Owning a pair of Pearl Acoustics Sibelius (Model One) loudspeakers.
Since I was 16 I have always played music in my bedroom or anywhere in the house. More often than not on a decent hifi system with separate components and loudspeakers. Ten years after an uncle of my mother died his hifi system came to me. Jadis tube amplifier, Michell Orbe turntable, Proac floor standing loudspeakers… Very very good stuff. The amplifier stopped working, I didn’t really like the sound of the Proacs… and so my hifi journey started. Through Harley’s YouTube channel I learned about Pearl Acoustics.
When I first met Harley in his listening room in Tienen, he asked me why I was interested in the Sibelius speakers. I told him that I wanted to get out of the hifi hobby. I didn’t want to spend all my time and money on hifi gear. But I developed a taste for good sound quality and didn’t want to take a step down. I owned a pair of JBL L100 Classics at the time. Long story short, a week later I bought a pair of Sibelius speakers.
That was more than two years ago and everything I said in my first review still stands. The Sibelius (Model One) speakers make me smile every time I listen to them. If I check my streaming statistics on Roon, I stream more than 30 hours of music per month. Add at least 10 hours of listening to vinyl and you get an idea of how much I love these speakers. For the record, this is sitting on my couch in my listening room and listening to music. No phone or TV, just music. I still read more, sleep better and watch less television than I used to.
These loudspeakers are my go-to when I am sad, when I am under stress, when I am happy, when I want to be alone but most of all when I want to listen to music. Real music, and I don’t mean any genre by that, but music with instruments that sound like real instruments, with a natural tonality, with an embracing soundstage, with a clear and stable presentation of every artist involved. How many songs that I had heard a thousand times before appear to have a second voice, a triangle somewhere, two guitars… in them. The Pearl Acoustics loudspeakers are to my ears what my glasses are for my eyes. They reveal a world that I only knew vaguely. I am very grateful to own a pair and I cannot imagine ever living without them anymore.
Pieter-Jan’s initial review:
I have I owned a pair of Pearl Acoustics Sibelius SG loudspeakers for a few weeks now. I had the privilege to have a listening session with Harley Lovegrove in his listening room in Tienen. We spent a wonderful afternoon together and I could even bring my own amplifier. The amp I am using is a Heaven 11 Billie MKII integrated amp with tubes in the pre amp section and a class D power amp.
From the first notes we played during the session, I was sold. I never knew that music could sound like it sounds through a pair of Sibelius speakers. It was the first time that I didn’t listen to very good sound but to very good music. I wasn’t planning on buying new speakers but I did. The same week I ordered a pair that was in stock (beautiful medium oak with the silver driver).
I have had them in my living room for a few weeks now and I have never listened more to music than in the past weeks. I watch a lot less television and I sleep better (although I go to bed later because I keep listening). They really are the instruments that music needs to sound like it was meant to sound.
Thanks for the beauty! I find it hard to express how happy I am with my speakers. My girlfriend as well.