Macca
06-03-2025, 11:47
I've had these loudspeakers now for getting on three months so thought it might be time to put all my thoughts together in a formal review.
https://i.ibb.co/b5PygvW7/20250306-090049-1.jpg (https://ibb.co/Dft6DMVL)
This is a three-way ported passive loudspeaker using an 8'' driver for mids and a 15'' driver for bass. Crossover points are 230 Hz where bass hands over to mid, and 2800Hz where mid hands over to tweeter. Crossovers are 2nd order Linkwitz-Riley.
This is a DIY design and can't be bought off the shelf. Plans and crossovers can be purchased from Troels Gravesen, you buy the drivers and build the cabs. Or pay someone to do that. There's some serious woodworking involved which will be beyond the skills and equipment available to many of us, including me.
I commissioned the whole build from Arke Loudspeakers and had a finished product delivered to the door, but any local woodwork shop could build the cabs and you do the rest, which would probably work out a little cheaper.
So, on with the show.
Hoffman's Iron Law states that with any speaker system you can only have two of the three options below:
1) Small Size
2) High efficiency
3) Low bass
So it would seem that if space and aesthetics are not considerations, it's option 1) that can best be sacrificed. A large speaker allows for both deep bass and high efficiency. So that is what we have here.
Both mid and bass units are intended for professional applications so don't have 'audiophile' price tags and this keeps the cost down. The three-way configuration means no driver is\ having to work into an area where it isn't linear, and starts to break up. The advantage of using large drivers is they move less distance to shift the same volume of air, meaning lower distortion.
So that's the theory, but how does it work out in practice?
The first thing you notice about this speaker is that any recording that has bass instrumentation is underpinned by low frequency 'weight'. The speaker is not a bass monster but it does reproduce low fundamentals meaning pretty much any rock recording, even if it's a bit lean in the bass, has that 'authority' down below.
Listening to Smashing Pumpkins 'Siamese Dream', a record I have owned for 30 years and played countless times, it occurred to me that I have never previously fully heard what is on there, despite owning many large speakers capable of low bass in the past.
With pop music and R&B the 'fruity' mid-bass common on such music is fully reproduced. These speakers have the sort of bass response you want with such music, but which isn't really delivered even by many quite large and expensive tower speakers. A Luther Vandross 'Best Of' album which I'd previously thought was a little bland and boring became a much more enjoyable listening experience as a result.
One recording which became quite a notably different experience with these speakers was Daft Punk's 'Random Access Memories'. There's a number of quite boppy tunes on this one, such as 'Give Life Back To Music', 'Get Lucky' and 'Lose Yourself To Dance.' Compared to the Focal 926 towers I was using previously I thought some of the 'boppiness' was reduced, and replaced by more of a club-like wall of sound hitting me as one entity. That's hard to describe in words but again it was a case of thinking that was what I was supposed to be getting rather than a more light-weight but propulsive sound.
Using an 8 inch for the mids may incur issues in other areas, which we'll get to later, but it does have the advantage of reproducing vocals and everything else that happens in the mids with very low distortion and with 'body' or 'fullness' to the sound. Especially noticeable with vocals. There was a sense of almost disturbing clarity to vocal, depending on the recording of course. Like there's nothing between you and the vocal booth.
With acoustic music or any simple recording these loudspeakers are explicit - shockingly so. Not just the clarity, which some other speakers can also deliver as well, but with the physical presence. The Kira Mac acoustic set - just her and an acoustic guitar - put her and the guitar right in the room, seated between and behind the speakers, in full three dimensions. A visiting musician friend described this as 'Astonishing.'
With all acoustic recordings from Jethro Tull, whilst not being as simply and directly recorded, the speaker did not glaze over the subtleties and the delicacies. The sound was quite real and beautiful. These are not just a rocker's speaker.
But rock music is their party piece and if you put on something with serious bass guitar work - Korn, Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chilli Peppers - the depth, control and accuracy of the bass response is breath-taking.
So what are we sacrificing here? I know many people are very much into stereo imaging and sound staging. These things are not a priority for me though, and my room is not ideal for setting up speakers far apart and getting that 'holographic' soundstage (where it actually exists on the recording). Really the only demand I make in this regard is that the sound seems to exist independent of the speakers rather than coming directly from them. This is more a room acoustic thing than a property of speakers, but this test was passed.
However the wide baffles, the lack of contoured edges to the baffle, and that an 8 inch mid has to marry up to the tweeter, and will inevitable start to 'beam' as it gets to its highest frequencies, suggests to me that if you place soundstage and imaging as a very high priority, these will probably not be the speaker for you. Likewise I suspect that the 'sweet spot' for stereo imaging will not be so large as a result. Although these are not 'head in a vice' speakers and do have a reasonably wide listening window.
The only other criticism I could make is that the sound presentation is a little 'dry' especially in the top end. As an example if you take a recording with very well recorded cymbal work, you get the hit, the ring, the shimmer and the decay. The hit and ring are fine, the shimmer and decay are perhaps not quite as beautifully resolved as I have heard on some speakers. It's still better than on most though, plus most studio monitors I've experienced also have that 'dry' quality. So this is to an extent personal taste, but I do like a little bit more 'wetness' myself. Not a deal breaker though, in the grand scheme of things.
Ultimately these speakers pull off the trick of being explicit, but at the same time very easy to listen to for long periods. That's a rare quality IME.
Compatibility:
The speakers have an estimated sensitivity of 94dB and (as per graph below) a fairly flat impedance response. Most amplifiers, including push-pull valve amps will be working at their optimum with these loudspeakers. I use a Krell but I could just as easy swap in a much cheaper and lower powered amplifier and get good results.
https://i.ibb.co/sJ3V0kFW/faital-15-sin-imp-Bedome.png (https://ibb.co/R4HDxZCj)
As long as the amp is comfortable with 4 ohm loads, which is most modern amps, you can use pretty much anything with 20 watts and up.
Due to room layout I have to use the speakers well out from the front wall (8 foot or so), this does reduce the level of low bass. I suspect they would be fine used around 1 foot from the wall, assuming the room was large enough in volume that the main mode does not become an issue, although these days that can of course be resolved with the use of PEQ or DRC.
Cost:
Obviously this will vary depending on how fancy you want the cabinets finished. Arke Loudspeakers advises that you'd be roughly looking at between £5K and £6K depending on the specifics, that's for a totally finished speaker where you have to do nothing but make payment and take delivery.
If you look at the price of the drivers, plus the cost of the crossover components, wood for the cabs and other sundries, and use the rule of the thumb that says a commercial product must retail at between ten and twenty times the cost of materials in order to be profitable, this is a speaker that would retail somewhere between £10,000 and £20,000 pounds.
I think it is safe to say that this speaker will make anything commercially available around £5K sound like a toy in comparison. The 'bang for buck' is off the charts - assuming, of course, that this is a speaker that will appeal to your own tastes in presentation.
https://i.ibb.co/b5PygvW7/20250306-090049-1.jpg (https://ibb.co/Dft6DMVL)
This is a three-way ported passive loudspeaker using an 8'' driver for mids and a 15'' driver for bass. Crossover points are 230 Hz where bass hands over to mid, and 2800Hz where mid hands over to tweeter. Crossovers are 2nd order Linkwitz-Riley.
This is a DIY design and can't be bought off the shelf. Plans and crossovers can be purchased from Troels Gravesen, you buy the drivers and build the cabs. Or pay someone to do that. There's some serious woodworking involved which will be beyond the skills and equipment available to many of us, including me.
I commissioned the whole build from Arke Loudspeakers and had a finished product delivered to the door, but any local woodwork shop could build the cabs and you do the rest, which would probably work out a little cheaper.
So, on with the show.
Hoffman's Iron Law states that with any speaker system you can only have two of the three options below:
1) Small Size
2) High efficiency
3) Low bass
So it would seem that if space and aesthetics are not considerations, it's option 1) that can best be sacrificed. A large speaker allows for both deep bass and high efficiency. So that is what we have here.
Both mid and bass units are intended for professional applications so don't have 'audiophile' price tags and this keeps the cost down. The three-way configuration means no driver is\ having to work into an area where it isn't linear, and starts to break up. The advantage of using large drivers is they move less distance to shift the same volume of air, meaning lower distortion.
So that's the theory, but how does it work out in practice?
The first thing you notice about this speaker is that any recording that has bass instrumentation is underpinned by low frequency 'weight'. The speaker is not a bass monster but it does reproduce low fundamentals meaning pretty much any rock recording, even if it's a bit lean in the bass, has that 'authority' down below.
Listening to Smashing Pumpkins 'Siamese Dream', a record I have owned for 30 years and played countless times, it occurred to me that I have never previously fully heard what is on there, despite owning many large speakers capable of low bass in the past.
With pop music and R&B the 'fruity' mid-bass common on such music is fully reproduced. These speakers have the sort of bass response you want with such music, but which isn't really delivered even by many quite large and expensive tower speakers. A Luther Vandross 'Best Of' album which I'd previously thought was a little bland and boring became a much more enjoyable listening experience as a result.
One recording which became quite a notably different experience with these speakers was Daft Punk's 'Random Access Memories'. There's a number of quite boppy tunes on this one, such as 'Give Life Back To Music', 'Get Lucky' and 'Lose Yourself To Dance.' Compared to the Focal 926 towers I was using previously I thought some of the 'boppiness' was reduced, and replaced by more of a club-like wall of sound hitting me as one entity. That's hard to describe in words but again it was a case of thinking that was what I was supposed to be getting rather than a more light-weight but propulsive sound.
Using an 8 inch for the mids may incur issues in other areas, which we'll get to later, but it does have the advantage of reproducing vocals and everything else that happens in the mids with very low distortion and with 'body' or 'fullness' to the sound. Especially noticeable with vocals. There was a sense of almost disturbing clarity to vocal, depending on the recording of course. Like there's nothing between you and the vocal booth.
With acoustic music or any simple recording these loudspeakers are explicit - shockingly so. Not just the clarity, which some other speakers can also deliver as well, but with the physical presence. The Kira Mac acoustic set - just her and an acoustic guitar - put her and the guitar right in the room, seated between and behind the speakers, in full three dimensions. A visiting musician friend described this as 'Astonishing.'
With all acoustic recordings from Jethro Tull, whilst not being as simply and directly recorded, the speaker did not glaze over the subtleties and the delicacies. The sound was quite real and beautiful. These are not just a rocker's speaker.
But rock music is their party piece and if you put on something with serious bass guitar work - Korn, Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chilli Peppers - the depth, control and accuracy of the bass response is breath-taking.
So what are we sacrificing here? I know many people are very much into stereo imaging and sound staging. These things are not a priority for me though, and my room is not ideal for setting up speakers far apart and getting that 'holographic' soundstage (where it actually exists on the recording). Really the only demand I make in this regard is that the sound seems to exist independent of the speakers rather than coming directly from them. This is more a room acoustic thing than a property of speakers, but this test was passed.
However the wide baffles, the lack of contoured edges to the baffle, and that an 8 inch mid has to marry up to the tweeter, and will inevitable start to 'beam' as it gets to its highest frequencies, suggests to me that if you place soundstage and imaging as a very high priority, these will probably not be the speaker for you. Likewise I suspect that the 'sweet spot' for stereo imaging will not be so large as a result. Although these are not 'head in a vice' speakers and do have a reasonably wide listening window.
The only other criticism I could make is that the sound presentation is a little 'dry' especially in the top end. As an example if you take a recording with very well recorded cymbal work, you get the hit, the ring, the shimmer and the decay. The hit and ring are fine, the shimmer and decay are perhaps not quite as beautifully resolved as I have heard on some speakers. It's still better than on most though, plus most studio monitors I've experienced also have that 'dry' quality. So this is to an extent personal taste, but I do like a little bit more 'wetness' myself. Not a deal breaker though, in the grand scheme of things.
Ultimately these speakers pull off the trick of being explicit, but at the same time very easy to listen to for long periods. That's a rare quality IME.
Compatibility:
The speakers have an estimated sensitivity of 94dB and (as per graph below) a fairly flat impedance response. Most amplifiers, including push-pull valve amps will be working at their optimum with these loudspeakers. I use a Krell but I could just as easy swap in a much cheaper and lower powered amplifier and get good results.
https://i.ibb.co/sJ3V0kFW/faital-15-sin-imp-Bedome.png (https://ibb.co/R4HDxZCj)
As long as the amp is comfortable with 4 ohm loads, which is most modern amps, you can use pretty much anything with 20 watts and up.
Due to room layout I have to use the speakers well out from the front wall (8 foot or so), this does reduce the level of low bass. I suspect they would be fine used around 1 foot from the wall, assuming the room was large enough in volume that the main mode does not become an issue, although these days that can of course be resolved with the use of PEQ or DRC.
Cost:
Obviously this will vary depending on how fancy you want the cabinets finished. Arke Loudspeakers advises that you'd be roughly looking at between £5K and £6K depending on the specifics, that's for a totally finished speaker where you have to do nothing but make payment and take delivery.
If you look at the price of the drivers, plus the cost of the crossover components, wood for the cabs and other sundries, and use the rule of the thumb that says a commercial product must retail at between ten and twenty times the cost of materials in order to be profitable, this is a speaker that would retail somewhere between £10,000 and £20,000 pounds.
I think it is safe to say that this speaker will make anything commercially available around £5K sound like a toy in comparison. The 'bang for buck' is off the charts - assuming, of course, that this is a speaker that will appeal to your own tastes in presentation.