ALTA AUDIO ALYSSA MONITORS - REVIEW
Alta Audio Alyssa Monitors
Alta Audio, located in Huntington, New York, is headed up by Michael Levy, an industry veteran with an exceptionally colourful background. Levy showed an interest in sound, electronics and DIY at a very early age and eventually achieved a degree in electrical engineering from NYU. He became immersed in the discipline of speaker design in the early 1970s, and eventually founded Alta Audio in 2013 to make his vision of high fidelity loudspeakers come to life.
Speaking with Levy, it became clear he is a music lover above all else. He attends live music events and is well versed in numerous genres. He has even helped produce an audiophile recording and has a keen ear for talent. Why is this of importance? Well, because his love of live music, along with a very distinct set of design parameters, has been the guiding force behind his designs at Alta Audio.
We received a pair of his Alyssa stand mount monitors to evaluate, and they arrived in an impressive piano black gloss finish. They retail for $5000, with premium finishes available at extra cost. It would be an understatement to say the Alyssas are not a cookie cutter design. In fact, Levy uses his favourite recordings, and most interestingly, a panel of sorts composed of listeners whose ears he trusts implicitly, including recording engineers. Yes, there is a lot of listening done, as well as traditional methods of calibration and voicing.
One thing should be made clear, Levy is of strong mind that bass…deep bass, and quality bass, are essential for satisfying listening on a high end home playback system. It provides the weight and foundation to anchor the sound and makes it believable. I don’t disagree in principle at all.
Design:
The Alyssa is outfitted with a 6 inch bass-mid driver which is custom manufactured for the Alta. The 2.5" ribbon tweeter is integrated with the cone driver by a 3rd order crossover. The speakers’ published specifications include a nominal impedance of 4 Ohms, and the sensitivity is listed at 87.5. This would indicate a decent amount of power is needed, 50 wpc at a minimum.
Where it gets really interesting is the cabinet design, and bass performance. The cabinet has a sloped pyramid / triangle shape that is as much form as function. Levy’s secret weapon is the internal XTL transmission line, which Levy says removes the need for excessive internal padding. We have all witnessed the myopic drive by some speaker designers to make the cabinets as inert as humanly possible. In my (and Levy’s opinion), this is somewhat misguided. He does however believe that a rigid front baffle is important.
There are just a few strategically situated pads to combat standing waves. In the end, Levy sees speakers as their own kind of musical instrument. There is a port at the top rear of the speakers, behind the tweeters. There are port plugs supplied, but I had neither the inclination nor the need to use them for any reason. That is enough technical talk, on to listening!
Set Up & Listening:
The Alyssas were set up on 28 inch stands, approximately six feet apart, and ten feet from the listening position. Sturdy stands are a must, as the speakers are deep and weigh 28 lbs a side. They are not lightweights. There was plenty of space away from walls and boundaries. I started with a very modest toe in then ended up with roughly a 20 degree angle. The speakers came with nicely made grilles, but after a few minutes we promptly removed them and never used them again until it was time to pack them up.
The speakers were connected to the Mola Mola Kula integrated amplifier with DAC and phono modules. (REVIEW LINK?) The Kula puts out 300 wpc into 4 Ohms and was an excellent match for the Alyssas. Towards the tail end of the loan period, we drove the speakers with the Audio Hungry Qualition X200 (review in process) integrated amp. It puts out 100 wpc with KT120 tubes. It was also a superb partner for the Alyssas. I used Black Cat speaker cables and Audio Art Cable power cords. Everything was connected to Bryston and Audience power conditioning products.
When changing over from our usual Magnepan 1.7i panels, we were expecting a bit of a transition period for our ears, but we were greatly surprised by just how seamless the handover was. Maybe it is the ribbon tweeter, or the front baffle, but we heard the transient speed, detail, coherency and delicacy we so love about our Maggies. There were some differences of course, but it was the bass that really stood out. The bass was a different kettle of fish altogether.
The low end performance of the Alta monitors was something we could only get close to with panels by using a stereo pair of JL Audio subwoofers. The Alyssas presented bass in a rock solid, articulate and pleasing way, but not at the expense of anything else. The room and the Alta speakers were a perfect match as well. The speakers breathed, they sang, and they drew you in in a way that few other, if any, two way monitors we have heard in our listening space have been able to do.
We listened to everything from our usual classic rock, jazz and folk, to up to the minute releases. For good measure, we streamed a slew of Joni Mitchell albums, all remastered at 24/192. These albums, including For The Roses, Ladies Of The Canyon and, of course, Blue, were rendered as beautiful timepieces, with Mitchell’s voice having a clarity and a presence rarely as satisfying on other speakers. Her unique guitar and piano performances also shone through, with the texture and tone of each instrument having a genuine sparkle and realistic attack. The most important thing was that the true character of her voice was on display.
An album released in early 2022, Hell on Church Street, by Punch Brothers, is a sublime example of Americana, folk and bluegrass, executed to the highest order. It is the group’s fifth album, and a high watermark in their remarkable career. Chris Thile’s voice and mandolin are in exceptional form, and the choice of material is a direct duplicate of the songs on Church Street Blues by bluegrass legend Tony Rice, one of their biggest influences. Their versions of “Pride Of Man”, “Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald” and “The Last Thing On My Mind” capture the drama of the originals, while happily adding a bit of a unique flavour.
I put on one of my very favourite recordings, the acoustic portion of Seal’s Best 1991-2004, a 24 bit rip from DVD-A. It is rare, very rare, for me to get goosebumps while listening to a home playback system, but it happened here. I was about to leave the room for a quick errand when “Colours” started, and I stopped dead in my tracks… The Alyssas made the sheer beauty and soul of this recording so apparent, it was impossible to leave. I had also never heard the bass line from “Bring It On” sound as supple, elastic and precise as this.
Next up was the young UK based folk rock band Meadow Argus, who dazzle with a stunning debut album, Silvering. The mix of female and male lead vocals, acoustic guitars, heavy bass lines, and acid guitar flourishes filled the room with great joy. The Alyssas provided a very transparent window into the 48 kHz Bandcamp download, and there was a beautiful shimmer to the quaint arrangements.
The Alyssas do require some forethought as far as set up goes. In my estimation, they will not be at their best crammed into a tight space. They need some air around them, as most great speakers do, but even more so here because of the unusually good bass extension. Good stands and a quality amplifier and speaker cables are essential, as one would not put cheap knock off tires on a Ferrari. A little experimentation with toe in, and you are in for very satisfying listening sessions.
Conclusion:
The Alta Audio Alyssa is an exceptional loudspeaker in every way if you covet true to life imaging, authentic texture, and genuine, foundational bass without compromise. If one can do them justice spacewise, and you are the type of listener who appreciates coherence and natural musical expression, these are a must audition. Michael Levy and Alta Audio in our estimation have a class leading product on their hands. We can’t think of another two way monitor at its price point we prefer. We can’t think of another monitor at its price point that we prefer. We award the Alta audio Alyssa the GOLDEN KEYNOTE AWARD.
Alyssa Specifications
Height: 14.5 inches, 15 inches with spikes
Width: 8 inches at top, 9.6 inches at bottom
Depth: 13.25 inches at top, 14.25 inches at bottom
Weight: 28 lbs
Design Features
Driver complement:
– One 2 inch ribbon tweeter
– One 6 inch midrange woofer with Titanium Former
Sensitivity: 87.5 dB / 2.83 Volts @
Frequency response: 32Hz to 47kHz +/- 3 dB
Impedance: 4 Ohms
Requirements: 50 to 150 Watts per channel
Alta XTL Bass with DampHard faceplate
Manufacturer: ALTA AUDIO
Contact: Michael Levy, Adam Sohmer