On the other hand, the larger 5 ¼-inch Kevlar woofer in the YU Passive 5.25” specs out with a slightly deeper bottom-end weight down to 50 Hz. The same scene was not only just as impactful as it was on the YU Passive 4”, but everything else in the stereo field was just a little bit more immersive. The soundstage opened up a little bit wider with an improved sense of presentation that was natural and multidimensional. Dialogue was presented clearly and the sound of ocean waves crashing in the background and other sound effects were more three-dimensional — creating the feeling that we were really there in the scene on beachfront property.
With both models, the bottom-end weight was not chest-punching, and definitely not bone-crushing, however, the improvements were better than we expected and a noticeable upgrade compared to the speakers built into our TV. We always recommend using a good subwoofer for the best bass performance, but even without Dolby Atmos or a sub, we were really impressed with the sound that came out of these small, compact bookshelf speakers on movies and TV shows. Of course, these do have limitations, so if you are looking for better cinematic performance for your two-channel experience on movies, there are better passive speakers to consider from Klipsch, Paradigm, and Bowers & Wilkins, and more.
Next, we knew we had to demo some music! We played a lot of different genres, and while everything we played filled the room with good sound, we noticed modern recordings really shined on these passive speakers. One of the tracks that stood out was “The Less I Know The Better,” released in 2015 by the Australian Indie Rock band, Tame Impala, for their third studio album, “Currents.”
As usual with Kanto speakers, we were impressed with the YU Passive’s stereo imaging on this track. The YU Passive 4” did a good job presenting the mid-range frequencies so that vocals and rhythm sections stood out clearly and musically. Drums in particular sounded fantastic on these little passive speakers! The kick and snare drums had a tuneful sense of timing that was very easy to get lost in. Switching over to the YU Passive 5.25” presented a wider soundstage with more separation in the stereo image — however, some of that great “in-your-face” mid-range that really glued the dynamics in the song together opened up a little bit more and the music sounded just a little bit closer to the experience of a live concert. In particular, we could feel more of the rhythm and pacing coming from the electric bass guitar on this song and the bottom-end weight, overall, just came a little bit more alive more on the YU Passive 5.25”.
Next, since the Cambridge Audio AXA35 Integrated Amplifier has a good moving magnet phono preamp built-in, we tested the YU Passives in our open room setting with a vinyl record player using the RCA connections on the back of the amplifier. We listened to a lot of records with these speakers, and overall, since the tweeters are identical, the differences were nominal. The records we played on YU Passives had natural-sounding treble that allowed us to listen to them all day — but when we switched over to the YU Passive 5.25” — again, we noticed immediately the larger woofer reproduced more bottom-end, and the wider soundstage suited our larger room slightly better than the more compact YU Passive 4”. Having said that, the YU Passive 4” performed better than we anticipated as a tabletop setup in our living room space. So, the decision really comes down to the size of your room.
If you want to experience these improvements for yourself, we recommend checking out “Surrender” — recorded in 1978 by the Classic Rock group, Cheap Trick, for their studio album “Heaven Tonight.”
There’s a deep rock ‘n roll electric bass guitar that just comes alive with a tuneful sense of timing and a rhythm and pacing on this one that is so much fun to listen to!