An Encounter with Franco Serblin's Ktêma

No one does loudspeaker aesthetics like the Italian master, Mr. Franco Serblin.

Every hot-blooded audiophile would swoon when he first set eyes on Mr. Serblin's creations, previously under Sonus Faber, and now under the company that carries his name.

The Ktêma is the flagship in a 4-model deep line-up from Franco Serblin, the company. This beauty is rarely encountered on our shore. I have seen and heard them only in KLIAV shows, and performance wise they had come across as a bit of hit-and-miss under show conditions.

Now, an audiophile friend of mine, Victor, had acquired a pair and I finally had the chance to listen to them in a properly set up environment.

The Ktêma spots a high gloss piano black body, with a polished aluminium top, a non-rectangular cross-section construction (Franco Serblin describes it as "a rigid, triple arch-shaped structure. The two lateral front cheeks are concave, while the woofer compressor is convex"), and on top of all this add Franco Serblin's unique invention, the shoestring grille. It is a sight to behold to say the least. Unfortunately I didn't have my DSLR with me, taking their photo with my handphone can't do them justice, so I just have to borrow a photo from their website:

Victor did a revamp of his system recently, moving from vintage JBL loudspeakers and tube amplification to the modern Franco Serblin Ktêma and Vitus amplification, coupled with a complete renovation of his hifi room, with an extension in size to make it a very nice 12ft x 25ft space. He is an exclusively vinyl guy, though he had a CDP, he didn't spin it once during my entire visit, telling us that the performance gap was just too big between his vinyl and CD. 

Victor had made a big effort to acoustically treat his room in the space of just a couple of months, as you can see from the photo above, using a combination of absorption and diffusion approaches and with a good measure of Shun Mook thrown into the mix too. 

During our visit, the Ktêmas were  matched with Vitus' RI100 integrated amplifier that has 300w on tap. There was no issue in control and in loudness capability that we could discern. In addition, the smooth and civil temperament, in my experience, of this Vitus amplifier pretty much complemented the character of the Franco Serblin loudspeakers in the same direction too.

Victor's analogue front-end consists of a VPI turntable with an outboard power supply and speed controller, and a beautifully crafted exotic looking Reed 2A tonearm fitted with a Etsuro-Urushi Cobalt Blue cartridge. The output from the cartridge is then routed to an Audio Note AN-S2 Step-Up Transformer, and then to an Audio Note M2 RIAA phonostage.

Just a few notes into the first track that Victor played, I knew we were listening to a very high quality system. The first immediate impression was the highs, which was pristine, crisp and choke full of nuances and details, and yet there was no aggression and sharpness that would poke our ears. The treble performance from all music genres and all sorts of LP pressings was well behaved, even a little self-effacing and not once drawing undue attention to itself.

The next thing that became apparent was the imaging and soundstaging. Vocal materialized and floated within a well-formed soundstage, which is a phenomenon I experienced only rarely. Image separation and layering was impressive, with each instrument having its own space while integrated into 3-dimensional stage. The listener's attention can easily switch between instrument and follow its progression. The presentation unfailingly has a high degree of airiness and details.

The all important mid has natural body and warmth, female vocals was especially attractive. Well, nothing Franco Serblin built had failed to impress in this area. Listening to Carol Kidd's "When I Dream", for example, would just melt anyone's heart.

The bass region was very well done. Given the size of the loudspeakers with two 9-inch woofers, situated in a new room, where the owner had only a short 1.5 months to acclimatize, what I heard could be called miraculous. First of all, there was none of the problems associated with the bass region, there was no boom, no bloat, no blurriness. Secondly, the bass played tune, was rich and had a nice bloom. If anything, my nitpicking self would just like to ask for a tad more slam. 

Overall, this is a very musical and enjoyable system to listen to. It is music replay at a very high level of quality. 

Bravo!