Comments on: Holt Hill Audio Cionnsaile Monitors

By: BGRoss

BGRoss — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 20:22:00 +0000

In reply to Bob. This is interesting... I know the guy that hand builds these speakers pretty well; great guy and a real talent. He rebuilt a set of Reference 3a de Capos for me and now a set of JSE Infinite Slope .6s that I'm passing on to my son. While he had my de Capos he offered me a set of his Cionnsaile Monitors to take home for a few days to test drive. He only had a set in a rich red color, (not my 1st choice) but I said sure, I'll give them a twirl. These are good size boxes with really high end drivers and with a refined transmission line design. He spoke to me about the custom enclosures, green compliant build materials and elaborate crossovers, most of which went over my head but they sounded great in his shop on his own custom stands so... off we went. I got them home and perched them on two Sanus MF center channel stands that are about 22" high. Maybe not ideal but my listening space has really low furniture so they fit the bill. I plugged them into my vintage Tandbeg 3012 using some older Swiss Artech Prisma speaker runs and settled in to stream some Tidal Lossless through my iPad and a Metrum Acoustics "Flint" DAC. All pretty modest stuff for the initial run. Threw on Elvis Costello's North LP and away we go... So, initial impressions were that of a very significant speaker. Full, robust, weighty but airy at the same time. I think dispersion/separation was spot on and they demonstrated fantastic dynamics with the old but recently cleaned and capped Tandberg; male voice was silky and balanced. I was surprised that they sounded even better in my space then they did in his shop, not sure why but it's an acoustically hard room with lots of mid century metal and wood furniture, HW floors and minimal carpet. I was pretty intrigued so unplugged them fast and hooked them up to my Reference Sonic Frontiers Line 2 & Power 2 stack now with vinyl and my Micro Seiki DD-40 w/Micro Acoustics 3002 MC cart. The value of this speaker kept on rising cause with this kit they pushed over the de Capos and gave my Thiel CS 3.6s a solid run; they're that good. I turned them up and let them run on Jimmy Page & The Black Crows Live at the Greek and then Joe Jackson's Laughter & Lust and man they can boogie too. Fast and punchy with real attack. In short & to the point I have Holt Hill building me a set in custom white finish and they should be ready by 9/1. I can't recommend these highly enough as a real hidden gem. Maybe not hidden for long as I know he's got them in a couple of shops in Boston but I will say this, they're not for everyone. If you like a bigger stand mount look, (think JBL Monitors or Tannoy LRMs from the early 80's) these are right in your wheelhouse. Mommy's not gonna like these one bit cause they take up space, but that's not my concern. I'm also having a set of metal stands made custom for these with a Linn/Epos feel. They should look and sound amazing on them. So, just wanted to drop some East Coast knowledge on what I find to be a pretty great unheard of speaker. For $1,800.00 (couple hundred more in white) they are a jackpot. Just like everything else, the price is sure to go up as these become more popular and less under the radar. Yes, its all subjective and believe me there's been some high-end speakers that I can't get past. Just heard a set of B&W 802 D's with a big Bryston amp & pre combo that had my ears bleeding after 15mins... too dry and clinical. I'm no expert but looking forward to picking mine up in a week. Just my opinion. - BGR

By: Holt Hill Audio

Holt Hill Audio — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 18:43:00 +0000

In reply to Bob.

Hi Bob - Thank you for your feedback. The speakers have been carefully designed. They were not voiced using Adcom gear, nor any specific piece of equipment actually, but several. They were designed to make studio monitors livable in a real-world environment. They are also several price points below what ATC, and many other boutique brands offer.

I am sure you appreciate craftsmanship, the nature of a start-up business, as well as the challenges involved in developing and manufacturing a product in the United States, especially recently. If your friend is unhappy with his purchase, I would be very happy to discuss options with him and/or work with him on equipment placement and synergies.

The issue I see here is that I know all of my clients personally, especially those whom have purchased the Cionnsaile Monitor, and I have not received one call or complaint from any of them on the quality of the product. My door, text, and email are always open to voice any concerns they may have. In my mind, they are part of the "family" at Holt Hill Audio, and always will be due to their early faith in the business and in my vision to produce a well-thought-out product.

I also know WHERE all of the Cionnsaile Monitors have been sold and installed, so I am very curious what you will find during your potential tear down. Please have your friend reach out to me directly and he can come to my new workshop and we can look into the chassis, the crossover, and other internals and discuss some of the design decisions that were made during the development of the product - From the early CAD and simulation results, to the Beta production run, which is the current model. Again, since I know all my clients well, I'm curious to find out where the product has failed, directly from them, so I can rectify the issue.

All the best, Brian Salazar, President, Holt Hill Audio, LLC

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 17:54:00 +0000

I’m great to hear that others have been impressed with the Holt speakers. My opinion is just that, an opinion. Not sure why others have said “I’m surprised Bob doesn’t like them” I simply said once they’ve been driven with quality components such as Audio Note Level 5 equipment they simply can not deliver. From my understanding the speakers are voiced with mid-fi equipment such as Adcom and alike which they very well could sound great with that gear. I definitely wouldn’t put them in the same category as ATC. I’d put them more inline with some Reference Boston Acoustic or Snells. I’ll be traveling to Boston in the next couple months and will make a point to stop at my friends house to reavaluate them. We will be doing a tear down on them and will see what is being used and what can be upgraded. At the price he paid they are too expensive to just sit there. Audio is very subjective so the people jumping down my throats simply over my impressions is obviously friends of the owner of Holt Hill or are fan boys. An opinion is just that. Will report back with what I find once we tear them down and reavaluate them. I’m also not just an average listener, been a reviewer for many years, worked with many well known people in the industry for designing and R&D. Will report back.

By: srs735

srs735 — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 13:54:00 +0000

In reply to j l. Like the two people who responded before me I'm surprised with Bob's experience as well I'd be curious as to what the equipment, music source and environment was that left Bob and his friends feeling disappointed. I'm lucky enough to have one of the first sets of the Cionnsaile speakers. Currently they are in my living room paired with an Adcom SLC 505 and a restored and updated Dynaco 120 amp. It's a minimalist system and in my opinion very accurately presents the music. Are these mid size speakers going to replace my fully restored Kef 104/2's, my Snell E III's or my Nakamichi Slimline Reference Monitor's? No, but when I'm in the living room listening to the Cionnsaile I certainly don't feel like I'm missing anything. Pretty impressive considering my other speakers in rotation are all considerably larger floor standing speakers with great reputations A few years ago I bought a new/used car. My wife borrowed it the next day and her one complaint when she got back was that the sound system left her disappointed. Granted it's a stock sound system, but it sounds pretty good to me. We got in the car together and she plugged in her iPhone. She was right, the sound left a lot to be desired. I unplugged her iPhone and plugged in my Ipod with lossless files and suddenly the music came to life. The flaws in her music source were revealed by the sound system. With my living room system the poor quality of my wife's iPhone is evidenced as well. My Ipod, Oppo 83SE and listening to movies we're streaming all sound impressive in the living room. If Bob's friend isn't happy with his "paper weights" please have him contact the good folks at Holt Hill Audio. They know how to reach me and I'd be happy to take the Cionnsaile's off his hands

By: j l

j l — Sat, 04 Aug 2018 18:51:00 +0000

Having had a pair sent directly to me by Holt Hill for review I have found the speakers to be very competitive with the likes of other brands such as Rega, Linn and ATC.

Bob's lack luster review is not what I experienced. I have driven the Cionnsaile with Rega electronics (Brio and Elex-R) and Crimson Electronics (710 and 640E's) with great results using Rega turntables as sources (P3 and P6). I highly recommend others take a listen to them and decide for themselves.

By: CMC Covers Speaker Design Event at Dreamonoid’s | The Convergent Media Collective

Sat, 04 Aug 2018 17:43:58 +0000

[…] had in his shop. He then gave a nice in-depth talk about his Holt Hill Cionnsaile Monitors (Recently reviewed by Positive Feedback) which we had at the shop. After the interactive FaceTime attendees played some tunes on the […]

By: Jam_2

Jam_2 — Sat, 04 Aug 2018 01:14:00 +0000

In reply to Bob. I'm not sure what speakers Bob is referring to in his comments but My experience with the Holt Hill Cionnsaile Monitors was very positive and impressive. I spend a fair amount of time listening to various speakers ( post production , and casually) Genelex, M&K and Focal Professional monitors, Verity Audio, Reference 3a, Harbeth and the list goes on and on and on... Cionnsaile fit right in with my M&K S-100b in regards to imaging and mid range presence. Norah Jones whose vocals I know just about as well as my own voice sounded natural and well placed. Jazz composer Aruan Ortiz who I also listen to quite a bit sounded every bit as engaging on Holt Hill speakers as they did on my Proac response 1SC albeit with a bit more depth on the bottom end. I applaud anyone who is willing to take a stab at this very dying and yet still over saturated audio market and while I'm no reviewer, I'm a person who enjoys good music on modestly priced gear - I'm not a die hard critical listener ( Life is too short - and I'd rather see my favorite artist live and that's often less than "perfect" too but it's an experience). I wish the company luck in navigating the B.S the shade, the haters, the audio press ,bloggers, you tubers and " ME TOO critics" I'm not going to discount someone else's experience. Bob didn't like what he heard. I did. doesn't make either one of us right or wrong. but I'd hate to see folks take one person's experience and keep them from giving the Cionnssaile a fair listen. Some people love Sushi, some think it's gross. When it comes to our 5 senses its best to experience it for ourselves and not let negative or even positive bias play a part. One person's failure of an "EX" partner, is the best thing that has ever happened in someone elses life. When it comes to audio (in particular) it's Your money, Your ears , Your choice. That's all that matters.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 16:39:00 +0000

I’ll first start off by saying I was a Boston native, moved out West once I graduated from Boston
College in the late 70’s. I’ve worked with some famed Boston area speaker designers through out my time in Boston. Once I heard of a new speaker company based in Boston from a fellow audiophile I just had to hear them. I had a wedding to attend to in New Hampshire back in May so I figured while I was out this way, I’ll stop by a friend who mentioned the speakers. So my friend has some older electronics playing through these speakers and it was bad, I mean real bad. So he calls up another friend who has some really nice hi end gear. The friend arrives so we plug the speakers in hoping to get betttee sound and they simply failed to deliver.
One would think with some really hi end gear speakers should really shine, as they should, however, they start to lose accuracy, bass became boomy, vocals sounded congested. It was a disappointment as I was excited to hear what a new brand from New England was about. So it appears they retail for 1,500 directly, my friend purchased them for under 1,000. Let’s just say my friend uses them for paper weights now.