Ruark Audio Talisman-R review: discreet passive speakers that deliver an informative sound and impeccable finish

The Ruark Audio Talisman-R is a compact, unassuming passive speaker design that offers an informative sound with impeccable finish. The speaker features a double baffle design with a sloping front-facing bass reflex port, which sets it apart visually and offers acoustic benefits. Its concealed cabinet houses a 27mm silk dome tweeter and a 170mm natural fiber mid/bass driver, providing a frequency response of 35Hz to 20kHz.

The Talisman-R is well-constructed, beautifully finished, and features a magnetically attached grille. Its powers of organization and control are excellent, and it has a respectable amount of dynamic headroom available. The speaker expresses rhythms with real confidence and positivity and is nicely balanced tonally. The frequency response is smooth and convincing, with no area of the range being an outlier.

In terms of sound quality, the Ruark Audio Talisman-R is articulate and revealing, particularly in the midrange. The speakers offer a coherent soundstage that is carefully focused, and their positive, direct nature makes them a joy to listen to. The tonality is clean and consistent throughout the frequency range, and the speakers exhibit a carefully neutral presentation that unifies the overall sound.

With a nominal impedance of 6 ohms and a sensitivity of 87dB/W, the Talisman-R is easy to drive and requires only 75-200W of amplification power.