I have devoted so much space to Jean-Pascal Panchard's comments because he discusses the three most important changes compared to the model presented here years ago. Apart from the platform, the cabinet design and driver configuration remain unchanged. I find this almost impossible to understand, at least in the case of the tweeter manufactured by Scanspeak according to Stenheim's specifications, because it sounds so much smoother and more homogeneous in the FIVE SX – and that with at least the same attention to detail and significantly better spatial imaging. As Jean-Pascal Panchard assured us, these improvements were achieved solely through changes to the crossover, which also uses components from Jantzen and Mundorf in the SX. Unfortunately, the Stenheim owner was unwilling to reveal any details or make the FIVE SX crossover available for photos. We respected this, of course, and refrained from unscrewing the speakers to photograph any technical details inside. Unfortunately, we have no choice but to resort to pictures of crossovers that we took during our visit to the production facility in Vétroz. Since, as mentioned, nothing has changed in terms of the components, we have used pictures of the drivers from the first report and spared Stenheim the customs formalities for sending photo samples.

When it comes to important products from a manufacturer or distributor, I think it's only fair that they have the opportunity to check the functionality of their creation on site before any testing is undertaken. This also offers me the certainty that the component in my listening room delivers the performance intended by the manufacturer. And that's why I invited Jean-Pascal Panchard to Gröbenzell so that he could ascertain for himself that his Alumine FIVE SX plays the way he wants it to in my system. Or, if necessary, so that he could fine-tune the setup. After Raoul Bonati and Stefan Ulrich from the Munich-based Stenheim dealer Die Dritte Dimension (“The Third Dimension”) kindly delivered the aluminum heavyweights to my listening room, I moved the FIVE to the tried-and-tested speaker position in my study and listened – curious as I am – to a few revealing tracks, and it immediately became clear that the SX version performs at a level closer to that of my Goebel speakers or the ones from Børresen than to that of the FIVE version from eight years ago.