Aequo Stilla - first review by Christizan Punter

Just like the Hybrid Stillas, the fully-active Stillas have staggeringly deep, solid, and linear bass, with room-filling soundstaging and absolutely superb focus and imaging.

Although the audiophiles in some more conventional markets around the world still have a bit of hesitation when it comes to full-active loudspeakers, we noticed a clear upward trend in most parts of the world. With superb class D amplification and keeping the signal path completely analogue, the people at Aequo Audio knew for a while that this was a combination of greatness. We felt it was time for the first full-active review. 

Having the experience of a hybrid Stilla fresh in his mind (read his beautifully written review here), we asked Mr. Punter of Hifi Advice to put his skilled ears to work again. And he did. 
Soon we learned that he basically heard no real difference between a full-active Stilla and a hybrid version driven by a top notch € 31.000,- CH precision amplifier. What a compliment! Just like the hybrid version, the full-active Stilla got rewarded with another ‘Highly Recommended Award’!

The highlights of his -again very beautifully written review- are listed below.

Highlights

• Just like the Hybrid Stillas, the fully-active Stillas have room-filling soundstaging while simultaneously being capable of superb imaging and razor-sharp focus. The layering in the depth plane is absolutely fabulous and has to be heard to be understood. And just like with the Hybrids, the resolution is again first-rate.
• Class-D sounds overly clean? Not the way that it is implemented here! In spite of their precision, the Stillas really are very far from being clinical. But neither are they polite- dynamically, they are absolutely stunning.
• Where razor-sharp imaging and high resolution can lead to leanness with some speakers, this is far from the case with the Stillas for they sound remarkably full-bodied and with bass so deep and powerful that you can’t help but wonder where the subwoofer is hidden.
• The Stillas possess from bottom to top a full-blooded tonality that injects everything you play with a pleasant richness.
• Besides their superb imaging and unbelievably powerful bass, perhaps their most alluring aspect is their natural midrange and the seamlessness with which the midrange driver crosses over to the tweeter. The two drivers seemingly work as one, always delivering vocals, strings, and woodwinds with an alluring “singing” quality.
• By now it’s quite clear that my impression of the two Stilla models is very nearly the same. This seems only logical since they are 95% identical but that leaves out the fact that I used the first pair with a 31.000-euro amplifier! In other words, replacing this amp with twin Ncore modules leads to the same results? Well, in this implementation in pretty much all aspects very nearly so, indeed.
• From their sleek looks there’s nothing obvious to give away the depths of the technological advances that went into their design, much less the complex inner workings of the speakers.
  The Stillas clearly appeal to those who want superb, truly full-range sound without letting the speakers or system dominate the room.
• The extra 2000 euro not only buys you two very high-quality built-in amplifiers, but it also eradicates all worries about amplifier-matching, while creating extra space in your living room environment, and saving you many multiples of the Active’s surplus charge that you would normally spend on a stand-alone amplifier.

Conclusion

"In many ways, this review is a carbon copy of the initial Stilla review. Not only are the two models very nearly identical in build and looks, but they also sound very nearly identical. Just like the Hybrid Stillas, the fully-active Stillas have staggeringly deep, solid, and linear bass, with room-filling soundstaging and absolutely superb focus and imaging.

While the distinction between the Hybrid and Fully-active Stilla models may seem relatively insignificant at first glance, it is actually a very big deal. The extra 2000 euro not only buys you two very high-quality built-in amplifiers, but it also eradicates all worries about amplifier-matching, while creating extra space in your living room environment, and saving you many multiples of the Active’s surplus charge that you would normally spend on a stand-alone amplifier!

“Just like the Hybrid Stillas, the fully-active Stillas have staggeringly deep, solid, and linear bass, with room-filling soundstaging and absolutely superb focus and imaging.”

​Christiaan Punter, Hifi Advice

Read the full review on hifi-advice.com.

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