Foundation Designer premium speaker-stand and Tandberg System 11

Same old story: I wasn't prepared!

My recent exposure to the Tandberg System 11 mini-monitors made me a believer... I'm so in love for these unassuming seldom heard speakers I felt comfortable investing something for an UK-made original - not MkII made in Canada replicas - Foundation Designer speakers stand pair.

I found these vintage nicely handmade beauties in the hands of a gentleman in his seventies who was down-sizing his great gears collection: he bought'em brand new about 25 years ago and they costed literally an arm and a leg back then!

The logic part of my mind was saying "Wrong! Don't buy them!"... they cost several times more than you spent for the Tandbergs'... so, no good!

My adventurous side just was shouting: "Yeah, try'em! You cannot go wrong with these!"

... yes, no... yes...YES!

I today drove about 100 km back and forth to pick up the stands... the previous owner kept them in mint conditions, with original carton-boxes with old labels, spikes and all the sealing stickers in place.

I was back to my studio in half an hour hurrying up as I cannot stand in my shoes to try the Foundations' in my smaller system.

So what?

Well, I previously, temporarily listened to the Tandbergs' simply placed on top of the Cabasses', shame on me;-) so, you'll guess, something easy to improve.

... yet the sound was - nonetheless and already - surprisingly, embarrassingly, incredibly good!

... now, after lowering the height and improving the... heck, YES, the speakers foundation... the combo simply disappears in the room, with very quick, well defined and beautiful low end and silky upper frequencies.

The overall result is well exceeding the sum of the parts!

I listened to some classic Paniagua's Harmonia Mundi and I almost fell from my lounge chair: dynamics and decay so greatly improved to my sincere surprise... a superb result, indeed!

I already see my pals Franco and Daniele's faces!!!

They who both already appreciated the Tandbergs' ... like me, they'll swear something magical going on!

Something so musical and supremely unrelated to lesser "facts" like money, for example!

I love my braveheart-side;-) as it's very seldom wrong... let's call it audio-instinct!


P.S. - the actual, ugly pictures of my very own studio and Foundation/Tandberg combo are here presented... proudly showing the (grunge) Rogers' alternative from Norway;-)

Stunning!