Danish company Peak Consult wades into the big-ticket speaker market with a high-end heavyweight it calls the Zoltan. Martin Colloms takes stock of this cool, clean-looking, creamy-sounding contender... Founcled about 10 years ago and headed by She irrepressible Per Kristofferson, Peak Consult has been making some impressively musical sounds at recent audio snows and has attracted considerable praise for its expensive standmount monitor, the Incognito. The Zoltan is the company's latest high-end design, placed in a similar price range to the Wilson System 7, the Sonus faber Stradavarius and the Eidolon from Avalon Acoustics, to name but a few. It costs £23,000 and promises a winning combination of good amplifier matching characteristic plus high sensitivity, suggesting compatibility with tubed amplification. At first sight, the Zoltan, like a number of Peak Consult designs, seems to be a follow-my-leader' design. This slim floorstander appears to have borrowed elements from many precursors, for example, the leather finish front panel, which has been exemplified in several Sonus faber designs. Likewise, there are familiar details in the cabinetry, such as the vertical grooving, and the finish and solidity of the heavy walnut cladding. The prismatic facets of the front elevation recall certain Avalon speakers.
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