Taga Harmony DIAMOND B-60 Review: Is Neutrality in a Speaker Boring?

Pick #2 of 6 in our Best Speakers guide.

Many HiFi speakers have bright highs, bloated bass, or the typical, overemphasized showroom sound. The Taga Harmony DIAMOND B-60 v.3 bookshelf speakers are completely different. But is it good or bad news?

A curved build with no parallel surfaces

Watch this part (0:18)

These are not your typical rectangular box-type speakers. There are no parallel surfaces. They look regular from the front, with a rounded-off top, but when viewed from the top, you can see that the sides curve inward towards the rear. It makes for a fairly elegant, but not boring aesthetic.

It looks fine and doesn't stand out a lot in terms of any flashy elements. By putting it in your living room, when your friends come in, they aren't going to think that you're crazy.

The drivers are surface mounted, but the rings around them have exposed screws - personally, it didn't bother me much. On the bottom, you get nice, thin rubber feet, so the speaker doesn't get scratched when you place it on any surface, it's not going to scratch that surface itself, and it should stay in place without sliding around.

The rear also has an interesting shape, with the top and bottom elements sticking out. There's a rear-mounted bass reflex port. However, it's important to note that the tweeter is not in a separate, internal, sealed enclosure - so it is also vented. You get two pairs of high-quality binding posts, allowing the speaker to be used in a bi-wire or bi-amp configuration.

(view larger)

They come in multiple finishes - matte and gloss - so you can pick whichever one you like. The veneer itself is of superb quality, has a real texture, and is applied just perfectly, with no visible problems whatsoever.

It's a well-made, sturdy speaker, with a dense cabinet, and not a lot of internal resonances. Lastly, you get magnetic grills, to protect the drivers from kids or pets, and make the speaker look even more stealthy.

Features include titanium and paper-cone drivers

Watch this part (2:15)

The internal enclosure damping is being done using a high-end material to break up the standing waves, lower resonances, and limit distortions, which improves the smoothness and characteristics of sound in all ranges.

For the internal wiring, 14 AWG, multi-stranded oxygen-free copper has been used to connect all drivers with the crossover and to ensure that the incoming signal will not lose the most important details on the path from the amplifier to the drivers.

The crossover has been made using a minimal number of high-quality components in the tweeter and the woofer sections to ensure neutrality, handle massive amounts of power, and provide the greatest precision.

The 2nd generation titanium dome tweeter is 36mm in size and provides high power handling while maintaining accuracy, smoothness, and detail. It is cooled by ferrofluid to further emphasize this effect, especially at high volumes. Its voice coil has silver wiring and is paired with two magnets for exceptional precision combined with an ultra-extended high-frequency response. The metal mesh surrounding it is here to help with equal and flat sound dispersion on and off-axis.

(view larger)

The 6.5-inch non-pressed paper cone driver handles the bass and midrange - as this speaker is a 2-way bookshelf. It is equipped with two oversized magnets and an aluminum chassis to make it extremely rigid and vibration-free. Its voice coil is made with 2 layers of copper-clad aluminum, to offer deep, precise, and detailed performance, according to the manufacturer.

(view larger)

An easy load that still wants 100 W of power

Watch this part (3:55)

Its frequency response ranges from 36Hz up to 33kHz. This range is quite surprising for a seemingly small, in a relative sense, speaker. It has just one woofer, and it's not even dedicated to the bass, yet it can still dig fairly deep. The treble extends much above the human hearing range - it's a very good characteristic, as it means no break-ups in the audible spectrum.

Additionally, it can handle up to 150W RMS, which is a figure mostly seen in much larger floor-standing speakers. The sensitivity is 90dB, paired with a nominal impedance of 6 ohms. It presents quite an easy load on most amplifiers regarding current. The amount of power needed to achieve high volumes is not very high, but I'd recommend getting an amplifier that has a bit more power than you might think you need. This speaker can scale well with the source gear, and it needs a certain level of equipment to open up. 50-200W is recommended by the manufacturer, however, in my experience, I'd say go for at least 100W.

Warm, mid-forward sound with relaxed treble

Watch this part (5:07)

At first sight, my initial impressions of this speaker indicated that it's very boring, nothing stands out, and it just plays the music. But the more I listened to it, the more I realized "Wait... it's been a long time, I'm still listening to it, and I didn't get bored." That was the moment when I found out it's not just dull or lacking life. It's so inoffensive that I couldn't find a single thing that stood out and could take my attention away from it.

This brings us to its tonality.

On the bottom end, the bass has warmth, is full, and goes kind of deep for a bookshelf. You still might want to pair it with a subwoofer, for higher output, or even more bass extension. But if you so desire, you can get away without it easily. You're never going to feel like a lot is missing in the bass department. Despite the driver being 6.5 inches, it's not super analytical or fast. It mostly focuses on organic reproduction, thus being realistic.

The midrange is what this speaker specializes in. It seems like those registers are brought forward, yet not overdone. The midrange has great timbre and accuracy, with some extra warmth too. The vocals, or wooden instruments, sound impeccable here.

Going to the treble - it's fairly relaxed, very smooth and lifelike. Sibilance? What sibilance. You'd have to try really hard to make it overly sharp or bright. The source gear you put behind this speaker is a decision you have to make on your own. But I can tell you - if you're looking for more excitement up top, you can get some without crossing the line, by using sharper, for example Topping DACs. It can help you open up the presentation and get more details - but you have to keep in mind that it's never going to be an overly detailed, analytical speaker that's unpleasant to listen to.

The soundstage has some width, but more importantly, depth, paired with layering.

Summing up, the DIAMOND B-60 v.3 is a speaker that focuses on sounding organic, without messing up any frequency spectrum or introducing any stand-out features. It's going to sound good with almost any source gear, plus it is fairly flexible with positioning. If you're into a warmer, relaxed presentation, but you still want to get some of the typical audiophile features, it is a great choice.