Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.
Founded in 2020, Perlisten Audio is a relatively new entrant on the high-end audio scene. The firm was established by a team of industry veterans with the goal of manufacturing high-performing loudspeaker systems to rival the best at their price points. The first model was the S7t, a tall, four-way loudspeaker which utilizes several relatively small bass drivers to deliver satisfying bass extension in a slender design. Priced at around $20,000 per pair (all prices in USD), the S7t distinguished itself sufficiently well from the surrounding mass of competing designs to win several audio awards. From there, the firm has expanded its range to offer a wider range of options.
Essentially, the Perlisten range now comprises two main lines of loudspeakers. The flagship S series offers a comprehensive array of floorstanders, bookshelf speakers, A/V surround speakers, center-channel speakers, and subwoofers. R-series models are pitched at discerning audiophiles, but offer a more cost-effective entry into Perlisten ownership by dropping the carbon-fiber woofers and beryllium tweeters of the S series, and employing lower-cost cabinets. For example, the front baffles of S-series models are 3″ thick, while the R series has 2″ baffles. S-series cabinets feature more sophisticated bracing and 1.2″ side panels, as opposed to the ¾″ and 1″ boards of the R series. Like the S series, the R series runs the full gamut of floorstanders, surrounds, and subs to enable the assembly of a full A/V system. All Perlisten loudspeakers carry either the elite THX Dominus or lesser THX Ultra certifications as proof of their home-cinema credentials. The R5t is THX Certified Ultra, meaning it will meet THX specifications in a room of up to 3000 cubic feet when used in the front left, right, or center position.
Unlike many equipment reviewers, I regard music and films as equally important; I have a purist two-channel hi-fi system fully integrated into a projection-based, Dolby Atmos home-cinema surround system. Like most people who consider themselves to be audiophiles, I want to listen to vinyl, digital streaming, or CD at the best possible quality. Then, at a moment’s notice, I want the flexibility to slip on a Blu-ray disc of Toto live in concert, or James Cameron’s Aliens, and savor all the bandwidth, scale, detail, and spectacle that a dedicated high-end home-theater system can provide. I’m a strong believer in the need to run surround systems with loudspeakers that have similar voicings, so the ability of Perlisten to furnish a complete range of designs to satisfy all surround requirements is a big selling point for me. It’s surprising how many loudspeaker brands ignore the requirements of cinephiles or those who wish to explore Dolby Atmos music, so a huge thumbs-up to Perlisten for covering all the bases.
Description
The R5t is a tall and slender floorstanding loudspeaker measuring 43.3″H × 9.0″W × 13.7″D, with a high-gloss black cabinet. The R5t retails for $7995 per pair.
The Perlisten range is designed in Verona, Wisconsin, but manufactured in China, which of course reduces production costs. My Emotiva A/V amplifier is also designed in the US but made in China, and I can attest to its high quality and excellent performance and reliability. Sure, I wish we lived in a world where all our equipment could be made in the UK, US, or Europe, but I am realistic enough to accept that this isn’t always possible.
Perlisten refers to the R5t as a three-way design, but in reality, it’s more complex than that. The design incorporates three 1″ silk-dome tweeters set into what Perlisten calls a Directivity Pattern Control (DPC) array, which is said to provide greater soundstage cohesion and better control of dispersion. The top and bottom tweeters operate between 1.1kHz and 4.4kHz to smooth the vertical dispersion pattern and to reduce floor and ceiling reflections. The center tweeter operates from 1.1 to 20kHz.
The two 6.5″ woofers are located above and below the DPC array; the cones are constructed from HPF pulp, an amalgam of hardwood fibers, bamboo, and wool developed in-house. It’s worth noting that in common with some other brands, Perlisten measures woofer sizes to include the surrounds, so the actual moving cone area is smaller than quoted—approximately 5.3″. Specified sensitivity is high, at 89dB (2.83V/m), but impedance is 4 ohms nominal, dropping to 3.2 ohms, so the speakers will benefit from an amplifier with good current delivery, such as my Naim NAP 250. Suggested amplifier power is 100–250W RMS.
The aim of reducing early reflections is a laudable one. Some listeners and most studios and professional acoustic spaces try to accomplish this through room treatments. Early reflections create a muddled soundstage and smear musical notes, so I was very interested to see how effective the DPC array would prove in my untreated room.
The cabinet is a ported design, with a long port venting from the bottom of the cabinet through mesh grills located on the left and right sides of the cabinet. A foam bung is provided to turn the loudspeaker into a sealed-box design. Swapping from ported to sealed is more complex than usual, however. To access the port on the R5t, you need to invert the cabinet and unscrew the heavy steel baseplate to access the port opening, and either install or remove the foam bung. Given the R5t’s considerable weight (58.3 pounds), it pays to become acquainted with a good orthopedic surgeon if one plans to do this on a regular basis.
The whole cabinet feels solid and well built, with excellent fit and finish. The dense mounting plinth incorporates some beautiful, domed rubber pads with optional copper-plated spiked tips to cater for a variety of floor surfaces. On the rear panel, the high-quality binding posts are equipped for optional biwiring.
When assembled, the R5t is an extremely handsome loudspeaker. The gloss black finish of my review pair contrasted beautifully with the copper accents on the spikes and feet. I must commend the superb stability afforded by the wide mounting plinth, which is comforting for those with cats and children at home.
Listening
I commenced listening in my resident system, which features Naim Audio NAC 82 / HiCap / NAP 250 amplification and a Naim NDX 2 streamer. Vinyl duties were performed by my Michell GyroDec turntable with SME IV tonearm and my recently purchased (and stunning) Lyra Kleos SL cartridge. For A/V sources, I used my Cambridge Audio CXUHD Ultra Blu-ray player into the massively powerful Emotiva MR1 A/V amplifier, which is configured to enable the Naim amplification to drive the front left and right loudspeakers, while the Emotiva handles the rest.
At 33′ × 15′, my main listening room is large by UK standards, but is partially divided in the middle by a wood-burning stove and hearth. As usual, I took a considerable amount of time to optimize speaker position and eventually settled upon a gentle toe-in so that left crossed right a few feet behind the listening position. I started with the port bungs installed and the loudspeakers placed around 12″ from the front wall. As one would expect, the speakers were more sensitive to room boundaries when operating in ported mode, and less so with the ports plugged.
Selecting “Sophie,” from Eleanor McEvoy’s third album, Snapshots (16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC, Columbia Records / Tidal), on the Naim NDX 2, I was struck by the precision and transparency of McEvoy’s sublime singing voice on her magnificent ode to anorexia. Her subtle Irish accent was readily apparent, of course, but it was the way the DPC array locked her voice securely in position in my room in an uncannily tangible way that was a revelation. There’s a unique quality to McEvoy’s voice, a timbre that leaves me transfixed and almost overwhelmed by emotion. Her style isn’t about vocal gymnastics, range, or technical skill; the girl was just born with the voice of an angel. There’s an icy, crystalline purity to her vocals that cuts through the rest of the mix like a hot knife through butter—on this record, that accompaniment is producer Rupert Hine’s piano. And while we’re on the subject, the piano sounded utterly fabulous. The Perlisten loudspeakers served up lashings of dynamic range, some impressively extended bass notes, and masses of sweet, liquid reproduction of the upper registers.
McEvoy had originally tried recording this song in the largest room at Hine’s studio, in the Château de la Tour du Moulin, just outside Paris, France, on a Neumann microphone while Hine played piano in the control room. Unhappy with the results, she walked into the control room, picked up a Shure SM58 that was lying around, and delivered an astonishingly impassioned performance, leaning over Hine as he tickled the ivories. It’s a glorious moment of musical magic, and the Perlisten floorstanders projected the music into my listening room with an impressive sense of stage depth and authority.
Nobody ever accused U2 of making a good-sounding record. With such execrable production values, it’s a wonder the band ever made it beyond playing Dublin pubs. That it did is testament to U2’s songwriting, the Edge’s genuinely innovative exploration of delay, and Bono’s power and charisma as a live performer. U2 remains the definitive example of a great band whose recordings are almost always a terrible disappointment when played on a high-end system. However, there’s no denying that “Angel of Harlem,” from the double album Rattle and Hum (LP, Island Records 7 91003-1), is among the band’s finest moments. Backed by the Memphis Horns and recorded at Sun Studios, where Elvis cut so many classics, this is an absolute tour-de-force performance. Sure, there’s no real bottom end, the dynamic range is deplorable, and Bono’s vocals sound like they were recorded on one of those vintage 1970s tape recorders that we all played with as kids—but frankly, I don’t give a damn! This is rock’n’roll dialed up to 11, and crucially, the band lays down a fantastic groove, underpinned by Larry Mullen Jr.’s dependably solid drumming.
The Perlisten R5t floorstanders didn’t make this track sound any better than it normally does on my ATC SCM40s, but what they did do was to carry the groove of the track with all the tautness of Leila Josefowicz’s E string. So, they were fast with no slurring or delay, and they timed superbly. The Perlistens didn’t deliver the bullet-through-plate-glass, sheer gut-punch experience of some larger-coned designs, but they were impressively powerful for such slender towers.
By contrast, Dire Straits is renowned for making superlative recordings; the band’s albums have been the stuff of audio journalists’ dreams for decades. “Telegraph Road,” from their seminal album Love over Gold (LP, Vertigo Records 6359 109), is a classic. Right from the desolate opening bars, the Perlisten floorstanders provided an impressive window into the music. Mark Knopfler’s opening guitar was superbly articulate, while lower-level sound effects and instrumentation were never lost, even when the mix became busy. Piano accompaniment had fine timbre and gravitas, although the drums were rendered with a shade less depth than is possible on wider-bandwidth loudspeaker designs.
On this track, removing the port bungs gave a fuller presentation and a perception of deeper bass. Perlisten specifies the response as 24Hz–32kHz in reflex mode and 38Hz–32kHz sealed (quoted at -10dB). When I removed the port bungs, I found myself wrestling with a shade too much mid-bass in my room and so I pulled them further out from the wall. The high-frequency response is unusually extended, given that most of us in middle age are lucky to hear much above 15kHz, but at least you can take comfort from the fact that the dog will enjoy it. (Canine hearing extends above 50kHz.)
While removing the bungs added a little extra scale to proceedings, it also resulted in a slight loss of articulation on bass guitar and drums. Which you prefer will depend on how sensitive to timing information you are, and whether you have a room that tends to boost or attenuate low frequencies. I preferred the slightly drier and more articulate presentation offered when the bungs were in place, especially when the track accelerated and became busier.
Regarding timing, the tempo of “Telegraph Road” increases toward the end of the track as the band lets rip and rocks out. The acceleration is subtle, and evidence—if any were needed—of the band’s exemplary musicianship. On a good system, this accelerated tempo adds drama and emotional impact to the music, and the Perlisten R5t speakers revealed it beautifully. Even at max throttle, they proved able to maintain excellent separation of instruments, with scant evidence of driver compression, which manifests at high volumes as an increased sense of glare.
Further experimentation with the port bungs convinced me that I nearly always preferred the sound with the ports plugged in my room. Occasionally, with music that was more ambient in nature (Enya or classical organ works), I found myself enjoying the additional warmth of the ported configuration. There are hours of fun to be had for those who enjoy fettling a system. In my view, this ability to adapt the loudspeaker to one’s environment is a real strength—it makes the R5t more adaptable than many competing designs.
I closed my listening with Big Band Spectacular!, featuring the Syd Lawrence Orchestra (Chasing the Dragon VALCD002), an album that is fast becoming one of the most played in my entire collection. Here, the Perlistens captured the scale and ambience of the recording venue beautifully, projecting the brass section deep into the room while portraying the drums well behind the loudspeakers. The stunning vivacity of “In the Mood” cut through with lightning precision, and it came extremely close to feeling like a big band live in the room—I could almost smell the cigar smoke! Part of the thrill of hearing such music performed live is experiencing the speed and dynamics of the instruments. Such elements are rarely captured fully on recordings, and even if they are, most audio systems are incapable of rendering them with the required jump factor at live levels. This record does come close, though, and is thus challenging for any loudspeaker and amplifier combination. The Perlistens did an excellent job of portraying the dynamic swings of the band, maintaining the tonal balance and separation between instruments, and locking on to the superb swing and timing of this reference recording like a Sidewinder missile tracking a Sukhoi.
Conclusion
Perlisten Audio has done an excellent job of lowering the cost of entry to its range without losing many of the sonic elements that make its topflight S series so desirable. The R5t is an accurate and highly resolving loudspeaker that handles a wide range of musical styles with great ability. The precision of its instrumental placement and soundstage is a real highlight, while it has an extremely impressive ability to provide an open window into records for the price.
It’s clear that the DPC array is a major contributing factor to the R5t’s success. This, allied with its well-engineered and highly capable drive units, makes the Perlisten Audio R5t a convincing proposition. It’s a loudspeaker that is articulate, exciting, resolving, and enjoyable. Better still, it looks beautiful in the room—even hi-fi-loathing spouses will find it easy on the eye.
. . . Jonathan Gorse
jonathan@soundstage.com
Associated Equipment
- Turntable: Michell GyroDec turntable with SME Series IV tonearm and Lyra Kleos SL cartridge
- Phono preamplifier: Trichord Research Dino Mk 3 with Never Connected Dino+ power supply, PS Audio Stellar phono stage
- Streaming DAC: Naim Audio NDX 2
- CD player: Naim CDI
- Preamplifiers: Naim NAC 82
- Power amplifier: Naim NAP 250
- Power supply: Naim HiCap
- Loudspeakers: ATC SCM40
- Power: Dedicated 100A mains spur feeding two Graham’s medical-grade, six-gang power blocks. Naim Hydra, Naim Power-Line Lite
- Cabling: Chord Company Sarum T loudspeaker cables, Naim NAC A5 loudspeaker cables, Naim interconnects on most Naim amplification; Chord Co. Sarum T Super ARAY XLR, Chord Co. SignatureX Tuned ARAY DIN-RCA, Chord Co. SignatureX RCA-XLR, Chord Co. EpicX ARAY RCA. Chord Co. Chameleon interconnects for phono stages, Vertere Redline RCA-XLR, QED interconnects for secondary sources
Perlisten Audio R5t loudspeaker
Price: $7995 per pair
Warranty: Five years (after registration)
Perlisten Audio
807 Liberty Drive
Verona, WI 53593
Phone: (414) 895-6009
Website: www.perlistenaudio.com
UK distributor:
Karma AV
Unit 9 Centre Park,
Marston Business Park
Tockworth
York YO26 7QF
Phone: +44 1423 358846
Email: info@karma-av.co.uk
Website: karma-av.co.uk
North American distributor:
Fidelity Imports LLC
7 Crown Court
Manalapan, NJ 07726
Phone: (609) 369-9240
Email: fidelityimportsUSA@gmail.com
