Morel Avyra 633

For hi-fi enthusiasts over a certain age the name Morel has certain resonances, back in the eighties and nineties it was a well-established drive unit manufacturer with a plant in Ipswich and a base in Israel. Russell Kaufman (now better known as the guy behind Russell K) was the company’s UK sales manager and the brand was on a par with SEAS, Scanspeak and KEF when it came to driver quality.

Somewhere along the line however the name faded from the scene and was forgotten by all but the dedicated few. Morel never went away however and today they are going to extremes to put their name back on the map. Morel was founded nearly 50 years ago, next year will be their golden anniversary, and this has spurred the brand onto re-engaging with the hi-fi scene by producing a very competitively priced range of loudspeakers called Avyra of which the 633 is the largest.

This is a compact but visually distinctive floorstander with a bit more physical style than average for the price and, as you will read, a lot more sonic capability. But take a moment to assess what has gone into a product that sells in the US for $2,000. The Avyra 633 starts at the bottom with a separate sculpted plinth with proprietary chunky spikes and a small shadow gap between it and the main cabinet. This is permanently fixed; there is no assembly required by the end user. Atop this is a straightforward reflex-loaded cabinet that has been elaborated with curvy side panels which give the speaker a bit of shape and a little bit of stiffness.

Long coil, short gap

The drive units and their integration with one another and the overall design are what make this speaker special. This is a compact floorstander that is a two-and-a-half way design. Those six-inch mid and bass drivers are made by hand at Morel’s facility and incorporate one-piece cone/dust caps that you can see, and unusually large-diameter 75mm voice coils that you cannot. This large coil/small cone approach is also very unusual, almost unheard of in my experience, presumably because it requires high manufacturing tolerances, higher costs and the fashion is for small coils on large cones. The 28mm soft dome tweeter is also Morel’s own and like the woofer has an aluminium voice coil plus a hand applied Acuflex coating. 

Morel supplies its drivers to several well-known high-end brands and apparently those found in the Avyra 633 are also used in designs costing three times as much. I somehow doubt that they can supply the sort of bang per buck that’s on offer here.

Sounds so good

Morel’s idea is to offer a speaker that sounds so good for its price that it makes an impression on a very crowded and distinctly soft market. It’s the opposite of the model usually seen where a new brand brings a flagship out to show the full extent of its abilities, which is more of an elitist approach that’s marketing to a relatively small audience. 

The Avyra is a domestically friendly sub-metre-high design with some nice styling details for its price, a single pair of cable terminals and a relatively benign 90dB (four-ohm) load that can be driven by a wide range of amplifiers. It sits alongside the Avyra 622 bookshelf two-way and the Center C5 three driver centre channel speaker, as well as a matching sub. But don’t let the home cinema vibe distract you from the fact that this is a rather impressive stereo speaker.

Thillers in the midst

This Morel turned up whilst I was in the midst of reviewing several significantly pricier speakers, yet it quickly became a favourite because it is so even-handed, coherent and seemingly impossible to faze. It has the sort of rightness in its presentation that is usually only found with two-way bookshelf designs yet offers bandwidth to match its 22kg mass and decent physical volume. It is also a remarkably good communicator of emotion, which suggests a degree of mid forwardness, and while the treble is extremely clean it is certainly there and doesn’t sound rolled off, ditto the bass. Morel have got the balance so right that the Avyra 633 delivers impressive transparency across the board with no apparent tonal emphasis. The fact that a colleague who prefers the classic BBC monitor balance thought that they were excellent would tend to vindicate this. 

What first struck me about these speakers was their ability to deliver a fluent yet solid physicality with some piano trio jazz, placing the instruments in a clear soundstage and fleshing them out in both spatial and tonal terms. They make you sit back and close your eyes so that the music can flow past the intellect straight to the harmonic receptors that understand the message without seeking to interpret it, they facilitate a direct connection between artist and listener. Something that no measurement can assess but which is obvious as soon as you put some music on that has genuine artistry behind it, which might sound airy fairy but the ability of simple music to sooth the soul is one of its most important qualities as every Metallica fan knows.

Gulp

I discovered this with a few records but the one that brought a lump to my throat first was Bobby Womack’s rendition of ‘Fire and Rain’, a James Taylor song that generates extra impact in Womack’s words via this speaker. I also tried some mainstream music for a change (don’t worry it’ll pass), with George Ezra’s ‘Shotgun’, here the bass line bounced along in a fashion not encountered with other speakers and made the track sound remarkably good considering its target audience. Nathan Salsburg’s acoustic guitar playing is much more my cup of tea, however, and these Morels show just how much feeling he manages to get onto tape on tracks like ‘Timoneys’ (from the album Third). 

I have come across more than a few speakers that achieve this with a strong midrange emphasis but few that also offer the low-end muscle delivered with the Avyra floorstanders, they grumble in clean, articulate fashion with Kraftwerk and bring out the body of pianos which gives them a solid presence in the room.

Look at me

On brighter releases the treble remains clean and open, there’s none of the glare you get with some speakers in this price range. It’s almost as if Morel is not going down the ‘look at me’ route found with many mid-market speakers, instead they are hoping that buyers are sophisticated enough to realise that boom and tizz only get you halfway to sonic nirvana. I hope that they are right.

Given the apparently straightforward cabinet construction the Avyras are surprisingly quiet, the box doesn’t appear to join in with the mid and bass in the way that is often the case with speakers at this price. They need a bit of space behind them to keep the bass clean, a normal situation with rear firing ports, but nothing excessive in my room at least where they distracted me with the delight in so many pieces of music including Julian Lage’s ‘Myself Around You’ (Speak to Me), which is delivered in a neutral, yet charming fashion as is this speaker’s way.

Real world listening

By way of contrast, I tried the Avyras with a couple of more appropriately priced ancillaries in the form of a Gold Note IS-10 and a Naim Uniti Atom, both sub £3,000 all-in-one streaming amps. The results reflected the relatively modest nature of the electronics but were nevertheless very entertaining. The Gold Note has plenty of power and produced strong dynamics, power handling and surprisingly good imaging, a live version of Dire Straits’ ‘Money For Nothing’ expanding around the speakers and making a very good case for this pairing. With the Naim’s 40W the result was softer round the edges but very musically compelling thanks to the excellent timing that this marque has mastered so well.

I had a very good time with the Morel Avyra 633s, they have an evenness of tone and a coherence that belies the price and that’s before you add in the dynamic capabilities and build quality. I doubt that many European brands could compete in all respects. This is a welcome return for Morel and one that I hope a British distributor will make the most of soon. 

Technical specifications

• Type: Two-and-a-half-way, three-driver, floorstanding speaker with reflex-loaded enclosure.
• Driver complement: One 28mm Acuflex handcrafted soft dome tweeter with aluminium voice coil; one 160mm midrange with integrated one piece cone, double magnet motor, 75mm external aluminium voice coil, one 160mm bass driver with integrated one piece cone, double magnet motor, 75mm external aluminium voice coil.
• Crossover frequencies: 250Hz, 2.2kHz
• Frequency response: 25Hz – 20kHz (+/- 3dB)
• Impedance: 4 Ohms
• Sensitivity: 90dB/2.83V/1m
• Dimensions (HxWxD):  982 x 310 x 326mm
• Weight: 22kg/each
• Finishes: Natural light walnut, natural oak wood, black, white
• Price: $2,000 plus tax/pair

Manufacturer

Morel

www.morelhifi.com

+972-8-9301161

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