2026 Awards – Floorstanding Loudspeaker £20k-£30k

While the Sonora sit at the bottom of Peak Consult’s four-strong loudspeaker range, nothing about the domestic-friendly floorstanders shouts ‘entry level’. The construction and overall quality is every bit as good as the larger models above it, though they distinguish themselves from their siblings with smaller enclosures, a two-way (as opposed to three-way) design and a rear-firing auxiliary bass radiator (rather than a ported cabinet). Like every Peak speaker, their components and drive specification have been built for their task, regardless of ‘bill of materials’ cost.

The Sonora may be floorstanders, but conceptually they’re closer to stand-mounts. Their actual loudspeaker enclosure occupies under half the cabinet volume, while a crossover sits in a space below that is filled with fine sand to isolate the network from structural and airborne vibrational energy. Externally, the front baffle where the 25mm silk-dome Scan-Speak tweeter, 15cm Audio Technology sandwich-cone mid/bass driver, and 20cm passive radiator mount is canted backwards for time-alignment, subtly faceted to minimise diffraction effects, while the rear panel slopes forwards, avoiding parallel faces. Thus tapering from bottom to top, each 68kg gorgeously finished hardwood cabinet is a sight for sore eyes.

Unmistakable ‘rightness’

“Almost from the first moment you play music, there is a ‘rightness’ to the sound,” says Steve Dickinson. “Textures, timbres, pitch and spatial information are resolved so finely and accurately, it’s as though what you’ve experienced before has been an approximation.” Timing is on the money too, as is their effortless sense of scale, organisation and structure. Nothing is missing.

Entry-level speaker? For many, the Sonora could easily be an end-game loudspeaker.

Reviewed in Issue 240

Peak Consult • peak-consult.dk

John DeVore doesn’t know how to make a bad loudspeaker – even one that, as is evident with the O/Bronze, was primarily designed to be a gap filler between the popular O/96 and the superior three/four cabinet O/Reference models, and while it looks like a stand-mount, it’s open-plan section hides the speaker terminals beneath the cabinet, making it both a stand-mount and a floorstanding speaker. Who said these classifications come easily?

The O/Bronze are notionally very similar to the O/96, with similar-sized cabinets and drivers and an almost identical on-paper specification sheet. They borrow the O/Reference’s soft-dome tweeter, which has a cast and machined bronze alloy chassis that DeVore has here applied to a new 10-inch paper cone woofer too. Their twin rearport tubes are found in the bottom of the O/Bronze cabinet, isolated from the chassis to minimise their vibration effects. 

Their 96dB/W/m sensitivity and 12-ohm nominal impedance make them an easy, efficient load for an amplifier, although their characteristics meant they perform optimally when positioned slightly wider apart than most speakers, with relatively little toe-in. They do, however, tend to prefer a well-damped environment, and the cones need several hours of thrashing to get into their groove.

A pure joy

The O/Bronze are faster, tighter, clearer and more refined than the O/96, and have both better control and deeper low-end too. You can highlight their excellent dispersion, great imaging, and tuneful, precise, responsive bass, among other talents, but really they’re all about painting the full picture – their, in Alan Sircom’s words, “uncanny ability to lock into what makes that piece of music an event rather than a collection of organised frequencies.” They are, he concludes, “a joy to sit in front of”.

Reviewed in Issue 250

DeVore Fidelity • devorefidelity.com

Read more DeVore Fidelity reviews here

The Silent Pound Challenger IIs’ place in loudspeaker design can be summed up in a single sentence: there’s never been anything quite like it before. The most noticeable part of its design is its ‘constant-directivity’ section for the midrange and high frequencies; a 25mm compression driver tweeter is flanked by two 160mm midrange units in their own enclosure, meaning that the loudspeaker’s ability to radiate sound at a specific frequency remains steady, and that frequency response should be consistent regardless of the listener’s position. Then you realise that the Lithuanian company’s two specially made 300mm bass drivers operate in an open baffle! Indeed, after prolonged testing, the Silent Pound team found that an open-back configuration maintains directivity and reduces room interaction in the bass. You then have the baseboard housing the crossover, which you can see through its tempered glass cover on display. 

In the sweet spot

While the Challenger II perform best in the sweet spot, the sound throughout the room remains highly consistent. Deep bass, high treble and everything in between are coherent, both in terms of response and tonal quality, and well integrated. That open-delivered bass is precise, communicative and accurate, too, making many conventional dynamic designs sound ‘bloomy’. In fact, they perform well in pretty much every technical aspect. What strikes reviewer Alan Sircom most, however, is their profound musical intuition. Playing the truly unconventional Hollow by Björk, with its dubstep-like bass, highlights “just how capable these speakers are at handling complex and abstract music,” he says. This is full-range sound as good as it gets.

Reviewed in Issue 246

Silent Pound • silentpound.com