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Review
Subtle style
So what's GOH EE KOON doing with a typically stiff ... upper lip, that is ... British gentleman. Making good music, that's what our laughing lass has been up to of late ...
YOU may be familiar, to some degree or another, with the stereotypical stiff, upper-crust British gentleman. You know the type. You may have come across them in books and movies, if not face-to-face.
They're polite, but distant. They may intimidate upon the first encounter. Some may call them stubbornly formal. But often enough, this rather imposing exterior conceals a pretty decent character inside.
I SAY, OLD CHAP, FANCY A SPOT OF TEA? ... if it's Brit quality and subtle nuances that you want, the Castle Pembrokes are the way to go.
The Castle Pembroke speakers, in many ways, are just like that English gentleman, sans bowler hat and umbrella, of course. These floorstanders are blessed with subtle good looks. It took me a while to get comfy with them, but the end result, though, was quite satisfactory indeed.
Features
Given the range of synthetic materials used for component exteriors these days, it comes as a nice surprise that Castle sticks to building its loudspeakers using real wood veneers. The choice of nine different wood types (and hence, nine different shades) means the decor-conscious audiophile can colour-match his speaker with the rest of the room.
The Pembroke pair that was reviewed came in a pretty blonde shade of cherry wood, and stood like a bright and cheery squatter among the other all-black components in the living room.
With a downward-firing reflex system, they also have a 19mm low modulus polyamide tweeter and 130mm woven carbon fibre bass unit, subject to view once you remove the soft cloth grilles. Amplifier requirements range from 15 to 75 watts.
The Pembrokes fall in the medium-sized range (about 73cm tall and weighing 9.4kg each), compared to others in the Castle range. These are heftier than some speakers that I've lugged around.
Moreover, there's more to setting them up than just plonking them on the floor and connecting them to separates: you have to overturn them (with a lot of care) and do a bit of fixing the platform to the base of the speaker by way of a screwdriver.
Performance
It's not often easy cosying up to a Brit (read it any way you like!). Getting to know the Pembroke speakers was like striking a tentative friendship. You need a bit of time and patience.
My reference speakers are a pair of Mordaunt Short Performance 603. The Pembrokes, which have two sets of terminals each, were connected to the Audiolab 8000P and 8000A amplifiers in bi-amp mode. Also included in the fray was a Marantz CD63SE CD player and an M&K subwoofer.
The sound of the Pembroke speakers can fill a medium-sized room admirably, as its soundstage reaches far and wide and in an even distribution. As for imaging, getting the placement of the speakers down pat took a little time but I found that it was well worth the effort adjusting and re-adjusting their position.
The result was like having a smooth, three-dimensional block of sound flowing your way, silkily and continuously without any sense of aural divergence whatsoever.
During the first week or so, I had to constantly remind myself that the Pembrokes' consistently unassertive bass was a characteristic made obvious by the other qualities Castle is better known for.
Forget about testing out Nine Inch Nails or Rage Against The Machine with the Pembrokes. I know I did. After a few dismal starts with the heavy stuff, the sounds of Sade and Grover Washington -- mellower, starker and cleaner -- seemed like an aural calm after the storm.
Joan Baez's Diamonds And Rust album clearly exhibited the perceptible cries of the live concert's audience in the background even while the acoustic guitar's little slides and squeaks were picked up with impressive clarity. Latter-day folk songstress Jewel, in her Spirit album, also became the medium in which the Pembrokes conveyed strength and delicacy in their clean, lush sound.
Classical music listeners will also appreciate the way the Pembrokes bring out the integration between the instruments of a chamber orchestra. In this sense, the musical set-up is big enough to allow the speakers to deliver cleanly and in a refined manner, though not so large to the point that things sound mishandled.
Baroque music, in this sense, becomes a big plus. Josef Suks' Brandenburg Concertos were a great delight to listen to for its different strings, which sounded a little thicker on the Mordaunt Shorts; with the Pembrokes, there was a varying richness in sound, and one, in my opinion, that seems to be more authentic to the orchestral sounds of the era.
For opera, though, the Pembrokes really shone. Thanks to those tweeters, high notes in Mozart's Marriage Of Figaro, whether strings or voice, were warm and unwavering.
Conclusion
The longer the Castle Pembrokes resided in my house, the more they reminded me of The Avengers' Mr Steed: well-groomed, understated, reliable and imbued with a quiet sense of quality.
Just like other loudspeakers under the Castle banner, the Pembrokes aren't the answer to the prayers of a listener with more ostentatious bass-heavy pop, rock and alternative tastes. Subtlety, once again, turns out to be their greatest strength.
A late-night listener will appreciate their delicacy in delivering the softer sounds of jazz and bossa nova. "Softer" rock and pop, folk music and, definitely, opera are high on the list, too. Pavarotti, anyone?
Model: Castle Pembroke floorstanding loudspeakers
Price: RM3,190
Distributed by TRIKAY SOUND SYSTEMS SDN BHD (03-7875-8333), 17A Jalan SS2/24, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
For: Supple yet muscular midrange; smooth tweeters.
Against: Unspectacular bass; not a good choice for punchy, thumpy music.
