A new Australian built loudspeaker, with French flair! Microphase Towers reviewed.

History – Who is Jean-Marie?

Jean-Marie Liere, the creator of these somewhat offbeat towers started life in France. I say ‘towers’ but this size of speaker was once known as a floorstander (when a loudspeaker was too large to happily be placed on a shelf). During his time in France prior to exporting himself to Sydney, Jean-Marie worked for Hewlett-Packard. This was at a time when test instruments for loudspeaker measurement cost approximately the same as a small provincial cottage. How times have changed…Test equipment has now never been cheaper and houses are a similar price to tulip bulbs in Holland during the early 1600s! This free access to what was state-of-the-art test gear lead Jean-Marie off on a search for loudspeaker nirvana. The result was his first speaker design, a small monitor style speaker which he sold in commercial quantities. Some time later when his venture did not meet with his financial hopes and a family arrived, he returned to the reality of regular paid work. Sometime later in a land far away (post 1997 when Jean-Marie moved to Australia) a lifelong interest was rekindled. Jean-Marie’s interest in phase correct, fast sounding loudspeakers that offer life-like performance resumed with the current range of Microphase Audio Design loudspeakers. Back in business for the last 5 years, Jean-Marie has enjoyed fine tuning his 2 satellite models, a sub, a centre and the model on review here, the Tower One.

Construction and Design

The Microphase Tower Ones are built right here in Australia to exacting standards. The cabinet construction material is Birch plywood imported from Finland. The unusual, somewhat architectural look may not be to everyone’s taste but I rather like the style. Simple, functional and manufactured by a local cabinet guru who once made enclosures for Richter and Orpheus back in the day. I’m not sure when these two highly regarded manufacturers stopped making their loudspeakers here on home soil, but I don’t believe they do anymore. Moving on to the ‘innards’ of the design, we find more ‘French flair’ (more than being created by a Frenchman). French made Audax drive units abound. Coincidentally Richter and Orpheus also used Audax drive units in many of their designs. They are great sounding drivers in my opinion. Not only my opinion but in the opinion of designers at Spendor, the BBC and Mission over the years. Speaking of the BBC it should be remembered that many BBC designs such as the LS3/5A employed Birch ply as the cabinet construction board too. All in all Jean-Marie would appear to have made some well regarded choices in materials for his designs.

More on design…

Whether you like the look or not, one cannot doubt the build quality of these loudspeakers and the likelihood they will last a very long time. Beautifully fitted together with all components flushed into the front, rear and side baffles. Neat magnetically attached grilles are employed for the side mounted woofer and front mounted mid. The tweeter is kept reasonably safe from interested fingers by a tough plastic ‘acoustic lens’. Bi-wiring is available at the rear by familiar looking 5 way binding posts. Sometimes I wonder what the fourth and fifth ‘way’ are? I’ve got 1) Spade connectors, 2) Banana connectors, 3) Bare wire, 4) Not sure, 5) Don’t know. Anyway, if you wish to drive the woofer with a separate amp you can. Or you could just run separate wires to it from the common point of the speaker terminals on the rear of the amp. Your mileage may vary but for me bi-wiring in this way is right up there with propping your speaker cables up on supports. Bi-amping on the other hand may well help improve the sound, although at some considerable cost. To sum up, these Towers are smart and modern looking. Perhaps one well out on the periphery of what many would consider typical loudspeaker design.

And the sound!

Now the fun bit. I didn’t run them in as Jean-Marie supplied me a pair that had done a bit of work and were fully loosened up and ready to rock. I applied signal via my Naim Star and some files from Tidal. I am very familiar with the sound in my room having used this source on a number of other loudspeakers. I thought therefore, this was a good place to start and hear what the general flavour of the Microphase speakers was. I kicked off with some tracks from kd Lang’s ‘All You Can Eat’ (as mentioned in my article on well recorded music). Immediately it was obvious from the ‘smack’ from the drums that these speakers are fast and are quite sensitive, or at least as sensitive as the spec suggests. A decent amount of detail was obvious and the bass was quite uncoloured. The bass on this recording can be overly full on some speakers but not here on the Tower Ones. The upper treble was in balance with the rest of the spectrum doing just what it needs to do and nothing more. These are not sizzly sounding loudspeakers with exaggerated treble.

Wishing to explore the bass extension I flicked to Nusratt Fatah’s, ‘Sea of Vapours’ on the Musst Musst album (also mentioned in my 10 best demo tracks article). This track dives deep with electronic bass going way down. I also noticed on this track a great sense of ‘air’ but as mentioned previously, without any excessive sizzle from the tweeter. Bass-wise I expected it may go lower than it did due to the largish bass unit and the sealed alignment (rather than the far more common bass reflex alignment most designers employ). Sealed alignments roll off more slowly and tend to offer a more accurate bass response than the sometimes boomy ported alternative. When I took a closer look at the probable box volume though I realised this isn’t really a very large loudspeaker enclosure. I made a quick comparison with another loudspeaker I had on hand that also sported a sealed bass unit design and although a different shape, it offered a similar internal volume. The Microphase towers comfortably outperformed these speakers, not so much in extension but in sensitivity.

Moving onto the delicate midrange area, I played Meav, once again from my demo suggestion article. Her voice has a glass like quality and the ability to upset many a loudspeaker. To some degree the Tower Ones suffered at Meavs voice as well. Just a trace of a hard edge, or maybe some otherwise well hidden resonance was excited by her demanding vocal. I’m not sure, but suffering at the hand of Meav does not place these speakers into some ‘Robinson Crusoe’ like group. I have heard many a well regarded speaker show off some nasties when she is played. Hence a great test I think. Playing a variety of other material I did notice the occasional ‘cupped hand’ like colouration in the mid which for many will go unnoticed but for some may be an issue. Overall the sound of these speakers is rather refined with quite an even frequency response and an enjoyably painted stereo image.

Sum up –

Sum up –

For anyone looking for something a bit different. For those wanting a loudspeaker of bespoke appearance and build quality, the Microphase Tower Ones are worthy of audition and closer inspection. I enjoyed their time in my listening area for their iconoclastic style.

• For – Unusual and quite unique cabinetry.
• For – Built in Australia to last!
• For – High quality components used throughout.
• Against – As much as I like the appearance some who saw them while under review were unsure.
• Against – Some slight edginess/resonances around the upper midrange area could be distracting on some material.
• Against – Just an observation but there is no facility for spikes to be fitted in the underside of the plinth.
• Manufactured by – Microphase Audio Design, Sydney, Australia.
• Dimensions – 195mm Wide x 340mm Deep (plinth) x 955mm High
• Weight – Approx 10kgs each
• Price – $4290pr inc shipping to anywhere in Australia
• Tested with – Naim Star – Straightwire Symphony 3 speaker cables.

Beer!

3 Ravens American Pale Ale. The beer style that pretty much started US based craft brewing. It is owed a lot. I set out to buy something brewed in France for this beer tasting for no particular reason other than Jean-Marie comes from there originally and reckons French beer is fantastique! Alas with the local craft beer scene going mental, and the main stores actually stocking decent beer, European alternatives are very thin on the ground. I visited three stores with no success. I could have gotten close with a few Belgians of some distinction but I’m pretty sure Jean-Marie would agree, Belgium ain’t France. It would appear I am now stuck drinking craft beer if I fancy something fresh and tasty.

So being forced to drink crafties, I thought I’d grab something of quality. A relatively local one in this case, made in Thornbury, Melbourne. I chose this particular one due to the outrageous statements on the side of the can. Very clearly printed in alternating blue and red Arial. Well, some Sans Serif font that is rather basic in appearance. I can report that what is contained within the can is anything but basic. As you may have noticed from the pics, not a lot of head, and frankly not benchmark setting mouthfeel but that’s the only negatives I can express. This is one damn fine and complex APA. Very much a hyped-up version of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale which is probably still the reference beer for the style. Terrific balance of malt and hops, probably more hops than malt but not enough out of whack to annoy. I mean, you want more hops right? Well this beer delivers. As much in bitterness as late additions, mmm yummy! I can’t see an alcohol content number on the can but it states 1.6 standard drinks so I guess about 5%. (Edit – found it in large print – 5.5%) No nasty aftertaste, and as mentioned, very satisfying levels of complexity. It keeps you guessing as to what you are in fact actually tasting. This is old school APA goodness, nice and fresh and ready to be smashed down 3 at a time. A solid 9 out of 10 from me. Only let down by lack of body/head. Buy some now before they decide to stop making it again.