Stenheim Alumine Two.Five Loudspeaker Review

The new, floor-standing Alumine Two.Five may just be in your range. Incredible performance from a modest-sized floor-standing speaker.

One of the many benefits of living in the New York City area is getting invitations to events that can only be done here. Late last year, Swiss speaker manufacturer Stenheim held an amazing evening that included the introduction of their new, Alumine Two.Five floor-standing speaker at the Hell’s kitchen location of the Power Station Studio. In addition to a tour of the recording studio, we were treated to a live performance by Jerome Sabbagh and his trio mates. It was a most enjoyable event, capped off by the knowledge that I would soon be reviewing the very speakers that were unveiled that evening.

When I graduated from college back in 1983, gulp, I had decided to begin my debt journey and borrow money to buy a car. I had narrowed it down to a new Honda Accord or a used BMW 320i which were about the same price. I am not sure why I gravitated to those two cars in particular, but nonetheless, I pondered and debated with myself until I asked a friend for his opinion, and he said to me: “Think of it this way, you can buy the Accord, which is the top of the line for Honda, but it is still a Honda. Or you can buy the 320i which is the bottom of the line for BMW, but it is still a BMW”. I bought the used BMW.

The introduction of the Stenheim Two.Five reminded me of that story because the Two.Five is considered the affordable floor-standing Stenheim, but like my analogy, consider it is still a Stenheim, with all the design and passion every speaker in their line receives. “Affordable” being the distracting word because even at $23,500, most would find this price range still expensive. But considering the top of the Alumine series, the SE Five, costs three times that amount, well, it becomes much more attractive.

The debut of the Stenheim Two.Five came at an event in NYC at the famed Power Station recording studio in the Hell’s Kitchen district of Manhattan. The legendary studio has seen and heard the likes of many artists from the late 70s on to today, still an amazing venue to record and rub elbows with the music elite. The Alumine Two.Five were set up in an ample-sized room and the “modest” speaker delivered on Stenheim’s promise to take the stand mount Alumine Two, a bass notch or two higher, err, lower. You get the gist.

Introduced by the CEO of Stenheim, Jean-Pascal Panchard, whom I have wanted to meet for a long time. If you have a doubt about their passion for music, check out their sponsoring original recordings available on their website under Stenheim Acoustic Sessions.

In this case, I want to start with the aesthetics of the Two.Five. This may be the only controversial issue with the new floor-standing speaker. It is unapologetically and brutally simple, with solid aluminum sides, while the top and bottom are coated gray as are the black aluminum faceplate and back panel. Square-edged and no-frills, the Stenheim Two.Five will not bling you to death, on the contrary, Stenheim ships them without a face grill that normally hides and protects the drivers. Of note is the simplicity of the mounted drivers, rear-screwed to avoid any exposed screws. No rich wood veneers, no gloss colors, and no shiny rings around the drivers. For me, it is gorgeously honest, divinely minimalist, purpose-forward design that is perfectly proportioned for most rooms. I love the look and scale of them in my space. Controversy averted.

Swiss designed and made, the Alumine Two.Five can be had in standard light or dark grey with black fronts or custom colors, full Black, Ivory, or Mocca, with black front and back. Delicate polished metal spikes and pucks sensitive to carpet or hard floors.

The Two.Five is a two-way design where the crossover design is simplified and only the tweeter and bass drivers have high and low pass filters.

Conceptually, Stenheim stretched the Alumine Two format to give the Two.Five another driver, but also a substantial amount of internal volume, hence the appreciably improved bass response. The one thing noticeable is the offset drivers, they are simply not centered on the faceplate of the speaker but rather slid to one side. I assume this may help reduce diffraction and symmetrical standing waves.

The Two.Five is deceptively heavy at one hundred pounds considering its dimensions are modest, about 37” tall, 9” wide, and about 11” deep. Aluminum is heavy! Stenheim will be the first to admit they intended to take the bookshelf Two and expand on the platform of their designs, both technically and aesthetically. Their motto is to make the best-sounding musical speaker, period. Meis Van Der Rohe said it does not have to be original to be great.

Stenheim touts they are easy to drive with a sensitivity rating of 93 dB with only ten watts needed.

Time to listen.

Because I am multi-tasking and reviewing the amazing Silent Angel Munich MU Music Player at the same time as the Stenheim, I decided to keep the review all digital. The system includes the overachieving Topping D90SE DAC along with my regular gear; the Parasound P6 Preamp and the John Curl JC 5 amplifier.

This is the time I should introduce the CEO and owner of Stenheim, Jean-Pascal Panchard who I met for the first time at Power Station. Jean-Pascal is an enthusiastic music lover who believes the speakers and listeners should form an equilateral triangle. In my room, that is a normal setup, about 10 ft on each leg. I began with the slightest of toe-ins with the speaker having a slight tilt back, (about 3 degrees).

My audition with the Stenheim “two dot five” begins with my appreciation of them visually – they are minimalist to the core. The tweeter position is a perfect height for me in my chair. Aesthetics aside, listening to them is a treat, well beyond a treat. In my head, the aluminum chassis and straightforward design brainwashed me into thinking I may find the Two.Five cold, clinical. I found the opposite to be true. There is plenty of warmth and emotion with a well-balanced tonality. In my space, there was no more emphasis on the high frequencies than the bottom. The midrange is probably where the Two.Five express themselves best, in the meat of the music, simply the best trait of a good loudspeaker.

The other thing that I found odd was how the drivers show so little excursion, making them some of the stiffest cones I have heard or seen. This may translate into lower distortion and better accuracy, which I was soon to discover.

It was time to push the depth of bass on the Stenheim. I am not simply talking music that has deep bass but rather, music that exudes deep bass. Pipes Rhode Island is a collection of pipe organ recordings throughout Rhode Island and its rich history of spaces with pipe organs. What I love about this recording is the rich and textured music from the halls in which they are played. The spaces are both intimate and large at times and I found the Two.Five captured the essence of the spaces, the organs blared with depth and volume. This music is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, but I find the music challenges a speaker to give fullness and texture without straining to give you detail. Two.Five had me sitting back and enjoying.

However, if you need something more conventional to get your bass fix, and include a great woman’s voice in the bargain, listen to Jennifer Warnes’ cover of Leonard Cohen’s track “Way Down Deep” on her The Hunter album. The Stenheim Two.Five does a remarkable job of mixing her voice and the deep, textural percussions. Imaging from the Two.Five with an incredible “wall of sound” is sublimely fulfilling.

Of course, this led me to pull up Leonard Cohen, the man himself. In My Secret Life is a beautiful melodic song from his Ten New Songs album from 2001. Cohen’s voice contrasts his backup singers and is mesmerizingly elegant, the Two.Five gives this track such depth and richness.

When the Two.Five clicked for me, there was no looking back. This speaker pushes you to listen, truly listen for everything it gives you. It is absurdly good.

My admiration and appreciation for the Stenheim Two.Five is a bit hard to describe. I hate to admit but it almost felt like I needed to “rise up” to the level of performance offered by the Two.Five. What does that mean? If my ears were driving a Ferrari, the car expects your full attention otherwise you can easily miss the nuances, the small as well as big things it can do. The Stenheim Two.Five telegraph everything in a way that you can appreciate the music wholly and completely. They also demand your full engagement.

Now for the worst part of this review. The time has come to pack them up in their travel cases.