Reviews & Articles

A few notable quotes are captured here, for the full review follow the link at the bottom of this post!

"The depth of image can be hypnotic"

"the Five17s sound very musical, smooth, clean, and invisible as sources"

"The bass is surprisingly extended for a speaker of its size"

"The depth of image was very lifelike, and aspects of the music emerged that might have passed unnoticed with other speakers"

"the Telarc recording of the Debussy and Ravel string quartets played by the Cleveland Quartet (an Aubort/Nickrenz recording masterpiece) had a realistic ring to the pizzicato in the second movement of the Ravel, which is seldom heard in music reproduced by speakers, a kind of subtle sonic spectacular in a context—a string quartet recording—where spectacle is not really expected."

"the Centaur CD of the late William Parker singing Copland’s Old American Songs. Word clarity was perfect; the animal sounds of “I bought me a cat” were startlingly vivid."

"The fabulous Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade recorded by Aubort/Nickrenz—with the St. Louis Symphony, Semkov conducting, in Powell Hall… with the right user-chosen EQ setting it sounded very convincingly like the sound one hears in Powell (to the extent I can remember—it has been a while) and, in any case, sounded very natural and like an orchestra in concert in a good, or in this case, super-good venue."

( In a conversation with Robert, who is a classically trained orchestral musician, the topic of Powell Hall came up. The founding team of Heavenly Soundworks is originally from the St. Louis area. Robert expressed that, in his opinion, Powell Hall is the best-sounding concert hall in the entire US, which gives a little more context to the above comments on the speakers performance and ability to reproduce quite a spectacular experience.)

"Their sound is unusual… unusually good"

"The Five17s present a distinctive view and a definite philosophy of how a loudspeaker should behave. It is surely worth checking them out—there is not much else around like them"

"The Five17s… present a different view of neutral sound, and one which can be convincing, indeed… What they do, they do very well, and in a remarkably small and elegant package."

Check out the full review by picking up a copy of the October issue or head over to The Absolute Sound by following the below link!

A few notable quotes are captured here, for the full review follow the link at the bottom of this post!

"The first thing I did once the FIVE17s were ready was start-up Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here [Capitol 16-bit/24kHz FLAC] on Roon. The first track, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond One," opens with a bit of instrumental and guitar, the perfect way to begin the digital adventure in my mind. The music, clear and almost eerie, flows gently from the speakers as they accurately transform the hi-resolution FLAC file into something more significant. The guitar builds in volume above the instruments, and the separation between the instruments is immediately evident. There is no loss of control as the music becomes more complex throughout the track, even when the vocals appear later."

"Another thing that caught my attention during the first selection was the amount of bass coming from this relatively tiny enclosure. Mini monitors tend to be somewhat anemic when it comes to bass, even ones with a woofer. There is absolutely no shortage of controlled, effortless harmonics that begin well below hearing and extend seamlessly into the midrange. It is a testament to the ability that is bestowed to the system by the DSP. The Couches should be commended for their efforts because it is one of the most successful efforts that I've encountered in quite some time."

"When you close your eyes, thanks to the speakers' ability to separate the channels and build a lifelike sound stage, the room disappears, replaced by a different world. A world the artist intended you to experience."

"Days went by, and the number of albums continued to increase. Each one seemed to bring with it a different experience. The next notable one was Arne Domnerus's Jazz at the Pawnshop [FIM SACD M 034]. This live album has all the elements that make jazz tremendous and so hard to reproduce. The instrumentals are challenging to capture. Their sounds tend to lose their lifelike quality. It quickly collapses into the meaningless morass of sound on many systems. Luckily the FIVE17 does not suffer from the same fault as these systems. They can handle the difficult transitions and separations."

"One of my favorite tracks, "Barbados," has a little bit of all the instruments. It does a beautiful job of highlighting the speakers' ability to create an open soundstage and fill it with sound as well. The music is perfectly balanced, and the instruments are detailed enough to hear their attack and decay with ease."

"One of the most exciting features included with these speakers is three loudness presets. I usually do not get excited about features that change the way music sounds. Any change to the sound is an invasion in my mind. However, the purpose of the presets is to level out the loudness curve and provide a better listening experience. Indeed, when you are critically listening to the correct levels, these curves are likely not necessary. Still, if you are like many people, you are listening to your sources at a level either too high or too low, and these can help balance them out."

"The second preset is intended to be used at volume levels between the mid-70s and low 80s. That is primarily where most people are supposedly listening to their music. When first engaged, the change is almost instantaneous, meaning that you can hear the difference without even trying. Things become more apparent and more pronounced in the lower mid-range to upper bass. Everything is slightly richer and casts less of a shadow over everything else."

"The third preset, like the second, is also specifically designed for use between certain volume levels. This one is for lower volumes up to the mid-70 dBs. Again, like the second one, it does something similar and brings out the lower mid-range and upper bass. It allows the listener to enjoy selections such as orchestral music at lower volumes without sacrifice, which is a plus considering the wide range of this type of music."

"The presets were impressive, and the ability to listen to the material at lower levels was a nice fundamental feature."

"Their ability to reproduce bass, especially in a mini-monitor, is beyond impressive. Heavenly Soundworks did a great job of combining a DSP, DAC, and digital amplifier into a tiny package and making it both visually appealing and functionally sound. The stands are another example of their ability to create a beautiful speaker that is equally form and function."

"The bottom line the Heavenly Soundworks FIVE17 speakers are very unique. If you can afford them, you should certainly give them a listen. Their special features and functions might be just the ones you needed. The performance in the right environment, especially with higher resolution material, is the best this reviewer has heard to date. You will not be disappointed."

Check out the full review over at EnjoyTheMusic!

A few notable quotes are captured here, for the full review follow the link at the bottom of this post! (Spoiler Alert: The demo set of FIVE17's lent out for this review did not make a return trip!)

"Many of the speakers I  have listened to provide an “Impressionist Painting” view of the music.  The FIVE17 speakers present a high resolution photograph."

"The FIVE17 is a different beast with vocals.  JUST WOW!"

"The FIVE17 has the most natural presentation I have ever had in my home."

"I am still trying to find the right descriptive language to express what I feel from the FIVE17 low registers.  There is a depth there you have to hear to understand."

"In comparing them to the FIVE17, the Kii Threes are dry and somewhat analytical.   The FIVE17 speakers are more "organic," have more PRAT, and a more comfortable listening experience.  The bass extension is significantly lower."

"I am still at a loss to describe what I hear in the low end of the FIVE17 speakers.  Do they move the room?  Design, DSP engineering, and driver selection magic?"

Check out the full review over at Audiophile Style!

A few notable quotes are captured here, for the full review follow the link at the bottom of this post!

"Could these stand-mounted speakers actually deliver bass output below 27Hz, as Heavenly Soundworks claims? You betcha." ... "these speakers had solid output down to about 25Hz."

"Cassandra Wilson’s cover of “Don’t Explain” sounded wonderful" ... "it was almost impossible not to sway to Wydler’s hypnotic floor-tom beat. The huge soundstage evoked a cavernous nightclub, but despite being soaked in reverb, every element—electric guitar, piano, bass, drums, loops—was clearly defined on that stage, with Wilson right at the center. It was easy to imagine sitting in a smoke-filled club, wrapped in a boozy haze, and think that Wilson was singing right to me."

"I find recordings of solo piano useful for assessing a speaker’s timbral consistency, freedom from resonances, and dynamics. Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to Plays, a compilation of live concerts by the late Chick Corea (24/96 FLAC, Concord Jazz/Qobuz). I played this 112-minute album in its entirety several times through the FIVE17s, and it sounded glorious." ... "Corea’s playful right-hand trills and chords sounded ideally crisp and articulate, not overlit or etched—just natural. And when he slid into the lower-register rolled chords that begin his arrangement of Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach’s “Yesterdays”—wow! Although those chords were gentle and restrained, the FIVE17s conveyed the size, power, and harmonic richness of Corea’s instrument. Dynamics, macro and micro, were very impressive. The FIVE17s delivered Corea’s big staccato phrases effortlessly, and in legato phrases showed off his subtle dynamic shadings. Throughout both tracks, piano tone was completely convincing, and consistent through the instrument’s entire range."

"I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a solo acoustic piano reproduced more convincingly in my living room."

"To assess the FIVE17s’ ability to deal with dynamic extremes, I cued up a 2014 live recording of Camille Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No.3, “Organ,” by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, with James O’Donnell playing the newly refurbished Royal Festival Hall organ (24/96 FLAC, LPO/ProStudioMasters). This massive instrument has 7866 pipes, including 32′ pedal pipes that can play down to 16Hz." ... "This also gave me an opportunity to verify the usefulness of the FIVE17s’ preset modes. Through much of that slow movement, the strings play a serenely ecstatic theme underpinned by a deep organ-pedal note. While the EQ tamed those troublesome modes, when I listened at quiet levels, those pedal notes sounded too faint. Engaging Preset 2 made those pedal notes more audible, and the cellos and double basses fuller, for a more pleasing balance of the LPO strings. I listened to the entire 10:26 movement with these settings, and it was meltingly beautiful. The FIVE17s resolved the gentle bowing of the LPO strings, scaling up naturally in orchestral swells. The attacks of pizzicato notes later in the movement were fast but not overlit, each pluck of string decaying naturally into the resonance of the instruments’ bodies. Bowed violins sounded just a tad steely, but the cellos were gorgeous: woody and richly resonant. The FIVE17s threw a wide, deep soundstage populated by precisely drawn aural images, while also providing an excellent sense of the hall ambience, which seemed to extend far out into my listening room." ... "Through the FIVE17s, it sounded magical. The strings and piano floated in space between my speakers, and the organ filled my room."

"to confirm Heavenly Soundworks’ claims of the FIVE17s’ bass response" ... "I cued up the title track of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones’ Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (24/88.2 MQA, Warner Bros./Tidal). On this album, Victor Wooten plays a five-string fretless electric bass guitar, its bottom string tuned to B0 (30.87Hz). The big, lumbering, two-note bass riff that opens the track sounded huge and effortless, confirming that the FIVE17s could indeed go very deep." ... "Halfway through this track, Wooten plays a long solo: the first verse on his bass’s upper strings, the second on its bottom string. In that second verse, there’s loads of bass between 30 and 40Hz, and the FIVE17s showed no hint of struggle in reproducing it. Quite the contrary—these deep notes sounded big, bold, and effortless" ... "The FIVE17s were just as satisfying higher in the audioband. The star of this show is, of course, Fleck’s banjo. Each plucked string exploded out of the Heavenlys without sounding the least bit harsh or etched, followed by the twangy decay of the banjo’s head and resonator. It was glorious."

"To try those presets one more time, I turned the volume way down, so that I was getting peaks of 68dB. Wooten’s bass still sounded delicious, but not as big and bold as it had at higher levels. Selecting Preset 2 restored that impact" ... "For late-night listening, or keeping peace with the neighbors, these presets can be a great feature."

"When Kevin and Jonathan Couch founded Heavenly Soundworks, [The goal for us was the best possible reproduction of sound,] Jonathan told me. [For us, it was reproducing as closely as possible what the artist or mastering engineer intended.] To a great extent, they’ve succeeded." ... "what stood out ... was these speakers’ impressive dynamics, lively sound, revelatory detail, and deep, authoritative bass. And the workmanship is impeccable—make that luxurious."

"I’m sure many DIY speaker builders dream of turning their hobby into a business. But it’s a huge leap from assembling one- or two-off speaker kits to developing a serious consumer product and bringing it to market. Bravo to Kevin and Jonathan Couch for successfully making that leap. In the FIVE17, they’ve created an active speaker that deserves—no, demands—to be taken seriously."

Check out the full review over at SoundStage!