should say: he's a perfectionist in every way, if not for the fact that it sounds at least silly, and the matter is quite serious. And that's because Cezariusz Andrejczuk, the designer behind the Numer 3 Bamboo loudspeakers, is an absolute perfectionist. He refines his products in a way that no other company would consider worth doing, because it takes a lot of time and money. Cezariusz does not care, because each of his products is not only a commodity to sell, but also a part of his own music system.

However, I could start this text with something like this: the shape of Numer 3 Bamboo perfectly fits into the popular in the recent years trend of decorating houses in the 1950s and 1960s styles. Rounded top, bamboo plywood (ecology!) and NOS paper cone drivers perfectly matching this vision - all that results in a product that may become an object that will add splendor to the room it is placed in. And it not only looks great but also smells - Cezariusz does not use varnish on the cabinets of his speakers, because he believes that hardening the surface adversely affects the sound. The cabinets of the reviewed loudspeakers are therefore oiled. A side effect is the ease of repairing any damage and removing signs of wear.

| Numer 3 Bamboo

We have reviewed the Numer 3 loudspeakers in February 2017 (HF | No. 153). Constantly introduced corrections and upgrades have led to almost completely different in terms of electrical circuit and sonic character, loudspeakers although using exactly the same drivers as before. Both are NOS units, that is, they are new, but come from many years ago and have not been produced for a long time. Both feature conical paper diaphragms. They also feature some old-style suspensions - a 100mm tweeter a paper one, and a 250mm low-midrange woofer made of rubberized canvas.

Number 3 Bamboo is a two-way design with a bass-reflex cabinet, with port placed on the rear panel. It is actually closed with plugs, which - if we want to deepen the bass a bit - we can take out. However, Cezariusz believes that in this way we are deteriorating the impulse response, and thus the sound. To improve precision designer used four feet to decouple speakers from the floor. These are magnetic-ball feet with cork washers.

The crossover is extremely minimalist. It took the designer several years to get to this solution; there are only two elements in it: a coil and a capacitor. There is no resistor for the tweeter, which reminded me of the extraordinary Extrema model from Sonus faber. The cross-over in these speakers is enclosed in a separate box inside the cabinet, and the former is decoupled from the latter. In order for such a reduction to succeed at all, both elements are selected with a precision which one could consider an "exaggeration" if not for the sonic effects: these loudspeakers are extremely resolving and each, even a slight inaccuracy results in a deterioration of the sound reproduction.

The speakers were brought and set up personally by the constructor. He toed them in in such a way that they were directed directly at the listener's ears. He was dissatisfied with the imperfections in the acoustics of my room, but only theoretically - when we played some music he clearly calmed down. This type of loudspeakers is usually designed for use with tube amplifiers, although the solid-state amplifiers that work in Class D are also great. The Avatar designer uses Class A amplifiers, but without feedback. However, because I wanted to know how the loudspeakers behave, and not in the system with the amplifier, I tested them - similarly to all other Avatar Audio constructions - with the Soulution 710 amplifier (class A/AB, transistor)

The second element that Cezariusz pays great attention to is the source of the signal. According to him, the Compact Disc is a very poor medium, and the only digital source that makes sense are high-resolution files, especially the DSD ones, that he believes sound particularly natural. He is a fan of simple, even purist recordings and has a dream - to build a small recording room based on his own ideas. Suffice to say, concerts in churches interest him only if he can sit in the first row, where nothing stands in the way between him and the instruments. If there is no such place available - he leaves.

Anyway - the most important source of signal are for him DSD files. I have a different opinion on this subject. I am not a dogmatic, though, so during the test I mostly used the Ayon Audio NW-T DSD transport. This is a special device, because it sends a signal not only with a USB output - considered by many professionals to be a bottleneck of computer audio - but also via a professional 3 x BNC link. I benefited from the fact that the Ayon CD-35 HF SACD player features such an input. The DSD signal is transmitted without changes and manipulations in the "direct" mode. In addition, I also listened to SACDs and high resolution PCM files.

Cezariusz Andrejczuk with Numer 3 Bamboo speakers

Cezariusz' uncompromising approach to his designs becomes obvious already after the first few seconds of listening to his speakers, especially to this particular model. Far from the universality and having a clear "own sound" loudspeakers Number 3 Bamboo within the assumed goal are unbelievable.

The element, that immediately tells us to reorient our perception, is the way of imaging. I am intentionally not talking about "sound stage" or "space", because it is about something more general, which includes these two features and others, such as shaping images, etc. Imaging by these speakers is based on replacing our room's acoustics with the one of the recording. Sitting in front of them, we feel as if we were sitting inside a kind of dome of sound that surrounds us on all sides. As if our room turned into a pair of powerful headphones.

It was obvious right away, and in my case it was the next episode of the second season of the Westworld series (2018). I am talking about this because this type of top TV series feature also great soundtracks, in which everything has perfectly matched proportions, size, volume. This is of course a construct built of small elements, not a sound recorded on the set. But that's why it's almost a perfect creation. With such a material, Numer 3 presents an incredible amount of details, subtleties - both in terms of sounds on the axis and surrounding ones. It turns out that most of the classical loudspeakers masks these details, sink them in something bigger that creates a "mass" of the sound.

However, before we set our minds that this presentation is about "details", let's throw away everything I've said so far and lets try to see it in a slightly different light. Avatar Audio speakers do not show details and subtleties, but provide abundance of information. And this large amount of information means that we think that it is about details and subtleties. The Bamboo Numer 3 combine them together and show them as a "dome" of sounds. All you need to do is listen to good analog recordings, for example Three Blind Mice from the First Impression Music sampler, to hear the noise of the tape in a way you hear it in a studio. Almost all loudspeakers modify it, withdrawing it behind basic sound - here it is an important part of the creation.

The are also very fast. These are loudspeakers that do not seem to delay the signal. They show the attack immediately, as if it were born before our eyes. Even ultra-fast Harbeths are slower and more "coarse". In this respect, only the huge, large horn speakers from the 1950s and 1960s show something similar. There is a quick attack, so nothing is smeared, nothing slows down. There is also an incredible transparency, which results in unbelievable imaging, there is also a great rhythm, which gives the recordings a unique pulse. Music lives with them and changes.

With all this in mind, let's say something that I am pointing to when testing every Avatar Audio speakers: they offer a completely different sound than the classic speakers. The basic difference concerns the mass of sound. With the Numer 3 it does not exist, it is a fast sound that does not leave a taste on the tongue, because new information keep coming all the time. The volume of sound is good, but even small modern monitors can create a more massive and more saturated presentation. They usually do it - although not always! - by coloration, using their bass-reflexes, which in turn leads to sound blur. But the fact is that they can create more massive sound than Avatars.

The second thing is related to the tonality of the tested speakers. Part of the midrange is emphasized. That's why the sound is so clear and expressive. But it is also a departure from high fidelity; as usually, we get something at the expense of something else. The modification that I am talking takes place in the range between several hundred and 1000 Hz. And now: tube amplifiers with a higher than the transistor ones output impedance will compensate that to bigger extent. That's how it works. And the resolution will remain the same.

Summary

The new version of the Numer 3 is more resolving, more coherent and, above all, more exciting than the previous model. Although the change of the cabinets and the not using the felt leveling the reflections of the sounds could seem like a step back, taking aesthetic postulates over the sonic ones, in fact it is exactly the opposite – this is a much better speaker than the model I once tested.

Their incredible resolution, impulse response and transparency place listener the center of the events. The foreground is close to us, but we feel as if we were sitting in front of the performer, not because he sits on our lap, and because we are in the same space with him. The loudspeakers play a nice bass, although it does not have the mass or the richness known from modern designs. Also the treble is always present, there was nothing missing there.

These are unique speakers for special type of customer. Jazz and classical music are the best partners for Numer 3. Pair them with a high quality tube amplifier and the result will be unique.

The Avatar Audio Numer 3 Bamboo is the second model from the bottom of this manufacturer's offer. Below there is the basic one called Numer 4, and above the larger, two-module speakers, Numer 2 and Numer 1. The Numer 3 Bamboo, the version under review, differs in almost all details - except for the drivers - from the previous version of Numer 3. The cabinet is different - now with bamboo plywood. It is also slightly smaller, and the front wall is more tilted.

The Avatar designer believes that the crossover makes for up to 70% of the sound performance of a loudspeaker, hence that's the element he takes an utmost, almost fanatical attention to when designing a new model. The circuit used in the Bamboo version is completely different, because it consists of only two elements: a waxed coil and a capacitor. The latter is composed of several smaller ones (from the 1960s and 1970s) to obtain an accuracy of the order of 0.01uF. The elements of the crossover are enclosed in an internal housing, and this one is decoupled from the cabinet.

The drivers are precisely selected so that they differ in terms of the measurements as little as possible. There is nothing to be afraid of - they are NOS type drivers, which means they have been made several years ago, but they will survive most of modern designs. They were made so that they would not age. Both come from Germany from the 1970s – the low-midrange from the beginning of this decade. This is a shortly made 35W version with an AlNiCo magnet, and therefore a rare one. The good news is that Cezariusz has enough supplies so you don't need to worry about availability.

I've mentioned the tilting of the front panel - it was meant to take care about phase alignment of the drivers. Equalizing their acoustic centers is meant to do the same - the tweeter is shifted towards the rear and loaded with a short horn. At its outlet you can see a felt collar. Its purpose is to reduce reflections and deflections of the sound wave. The speaker features a single pair of connectors that reminded me rhodium-plated WBTs.

An important component of the Avatar Audio loudspeakers are the feet decoupling them from vibrations. Each of the four feet has two decoupling levels: magnetic and ball ones. This is the version of anti-vibration feet made by one of the Chinese manufacturers but modified by Avatar. The modifications involve replacing rubber and felt elements with cork ones and also replacing the decoupling balls with other ones, produced by the Avatar.

Technical specifications (according to manufacturer)

Power: 20W
Impedance: 4Ω
Sensitivity: 93dB
Frequency range: 30 – 20 000Hz
Dimensions (H x W x D): 1030 x 290 x 300 mm
Weight: 20kg/pc.