This is a review written by Terry Ellis December 2024.

For my video review please see my YouTube channel link here

Please Note I am an Amazon Associate meaning links to Amazon are affiliate links, for more info about this please see here

Some things are just telling

I have been a HiFi reviewer for around 8 years, in that time I have looked at many different products so now its more telling of how good I think something is when I find myself still listening to music long past when I know I should be getting my camera out to do all the video needed for my review, as videos don’t make themselves. But instead of breaking down the system to do the video I ignore my brain and go with my heart and just keep listening song after song into the next day. It’s been like that for me the whole time I have had the Audio Solutions Figaro M2 speakers in my system because they hit just right for me. Its a bold thing to come out a name your speaker of the year in November but I did and not just for their the sound quality, it’s for their flexibility, scalability, unique customisation and their different approach. I have no affiliation to Audio Solutions and there are no affiliate links here either, I just really appreciate them.

Made in Lithuania

Audio Solutions might be a new speaker manufacturer to you however they have been in business since 2011 and they manufacture a very broad selection of speakers all made in house in Vilnius Lithuania. The Figaro M2 is pretty much right in the middle of their whole range of speakers and that is often a great spot in a range for getting a lot of big bangs for the buck. Let me clarify now these are very high end speakers with a high price tag, but not crazy high given what they can do and we are still talking less than KEF Reference 3 and a lot less than Bowers 804 D4 speaker money, but they offer something neither KEF nor Bowers do.

That is full customisation of the speakers finish and I will talk about this later in the review but its very apt to mention the all Anthracite Black finish with Brass trims Figaro M2 that was sent to me was chosen by UK audiophiles in a competition ran by the AS UK Distributor Elite Audio. This was the winning preferred finish chosen from over 1400 people who entered the competition so all Anthracite black it was, but this was not the finish I would have chosen. That is the whole point of customisation, you dont have to live with a speaker with a finish designed by someone else, if you want yellow you can have it. My mind works more about creating video than anything else, so I try and never review black anything as its such a difficult colour to make look good on camera. In the flesh the Anthracite black was a nice finish, however its maybe not bling enough for a speaker this good.

A unique approach

The Figaro M2 are on the face it a pretty typical 4 ohm, three way rear ported tower speaker, that are fairly sizeable with quite a wide front baffle, these are certainly not super slim tower speakers. I didn’t even realise until I was doing the video work right at the end of the review that the cabinets are curved on the sides which is pretty cool as we know there are benefits to this for better management of internal standing waves.

Probably the most interesting of the four drivers is the top one, that AS call the extended band mid range. Its a 6 inch driver with an “extra rigid” paper cone and its responsible for frequencies between 400Hz to 4Khz meaning it produces the lion share of all vocals and mid band information.  AS say they do this so there is no crossover in the frequency region where human hearing is most sensitive to any distortions or phase shift that crossovers can cause in the 1 – 2 Khz region. There are obvious benefits to one driver producing such a critical part of the audio spectrum such as a consistency of tonality. This made me think about some other manufacturers like Klipsch and Amphion who look to do something similar but completely the other way. They use the tweeter to a very low frequency and there are some obvious benefits to that approach too for clarity, but I think this approach can give vocals a certain sharper character that I don’t always find pleasing

Instead all of the vocals being delivered by the same paper driver sounds appealing and should be great, but it does raise a question can a 6 inch even extra rigid paper driver be fast enough to deliver upper vocal information clearly enough, because a 6 inch paper driver is much heavier and slower than a 1 inch dome. Would vocals sound muffled like the singer has socks in their mouth, no not at all but they do have a unique character that is a little different, or a little special maybe.

Another not obvious at first glance design choice is the use of a smaller than “average” silk dome tweeter that looks tiny because it is. Its 19mm or 0.7inch, that’s huge for some men I know but its very small for a speaker this size. AS say there is a mini horn in front of the tweeter that has a specific shape to help dampen the air pressure created by the tweeter to lower distortion and it gives the speaker a higher sensitivity of 91.5db, 2.83v’s at 1 metre. That is where some of the flexibility I mentioned comes into play for amplifier choices.

I asked AS about their crossovers and there was too much technical information for me to fully comprehend, but in very simplified terms they use a very custom design approach taking many things into account. They use Jantzen high quality components, with air core coils where the windings are glued to stop any micro-movements happening over time.  It would have been great to see the crossover in the flesh, but I was not going to take the speaker apart for that.

For 400Hz and below there are two 18cm or 7.2 inch ER (Extra Rigid means made with specific hardening materials) paper bass drivers that AS say creates a stiffer and better piston. Dual 7 inch is on the smaller side of what I would normally be happy with in my room for bass quantity but I think the quite large cabinet maybe gives them a little more cabinet volume to work in and their bass output was impressive. I was pushing them hard to deliver my kind of big bass preference but they could do it which is very impressive to me, not all speakers do.

Double cabinet trouble 

The Figaro has a dual layer cabinet construction or a box in a box with a layer of viscous polyurethane in between the layers. The goal of this is vibration management or reduction from inside to out with the outer heavier and more dense cabinet layer having the final say in reducing cabinet colouration. AS told me that this cabinet design takes things a little further by looking to delay any left over resonances so you hear them non invasively on the music and I have no way to specifically test any of test this but it was interesting to discuss it. I don’t recall any other speaker manufacturer mentioning that to me before.

When you do the “old fashioned” tap test the top of speaker is really inert, but there is some cabinet resonance or sense of some hollowness when you tap the sides but I think is inevitable to some degree with a ported speaker. There is definitely more cabinet sound than when doing the tap test on the Estelon AURA speakers I had here at the same time.  These are chalk and cheese speaker designs in every way, made with different materials and the AURA are sealed but the comparison shows there is more than one way to build a speaker. The Figaro’s cabinet is definitely more inert compared to my current reference speakers the SVS Titan, bearing in mind they only cost around half so that is important to consider too.

What I think matters most here is the Figaro with their overall sound profile suit me and my taste best from all three of these speakers.  The M2 cost starting around £9000 for the pair but the spec and finish of M2 I had to review had some upgrades such as better internal cabling, WBT speaker cable terminals and the custom finish costs closer to £11000.  That is a serious chunk of HiFi money but as I mentioned still less than many other high end “end game speakers” you could choose to buy in 2024.

Easy to setup and drive

These are heavy speakers at 45Kg each so its an effort to lift them or move them around, especially for very small micro-adjustments that is sometimes needed to get speakers setup just right in the room.  Fortunately I found them incredibly easy to setup, I placed them down on the T that’s taped to my floor, the marker for the prime spot in the room for the best compromise of bass response and sound stage imaging and depth. I started with a reasonable amount of toe in as they have a soft dome tweeter and the Figaro sounded great, however I wanted a little more bass and a more open sounding middle region of the sound stage between the speakers. I moved them back a little for a bit more room gain for the bass, only about an inch or so and toed them out a little and that was them setup. That to me is an easy or non fussy speaker to setup which I appreciate. On the AS website it mentions they are designed to be ok placed closer to the front wall which is very interesting for a rear ported speaker and could be great news for many who have more domestic constraints than I am very lucky to not have.

For amplifiers I tested the M2 initially with two big and powerful Gryphon Integrated’s the Diablo 300 and the newer Diablo 333 and both were fantastic with these speakers but the 333 was amazing with them, albeit a very expensive choice. Still this amplifier comparison showed to me very clearly how the M2 can scale up their sound quality with a better amplifier to show me clear differences between two very high end Gryphon amplifiers. That was very impressive to me as that is the true marker of an end game worthy speaker, one that can grow as your system does.

I also needed to test the speakers with more real world priced amplifiers too so I tried them with the HiFi Rose RA180 Gan-Fet class A/D integrated and even more real world priced the Galion TS34 tube amplifier. Both were a very obvious step down from the Gryphons as you would expect at less then half the money but it didn’t matter what amplifier I used I still found the Figaro enjoyable to listen, but just with quite different presentations. This is another tick in the flexibility box and this one is massive in my eyes.

There was some overriding sonic traits of the Figaro regardless of the amplifier I used, the first one that hit me straight away is the delivery of vocals. From the first song I played I was instantly impressed with the vocals energy, detail and expressiveness with a lovely overriding smoothness and it was only later that I remembered about the use of the wide band mid range driver. It hit me how this implementation makes total sense and boy does it work really well. With the right amplifier vocals can sound stunning for their clarity with a lovely authentic timbre and rich warm tone, vocals that are right up my street because of how the upper bass, lower mid range region is so well integrated and fleshes out a full in tone sounding vocal, combined with the fast articulation of details.

This great combination allows vocals to just hover in the air between or behind the speakers big and full with a lovely sense of rounded 3D character. In a typical paper driver way to some degree but done even better and to get this lively engaging timbre rich rounded and 3D sounding vocals from speakers without the addition of subwoofers is great.

Bass or Baaaasssss!

The second thing that jumped out to me about the Figaro is their presence, not treble region presence I mean the presence of their whole sound.  It’s a big speaker that sounds like a big speaker, not all big speakers do. What do I mean by this, I mean all the elements happening in the sound stage vocals, drums, piano it doesn’t matter they all sound big and full and energetic and lively, they have real presence in the room. All music had real presence in the room because it’s always a lively big energetic thing that’s great to sit and listen to because it’s an experience to sit and listen to, its very uplifting foot tapping stuff.

For small or micro detail retrieval the Figaro definitely err on the side of caution with a very smooth overall sound rather than being all about the small details like some speakers can be. This aspect about them can be amplifier dependent because with the HiFi Rose the high frequencies and the overall clarity was far more pronounced than with the Galion tube amp for example, proving you can make the Figaro more about the focused specifics of music if you want them to be.  I think they are happier speakers with a little more graceful ease coming from the amplifier but its still more than fine either way with them, again great flexibility.

Even with only 25 Class A watts of the Galion tube amp it was enough for the Figaro to give me a full and impactful good quality and still fun bass, but the bigger power amplifiers like the Gryphon 333 got much more out of the Figaro for bass power, scale, drive and dynamics as you would expect.  Even so their bass is not as obviously big hitting as from my SVS Titan speakers but it’s a far better quality bass that’s still pleasing rounded bass rather than dry or mechanical. The Figaro gets you close to being as impactful on the body as the SVS but the bass is more nuanced and feels more free to move around the sound stage or the room music depending, rather than always being a little on the heavier on you side as the SVS can be. I don’t mind about the heavier nature of the SVS at all but I can find myself listening to more bass heavy music with them because that is where they are great, whereas I could appreciate the bass variety in music better from a wider selection of music genre with the Figaro so that encouraged me to listen to more varied music.

The bass amount the Figaro deliver is probably just about perfect for my room size, there is enough of it in the important frequency regions to satisfy even a bass head like me for its impact and the fullness feeling of it, but interestingly the spec sheets says extension to 30 Hz. I think the speakers output in the deepest notes is more modest as I know my extensive acoustic treatment stops being most effective below 40Hz so I can hear very easily when a speaker or subwoofer has big output below that in how long the bass notes take to decay, is it fast or does it linger and thicken the sound. There is a clever trick happening here because the bass from the Figaro feels big enough deep enough to be very satisfying even for me but it does not trigger my rooms very deepest room mode at 35Hz, a very common room mode. To me this is a clever balance of enough bass where you want it but not too much where you don’t and again not all big speakers have bass like this.  Some sound lean but very extended so they dont give me enough pressure feeling and just rumble my room and I always scratch my head when a larger speaker sounds like that.  I think most people buy larger speakers for more bass pressure feeling and kick and hit, not for more deep bass.  They buy subwoofers for that manufacturers please take note of this.

Juicy

It’s a similar thing for the treble, you would think a small soft dome would be super soft sounding and maybe lost with a big and full sounding speaker because sometimes it can be, but not here. The treble is softer and sweeter than a lot of metal domes I have experienced and its never aggressive or overly attacking, if you like treble to be more on the edge these might not be for you. I found there to always be a very balanced amount of treble and sometimes the highs are very subtle backing layers and other times its very much at the forefront of the sound stage but I liked the treble because it never dominates your ear, however if you switch your audible focus on to just the highs all the information is there for you presented very clearly but smoothly, but again it can be more lively with an amplifier choice like the HiFi Rose RA180.

Interestingly listening to sibilance in music, I really like Melody Gardot’s One and Only Thrill album and there can be quite a lot of sibilance in her voice and through the Figaro the “sss” sibilance sound its there you can hear it but its not sharp or its not smoothed over sounding either, you know its there but its clearly musical information, never that grating overemphasised “ssss” sound that can be unpleasant. I like that balance.

Lastly to speak about would be soundstage and the Figaro do not give you a pin point crazy tight spatial accuracy of a speaker like the Estelon AURA, but they do sound stage fantastically well by compared to the SVS Titan and many other speakers I have had in listening room.  They deliver music with excellent excellent depth and layering that can come right out to the listening position with excellent positional and spatial information. As I said earlier everything the Figaro present in the sound stage has a real presence in the room so when you focus your audible attention on individual things it always has a big energetic impact about it, even the subtle things in the music have a generous size presence. The Figaro do have a lively energetic overall sound presentation that is full of vibrancy but they are not forward sounding in any way, again it’s a lovely balance in that regard.

It can’t all be good

So the Figaro M2 so far are hitting on just about every positive attribute for me and my taste for sound preference but what about any negatives, nothing is perfect. Sonically if you prefer a speaker that draws music with a very thin pencil edge so music sounds ultra precise and very carved out in the sound stage, these don’t do that. The transient edges of the music are always a little softer or a little thicker, maybe drawn with a sharpie and not a pencil. I prefer that presentation its a little more pleasing but you may prefer more precision of sound presentation, something to think about.

I am going to be very harsh here because these speakers are built like tanks, so built very well but there are some things with their design that feels very boutique manufacturer, such as there being some obvious joins in the cabinet and the top and base are oversized. This is of course all fine and quite charming actually but it does give a different first impression compared to a KEF Reference speaker for example where its build feels more invisible and maybe a little more sleek, where more feels hidden but also more mass manufactured.

This very much extends to the speaker grills which I didn’t love the design of as they are solid wood in the main with cut outs for the drivers so that makes them heavy. The magnets are on the grills and connect to the front speaker trim sections rather than the magnets being built into the speakers baffle. This can leave little circle mark on the metal trims and my OCD instantly kicks in making me want to clean it off.  I would leave the grills in the box personally,  also the outrigger legs the speaker sits on are shaped pieces of wood. This is fine again however with speakers even at KEF R series level we get custom moulded metal pieces for the outrigger legs that again make a different first impression on you as the buyer. Once installed though the wood riggers do a great job and are extremely strong so this clearly minor very harsh nit picking criticism but for a £9,000+ speaker its right for me to nit pick the small details. None of them would stop me buying the speakers far from it.

Speakers made just for you

The customisation process of buying a pair of Figaro speakers finished exactly as you want really stood out to me as a very cool way into the future of buying high end HiFi speakers, more like buying a new car experience. AS have created an online configurator tool that is free and very easy to use.  With the tool you can test out all different manner of colours, trims, different front and rear panel designs and more.  I created a whole video about this as part of the Elite Audio speaker finish competition. Trying to explain this tool could be very wordy, its easier just to watch the video about it here.

The configuration code for the Figaro M2 speakers I had here is EGKOC24N so to check it out for yourself, punch the code into the tool and you can see it and play with to make it better.

Final Thoughts

I think the Audio Solutions Figaro M2 are epically good hifi speakers for being balanced just about right across all the important sonic traits I value while being very stand out for their vocals delivery and bass quality. Those two stand out traits make these speakers really stand out to me and is why I enjoyed listening to them so much.

I am also very impressed by their flexibility, how if your system is modest when you buy these speakers they will still be excellent to listen to and will keep getting better for you as your system improves. You can take your system pretty much any way you want, using them with tubes or solid state gear with great results, really very flexible.  The customisation of them is just the icing on the cake, but its a topping I liked very much too.

These are all the reasons the Audio Solutions Figaro M2 are my speaker of the year 2024 and I think that is all I need to say.

A Special Performer Award is Pursuit Perfect Systems highest accolade and is in recognition of exceptional product performance regardless of price

For the full specification of the Audio Solutions Figaro M2 speakers see their website linked here