The world of high-end hi-fi is full of boutique manufacturers creating all manner of esoteric audio components. Yet there aren't many companies making entire systems. Germany's T+A Elektroakustik is one of a rare breed of specialist hi-fi makers which makes everything itself, in-house - from source to loudspeakers. In its design and manufacturing facility in Herford, Germany, it even has the luxury of having on site its own anechoic chamber. 'What speakers do you use to assess the sound quality of your products?' is a question I always like to ask the designers of source components, DACs and amplifiers. Since we've had nothing but praise for the source and amplifier designs produced by T+A in recent years I'd been hankering to hear the loudspeaker that the firm's engineers listen to for maximum pleasure in their R&D test room: their own flagship model. That it's a 140-something kilogram towering line array design, with no less than a mains-powered electrostatic tweeter panel running down one edge of its baffle, made it an even more mouth-watering proposition to audition! Might the company's Solitaire CWT 2000 SE deliver audio ecstasy to music lovers who demand the wallop of a dynamic speaker - satisfying bass freaks - and also to quench the thirst of 'purist' audiophiles who crave the delicacy and transparency afforded by an electrostatic panel?
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