What's your reference?

By Anonymous -

Opera Mezza Bookshelf Speakers



I’m a pretty lucky audiophile. Not only do I get to play with, listen to and test some of the best audio gear from the last 20 years in my gig here at The Music Room, but I have something other audiophiles simply dream of: a personal recording project where I pay bands to perform in a hall and I record it and get to keep the recordings.

Through this project, I am able to create the holy grail of the audiophile world, which is a true reference recording.

As a recording and mastering engineer I always searched for “the truth” about how my mixes sounded, usually by playing them over many different systems.

As audiophiles we search to find the truth of how our systems sound by playing many different benchmark tracks over it.

But when you were there in person at the show, sitting just under the microphones, and you’ve set up a world class signal chain for recording, the resulting recording can be more useful than a boatload of other people’s records. A true reference recording is one you know so well that when you switch on a new component or audition a new pair of speakers, you instantly know the new gear’s strengths and weaknesses.

Well, my recording project with my partner Darren Myers (of the PS Audio engineering team) produced another, truly reference recording for us the other night.

And as I play it back on these little Opera Mezza speakers with their lovely leather tops and bottoms, I am instantly struck by the accuracy and closeness to the sound of the real concert.

Which to me is a serious feat. These appear to have been very gently used as a display or in a demo, but also were likely sitting in their protective velour bags for a little bit of time.

That they barely needed to stretch their legs to nearly flawlessly recreate the unique and challenging sound of our recording is what made me open this notepad program and start writing.

I only mention gear here that is really special in some way, and these little cherry wood gems fit the bill.

If you’re a fan of the accuracy and soundstage of a small pair of Harbeths, or if you’re looking for a really accurate monitor for a home recording studio, I couldn’t more highly recommend these Opera Mezza speakers.

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