... As I entered the room, he was playing "I Thought About You" from Cisco's Steve Hoffman-engineered jazz disc Here At Last on the smaller Eficion F200 ($3400). The music and sound were equally lovely, perfect for the last hour of the show. I was hooked. I hate to use that word "lovely" again, but the smoky flavor that the speaker imparted to Marta Gomez's vocals on her great Chesky CD suited me to a T.

... I really loved the detail, control, and palpable, lifelike presentation the F300 brought to Cookie Marenco's Blue Coast Records first hybrid SACD of all acoustic folk and blues. The sound was clearer and finer than the F200, with superb height differential. When I put on Trevor Pinnock's Gramophone Award-winning recording of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.2, I discovered I was too entranced by the color and timbre of instruments to dissect the sound in the usual audiophile way. Everything was clean and lovely.

On the 6th and final concerto, the speaker absolutely nailed the midrange of period instruments. Highs were a mite brittle, but that probably had to do with the cabling. Given the excellent way in which the F300 enables voices to hang in space, I resolved to eventually audition and review this speaker on my reference system. I urge you to check out eficion.com.