips are protruding out of the top.” And I was like, “Yeah, well, they still look cool to me.” And um I love how you can customize your baffle color, all of that. I got sent the black baffles and I think it looks really striking with the

00:08:19 wood uh grain of the horns. You do have to assemble the horns. That takes a good five minutes each. Very easy. The Pure Audio Project gives you graphical uh a graphic interface manual. Once you buy them, they send you a link. You log in with your password they give you and it’s really easy step by step to put these together. So once assembled, I put them in the system and I had a variety of amplifiers to test with these. I had tube lowowered tube. I had a tubed preamp, a solid state amp. I have class

00:08:51 D GAN amps. Uh I have class A B amps. Class A. So, you name it. I wanted to try these with everything to see what sounded the best. I was even experimenting with DAXs and noticed a pretty big difference between do two DAXs with one type of deck I’ll tell you about. Um, that you can get in a lot of different decks. I should say a deck chip that sounded remarkable with these. Um, but when I first put them in, first put them in, I had the Luxman 509Z in because that’s here for review as well. And that came from Dan at Dedicated

00:09:27 Audio in Scottsdale, Arizona. Thanks to Dan. I’m taking my time with the Luxman because I don’t want to send it back. It’s really, really something. But anyway, when I first turned them on, first turned them on, I I had the Luxman 509. I had my Nagger streamer and the Live Harmony Micro DAC. Turned it on and there was a little bit of um the bass response was very shy and there was a lot of things coming out of that horn. And then I I I sent a picture of the crossovers to uh Pure Audio Project Zev

00:10:00 over there and I had put it together a little bit wrong. I I misplaced one of the the the capacitors or something. That’s another thing. The crossovers come in parts and you screw them into the board. You screw each part into the board. It’s very very easy. If I could do it, anyone can do it. It only takes a few minutes, but I my eyesight’s bad. I can’t see up close. I didn’t have my readers. I put one of the wrong pieces in the wrong places and it sucked all the bass out. So he said, “Oh, no, no,

00:10:28 no, no. Just swap this for this and you’ll be fine.” So I swapped it and the bass was back and I was like, “Oh, thank goodness.” Because I didn’t want to tell him that I’m not going to review these if there’s no bass, right? Anyway, it all worked out, but still that top end was a little bit bright. and he told me that without question, without fail, no doubting it, these horns take 150 hours to fully smooth out. Now, a lot of you don’t believe in burnin. I’m even a skeptic of burn-in because I’ve heard

00:11:00 speakers old and new side by side that sounded 99.9% the same. Um, but here I was like, “Okay, I’ll take him at his word.” I let them run 247 for a week straight. They were just running in here non-stop. This room back here got pretty hot because the Luxman, while it doesn’t run hot, it can get a little warm. But anyway, after that week, um there were times I stopped them where I had to listen to something else that I was reviewing, but overall I did go through the full 150 hours of burn-in on the horns. And I will tell you once

00:11:37 they were done, the sound was quite a bit different. Uh that horn was much smoother. Uh there was a fullerbodied sound coming out and the details were more organic, but I’ll get into that in a bit. So listening with the Luxman, we’ll do that first. The Luxman 509Z, I’ll just say what sounded the best with the Luxman. Now I recently received a streamer deck from Orchard Audio. It’s their premium streamer and DACK. And inside this DACK, they use AKM DAC chips. I can’t off the top of my head remember the model, but first I had that

00:12:13 Ever Solo A62 Master Edition, right? And first I tried the DACK in that. They sounded a little bright uh with that streamer going into them. Well, just a little bit. I then added the Orchard Audio as a DACK with the A6 as the streamer. And holy wow, the sound just warmed up. It became richer, musical, beautiful details. It just it felt like a big hug coming to grab me. I then took out the A6 Gen 2 and put in the Niagara streamer and that effect was taken even higher. If you guys think streamers

00:12:51 don’t make a difference, the Niagara streamer is is something to behold soundwise and performance-wise, but it’s a streamer that’s not for everyone because it’s pretty basic. So, that’s where I left the streamer and deck with that Luxman 509Z. The sound, oh my goodness, the voices. Now, Pure Audio Project on their website says these are magical with jazz, jazz vocals, acou acoustic instruments. They say rock sounds like a live event. I was trying these with everything. Now, I will say when I tried

00:13:27 these with rock with just the ever solo going in, it was a little harsh, but with that the AKM DAX in that Orchard streamer with either the A6 doing the streaming or the Orchard doing the streaming because that’s a streamer as well or the Niagara doing the stream. The Niagara sounded the best. Man, those voices when listening to jazz. Um, I I’ll go back to the standards. I really don’t listen to her much, but I do for evaluating gear. The look of love, Diana Crawl, that album um and and the song,

00:13:59 The Look of Love, even uh any song on that album can tell you how good your system sounds with jazz vocals. Now, this was a very rich performance. Uh her voice was coming forward out into the room. With the Voxactive 1.6, they were a little more even with the speakers while still presenting some depth and three-dimensionality. The voxactive is a little richer in the midband. It feels like it sounds like where the horn just kind of takes her voice, brings it out, and it’s kind of there in the middle

00:14:35 floating singing to you. And the instruments with those AKM DAXs were just they sounded real. They sounded juicy and full. And I said right then and there, “Wow, these are beautiful for the human voice.” Bass- wise, they were still ever so slightly light, but that’s compared to box speakers. These are open baffle speakers. Bass in open baffle speakers is completely different from a box speaker. These speakers, I can place them anywhere almost in this room and get good sound. But you do want to take

00:15:11 care in placing an open baffle speaker. You want to pull them at least a foot away from the wall. I have mine three feet away from the wall and at least a foot or two from the sidewalls. Angle them in towards your ears a little bit, but not a direct towe in just maybe, you know, a little bit towards your ears. Sit in the center. Mine were 8 ft apart. I sat 7 feet from them. And it was just a beautiful experience. As I went on, I wanted to hear what um rock music sounded like. And just this morning, I

00:15:44 was listening to the new Sammy Hagar song, the one where he said Eddie Van Halen visited him in a dream, told him to write this song, and I think it’s one of the best songs he’s made in a long time. It’s called Encore, thank you, Goodn Night. And it starts off with like a EVH solo in the beginning by Joe Satriani. And I those strings, I heard each one so clearly. And again, they were kind of out into the room. And when I was waiting, I was telling myself when these guitars kick in, my guess is it’s

00:16:12 going to sound a little thin. But man, when that guitar kicked in, the bass filled everything out. And I was just I’m getting goosebumps now. Who gets goosebumps, right? I get goosebumps sometimes from listening. And remembering that memory is giving me the goosebumps again. And I was like, “Wow, I didn’t think these would sound that good with rock music.” So they sounded really, really good. Now again, let’s go back to these speakers a little bit. They’re they’re highly sensitive. So you can drive these with just a few watts

00:16:44 per channel. You can drive them with a high watts. Let’s take the Luxman out and replace the whole system with a couple of 500 watt per channel class D GAN amps, Orchard Audio Star Crimson Monos, and I used their streamer and DAC. And that was the complete system. Now, this streamer and DACK is meant to go direct into amps. It’s really made to synergize with those uh Star Crimson amps and synergize it surely did. Now, I don’t want to review the streamer here because there are a couple things I don’t like about it, but sound quality

00:17:19 is not one of them. With this combo, the sound was a little bit warmer. not as detailed in the top end because the Luxman, this 509Z really excels in bringing forth details in a juicy fat way. And the Z series is a little bit warmer than the X series. I’ll say that for now. It’s one of to me this sounds like a 590 AX2 on steroids with more power but a little bit more refined. Beautiful, beautiful sound. But this class D GAN, it was bringing an even smoother sound. the bass was a little more um bigger, right?

00:17:54 So, the star crimson monos were bringing a little bit more bass. The sound was smoothed out more and it just sounded so pleasing. I lost a little bit of that allout three-dimensionality of the Luxman, but overall they sounded beautiful with that amp, those amps as well. I took those out and I brought in a Black Ice FX10H. Now, this is a little teeny amp. It puts out a few watts. It uses EL84 tubes and um it it sounds more powerful than you think it would. I put it in and it was plenty of power for

00:18:30 these. It’s under 10 watts um or maybe around 10 watts. I can’t remember off the top of my head, but here the sound was it gave a little bit of that tube flavor that you’ve that you may know about or have heard about. A little more holographic, but just a little bit. um a little more open. The voices were a little bit more textured, but the bass was a little bit leaner. So far, the bass winners were those Stark Crimson Monos, right? So, then I went I’m like, let’s just go all out high-end. I put in

00:19:05 a Niagara classic amp with the Niagara HD Pre, and that sounded organic, beautiful, warm, a little bit warm. Not I’m not saying warm as in dull, just some of that humanity is added, that glow. The the Negro Classic amp has kind of a glow to it and a little bit lit up in the details, but the midband is a little bit warm and the bass is fantastic. Now, this probably was the most refined, finest sound, but the retail of these pieces is like $90,000. The Luxman was getting 95 98% there. No joke. The Luxman 509Z is one

00:19:47 heck of an integrated amp. Um, overall listening to all these combinations, I didn’t know which one I really liked best, but I put the Luxman back in because I have to review that soon. And that combo of the Luxman with the Nagra streamer, the coax out going into the Orchard audio deck or any deck. I think I think these just sound so good with those AKM DAXs. AKM DAXs are much more musical, organic, analog sounding versus other DAC chips. And that’s what I have found. The Ever Solo A10, for example,

00:20:24 uses those DAC chips, and it sounds the same way. Beautiful, rich, organic, analog, but also highly detailed and resolving. Um, I I ended up listening to that combo uh the rest of the time with these speakers. And by the way, I’m keeping these speakers. I’m keeping both sets of duets. And I’ll probably always stick with the horns. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to the 1.6, but maybe I will. I’m not sure. I just really have fallen in love with the horn duet at 15s. One other thing I like about the

00:20:58 the Duet 15 horns is they’re easy to move. They’re not too heavy. You can grab the frame with each hand and move it. So, when you’re placing the speakers and trying to get them set up, it’s pretty easy to do. Um, the crossover uses all high quality parts. There’s nothing cheap about them. And if you look at the back of the speaker, once you get that crossover in, it sits in kind of a foam placeholder so it doesn’t move and there’s no vibrations. So, I was listening on and on and on. I was listening daytime, nighttime, at night.

00:21:31 These are low volume champions. With the Luxman, I would just have to turn it up a little bit and I was still getting the uh projection of the voices. I was still getting a little warmth in the midband. Um I was listening to live performances. There’s a a Rick Springfield CD called Alive. I I had it back 20 years ago. Um and my wife loves Rick Springfield. So, we threw on this alive, not via CD, but we streamed it and um you know, he sings all of his greatest hits from the 70s, from the 80s, whatever. And they sounded

00:22:08 really good. And when the audience cheers, there’s a song called Free, I’m Free. And when the audience sings it, this whole room just filled up with a choir of people singing, I’m free. It was pretty cool. And it was pretty um like we were there at the concert. And that’s why I always love horns. They bring a sound that’s a mixture of live, right? Like you’re really there with the performer and a performance that’s exciting. And even if you play something like um I was playing Mel Tormet, an old

00:22:42 classic, I think it’s from the 50s called Round Midnight, there’s these little piano bits in there and they just chimed so so well, right? Like the chime was there. much better sounding piano than with the Vox Active Driver. I will say that piano sounds like a piano. So, um, all around beautiful, beautiful speakers to look at, beautiful speakers to experience. Um, I’ve had family members come over and they’re like, “Where are those from? I’ve never seen speakers like that.” And so, really, they’re just there’s nothing to not like

00:23:16 about these. The horn once burned in is not aggressive at all. Horn one is a smooth operator, but out of the gate when you first to hook them up, they might sound a little bit bright and that might be a little bit thin in the midbands. Have patience. Let them run. Just listen to music. You don’t have to let them run 247. Just let the process play out over time and I think you’ll be sitting there with some magical moments to remember just like I have. So, I’m keeping these speakers. I’m sorry. They’re not going back. They’ll be part

00:23:49 of my stable here. But how do they compare against say a clip Forte 4? Forte 4 is a horn design. It has a base driver, though it has a passive radiator in the back for even more extension, and it is a closed enclosure. Now, the Forte 4 will have a little bit more bass kick like like hit. Um, but the Duet 15 horns will sound smoother and quite a bit more refined up top. The Duet 15 horns to me are like if you want to upgrade from your Clips Heritage Forte 4s or Heresy 4s, this is a good speaker to upgrade

00:24:31 to. And don’t be afraid of open baffle. I I talked to some people and they’re I don’t know if I want to go open baffle. I’m afraid there’ll be no bass. No, that’s not true. These put out a natural realistic bass. You’re not hearing that flabby, floppy, loose bass that overhangs and kind of messes with your midband and your treble. This blends perfectly with the mids and treble. It’s open. They’re big. They’re large. They can fill a space. But these have really none of that coloration or anything that

00:25:06 will irritate your brain when listening. They’re absolutely beautiful speakers. Now, these are in the range of I think around 6,9007 grand. And that is an absolute fair price. And the reason they cost that is cuz you’re buying direct from the manufacturer. Um if these had a dealer, you’d probably be paying $14,000 for these. um which is a lot more money. So, buying direct, you get to save that. And this is a very very fair fair price. Um I could see these being 12 grand easily. Now, they look cool. I have mine with the Iso Acoustics

00:25:46 feet. That is an upgrade. I highly recommend the ISO acoustics feet. I had the originals at first and uh once I got those ISO acoustics feet, the imaging just kind of locked into place. Everything just sounded cohesive and good. What else can I tell you? You get to pick your own baffle color. Um, and other than that, it’s a matter of assembling it. Uh, putting the parts on the crossover in the right places, and they send you graphics to do that. Very, very easy. And, uh, then you’re ready to set them up and play.

00:26:19 Now, these speakers do well with low power because they’re easy to drive. They’re very sensitive. but they also do well with high power. Um, I heard somebody tell me, “Well, high power amps sound aggressive and ragged.” And that’s just absolutely not true. Those Star Crimson Monos are smooth operators. They sound sweet as silk. Cuz speaking of Smooth Operators, when I had them in, I pulled up Sadday’s um live album that she did in 2011 and No Ordinary Love, there’s a part in that song at the end

00:26:51 where the guitar, they do a big power chord at the end. And with some speakers, that power chord is just boom in the room, threedimensional, and it just sounds so so good. But not all speakers reproduce that part in that way. The Duet 15 horns do. And when that guitar part came and I knew when to expect it, it was just like shot at me and I was like, “Whoa, that is so cool.” All while staying clean, clear, and extended and rich. Uh, I tried these with EDM. You turn them up, these things can kick you in the butt and sound

00:27:30 beautiful, but retain that organic bass sound. There’s nothing else I can say about these. They’re beautiful speakers. They’re uh some of my favorites of all time. And I I have a list of favorites. You know, I don’t have just one favorite. I have a list of them and these are in that list. I love the Voxactive driver as well. If you want a little bit not as much projection with vocals, if you if you listen to mostly rock and metal, go with the Vox Active. If you listen to everything else, the horns do it very well. Not that they

00:28:05 don’t do rock and metal well, but I think the Vox activives have a little bit more beef in the midband for that kind of music. But even dance music, man, they they were sounding amazing. So, hats off to Pure Audio Project. I’m so glad they made this model. I always saw their Trio 15s, which are too big for this room, with the horn, and I said, “Man, I want those speakers. I want to try them so bad.” but they were just too much for the room. I never had them here. But now that they make the Duet 15 with the horn, they fit

00:28:36 perfectly in this room and they are just the right size. I would say small rooms, okay, medium rooms, okay, large room, go up to the Trio 15 because then you’re adding basically a second bass driver to each speaker. I guess that’s about it. I’ll put links in the description below to Pure Audio Project, all the information. I am going to record a sound demo today and post that for members. There is a membership option here. It’s five bucks, guys. And that is going to be what keeps this channel going because I don’t get paid to do

00:29:10 reviews. So, I get the the little bit of money from Google YouTube for the ad revenue that commercial you skipped. Uh well, if you skipped it, I don’t get anything, but it’s very very little. And I spend a lot of time doing this. But I love it. It’s it’s it’s something I love. I’m not complaining. But if you want to see sound demos and and first looks, I’m putting them in the members area now and the link in the description below. It’s right here at YouTube. It’s five bucks and it helps the channel keep

00:29:39 going. I thank you all. I love you all and I will see you in the next one very, very soon. Maybe a day or two. I got to catch up. I got a lot of stuff coming in and a lot of stuff I still have to review. So, I hope you guys have a great rest of your day or night and I’ll see you soon.