The Absolute Sound – RMAF 2018
PranaFidelity Bhava
PranaFidelity, a company that builds its loudspeakers and electronics in Denver, demonstrated the robust stand-mounted Bhava ($4950). Designer Steven Norber, previously a principal in EDGE electronics, put the new speaker through its paces. The Bhava employs a 30mm tweeter with a neodymium magnet and closed rear-chamber construction; there are two 6″ long-throw woofers positioned both above and below the high-frequency driver, a “symmetrical two-way” configuration. Norber offered that there are adjustable “tuning circuits” in the Bhava’s crossover. The Bhava’s eight-sided enclosure—the show sample was painted a sexy Alpha Romeo Red—is fabricated from a treated MDF material called Medite. The loudspeaker is ported to the front, which can potentially make positioning the Bhava near a room boundary less problematic. Sonically, the speaker was notably uncolored: Listening to Adagio d’Albinoni,a perennial audio show favorite, Gary Karr’s string bass, operating in its highest register, didn’t sound like a woozy cello.