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Even though the Planets' designers commendably avoided compensatory midrange trickery which I quickly noted when leashed to my Audionet mono amps, I equally appreciated just how sympathetically these little balls drew me into simple listening for pleasure. While solid bass underpinnings promote musical involvement, the Planets do not belong to the ‘academics’ of their breed but on the contrary convey something fetchingly uncomplicated and alive.

But let’s get down to brass tacks with the late 70s and recently rebooted Brit combo Gang of Four for something punky funky. Their debut album Entertainment not merely struts social/media-critical lyrics but hard-as-nails staccato rhythms.


Be it snotty guitar riffs flavoured extra dry, whipper-snapper toms or the greasy vocals of Jon Kings, the power which the Planet L unleashed despite obvious lack of bottom octave presence displayed no breaking, softening or bleeding out. Though unquestionably ‘fast’, the Elipsons didn’t overdo hard attacks and paid proper respect to developing body and sustains. On calmer fare like E.S.T.’s "Fading Maid Preludium" from 2006’s Tuesday Wonderland, an opening piano run convinced with its rhythmic timing and how pearlescent individual key action conveyed energy and immediacy in excess over the Quadral Rondo or PSB Image B6 which far from lack in the dynamics department. Wow.

This microdynamic facility clearly benefited the midband as well which felt very articulate and for a speaker in this price range highly transparent. On Gang of Four songs I noted how tautly resolved the raw shredding textures of the e-guitars were presented. The treble offered more of the same detail focus even if the final word on shimmer, air and ultimate cymbal decays was left to Quadral’s Rondo. But The Cancer Conspiracy’s "II" from 2007’s Omega which over the first 15 seconds builds up a dense mix of undulating e-guitars and bass drums/toms evidenced the hi-hat touches with great ease. That was far from a given.


So from top to bottom of their bandwidth coverage the Planets proved to champion accurate transparency, i.e. proper care for details. Whether this was fundamentally due to the Elipsons’  dynamic prowess or lucidity I couldn’t say. It simply ‘felt’ as though the signal presented at their inputs encountered less hurdles or deceleration than is common for many speakers. While that might read a bit nebulous, it’s very fitting and relevant nonetheless.
Clearly this direct lively character also ties to the tonal balance which, due to lack of sub bass being on the lighter side, creates a tad of extra emphasis in the upper mids where guitar and saxophone live, say with "Euro Crime!" of the Italian film/rock/Jazz combo Calibro 35’s Ritornano Quelli Di… Here these instruments had a touch more incisiveness and glow for that extra turn-on factor.