Steve Guttenberg did a review of these Norwegian speakers Frigg 02
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Agree with @tonyptony. Enjoyed their room and the Boulder electronics really helped them sing! |
I believe the US distributor/dealer is HiFi Loft: https://www.hifi-loft.com/ |
Guttenberg is more of a marketer than an actual reviewer, but yes he did. On paper I'm very intrigued by these speakers and I look forward to hearing them at Axpona. But if a company isn't savvy enough to name their company or their brand something that can be easily googled or researched on forum discussions with accurate search results, I'm not convinced that they're clever enough to design a truly amazing speaker at it's price. Ø Audio is about as bad of a name for a speaker company as one could come up with. The little Norwegian “Ø” might look stylish, but in practical terms, it can get lost in translation or in online searches. I do think it’s a shame when a good product misses out on attention simply because its name isn’t straightforward to type or pronounce. If they ever decided to rebrand, something simpler like Norway Fidelity or even a simpler stylized spelling of “Ø” could help people talk about them more easily and find them online. Of course some companies do find success with quirky, stylized names; it can be memorable in its own way. But for something as research-heavy as high-end audio, clarity definitely helps with word-of-mouth and discoverability. I hope they manage to carve out their niche. Sometimes, a devoted community finds a way to talk about a product no matter how it’s spelled. Either way I wish them the best and I hope the Icon 12 sound as good as they look. |
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@alexbpm Guttenberg has also previously said he will NEVER give something a bad review. You really need to read between the lines on his reviews to figure out what he means. It's all about the $$$ with these reviewers because they know if they bite the hand that feeds them, they are done. This is especially true with magazine reviews since they usually review advertisers' equipment the most often. |
@willywonka Sort-of.... Steve Guttenberg doesn't do any review for gear he doesn't like. If he gets in a product that he doesn't care for, he just sends it back to the manufacturer and never mentions it on his channel. If he gets in gear he does like, then he'll make a review video. So all the review videos he has made do not encompass all of the gear he has reviewed over the years. Only the stuff he likes. |
@alexbpm + 1 - I also guess that this speaker company doesn't care too much about their English-speaking potential customers, as we don't have that letter on our keyboards and can't even look up the company's website. Sure, I could find some combination of keys to make that letter, but do they really expect potential customers to do that? If they can't be bothered to call their company by a name I can look up, I can't be bothered to look into their speakers. |
Sure, one can do a search for O audio on this forum. But the search results are exactly as expected. Results for the letter O and the word Audio displayed in no intelligent fashion...thats the point. It's a mess. Regardless, I recently had an opportunity to listen to the Icon 12 paired with a Pathos Classic integrated at Upscale Audio. To say the speaker is not to my taste is an understatement. The speaker sounded so warm and rolled off in the treble department that I was a bit confused as to what I was hearing. So I asked the sales associate if the speakers were still breaking in. He responded by saying that I was not the first customer to make that comment as he had been asked that earlier in the day. Apparently this was the exact same pair that was used at the Florida Audio Expo and make its way to Upscale so who knows how many hours they had on them. I was fresh off a Harbeth M30.3 and M40.5 XD demo at another dealer and I know the Harben sound very well. While I enjoy their dynamics, Harbeths have always been too warm for my taste. And during this demo, the Icon 12's were even warmer than the Harbeth sound that I'm accustomed to, which is saying something. I will say, the one thing the Icon 12's had going for them on this particular day was the midrange.. texture of instruments was fantastic. Very organic and lifelike. There was something special going on in there, but it didn't matter. I couldn't enjoy them because the highs sounded rolled off and the bass was a bit uncontrolled with poor bass detail. Take my impressions with a grain of salt as the amp may have been to blame (poor synergy), or perhaps the speakers indeed need another couple hundred hours of break in. But it was a very poor first impression. |
I want to follow up my previous criticism of the poor demo I heard of the Icon 12's paired with a pathos integrated amp. After attending AXPONA and listening to the Icon 12's with Boulder amps and DCS gear, I can now confirm that the bad demo I heard previously was in fact due to extremely poor synergy. Because this time, the speakers were not muddy or warm...but vibrant, incredibly dynamic and lively with an extended top end. It was a really great demo. The midrange detail and bass extension was fantastic. The top end just needed a slight nudge of tube warmth and smoothness for my taste. But most people at the show raved about it. So if you're considering this speaker, keep in mind that you better pair it with the right gear because it can become a completely different beast when paired with the wrong equipment. My hats off to the owner and speaker designer because it was one of the better rooms at the show. |
