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Audiofanzine FR
Published on 12/05/08 at 03:47
(Originally written by salvadorgaleote/translated from Audiofanzine FR)
I recently bought a pair of Pioneer HPM-100 loudspeakers whose sound quality has been praised by several friends of mine in spite of their age. I got them all set up right away and played one of my favorite vinyl records. I immediately heard a difference between both the left and right sides. I was disappointed. I realized that the unbalanced sound imaging came from the mid driver of the right speaker, which was broken. I asked for help to get the system to work correctly.
Once the mid driver had been repaired I connected the loudspeakers to a Pioneer M-90A amp and a C-90A preamp, I put a Johnny Hodges CD in the Pioneer DV-09 player and listened to "All Of Me".
The sound is fabulous with powerful lows, balanced mids and smooth highs. The imaging is precise (I can localize every musician with my eyes closed), the sound is round and I can even hear the breath of Johnny on his reed.
I was shocked because I had found again an old, nuanced, rich and exciting sound. I played the song again, turned the volume up and it gave me goose bumps!
Is it the harmonious mix of components? I put a Johnny Hodges vinyl record on my Thorens 320 MkII and it sounds even better.
I strongly recommend these loudspeakers. If you find them, don't hesitate to buy them but try to feed them with high quality components (my first test with an integrated amplifier was not so impressive). I won't give these HPM-100 the best grade to but they come really close to it!
I recently bought a pair of Pioneer HPM-100 loudspeakers whose sound quality has been praised by several friends of mine in spite of their age. I got them all set up right away and played one of my favorite vinyl records. I immediately heard a difference between both the left and right sides. I was disappointed. I realized that the unbalanced sound imaging came from the mid driver of the right speaker, which was broken. I asked for help to get the system to work correctly.
Once the mid driver had been repaired I connected the loudspeakers to a Pioneer M-90A amp and a C-90A preamp, I put a Johnny Hodges CD in the Pioneer DV-09 player and listened to "All Of Me".
The sound is fabulous with powerful lows, balanced mids and smooth highs. The imaging is precise (I can localize every musician with my eyes closed), the sound is round and I can even hear the breath of Johnny on his reed.
I was shocked because I had found again an old, nuanced, rich and exciting sound. I played the song again, turned the volume up and it gave me goose bumps!
Is it the harmonious mix of components? I put a Johnny Hodges vinyl record on my Thorens 320 MkII and it sounds even better.
I strongly recommend these loudspeakers. If you find them, don't hesitate to buy them but try to feed them with high quality components (my first test with an integrated amplifier was not so impressive). I won't give these HPM-100 the best grade to but they come really close to it!