I have owned an audiophile two channel store for 20 plus years in Europe offering the very best in two channel audio gear. I had never heard these speakers until a client was building a home theater and wanted audiophile sound. I had many other brands to offer to him but he asked me to look in to these because they had been used in multiple global winning installations. I reached out to GTL Sound Labs and was told that these were designed as old school audiophile two channel listening room speakers but were used for the highest-end theaters where two channel music was also a major factor. The client made the choice to get three of these for his 12-seat theater along with 10 AE 963’s and 4 SB 15 SE subwoofers.

They were packed the best I have ever seen speakers! They were super heavy, large and very old school audiophile designed. They were truly handmade with an old-world charm. They were far less sophisticated looking than most of my other brands which make them less eye appealing. These would not be something that I would have considered selling in my shop before now. But once they were hooked up all my negative thoughts were completely gone.

The review:
Equipment used: Acoustic Signature Ascona Neo Turntable, Hegel P30a Preamp, Hegel H30 Amp, Hegel D50 DAC, Hegel Viking CD player, Transparent interconnects and Transparent reference speaker cables. Non-Technical Review

I took them to my home listening room as the theater was still 2 months from needing them so I had a long time to play with them and tested with all different kinds of music from jazz, classical, R&B, Hard Rock, soft rock, county, techno and new age. Unlike most speakers they preformed equally well in all genres. Flawlessly. They produced the finest smooth high frequency response that was so refined. There was no high frequency harshness with any genre of music. The mids were dead accurate. While the bass was so tight with no distortion. They had a near perfect soundstage when placed 14 feet apart. It was a true wall of sound that completely emersed you. So relaxing & natural! When playing some of my favorite tracks there were sounds and nuances that I had not heard before. I felt maybe I was just mistaken so I a/b them with my speakers that cost twice as much. In fact, I was right with the AP Platinum I heard new beautiful improvements. To say I was totally surprised is an understatement. Poorly recorded tracks show just how badly they were recorded especially when playing mp3’s designed to play on your iPhone. No Speaker can make up for a badly produced track. The fact that they played all the genres near perfectly and performed flawlessly at low (55dB), mid (70dB), loud (95dB) and stupidly loud (106) sound levels was extra ordinary. These are truly overkill for a standard theater unless it also doubles as your music listening room. Once installed in the theater the combination of the AP Platinum and AE 963’s truly made the best sounding theater I have ever experienced. I now know why these were installed in world winning theaters; Simply the best.

Summary, for the true audiophile these speakers are truly amazing! No, they are not as fancy or refined looking nor will they look as pretty sitting in your room. If real sound matters, then I can highly recommend them and now have replaced my way, way, way more expensive speakers with a pair of these. Because at the end of the day when you are tired and truly want to relax and let the sound enfold you; the sound is what really matters.