Stenheim Alumine Two.Five

LOUDSPEAKER

- JOHN ATKINSON

Stereophile has favorably reviewed three loudspeakers from Swiss manufacturer Stenheim. Art Dudley reviewed the Alumine standmount in April 2012 and the Alumine Five floorstander in March 2018. More recently, Herb Reichert reviewed Stenheim's three-and-a-half-way Alumine Three tower in October 2021.¹ My assignment for this month's issue was to review the company’s Alumine Two. Five floorstander, which, at $23,500/pair, fits neatly between the Alumine Two ($13,500/pair) and Three ($36,500/pair). Stenheim was founded by four engineers who previously had worked at Goldmund. A couple of years after the introduction of the company’s first loudspeaker, the Alumine Two standmount, in 2011, Stenheim was acquired by Jean-Pascal Panchard, who had been an engineer at Nagra and operated an audio store. Panchard is now the CEO and chief designer for Stenheim.

The Alumine Two.Five . . .

. . . is an elegant-looking, slim tower standing 38" high on spiked feet. In common with Stenheim’s other Alumine speakers, the enclosure is formed from precision-machined aluminum panels, with internal bracing for a rigid structure. The three drive units—a 1" tweeter and two 6.5" woofers—are mounted vertically in line on the front baffle, slightly offset from the centerline. The woofers, supplied by French company PHL, feature a half-roll surround and a 5" cellulose-fiber cone with a proprietary coating. The woofers are reflex loaded with a slightly flared port 3" in diameter, mounted close to the bottom of the front baffle, offset on the other side of the centerline. The soft-dome tweeter, sourced from Norwegian manufacturer SEAS, uses a substantial half-roll surround and is acoustically loaded with a shallow waveguide. Electrical connection is via a single pair of WBT binding posts. The crossover uses high-quality components including Mundorf capacitors.