Clements 300SI Redeux

Another pair of Clements 300SI or Spacial Image came my way today, my first experience was from a reader of this blog that had a pair and wanted to see how they sounded versus the NAD Model 30's.

His pair of speakers are in this write up here.

This is the pair I picked up today which look like an earlier version than his.

These are a little pair of speakers has a huge sound from a little 6 1/2 inch woofer that uses a transmission line enclosure. Bass is really deep for such a diminutive size.

The imaging is pretty impressive with a large spacial sound stage.

These need to be run with a solid state amp and I have them hooked up to a Harmon Kardon HK 395i 35WPC receiver. Both the SE tube amp and push/pull do not run enough power to get the best out of these little speakers.

These are nice Canadian audiophile speakers that really fly under the radar except for those in the know.

Clements 300si Speakers

A friend of the blog was kind enough to stop by one evening with his pair of Clements 300si speakers. He was originally interested in the NAD Model 30's and felt that the Clements infinite baffle design had just as much bass as the NAD's. The Clements had pretty solid bass right down to the 40hz level from a 61/2 inch woofer, pretty impressive for its' size. The Clement's gave the NAD"s a run for the money in the bottom end.

We ran the speakers through the Creek 4040s2 which did not match well with these speakers. We switched up to the Yamaha CR-400 and the sound was night and day. The Yamaha opened up these speakers, the detail in sound with the Clements and Yamaha was a better pairing..

We finally switched to the tube amp and these sounded good at first with the speakers near the wall I knew they could sound better if we brought them in to within 4 feet.

Now we were enveloped with sound, Clements are not the most efficient at 88db's so we had to push the tube amp a little herder.

All I can say is WoW! for such a small speaker these had an incredible smoothness, from solid clear bass into the luscious mid range and sparkling highs that were never harsh or shrill.

Up close the speakers enveloped you into their sound stage, left right, front and back it was like being in the room with the musicians. We listened to about 4 hours worth of music and my friend has just reached out for some tube amp advice, he was taken aback with the silky sound of the tubes, they paired very well with the Clements although they do not go earth shaking  loud, which is perfect when kepping other happy.

This speaker reminds me of the sound of the Paradigm Control Monitors I had at one time, incredibly polite, smooth, a very nice speaker and worth seeking out when they come up for sale.