⌈ The AUDIOSOLUTIONS company was established in 2011 in Lithuania with its headquarters in Vilnius. The founder and chief designer is Mr. GEDIMINAS GAIDELIS. The company specializes in expensive and very expensive loudspeakers. This time, however, we are testing a model from its basic OVERTURE series. ⌋

HE OVERTURE MK3 IS A SERIES opening the AudioSolutions lineup. In its third generation, the manufacturer proposed a completely new visual design which - no need to pretend otherwise, resembles the speakers of the Italian company Sonus faber. Similar shapes, drivers layout and finish, all these elements point to the products of this Italian manufacturer. But - and this is a big BUT - this is not an imitation, but a reference to certain solutions that, after all, do not belong to Sonus. More importantly, the make and finish of the O304F Mk3 speakers is flawless, which gives a good idea of the capabilities of this Lithuanian company.

| O304F MkIII

The Overture O304F Mk3 are very neat, 990 cm high floorstanding loudspeakers. Their cabinets can be painted white or black with a high gloss finish. For an additional fee, they can be finished with one of the three natural veneers - we can choose wenge, mahogany or oak one. For this test we received the latter and I must say that the speakers looked great. The top and bottom panels are made of additional MDF boards, creating a mechanical and visual "clamp" for the housing.

The loudspeakers rest on feet screwed from the bottom, also made of MDF. Small steel spikes are screwed in underneath. What looks like large screw caps are just a decorative element, something like a radiator grille in a car. Therefore leveling the O304F Mk3 is not the easiest task. Fortunately, although these are quite heavy boxes (27 kg / pc.), they are not so heavy that one would not be able to properly set them up.

The concept of the technical capabilities of the carpentry workshop, which AudioSolutions has at its disposal, is displayed by the precision of matching between the speakers and their grilles - this is how it should always look like, and even some well-known Western companies often have problems with that. Let's also look at the back, where the outer cabinet (sides, bottom and top) connects with the inner one (back), which we'll talk about in a moment, because it's worth seeing how it should be done in the high-end product. The grilles hide the mounting screws and are part of the visual design. And there are as much as four drivers in each speaker.

The O304F are floor-standing, three-way speakers with a bass-reflex cabinet. If we look at the front panel, we can see that the drivers are divided into two groups: the mid-tweeter system and the woofer system. The former features an inverted configuration, i.e. the midrange driver is on top and the tweeter below it. The concept of these loudspeakers resembles the more expensive model from this manufacturer, the FIGARO M. Let me add that such a system of drivers results directly from the type of filters that divide the frequency response.

MINI-HORN The tweeter sports a fairly deep horn that acts as a waveguide, correcting the way the wave propagates from the silk dome. This solution was named by the manufacturer simply Mini Horn:

All our speaker series are equipped with Mini Horn loading. This is a special treatment for soft dome tweeters. Soft dome tweeters are known to have high distortions when driven loud. Distortions rise exponentially because the centre part of dome stops moving at certain levels and frequencies thus flexes uncontrolled by the suspension. This is due to soft dome nature.

za: www.AUDIOSOLUTIONS.lt

As we read further, some manufacturers use an ark over tweeter’s dome with dampening material touching centre of the dome to dampen this unwanted flex. Problem with such a system occurs at different listening levels. It is simply not linear because the force which centre of the dome is rammed by dampening material is fixed and doesn’t change with tweeter’ excursion. Others use stiffening materials like titanium bracing glued to dome i.e. This solution is far better, however, it is not without flaws as well. It stiffens the structure, but adds mass to it and thus inertia of dome spoiling impulse characteristics and sensitivity.

And the Mini Horn? – As it reads: „Our Mini Horn, on the other hand, is much more efficient to manufacture and repeat the process with low tolerances. Mini-Horn is based on acoustical dampening just as it is in usual horns. We carefully measure at which frequencies tweeter starts to flex and emit avalanche of distortions.

OTHER DRIVERS have a diameter of ø 152 mm and their membranes are made of cellulose with stiffening additives, and this solution was called ER, from Extra Rigid. The driver located above the dome only processes the mid-tones, from 500 to 3000 Hz, while the two woofers reproduce the bass below 300 Hz. On the back there is a bass-reflex port and a single set of speaker terminals. They appear identical to those currently used by Harbeth. They are placed very close to the floor, so stiff speaker cables can only be connected if they are terminated with banana plugs.

These are well-made, very nice looking loudspeakers featuring proprietary AudioSolutions solutions, which also do not cost as much as similarly made and looking competitors.

| SOUND

HOW WE LISTENED The tested loudspeakers were placed at a distance of 230 mm from the listening position and 200 mm from each other (counting from their axis). They were aimed directly at me, they do not need to be toed in or out. Due to the inverted arrangement of the tweeters and midrange drivers, the former sits lower than usual, at a height of 715 mm from the floor - our ears are therefore at the height of the latter.

The loudspeakers are quite easy to drive, which means we don't need a high-output amplifier. However, it is worth making sure that whatever amp you use it has good current efficiency, because then it will better control the woofers. As I mentioned, the speaker terminals are located quite low on the rear panel, which suggests the use of speaker cables with banana plugs. I would like to add that the loudspeakers come complete with grilles and spike supports; we can replace the latter for the higher quality ones. I used Acoustic Revive SPU-8 discs with CP-4 washers.

You can read more regarding loudspeakers setup in the article titled FINE TUNNING |1|, or how to set up speakers (HF | № 177).

Recordings used for the test | a selection

⸜ DIANA KRALL, This Dream Of You, Verve Records UCCV-1181, SHM-CD (2020);
⸜ EDDIE HIGGINS QUARTET, My Foolish Heart, Venus Records TKCV-35532, gold-CD (2005)
⸜ JOHN COLTRANE, Giant Steps, „Deluxe Edition 60 Years”, Atlantic/Warner Music Japan WPCR-18311/2, SD 1311, 2 x SHM-CD (1960/2008);
⸜ MICHAEL JACKSON, Thriller. 25th Anniversary Edition, Epic/Sony Music Japan EICP-963-4, CD+DVD (1982/2008)
⸜ MICHIKO OGAWA, Balluchon, Ultra Art Records ‎UA-1002, Ultimate HQCD (2019)
⸜ MIKE OLDFIELD, Incantations, Mercury/Universal Music Japan UICY-91795, 2 x SHM-CD + DVD (1978/2011)
⸜ ROBERT KANAAN, Teardrops, kopia przedpremierowa, Master CD-R (2020)

ONE OF THE QUALITIES OF all Gediminas Gaidelis designs is the perfect harmony between drivers. The same is true for the tested pair. They behave as one organism, with all components working in unison, having the same purpose, carrying the same "message." Perhaps this is why the O304F offer a relaxed, unforced performance without smoothing out and warming up the sound. Because these are loudspeakers that bring order to confusion, soothe the disorderly vibrations reducing everything to a common denominator.

Their tonality cannot be described in one word, because it is neither warm nor cold, nor is it unambiguously open and unambiguously low. The best approximation would be "saturated", but that would still not present the essence of the matter either. That is why I will say about it: its neutral and natural at the same time. The neutrality manifests itself in the fact that when playing subsequent recordings, be it a dense, low, featuring very deep saxophone blows My Foolish Heart by EDDIE HIGGINS QUARTET, or a dark, but rich in information, "anniversary" re-edition of the COLTRANE'S Giants Steps, each will sound their own way.

| Our albums

⸜ EDDIE HIGGINS QUARTET My Foolish Heart
Venus Records TKCV-35532, gold-CD (2005)

EDDIE HIGGINGS (1932-2009) was an American jazz pianist and composer. His technique, nuanced, delicate, was sometimes compared to Billy Evans. He performed mostly bop and mainstream jazz, playing both in other great musicians’ bands of the time - Hawkins’, Sonny Stitt’s, Wayne Shorter’s, Bobby Lewis’, Harry Edison’s, Lee Morgan’s and Freddie Hubbard’s - and also as a leader. From 2000, he was fulfilling an exclusive contract with the Japanese label Venus Records.

THE TESTED LOUDSPEAKERS DELIVER a wide frequency response - and I am talking about the audible range, not only the measurable one - even though they do not impress with low bass extension and sparkling high tones. Although there is also low bass, as shown by Laurie Anderson's album, there is also strong treble, which I heard with the Michiko Ogawa album. But they are not "boosted", they are not emphasized, but rather follow the midrange. Because, I think, this range was what the designer particularly cared about and he spent most time fine tuning it, apparently assuming that if the midrange sound good, the whole sound will also be nice - and it is!

That's why I listened to ROBERT KANAAN'S latest album, Teardrops, with such pleasure. It is to be released by one of the British labels, and Robert sent to me a pre-release copy on the Master CD-R disc (gold one of course - Robert knows what I like :)). It's a beautiful music, a really good album, and a well-recorded one as well. Its basic feature is what I wrote about AudioSolutions at the beginning - a good internal organization, due to which everything fits together, everything “flows”.

The loudspeakers cope very well with both well-recorded and released material, as well as with mainstream realizations, i.e. ones with strong compression. That's why Michael Jackson's Thriller had everything we require from this music, that is rhythm, open timbre, great production. It was with him that I heard strong cymbals, but really clean, nice sounding ones. It is a rarity not to hide them, not to dampen them, and at the same time not to make them grainy (I understand graininess as blurring of the attack, temporal disorganization, dirt, and often sharpness as well).

Interestingly, the warmth that I heard with the recordings of DIANA KRALL, Higgins, Kanaan and others disappeared here. With the above mentioned discs, the sound was presented close to me, the foreground was in front of the line connecting the speakers, and with Jackson and other high-compression albums, it presented was further away from me. So - the loudspeakers differentiate the musical material well. By showing the differences between the discs, they do not exaggerate them, that is, they do not put the detail in front of the general picture. This is why their sound is pleasant, despite the lack of obvious warming.

At the same time, these are speakers building the space deeper than wider. The panorama is wide with them, but more is happening in the back of the stage, not on the edges. The foreground is the most important element, it is the strongest, but what is behind it, and behind that and behind that... is also important. As I said at the beginning, these are tonally balanced speakers, but if we listen carefully, we will find a part of the bass range emphasized, somewhere around 200-300Hz, which results in a good scale of the sound and a proper drive.

Remember that O304F are not speakers that could be described as "spontaneous". Their energy level is fine, but it's not the most important components of their performance. Rather, they try to present everything in a good way and not at any cost. The upper bass/ lower midrange part of the range seems to be slightly withdrawn, which makes the sound conservative rather than explosive. All these choices seem well-thought-through and coordinated.

| SUMMARY

The Lithuanian loudspeakers, tested by us, look and sound refined. Their design is sophisticated and the finish flawless. The sound of the O304F focuses on coherence and smoothness, but - importantly - not at the expense of details and openness. Everything is well-organized and thought out here. These are not speakers that will surprise you with unexpectedly low bass or a panorama that will fill the entire room. They focus our attention on the listening axis, drawing a deep, carefully planned sound stage. I would say that these are good loudspeakers for troubled times, guaranteeing peace and relaxation, but without any artificial tricks.

| DESIGN

CABINET The cabinet of the tested speakers is a complex structure, as it seems, derived from the more expensive Virtuoso series. Made of MDF boards, it is something like a sectional-box-in-a-box cabinet. The whole structure comprises of two separate housings, one inside the other, separated by a layer of polyurethane (a fraction of a millimeter thick), which acts as a damping material, thus providing additional damping due to its high viscosity.

This layer not only acts as an additional barrier to dissipate energy in the form of heat as it moves from the inner to the outer box, but also helps the heavy outer box to stop its movement quickly. To illustrate the principle of operation, the company evokes the image of a swing that is suddenly stopped with a soft pillow.

The inner box is lighter, the outer box is heavy, which gives different resonant frequencies. The thin but rigid inner casing provides the necessary support to the structure itself and also transfers the energy of the wave radiated back to the outer layers of the cabinet without accumulating energy in the material and preventing reflection of the back wave to the listener. And fast energy transfer is necessary to prevent low-Q oscillations that can last a relatively long time and ruin precise sound reproduction.

DRIVERS The drivers used by AudioSolutions are manufactured for this company with modifications introduced by Mr. GAIDELIS. As we read in the press materials, after the experience with the Figaro series loudspeakers, the company decided to use similar new generation drivers in the Overture (Mk3) series. The woofers and midrange drivers share the same ER ("Extra Rigid") diaphragms. The magnet system and damping rings have been redesigned to match the high power voice coils.

The high frequencies are reproduced by the lightweight silk dome tweeter which is a revised version of the Mk2 tweeter. Thanks to the changes, it was possible to use a new system of mini-horns, now slightly deeper and slightly wider. In addition, the new waveguide - as that’s what we are talking about - called Mini Horn provides better time alignment of the drivers. A metal rim with the name of the solution is placed around the waveguide.

ALL THE REST The Overture MK3 features feet and spikes for better stability. The spikes feature M6 thread. This standard allows you to experiment with a different types of spikes or feet. The set also includes washers that will protect the floor against scratches.

The speaker terminals have also been modernized - now they are finished in silver matte and are easy to screw on. The Overture Mk3 series speakers are offered in two standard colors, Gloss Black and Gloss White. There are three more expensive finishes using natural veneers: Oak, Mahogany and Wenge. ■

Technical specifications (according to the manufacturer)

Frequency response (in-room environment): 37-26 000 Hz
Nominal power handling: 120 W rms
Maximum unclipped power handling: 240 W
Nominal impedance 4 Ω
Sensitivity: 90 dB (2.83 V / 1 m)
Crossover frequency: 500 Hz, 3000 Hz
Drivers: 25 mm silk dome tweeter, 152 mm ER paper cone mid, two 152 mm ER paper cone bass drivers 25 mm
Dimensions (H x W x D): 990 x 210 (357 mm incl. feet) x 330 mm
Weight: 27 kg / pc.