O Audio Icon 12. What Perfect speakers look like to ME.
By Steve Huff
It only took me 38 years to find and setup my dream HiFi system, well, at least the electronics part of it all. While I stressed for a while over it, and even almost sold some of it, for now I am hanging in there as it truly is a system I have dreamt of for well, a couple of decades. Not so much the exact pieces I have acquired but it’s more about something that brings pleasure, satisfaction and smiles. Something I know I would or could not “better” for my preferences and tastes. So for the electronics part of my system I am set.
When it comes to speakers this is another story. I have yet to find a speaker that does it all for me. A speaker that I know could not get better for my likes and musical tastes.
Sure, I have had many faves when it comes to speakers but no matter which one I loved, there was always at least one weakness somewhere. Maybe it was a lean midrange or spicy treble. Maybe it was too warm or dull even. Maybe I wasn’t in love with the design. Speakers are a very personal choice and for me I have been searching for this “perfection” in a speaker just as I have electronics. No, there is no such thing as a “perfect” anything for everyone, but for each of our individual tastes there could be a perfect speaker, sure.
Even so, I have had many speakers through my doors that I have loved, adored and swore I would keep for life but they were all in some way a compromise…in something.
This is True
I have never truly had a speaker here that I sat back and listened to and said “This is perfect and I cannot see any room for it getting better for me”. After some time with a speaker I always find something about that is not exactly “just right” and I go on my way to find that set that I probably will never ever find but who knows? Just as I have found an amp, preamp, DAC and streamer I could settle down with for life (even if I can not afford them) I know there is a speaker out there that would thrill me for the rest of my days, there has to be.
Speakers like the Fleetwood Deville’s that I loved so much? The bass from them can be a bit shy at times, and many would feel a sub is necessary. Adding subs can be fun but for me, over time, I have realized adding a sub in my smaller room often times overloads it with bass heavy music and sometimes messes with the mids of some speakers. After trying out subs for my own system for a couple of years I have now decided that most speakers, not all, sound better here without any subwoofer. The Deville’s brought a forward type of sound due to the horn, and it was exciting and at times breathtaking. In the end, I wanted a richer deeper bass experience without subwoofers, and I moved on, continuing the search.
My current speakers in house that I own are the Pure Audio Project Duet 15’s and these $7k speakers do so much right and little wrong. They bring forth a wide open sound and being open baffle really helps in this area. The vocals are magic and sweet even but these are not the most refined speakers I have heard nor is the bass of the rich and plump variety that can often times drive the music to a feeling of euphoria. Even so, they are some of my all time faves due to what we get for the money. A gorgeous look and sound that is well worth the cost yet I know there is technically “better” out there as there always is, right?
I can go on and on and even mention the French Diptyque 115’s and how amazingly transparent and magical they are. These are special but a “limited special” as the magic is meant for one really. These sound best in that sweet spot and when out of it, they sound a bit diffused. In that sweet spot though they offer a unique whole room sound with amazing imaging and instrument separation. They lack a bit of mid bass punch though and require some power to get going. Awesome speakers for those that love what a Planar brings but they are not for all music as rock and metal can suffer with them. Again, there are no perfect speakers.
The OGY and BOB that I still rave about? They are wonderful but modular… and for me, moving these around for review purposes just means more of a chance to break or drop something.
I have also heard Magico speakers, YG speakers, Sonus Faber speakers and all are excellent but for me these cost way too much for what they deliver. I once heard a $90k Magico speaker at a dealer, many years ago. I was honestly underwhelmed. I walked away saying “people pay that much for THAT”? They were great but in no way were they “$90k great”.
These are all amazing and wonderful speakers that anyone could enjoy with all music but I always knew that one day I would get a set of speakers in here that would impress me to no end, and one set that I would not find any faults with, at all. That day has come and the speakers are now in the system making music as I write these words. They are high end and expensive at $20,000 but these are absoluetly world class and do cost much less than the exotic brands above but really give up nothing to them. In fact, well…let’s just wait on the spoilers : )
The O Audio ICON 12
O Audio and their speakers are fully made in Norway and let me tell you this. These are some of the most gorgeous speakers I have ever and I mean ever laid my eyes on in the flesh. Each speaker weighs around 120-125lbs and they ship in big coffin like boxes. These ship freight and when they showed up I was wondering how on earth I would get them in the house. I’m 55 years old, 5’10” and weigh 160. My wife is 5 feet tall and weighs just over 100lbs. We did manage to get them up to the house, unboxed and installed but it was a challenge!
The driver was helpful and being in a box truck he had a lift, so once he placed them in my driveway my wife and I started to unravel it all. We managed to get each box to the front door and then inside of the house with the help of our dolly. It took us about an hour to unbox and have them set up in the room. But yea, these are downright beautiful and this sample is in the gloss walnut finish. They also come in gloss black.
O Audio has been around for a while but this is a “new to me” brand as I somehow have never have heard of them (I have been missing out). O audio recently released a new speaker that is an entry to their brand called the Frigg. When I saw the three speakers that they offered I knew in an instant which ones caught my eye, and they were the new Icon 12. Many years ago O Audio released the Icon to worldwide acclaim. Now they improved upon them after all of this time and lucky me gets to have a set here for a while to enjoy.
Before we get going into the build, design and sound performance I want to say a big thank you to HiFi Loft who managed to ship these to me for O Audio. They have worked with me in the past with some Electrocompaniet gear and are always a pleasure to work with. Visit the HiFi Loft here, they are legit!
The Extreme Level of Quality is Astonishing. Every inch of it.
The Icon 12’s are works of art, no question. They are the finest looking and built speakers I have ever had in the room. The woodwork is stunning, the cabinet is impressive with it’s size and depth but they do not look too big for my room at all, which was good as I was worried about that when I saw the boxes! Yea, they are large and any larger would indeed be too much but these blend in well, and look beautiful in the system. I love the look of these with the magnetic grilles off but they do ship with these grilles so you do have a choice.
The Icon 12 feature a 12″ bass driver as well as an advanced horn tweeter/mid voice that is again, something very special. It has zero horn shout and zero horn hollowness. It’s freaking amazing. I mean zero. They are also easy to drive at 92db sensitivity so almost any amps can apply here, even tube amps of lower power. Want to try a 10WPC tube amp, go ahead, it will drive them and allow the character of the amp to shine through. The bass ports are on the side of the speaker, not the back, bottom or front. This is unique as well and allows you to face the ports inside or outside. I tried both and enjoyed them placed inwards, which allowed for big clean bass without bloat or room issues.
On hand I have a Chord Ultima integrated amp to test with these in addition to my Nagra reference setup of Nagra HD Pre, Nagra HD DAC X and Nagra Classic Amp. For fun and giggles I also ran these with just a Wiim Amp Pro. I will report on all of this within this review. Being easy to drive is awesome as it opens these up to just about anyone with a power amp or integrated amplifier. I have found that yes, these can sound better with a more refined amp driving them but even those with a normal amp, even a Wiim Pro, can enjoy gorgeous music with the Icon 12’s. They are one of the most amp friendly speakers I have come across in recent memory.
I admit, when I saw these online I was a little worried that they may overpower the room with bass but this was not the case at all., The SQ of these Icon 12’s is all about being natural, extremely fluid and with one of the best “voices” I have heard in a speaker. Compared to say a Klipsch Forte IV or Cornwall IV, these are about 23 levels up when it comes to quality of EVERYTHING including the sound. Compared to some JBL horns I have heard these are about 28 levels up in al areas.
These are super refined, smooth and hefty but with a very sweet midrange that just sounds so so damn real. It’s spooky how well the bass driver works with the horn up top, they sound so amazing together. Perfect even. Yea, I just said that. The sound is so pure and these can do the 3D thing with ease. They image beautifully as well but not in an analytical way. These are magical speakers my friends and no matter what music I cued up they sounded unreal good. Amazing. Magical.
The speakers also have very nice metal feet that keeps the speakers rock solid in place on the floor. These will never accidentally tip over as one you set them up they will stay put. I love this as I recently had a set in that didn’t have feet, just small spikes at the bottom. These wobbled on the floor and were not coupled to the floor. I love a speaker that has a thoughtful design for all aspects of the build. O Audio has put alot of thought into these and you can tell as soon as you open the box.
SET UP
OK, I had the Icon 12’s in the room and was ready to set them up. I started by placing them where most speakers sounded great and lo and behold, this was the perfect placement. I did try other placements but I settled on 7 1/2 feet apart and I sat 8 feet away. I toed in the speakers to my ears where the sound would cross right behind my head. This was perfect and delivered an immediate soundstage that was quite large in width but also in depth. The height was nice going above the level of the speakers themselves.
The horn loaded tweeter here is the star of the show as it’s silky, smooth and extended but also has a touch of warmth so this means there is no brightness at all. The treble is about as perfect as I have heard for my ears as it is extended but not overdone. It’s airy but never dry. It also blends seamlessly with the 12″ bass driver and the speakers sound “as one”.
These are holographic as well. I am listening right now to Baba Blues St. James Infirmary on Tidal and I am so immersed in the music. There is just such a right sound to these..again, perfect for my tastes. Yes, perfect. The sound is dynamic but full bodied, yet also somewhat transparent and right now the sax is floating out from the speakers as the guitar strings sit in the back behind the left speaker, The raspy voice is coming out dead center floating in between the speakers. It’s truly unreal good. Majestic, grand, refined, gorgeous. Not one offensive sound is emitting from the speakers.
I recently had a set of high end speakers in that I decided not to review. They sounded good, but they seemed to be tuned to one style of music, classical and jazz. Any other music sounded off on them, lean in the mids without any life or groove. To be honest, I can not stand speakers like that. I would never spend a ton of money on a speaker that was a “one or two trick pony” so with the Icon 12’s coming in at $20k they had to sound AMAZING with all music, and heck, I even hoped they plumped up some bad recordings. I am not one who wants to “hear warts and all”, I want a speaker that can overcome this without adding color or bloat.
Once the Icon 12’s were set up there were hints that these would sound stumning with almost any music as they did not seem to suffer from the recessed weak midrange I hear in some audiophile designs. At the same time, they didn’t sound too puffed up in that region either. Again, for me this is about as good as it gets for a midrange and voice.
If I had to guess I think I have heard maybe over 250 sets of speakers in my life, in my own home. I am talking about going back three decades here and yet I have never heard two speakers that sounded the same. I was ready to be thrilled with the Icon 12’s as I dug in deeper and listened more and more over the following weeks.
Listening
I started simple. I opened up Tidal on my iPhone and started streaming to the Nagra Streamer (my all time fave streamer ever) and I started with an old Billy Joel song “She’s Got a Way” from the original album Cold Spring Harbor. As I listened to the voice of a much younger Billy Joel I had memories pop into my head of seeing him in concert in the late 80’s and early 90’s. The sound was so pure yet sweet. There was weight to the voice but it was a “pure” weight. As the Piano played the notes were separated from the voice, which was dead center in the room. It was an old song brought to life in a way I have not quite heard. When a speaker or audio system as a whole starts to bring up fond and even sometimes emotional memories from life it is a good thing. Oh, and Billy’s voice here sounded like he was right here in the middle of my room playing. Magic. As I turned up the volume the sound grew larger and stayed as refined as can be. Goosebumps.
The horn tweeter is amazing here as again, there was no hint I was listening to a horn. No shout, hollowness or shrillness. This performance took me “there” and it was soul stirring. Open, large scale effortless sound as if they were a living breathing entity set up just to sing for me.
I then decided to try some female vocals and listened to the usual audiophile faves such as Melody Gardot, Diana Krall, Norah Jones and Enya. Just as these produced the male voice with a sweetness and pure quality, it was the same for female vocals. They came to life with a breathiness, an airiness and yet sounded full and organic without a hint of stridency. No fatigue. All of these artists sounded gorgeous and as good as I have ever heard the recordings.
Diana Krall’s “Love Letters” was magical indeed but I rarely listen to this music in real life. Even so, her voice was so silky sweet and again, right here with me. The bass lines were pronounced and tight but not as tight as she speakers that make the bass sound weak and lean. You can hear each note with clarity but there is body and life here as well. When the Paino comes in it sounds real, with the weight needed for a correct reproduction of the music. I never heard this track better.
What about an old 1980’s hard rock recording that usually sounds like absolute dirt on most audiophile speakers.
To put these to the old crappy 80s recording test I cued up an old 1980s fave from when I was a teen and that was Dokken’s “Tooth and Nail”. Now I normally can not listen to this as most “audiophile” speakers will have this album sounding lean, shrill and well pretty bad. It is not the best recording, like most from this era but with that said the Icon 12’s brought amazing life this album. I now hear the bass and everything is laid out in a way where I hear EVERYTHING but it’s now making me groove, move and remember the days listening to the vinyl of this in my younger years, when life was easier, more fun and music was in my life every day.
No, the Icon 12’s did not do some voodoo here and make this sound perfect. I could still hear that it was a crappy recording but it was sounding better than I have EVER heard it.
Hear the Icon 12’s in this beautiful sound demo. I also share how I was asked to review these and it’s pretty cool!
I then played some electronic music and was enthralled by the soundstage, dynamics, wide open sound and BASS. From the mid bass to the lower bass, it all was melded together perfectly and there was body, fullness and a massive soundstage with beautiful imaging. Sitting in my sweet spot seat the sound was taking me to other places and I didn’t even need any alcohol or weed to get there, lol.
No matter what I played, the sound was gorgeous, grand, majestic and pristine. It had life, body, sweetness and could also be gentle as a drop of dew on a blade of grass on a 60 degree sunny morning. These could roar with the best of them as well. I was in awe of the Icon 12’s and yea, $20k is a lot of coin but let me tell ya, to me, these sound better than some $60k boxes I have heard. Yes, I liked them quite a bit better than my Pure Audio Project Duet 15’s, Fleetwood Devilles and others. The Icon 12 from Norway is the real deal and even a value at $20k in some ways. I mean, you could spend more and get less satisfaction.
These were showing me how complete they are from the treble to the mids to the bass, nothing was lacking here. The design? Nothing was lacking here as they are works of art. Build quality? As good as I have seen from any brand. The Icon 12’s are as close to perfect of a speaker as I have experienced. No, I haven’t heard them all and yes I have a set here from another brand I almost like as much but the reality is these are the first speakers that I believe have no real compromises, for my tastes.
So yea, I am impressed to no end with these and I would buy them in a nanosecond if I could but I am broke as a joke after my Nagra spending spree. I cannot buy any more audio this year but if I could, I would buy the Icon 12’s in a heartbeat. Again, I make no real money from doing audio reviews. I mean, yea, like $12-$14k a year from google ads for my website and videos combined but look at what I spend on this hobby. I make nothing, negative even. I feel blessed to have been able to hear these though and I thank O Audio for allowing me to experience the Icon 12.
These are dream speakers to me. For some of you who are looking for a speaker that will deliver magic, last a lifetime and bring huge pride of ownership you must audition the Icon 12’s. These may not be the “perfect” speaker for all but for me they ticked every single box and fulfilled all of my desires for sound reproduction.
WEAKNESS?
Some have told me I must find the weaknesses in products and yea, there is always some kind of compromise or weakness with most audio products. One size never fits all but maybe these will be too large for some depending on room size. If that is the case you can also check out the O Audio Frigg which is smaller and better for small spaces. Those have been getting insane raves lately as well.
The Icon 12’s are heavy at 125 lbs a piece and could be a pain to move if you move things around a lot. Other than that there is nothing here to point out as a con or weakness. The price? Well worth it if you can afford it so I do not see it as a con in today’s audio pricing world.
Powering them with a Wiim Amp Pro?
So I powered these with my Nagra stack of HD Preamp HV, HD DAC X. Classic Amp and Nagra Streamer. Yea, this setup sounded heavenly with the Icon 12’s. I also tested the Chord Ultimate integrated with the Icon 12’s and it too sounded fantastic, maybe a bit beefier than the Nagra, less open. The Wiim Amp pro sounded pretty amazing as well, which shows how easy these are to drive. The Wiim is a $379 box that does it all. A streamer, and amp and a DAC. While not as open and 3D as the Nagra, it provided great sounding music regardless. Any amp can drive these I feel. Going to a Black Ice Audio FX10H was also a treat as I heard more tube flavor here, more bloom.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day these are speakers that I feel almost anyone would love unless you like lean, uber detailed and more analytical speakers, These are not that at all. Rather, the Icon 12’s delivers music and the feels. They had the ability to make me cry, take me back to memories of my youth and never did I say “these could be better”. I didn’t stress about the gear but rather enjoyed the music night after night. I looked forward to my listening sessions more than before and put in countless hours listening to these over the last few weeks. These are as close to perfect as a speaker gets for me, period. End of story.
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