It was in Berlin in 2007 when I had my most intense musical experience. I found myself with 120 musicians on a wooden stage. This combination made me feel like a turbocharger kicked in, Or rather, like a rocket took off and launched me with immense musical energy into an unknown universe of sound. How distant and lost does classical music ripple from a HiFi system. I said that HiFi can accomplish many things but in no way will it be able to reproduce a lifelike performance of a large orchestra. Not to mention the musical revelation that befell me just a few minutes ago.

With the Peak Consult El Diablo in its latest, obviously radically revised version, I evaluate for the first time a transducer that brings me closer to this primal experience more than anything else that I have listened to.

The composition of a world-class loudspeaker is like the preparation of a menu at a Michelin Star restaurant. Both cases require a knowledgeable, experienced and talented, ideally an ingenious person for the best result.

Wilfried Ehrenholz, the founder of Dynaudio and currently, together with Lennart Alsbjorn Jensen, the head and driving force behind Peak Consult fits that description. On top of that, Ehrenholz surrounded himself with a network of the best. A team that works in developing, tuning and manufacturing. So they are first and foremost people who live for music and master their technical craft enriched with a healthy portion of inventive talent. The best ingredients such as drivers, crossovers, and gifted designers with ‘golden’ ears are combined with a unique internal department at Peak Consult, a carpentry shop equipped with all the bells and whistles.

One of the most meaningful listening test pieces is the Piano Sonata No 23 Appassionata by Beethoven. This sonata marks the limit of reproduction in all technical and musical disciplines. Overwhelming dynamics, from extremely soft and delicate to the most powerful and extremely loud attacks. During reproduction via HiFi, there must be no distortion, compression or other artificial coloring present. Any deficiency or even acoustical compromise will be exposed mercilessly by the Appassionata. The El Diablo places the grand piano genuinely in the listening room.

The Peak speakers master this kind of exercise with ease. Even when almost all other loudspeakers I know sound tainted of flawed at certain passages, the El Diablo remains superior.

When it doesn’t sound like hi-fi, rather like real music, we are happy, cry, dance, dream. Welcome to the realm of emotions.

Joachim Pfeiffer’s HiFi Sound & Music, Five Star Award, June 2025