In the MkII Lynx’s tweeter, the dome is at the centre of a very large (130mm diameter) face-plate that seems to act as a horn as well as a face-plate, which would further improve the efficiency of the tweeter while at the same time also improving dispersion. The tweeter’s face-plate is secured to the baffle by star-headed wood screws, rather than by bolt/nut fixings, and is recessed into it to avoid deleterious edge effects. Finally, in a world where neodymium is becoming the preferred magnetic material for drivers, the MkII Lynx has a conventional ferrite magnet, albeit one that’s very large and very heavy. To put these measurements into some kind of perspective for you, six square metres is only a little larger than the space occupied by a king-sized bed, while here in Australia even that larger dimension (14 square metres) is about the size of a room that’s usually on the floor plan as a ‘second’ bedroom or a study. These are certainly very ‘Italian-looking’ speakers, not because they’re made in Italy, but because they look so similar to speakers made by Italy’s most famous loudspeaker manufacturer, Sonus Faber.

I said the Constellation MkII Lynx’s tweeter was ‘oddly large’ because in a world where the 25mm diameter dome tweeter reigns supreme (though of course, there are exceptions), the Lynx’s soft-dome tweeter is 38mm in diameter. The cone is made from a paper compound, while the cone suspension, which has a normal ‘traditional’ roll surround, is made from a rubber compound. The central dust-cap is dished, rather than domed, which gives a much cleaner ‘look’. The smoothness and rich warmth of the MkII Lynxes’ midrange is exemplified on Tomorrow is My Turn, a song written by Charles Aznavour (as L’amour c’est comme un jour and performed by him in the original French most recently as a duet with Sting) and whose signature hook was greatly borrowed from by Steve Arnold to compose his song for the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies. Listen in particular to the change in the tone of Simone’s delivery at around 1:16, then the way she contrasts it around a minute further in. The superb midrange of the Chario MkII Lynx makes such contrasts crystal-clear. I did wonder why, given this emphasis on its Italian heritage, the company name itself doesn’t sound very Italian, and indeed Google Translate (my authority on these matters) refused to recognise it as an Italian name at all, instead suggesting that it might be Welsh! It turns out that the company’s founders, Carlo Vicenzetto and Mario Marcello Murace, combined parts of their first names to create the unusual company name. (Though for some reason, Vincenzetto used the anglicized version of his first name (Charlie) rather than his native birth name.)History Software Agent : Adobe Illustrator CC 2015 (Macintosh), Adobe Illustrator CC 2017 (Macintosh) The crossover point between the tweeter and the bass/midrange driver is at 1.5kHz, a frequency that’s the same as the Delphinus. In this case, because the MkII Lynx has a smaller driver, it theoretically is more easily able to get up to this frequency, albeit at the cost of losing some extension in the low frequencies because of the reduced cone excursion and smaller cone area. The larger diameter of the tweeter on the one hand increases mass, which drags down the high-frequency extension, but on the other hand means that the voice-coil diameter is larger, so there’s more wire in the gap, and thus potentially higher efficiency and higher power-handling, so there’s a bit of swings and roundabouts in play here. The tweeters in the MkII Lynx reproduced all these sounds with tremendous élan, and the repetitive nature of the work means that you can also use it to experiment with exactly how off-axis you’d like to position yourself with regard to the tweeters to ensure the best balance between the mids and the highs. Final verdict

I would certainly recommend that any amplifier used to drive the Chario Constellation MkII Lynx should be capable of driving 4Ω loads, and such an amplifier would not be bothered by the fact that the impedance drops below this between 130Hz and 325Hz.

As a general rule, if a recall involves a branded product, the manufacturer would usually have lead responsibility for the recall action. The MkII Lynx is a bass-reflex design, where the designer uses the output from the rear of the cone to deliver additional bass, but whereas most designers put the port on the front or rear of the cabinet, Chario’s designer has put the Lynx’s port on the bottom of the cabinet, firing downwards. There wasn’t all that much difference, but I did think there was slightly more low-frequency extension, and a slightly more balanced bass/midrange presentation when they were on the side-table. So if you have a similar arrangement, I’d recommend using it, after which my next recommendation would be to try placing the speakers on a bookshelf. Both options have the advantage of saving money (no need to pay for stands) and increased stability thanks to the-more stable base afforded by the non-movable surfaces. It’s a bit sad that so few people have ever heard the original version of this song, which was composed and recorded by the Alice Cooper of his day, Jalacy Hawkins. And if you’d like to hear more modern versions of it, I rather like the covers by Annie Lennox and by Bette Midler. Whereas some manufacturers will insist that their smallest pair of speakers could be used in a football stadium, Chario is pretty specific about the size of the room it recommends for the Lynx, saying “not more than 14 square metres, and not less than 6 square metres”.