Do long reviews belong in an audio chat room? I don’t trust reviews particularly but I recently took a chance on a pair of Pure Audio Project Duet 15 Horn 1 speakers and they’re a great sounding speaker at a fraction (less than a fifth) of the cost of these things. Open baffle (not the horn of course) and low bass is controlled by my 2 REL subs. Still way less moolah...50 grand...hmmm.
The Prologue:
"The Cassias are designed exclusively to reveal the inner most detail of your favorite recordings. To bring forth the very essence of artist voices, rendering them tangible, believable, and imprinted in the space right before you."......from www.CinnamonAudio.com
The Introduction:
"Those are cute little speakers"....."They are like babies!" said my wife Amy, herself an accomplished pianist and vocalist who made her living as a professional musician here in our beloved Music City for many, many years. "And they sound REALLY good too!! Maybe some vinyl tonight?"
Poor Amy! Living with an audiophile isn't always easy, and when the dreaded audiophilia nervosa has taken firm hold, speakers just under five feet tall and a mere eighteen inches or so wide can indeed seem, well, "cute" or "little". Certainly, when compared to the behemoth Sound Lab U1 PX Ultimate, Leonardo 8's, or Magnepan MG 20.7's planar dipoles which had preceded them in my dedicated listening space, they were perhaps accurately described with Amy's diminutives. But spoiler alert: The Cinnamon Audio Cassia loudspeaker produces ANYTHING BUT "little sound". After nearly 50 years in the high-end audio hobby, I declare them among the very best transducers I've ever heard, full stop, managing to do all the audiophile "tricks" without ever sounding "processed" or straying from a faithfulness to the organic qualities of music that tell your brain "that's real". In fact, I would go so far as to say that properly set up and amplified, I've yet to find any real competition for them in this audiophile balancing act: Speed, detail, and clarity without etch. Soundscape reproduction without that strange (and highly artificial) mini-monitor "partitioning" of images (in contrast with a perceived organic wholeness). Bass that is at once whole, nuanced, filigreed and textured while capable of bombastic explosiveness when the music requires it. And the "air". Oh, the air! With the (possible) exception of the finest electrostatics from Quad and Sound Lab, nothing comes close. But the Cassia presents believable "air" while preserving a richness of timbre rarely seen even with the best stats. So, do I like them? Yes. Yes, I do!!
Ordering and Shipping:
The Cassia are hand made to order in Portugal, a country rich in musical and cultural tradition. The Cassia (and amazing Galle I and II DAC's) reflect the convergence of the artisan traditions there in their craftsmanship and emphasis on musical reproduction that underscores the EMOTIONAL aspects of the performance. To hear the Cassia is to know and understand this cultural underpinning.
From date of order to arrival in the states was just less than 90 days for my Cassia, which were finished in a gloss Ferrari red. With brass spikes and cups, and in my earth-toned listening space, the effect was stunning. Amy, also a sculptor and painter whose work has been selected for national juried shows, has declared them the most aesthetically pleasing speakers I've owned, saying they "fit right into" our midcentury modern home, curated by her artist's hand.
The Cassia arrived in two large flight cases, and here too, attention to detail. Packed meticulously to ensure safe Trans-Atlantic travel, the cases themselves feature beautiful wooden inlays with the Cinnamon logo and "Cassia" hand burned.
Installation and Set Up:
If you are an audiophile of a certain age, you will recall "Pearson's Laws". One of my favorites was, "If you plug it in and it works, it must not be high end!" If we applied this logic, The Cassia would NOT be high end because straight out of the crates and literally plopped down where my Sound Labs had once rested, I was rewarded by a musical presentation that was nothing short of captivating.
But wait! We all know the admonitions about dipoles, right? Historically, these speakers are exquisitely sensitive to placement, toe-in, distance from the rear and side walls, etc. NOT the Cassia. Don't get me wrong, they certainly did sound better with a little "tweaking" of position, angle to listening seat, and of course rake parameters. But when compared to other dipoles, they seemed almost immune. I so recall the days with Magnepans when the SLIGHTEST nudge could undo months of tweaking. Fear not with the Cassia. I am not an engineer and therefore won't attempt to pretend I am one by offering a technical explanation, but I suspect this has to do with the dispersion pattern of the midrange AMT Horn driver in particular. If the good folks Cinnamon Audio read this review, perhaps they will say more.