MUSIC & MORE

A recording like Language of the Soul,from Boston-based Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters, is what you might call high-end homespun: Laid down in a fine local studio with minimal intervention between mikes and master tape, its sound is at once intimate and clean, conveying all the nuance of Earl's playing (and his guitar-tone-über alles vintage rigs) and that of the rock-steady Broadcasters on Hammond B3 and piano, bass, and drums. Heard over the Snells, a mid tempo shuffle like "Green Light" showcased Earl's relaxed virtuosity to perfection; whatever the opposite of "in your face" is, Ronnie Earl is it. (I love him because one day, years ago, at luthier Jim Mooradian's shop in Cambridge, he picked up my beat-up '64 Fender , played a chorus or two, and said, "Now that's how a Strat should play!") The Broadcasters disc showcased the C7s' extraordinary midrange and treble clarity. I could effortlessly "aural-ize" Earl's '50 s tweed Fender amp (Super? Bassman?), while the whirly grit of Bruce Katz's B3 organ Leslie cabinet was supernaturally real, and every pick attack or snare-drum stroke was gorgeously vivid.

For a 68-second display of the Snells' full-range abilities, I turned repeatedly to the obscure snippet "Fanfare for the Signal Corps" by American composer Howard Hanson, on Telarc SACD. The distinct timbres of snare and side drums remained razor sharp as the volume crescendoed . And when brass, timpani, and finally deep bass drum joined the fray, the C7's total acoustic power and range was arresting .

The soundstage created by the C7 pair was nearly as impressive as its breadth and detail. They produced a perfectly seamless virtual stage reaching just a bit beyond each speaker. And while this carried only moderate depth, the precision of the front-to-back dimension and the overall spatial stability of instruments and voices were as good as I've heard. I t was dramatically evident throughout the third movement of Mahler's Symphony No. 1 (Zander; Philharmonia) on another Telarc SACD. The spatial and tonal clarity of the soft bass drum, despite its very low tones, combined with pinpoint woodwind locations for a powerfully convincing effect.

And vocals! Suzanne Vega's utterly unprocessed, bare-naked voice on the a cappella "Tom's Diner" from Solitude Standing was heart-stoppingly present, with each element - breath, resonance, articulation, even tube-microphone glow - effortlessly rendered.

I'm not meaning to gush. I manfully tried to find flaws in the C7s' performance. At very high volume levels they sounded a shade brighter and harder - which made me suspicious. I tried the pair bi amplified with four identical 200-watt power-amp channels driving their low- and high-frequency sections independently. The result was to pretty much banish the effect (t hough I confess that my ears were giving out at that level anyway), thus confirming my diagnosis of amplifier clipping, rather than loudspeaker distress, as the prime suspect. I also detected a touch of emphasis in the 70 - 140 Hz octave, but compared with the bass-to-midbass sins of most full-range tower speakers, this was so inconsequential as hardly to merit mention.

This is a stereo speaker-pair review, but in the name of science I also threw a few movie scenes at the Snells with my everyday center and surrounds - which were a very good tonal match for the ultra-accurate C7s - in the mix. The verdict: Yes, you can really assemble a subwoofer-less home theater based around the C7s. They produce enough low bass to make such a setup possible . For instance, on the classic T .rex footfalls from Jurassic Park, the C7s easily delivered the desired cinematic effect: The earth shook, flesh crept, and geese bumped as required . However, when I replayed this sequence (and others) with my everyday sub dialed in for an LFE/ double-bass setup (front left and right speakers allowed to roll off naturally), I regained that last layer of infra-bass massiveness that you simply cannot attain without mad amounts of acoustic output below 30 Hz.

BOTTOM LINE

Okay, so I liked these speakers. A lot. They're really, really good. They're also $6,000 a pair, which means a full home-theater system with complementary Snell speakers at center, surround, and sub positions can add up to a $10,000 proposition. While other speakers in that price range can also deliver great sound, Snell's C7 is one of the best I know at balancing three (often antithetical) sets of virtues: audiophile depth, air, impact , and all that other unquantifiable stuff; ruthlessly accurate, full-range frequency response with carefully engineered directivity for correct in-room balance ; and enormous dynamic potential - enough to convey the full loudness scale of a symphony orchestra (or a garage band, close up) without stress or limiting.

Is my opinion tainted by long acquaintance? Skewed? Not to be trusted? Probably. But that doesn't change Snell's C7 speakers themselves. Anyone seriously looking for speakers in this price range should solicit an in-depth audition and judge for him- or herself.