by Greg Weaver

Audience ClairAudient The ONE - Personal Reference Monitor - $995

At first glance, you've NO indication that your entire world may be about to change: then, you hear them. These beautiful little Personal Reference Monitors, just 7" x 7" x 5.5", have the purist timbre you'll ever hear… No, REALLY! With no crossovers, these little upstarts have reset the bar on sonic purity, period.

In this alignment, using their own in-house designed superb A3S driver on the front, and a purpose designed Passive radiator on the rear, you will be astonished at how close to full range this design approaches. Yes, they are shy the lowest octave and a half or so, but you likely won't mind—I know I sure don't when the music is playing. And when placed properly, using the included stands, their ability to recreate the whole musical tapestry is magical.

While designed for personal use with your computer or MP3 player, they REALLY deserve to have a better diet than the lowly MP3. They are so tonally pure, so truthful to timbre and pace, you will find that the better signal you feed them, the more you will learn about the music you are listening to. In fact, if it weren't for their natural power handling limitations (it is a single 3-inch driver, after all), you'd likely use them for your primary loudspeakers. Oh wait, that is what the rest of the ClairAudient line is for!

These little guys will change the way you listen to every other speaker you ever hear. Be prepared to have your ears opened!