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On the desktop I couldn’t really trip up the C-Box 2 in any meaningful discipline. Even in matters of macrodynamics this petite box really nailed it. A good demonstration was "Up for Sale" from Swedish rockers The (International) Noise Conspiracy. This number sounds as though early Stranglers were crossed with late The Who for growling frontally mixed e-bass, clattering percussion, numerous fat guitars and nearly thrown-up song. And the C-Box really got going. Nothing was amiss in the bass, the percussion was aggressively direct, the snare with long reverb hit hard and the harmonically rich nasty synth storm unleashing later had proper violence.
Microdynamics too were well served. The ethereal "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans" by the Smashing Pumpkins whose band around Billy Corgan takes a full minute to fade in the action assumed a truly magical touch. The gentle guitars appeared like phantoms out of nothing as did the cymbal trills announced by kettle drum. Even during the first seconds of this fade-in when one finally begins to perceive something the C-Box already illuminated the smallest of details and tracked decaying picks to their full natural demise for a truly impressive showing.


If allowed just one sentence on tonal balance, I’d say "nearfield monitor yet not boring!" But I’m allowed to say more. On the desktop I never touched the bass EQ control. At max which after all is the measurably flattest setting I liked things best. And at a distance of less than one meter I didn’t manage to hit upon material that would have forced the C-Box to her knees. On the desk top and at SPL relevant to it the bass was truly profound and relative to box size astonishingly extended. Granted, don't expect gut massages as floorstanders will manage but who’d demand that in such usage?


The midband was quite well resolved and clearly drawn but I was particularly fond of the treble for being so exceptionally detailed and simultaneously somewhat golden and silken. Compared to many compact boxes this treble was categorically free of peakishness, cayenne pepper and unnatural fire. This tweeter played it pleasantly airy, free and brilliant. This took some break-in as out of the carton things were still crisp but a few days of play relinquished this youthful sin. How about the living room?


To put it plain, my mostly undamped 16sqm brownstone space with wooden floor makes it tough on a small speaker to convince down low. But this also depends heavily on musical style. Those into rough fare will miss the physicality of stomach punches. Those deliberately into finer stuff will explore beautiful things with the C-Box 2 whose already mentioned virtues in the upper ranges and soundstaging not merely made a repeat appearance but progressed a bit further still.

Take Emilia Torriani’s "Summerbreeze" which is simple voice, acoustic guitar and a handful of strings. Here the C-Box’s small dimensions were advantageous. Not exactly point source but just about. Space was fantastically expansive and surprisingly deep, the voice close enough to touch and the acoustic guitar exceptionally clear, clean and natural. With brachial fare things were different of course. The Fall’s "What about us" sports dull repetitive guitar figures, brittle drums and Mark E. Smith in a foul mood. That’s music one expects to experience with a certain degree of physicality. Here the C-Box played it wall-flower tame. Whatever LF energy she radiated my room absorbed greedily without quarter. But I also had to admit that the well above average midband and treble made the addition of a separate subwoofer an obvious and potentially easy and winning solution.


I thus leashed up my Nubert AW441 in parallel and all was peachy! Here I set the C-Box bass EQ fully counter-clockwise and the subwoofer low-pass to max. Awesome combo. The sub took over at 150Hz and the Abacus box handled the rest. The company has its own two sub models in their catalogue and having reviewed their ABS 210 earlier, I can recommend it unconditionally. I didn’t even attempt to compare the C-Box 2 to my reference gear which including cables goes for €7.000. That would have been all David/Goliath silliness and groteque at that.