Notes on the Icon Lumen

Posted this on another site, but thought there would be a receptive audience here as well.

I was recently generously gifted a pair of speakers that I knew nothing about. The Icon Lumen. I thought I’d document my research here for others to enjoy.

Icon Acoustics was a small company that existed for a few years in the early ’90’s, created by David Fokos—who started out designing speakers for Conrad-Johnson. it was one of the first with a direct-to-consumer business model. Try the speakers for free in your home for 30 days, free shipping both ways! Ahead of its time. A novel enough business model that it was featured in an article in Inc. Magazine.

Mr. Fokos personally built all of the speakers, outsourcing the cabinets. He made two models, the full-range Icon Parsec — reviewed in Stereophile here, and the stand-mount Lumen.

The Lumen was reviewed in a shootout review in the July 1991 Stereophile Magazine (page 138) PDF download, with a quite long letter-to-the-editor response from Mr. Fokos in the August 1991 issue (page 221) PDF download.

Technical info— more detail in Stereophile Magazine shootout:
8 ohm nominal
90db sensitivity
crossovers are 2nd-order filters around 1250 Hz
6.5” polypropylene woofer (made by Vifa)
1” aluminum dome tweeter (made by SEAS)
Front ported enclosure
Audioquest internal wiring (all hand-soldered)
Tiffany binding posts

So, that’s what I know! These speakers have replaced the MartinLogan 35xti in my system for now. They definitely sound like an upgrade in all areas except upper midrange of vocals. Which, isn’t surprising given the folded motion tweeter in the MartinLogan. They throw a nice wide and deep soundstage that is more stable and accurate than I've experienced before, and an abundance of detail. All around strong performers!