17/01/2024
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This floor stander (RED 120Se) is compact and bijou. David Vivian reckons this could be the zero-compromise option.
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๐๐๐๐: musical believability; bass; svelte form factor.
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐: price increase.
๐๐ ๐๐๐ : the competition around ยฃ6k is hot, but the RED 120se has size and a unique skillset on its side โ itโs a true gem of a floor stander.
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When I reviewed Russell Kโs RED 120 mid-sized floor stander a few years back, I concluded, perhaps somewhat naรฏvely, that if you were willing to give bombastic, show-off speakers the swerve and more interested in having your neck tingled by the passion, emotion and musicianship on a recording, I was struggling to think of anything at the price that was as convincing as the RED 120.
Here to restate the qualities that led to my original judgement, the regular RED 120 is back to face off against the new, more expensive Special Edition. Happily, it doesnโt take long to realise that it remains a terrific compact floor stander and itโs all to do with the potency of its core assets. As before, playing jazz bass legend Marcus Millerโs Trip-Trap his Fender Jazz Bass has palpable
body and depth but, more than that, appreciable character and quality. Low-frequency ambient energy within the live venue is just as tellingly rendered. Beyond the act of giving the 120โs bass drivers a proper workout, itโs easy to hear what makes Millerโs
technique a cut above, every giddying fretboard lick and run tracked with immaculate precision and timing. Playing the same track via the 120Se, the musically virtuosic vibe is just as effortlessly captured but with a better sense of air and ambience. The
midbandโs gains in clarity, timbral texture and openness are incremental but hard to mistake, while the very lowest notes have greater resolve and body. Overall tonality is subtly smoother, richer and warmer. In short, the uptick in fullness is delivered with a new finesse.
Next up a reprise of John Mayerโs Stitched Up, the kind of supple, tautly tempo-ed track that bowls along with attitude and funk and is a sure-fire way to check out a speakerโs capacity to master natural flow, tonal accuracy, top-to-bottom unity and rhythmic
grip. With the RED 120, thereโs satisfying bass agility and weight, dynamic expression, midrange presence, vocal intelligibility, speed, grip and transparency. It reminds me why I felt I couldnโt reasonably ask for more. And yet the Se easily shows where the track has more to give. Mayerโs vocal delivery exhibits cleaner cut and nuance, the band heightened drive and โjuiceโ. No difference here is night and day, but things move along with a still greater sense of immediacy, verve and tonal colour and, perhaps most remarkably of all, a still more fluent and natural musical gait.
{RED 120Se 2023 Hi-Fi Choice magazine review summary}
Russell K
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