At BLOCKAUDIO, only the very best materials find their way into serial production. Therefore it’s no wonder that the crossover features only strictly selected capacitors and air coils from the top product range of Danish manufacturer Jantzen Audio. For cooling purpose the non-inductive resistors are housed in a TO-247 case. Since the whole crossover is completely potted, unfortunately no pictures can be shown here. For the internal cabling, BLOCKAUDIO chose particularly conductive silver solid-core cables with Teflon insulation by Dupont. Of course, also the connecting terminals gave the cost controlling department a hard time, but won the race in the end: Furutech’s top-of-the-line connectors with rhodium plating were finally used. The specific use of materials thus corresponds 100% to the company’s guideline: crafted without compromise.

Since the sensitivity of 87 decibels that the compact Shelf Block speakers come up with is not particularly high, a rather powerful amplifier should be used to fully benefit from the sonic potential of these compact speakers. However, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the big BLOCKAUDIO monos, although these, of course, would make the little ones an easy target.

Since the BLOCKAUDIO speakers had been already burnt-in, I could immediately start my listening tests. Although I was aware that the Czech company was a manufacturer of state-of-the-art products, I must confess that I was quite sceptical about what the outcome of these compact speakers would actually be like. But this I must say upfront: If I had only listened with eyes wide shut and hadn’t known which kind of speaker was performing, then I would probably have thought of a large floor-standing speaker.