Author Archives: Robert E. Greene

Uncategorized

Living Voice Auditorium R25A Loudspeaker

Posted on by Robert E. Greene

Living Voice has lengthy been a major presence within the British speaker trade. The “25” within the mannequin quantity right here is in reference to the speaker being a 25th anniversary mannequin. In reality, the historical past of the design goes again even a bit of additional, in that the unique Living Voice Auditorium was apparently strongly influenced by an earlier design from DALI, the Model 104. Meanwhile, the unique Living Voice mannequin has been steadily and punctiliously revised in a course of that resembles the Old Masters of violin-making refining their designs yr after yr, even era after era. Living Voice is just not distinctive on this respect. It appears a British custom, with the unique LS3/5a and the unique Spendor BC1 having led to a long time of refinements and variants, over a 50-year interval for the BC1 and near that for the LS3/5a. Still, 25 years is in itself spectacular in a world the place technical merchandise are inclined to have a brief life.

The design targets of Living Voice within the R25A and its associated fashions (there are different comparable designs at increased costs within the Living Voice line) have pursued a further objective in comparison with BBC designs, which have been looking for full neutrality. Living Voice sought not simply accuracy however excessive sensitivity. The Auditorium R25A has a listed sensitivity of 94dB. Compare this to say the LS3/5a, with its 83dB sensitivity. Clearly, we’re in a special world right here, meant to be appropriate for lower-powered tube (or Class A solid-state) amplifiers and, certainly, Living Voice’s designer Kevin Scott voiced the audio system with tube amplification. Living Voice additionally makes horn audio system with the low-power tube consumer in thoughts: The Vox Olympian has a sensitivity score of 105dB!

But none of that is to recommend that the Auditorium R25A is just not of curiosity to people who find themselves proud of higher-power solid-state amplifiers. It is, in truth, a speaker of normal curiosity, despite the fact that it might be significantly enticing to the low-power tube individuals.

Still, the sensitivity problem is a vital side of the design, and it is sensible to have a look at that normal context first earlier than attending to the extra particular sonic description.

Living Voice Auditorium R25A Loudspeaker rear panel

Size, Sensitivity, and Bass

In the early days of the fashionable high-fidelity period, the late Forties and early Nineteen Fifties, amplifiers of excessive energy by right now’s requirements weren’t accessible. An amplifier with 30 watts (per channel) was thought-about a powerhouse. But individuals wished bass with each quantity and extension. The reply was to make audio system large. The logic of that is primarily based on physics: Bass wavelengths are lengthy. A 40Hz tone is over 28 toes in wavelength. This implies that a small driver won’t couple to the air at that frequency in any respect properly and must transfer violently to supply any substantial sound in any respect. Large drivers fare higher. So, individuals ended up making actually giant woofers: the ElectroVoice Patrican 800 had a 30-inch driver! That was then, however acoustic rules don’t change, and if one desires bass with excessive sensitivity, dimension stays the best way to go. The Cerwin-Vega CLS215s—my go-to audio system for reproducing the total bass energy of the orchestra—are 96dB delicate, they usually get this mixture of bass energy and extension and excessive sensitivity by being nearly the scale of a small floorstanding fridge and utilizing two 15-inch woofers. At the opposite excessive, the diminutive Spendor S3/5, beautiful although it’s at reasonable volumes in midrange copy, is a fish out of water confronted with orchestral energy at full throttle. Its bass restrict is 70Hz, the sensitivity is 84dB, and the utmost energy enter is 70 watts: stunning sound inside its limits, however orchestral bass energy and extension should not on this system and most positively not so with a low-powered amplifier. A small speaker can pump out bass with sufficient energy driving it and the construction to deal with the ability: Subwoofers may be small and nonetheless produce low bass in a giant approach. But they want quite a lot of amplifier energy. Many have amplifiers as highly effective as 1500-watt constructed into them. And the massive energy is required, and the bass driver is pushed very laborious.

The Living Voice R25As are a well-chosen compromise within the inevitable trade-offs amongst dimension, sensitivity, and bass energy and extension They are delicate sufficient to be pushed by fairly small quantities of energy, sufficiently small to suit gracefully into abnormal home environments, they usually have sufficient bass extension and quantity functionality to be fairly satisfying for many kinds of music.

The designer of Living Voice, Kevin Scott, is firmly of the opinion that amplification of any actual energy (by up to date requirements) includes critical sonic errors. I have to say I don’t discover this to be so. But, after all, there is no such thing as a hurt in precept to having a speaker that’s so excessive in sensitivity that top energy ranges should not even near being wanted. The energy that’s accessible however not used is just not bothering something. And for some individuals, the comparatively excessive 94dB sensitivity will probably be fascinating. To try the lower-power state of affairs, I used the Schiit Aegir (solid-state, however comparatively low energy at 10 watts in pure Class A, 20 watts in what Schiit calls Continuity mode). It did a fantastic job with the R25As. I didn’t have a low-power tube amplifier to attempt, however on the whole it’s positively the case that 20 watts is loads, and I might guess that 10 can be sufficient for many functions. Certainly, the Aegir was working beautifully properly on the ranges concerned, with Class A sound in the most effective sense—stunning amplification certainly, at a really rational worth ($799 if you don’t want extra energy than is on provide). The energy was ample within the case of the R25As so long as no substantial equalization was used—extra on that time later. I additionally used the 100-watt Benchmark AHB2, which, after all, was simply loafing alongside in its impartial, distortion-free approach on the energy ranges probably with a 94dB-sensitivity speaker with or with out EQ.

What is within the R25A?

The R25A has two 170mm mid/bass drivers in an MTM (midrange/tweeter/midrange) driver configuration with a 26mm soft-dome tweeter. The drivers are made by Scanspeak. The mid/bass driver has a coated-paper membrane and is constructed particularly for Living Voice, the unique type of the driving force having been in any other case discontinued, it appears. The cupboard is a slim floorstander, uncommon in that it’s provided with a podium to raise it to a greater listening top. (Bravo for this—all too many smaller floorstanders require the listener to take a seat nearly on the ground to be on an excellent axis.) This is a good suggestion and in addition a mandatory one, as a result of, in truth, the response of the R25A varies an excellent take care of the vertical place of the listening place relative to the speaker, except the listener is admittedly far-off. The speaker has fairly a large dispersion sample total, however it’s not significantly steady in frequency response with variations of the vertical listening place (listening top). On the plus aspect, the MTM association makes the speaker work together with the ground, it appears, somewhat lower than typical. The R25A is ported, with the port within the rear. Positioning the audio system pretty far into the room appeared to work greatest in my setup. (Close to the wall behind introduced up the underside however in a considerably coloured approach.) The audio system sound like themselves on the whole phrases in quite a lot of positions, however the absolute best efficiency is dependent upon cautious adjustment, apparently particularly so due to the speaker’s complicated radiation sample. Patience is rewarded. This is just not a speaker design of the equipment method, widespread with what was once known as “mid-fi” firms, the place you load up the dishes any previous approach and push a button and the dishes get washed. (One of the actually peculiar concepts concerned right here is that one ought to match audio system by switching between them however placing all of the completely different pairs in the identical place successively, by no means minding that the most effective place is perhaps completely different for various audio system.)

Starting to Listen and the Imaging Behavior of the R25As

When I first arrange the audio system, I ran Stereophile’s Test CD1 (as is my typical follow) to confirm that the channels have been wired accurately and that the 2 channels have been “in part.” This is simple to detect on music materials, however it’s faster nonetheless to make use of indicators designed for the aim. The channels have been right (monitor 2) and so was the polarity (monitor 3). But the latter was startling to listen to. The distinction is evident on any pair of audio system which might be carefully matched in frequency response. But for the R25As, the distinction was excessive. Focus was good in polarity, and in reverse polarity, the barking canine was simply nowhere in any respect—whole lack of spatial focus. This was extra so than with nearly some other audio system I’ve tried, nearly on the degree of the Gradient Helsinki 1.5s, that are absolutely the champs at this in my expertise. No doubt there are those that suppose that efficiency on such check indicators is just not related to music, however this explicit sort of check, and the equally spectacular results of the pink noise correlated versus uncorrelated, is instantly associated to stereo imaging in principle, and so it proved in follow, with music materials. The lateral stereo efficiency of the R25As was tremendous. In addition, the depth of picture was additionally fairly startling good.

It is pure to ask whence this arises. What makes the R25As so good at stereo? The presently widespread perception is that superior stereo arises from uniformity of radiation sample. This is virtually a mantra amongst semi-technical writers on audio, that huge and uniform radiation provides rise to steady and proper stereo. Stable, possibly, however my expertise is that the absolute best focus and depth is definitely connected to sure sorts of deviations from theoretical point-source uniformity. It is hardly shocking that this is perhaps so. The ear/mind senses location of pictures acoustically not from the indicators on the two ears with a hard and fast head place, however from how the indicators differ with small, nearly subliminal head actions round that place. It is thus greater than probably that sure small variations of the soundfield with such variations of head place would give enhanced outcomes, and others not. In any case, my expertise has been that audio system that run a single driver (or within the R25As a pair of drivers) as much as a comparatively excessive crossover level earlier than the tweeter is available in are inclined to have extraordinary picture focus. And the R25As have the crossover to the tweeter at 2.85kHz. The off-centered tweeter placement, which tends to attenuate total diffraction results, may also play some function. Finally, the MTM driver association, which makes the ground interplay completely different from a two-way with two drivers performs a job I believe within the era of depth and in liberating the entrance of the soundstage from the aircraft of the audio system.

In any case, leaving such tentative theorizing apart, the imaging conduct of the R25As is prime drawer. And it is a fixed enhancement of the musical expertise. Even for those who suppose you don’t care, that solely the sound itself not the spatial side counts for you, I believe you will see that the best way during which the R25As inhabit the room with out seeming to work together with it spatially enhances the sense of listening to music as if within the authentic venue. I, a minimum of, discovered this a unbroken supply of musical satisfaction and to an uncommon extent.

The Tonal Character

The R25A’s primary tonal character is considerably distinctive, and the perceived frequency response is a bit up and down, though total it’s easily altering on the entire. From the underside up: Deep bass is lacking, although extension is just not unhealthy contemplating the scale and the excessive sensitivity. There is a sort of lumpiness round 100Hz, and beneath that the bass is a bit light-weight, although it goes nominally all the way down to beneath 40Hz. Above that, there’s a dip (common, from flooring impact, not so extreme as in some audio system). The midrange within the 500Hz-to-1kHz area is considerably over-prominent. Then, there’s a perceived broad dip across the crossover level (within the 3kHz area), arising from the truth that wherever however precisely on the precise axis vertically there really is a dip. The prime appears easy and prolonged, even barely rising precisely on the tweeter axis however considerably rolled not far off that axis. The most observable side of those options is the general lightness and midrange emphasis. And this actually is noticed, not a lot as a coloration in any slim resonance sense however as a shift in stability. The male talking voice is lightened up, the other of chestiness. And the feminine talking voice is equally affected. The cello sounds extra within the viola route than it ought to, extra alto than tenor. On musical devices this isn’t usually disagreeable, however it’s not actually proper, and the talking voice is usually fairly peculiar, particularly in comparison with the BBC faculty audio system that are optimized for the talking voice particularly. To paraphrase Lewis Carroll, “Collar that midrange” is the factor to do with some EQ. Otherwise, issues are simply too unusual, to my ears anyway. It nearly sounds as if the baffle-step compensation had been omitted or a minimum of was incomplete.

What is peculiar to my thoughts right here is that this midrange emphasis, which is sort of conspicuous to my ears, is hardly commented upon in different opinions. The RM25A has been fairly broadly reviewed, however nearly nobody appears to have even observed the distinctive tonal character of the speaker. This is a part of a pattern: In the obvious zeal to speak about different issues than frequency response, up to date audio opinions typically merely ignore frequency response results altogether. And then there’s the truth that the mixture of the “flooring dip” and the roll-off off-axis in most audio system leads very often to the midrange being considerably projected, as you possibly can see in in-room measurements when they’re printed. In any case, the impact within the R25As doesn’t look spectacular in measurement phrases, however it’s there, and it has a musical impact, whether or not one likes this impact or not. To my ears, the R25As sounded loads higher if one pulled down the 800–1200Hz area considerably, easily however positively down. With that achieved, one thing like impartial stability appeared exterior of the (not unpleasant) sense of dip round 3kHz arising from the near-but-not-on-axis dip if one strikes vertically. The corrected response was really extraordinarily enticing to my thoughts and made a shocking variety of recordings sound “good” within the sense of sounding somewhat like live performance music. Euphonic in the most effective sense!

Back to the Sensitivity Question

This brings up the difficulty of precisely what sensitivity measurements imply. Traditionally, sensitivity is measured at 1kHz. The concept is that folks are inclined to set the amount based on the extent heard at 1kHz, and that is probably roughly true, though a part of that is simply the comfort of the spherical quantity 1000. But in acoustic music, orchestras particularly, the massive energy calls for are literally additional down in frequency, as you possibly can confirm for your self by utilizing a peak-power-level meter and taking part in some music. The large energy calls for occur when the orchestra goes “whomp” within the bass. The impact of that is that if a speaker is elevated at 1kHz and down a bit decrease down, the sensitivity score at 1kHz will give a deceptive impression of what number of watts of amplifier energy you want total. (This was mentioned by RH in his editorial in Issue 335.) One watt could also be loud sufficient within the mids, however when the bass whomps come alongside, it’s possible you’ll be in hassle with the extent that was all proper for 1kHz.

This is a really actual problem. An amplifier that places out 1 watt will play 1kHz at 94dB earlier than clipping. That is sort of loud. But when the massive bass comes alongside, clipping will occur on the drop of a hat. How excessive is that this in follow? I attempted some time again a McIntosh amplifier that had peak-level meters on my Harbeth M40s, sensitivity 84dB. Playing orchestral music at reasonable ranges—mid-80dB forte degree total on an SPL meter (C-weighted), the massive bass whomps drew 170 watts incessantly. People who suppose their micro-powered amplifiers should not going to clip are probably mistaken, except they hear completely to clavichords and soprano recorders. Of course, one of many nominal promoting factors of SETs is that they have an inclination to clip gracefully—they usually certainly have to.

Looked on the different approach round, with 1kHz being the determiner of the setting for the amount, a speaker that tasks the mids will want much less bass energy as a result of the amount setting will probably be decrease. But for those who EQ the bass as much as match the mids, then energy calls for go up. In impact, the speaker operates as having decrease sensitivity.

The impact of all that is that, whether or not consciously or subconsciously, the high-sensitivity/low-power world tends to pursue midrange forwardness most of the time. As one would possibly anticipate, SETs are normally rolled on the frequency extremes. People discuss their midrange superiority. But the midrange of SETs is just not essentially superior—it’s simply extra plentiful in comparison with the frequency extremes. These results are giant in listening phrases. And comparable bias is concerned generally in audio system.

I’m not attempting to recommend that anybody units out to make a speaker with pushed-up mids in an effort to make its listed sensitivity increased. Rather, there are elements that make for increased sensitivity that additionally promote midrange forwardness. Among these are light-weight drivers, which usually tend to be full of life on the prime of their working vary, and the absence or close to absence of inner damping. This contributes to increased perceived sensitivity, since damping out sound in impact converts sonic vitality to warmth, so there’s much less sound vitality emitted to the skin world. Furthermore, the undamped sound appears livelier even when it’s not all that a lot louder: Resonances make issues sound louder. This is, after all, no place for an extended technical dialogue, however the R25As do have somewhat little inner damping, based on Living Voice.

Let me give an analogy. If you sit down at a grand piano and depress the right-hand pedal (the damper pedal or sustaining pedal), which lifts the dampers off all of the strings. The instrument appears nearly alive—the very act of making use of the pedal and lifting the dampers makes a small sound reminding one of many resonances ready to be unleashed by pushing down the retains and having the hammers hit the strings. Now these resonances are what make the music, creates the sound of the piano taking part in. But they’re all ready there to be launched.

At first sight, one would possibly suppose that for a speaker to be lifelike, it needs to be comparable; it too needs to be a bunch of resonances ready to be unleashed. But this isn’t actually the precise concept. If a grand piano with the dampers raised is a racehorse ready for the beginning gate to be opened, aquiver with pleasure of the ability to be unleashed, a speaker should be extra like a brick mendacity on a mud flat. It is just not about to maneuver except shoved and when the shoving stops, it stops transferring. Speakers want to breed the recorded results of the resonances of musical devices, however they don’t seem to be alleged to have any resonances of their very own.

Now, individuals fear loads about the way to deal with the motion of the cupboard partitions within the decrease frequencies, both by making the cupboards super-rigid or by making them barely versatile however damping them. What I’m describing is additional up in frequency than the bass. A midrange driver taking part in at say 2kHz is producing a backwave of a wavelength of about seven inches. It is just not pressurizing the field as a unit the best way bass does, however it’s nonetheless bouncing round inside in varied methods. What is one to do with that sound? Ideally, one desires merely to eliminate it as a result of it’s saved vitality that one doesn’t need to hear. So, normally, audio system are full of one thing or have sound-absorbing damping materials on the partitions of the field. This materials eliminates sonic vitality—it’s alleged to, and it does.

You can skip doing this. If you skip it, the emitted sound will change. The ensuing sound is livelier and fewer “lifeless.” But lifeless is admittedly what you need to hear—or, a minimum of, I believe so. In normal phrases, controversies alongside these traces have been happening in audio ceaselessly. How lifeless ought to issues be? How damped down ought to a listening room be? What in regards to the backwave of dipole audio system, absorbed or mirrored? It is dependent upon whom you ask, particularly about listening rooms.

To return to the R25As, they belong considerably within the “undead” class. And to my ears, they’re (within the phrases of Rex Stout’s thriller basic) “not fairly lifeless sufficient.” Even for those who EQ down the midrange prominence to get the measured response flat, there’s a sort of glow to the sound at a subliminal degree that I used to be not keen on. I stored wishing I might “put a sock in it,” actually—stuff one thing into the field, not the port however into the field itself.

Don’t misunderstand: This is just not an enormous factor. Musical devices, in spite of everything, do “glow” on this sense—they’re resonators. But to my ears they have an inclination to accumulate a bit of extra glow than is admittedly there. This is true particularly of the piano. I freely admit that numerous individuals appear to love this. Reviews of the R25As have both ignored the query or have preferred the “full of life” sound. And some individuals have praised them for percussive sound particularly.

In any case, it is a smaller matter than the frequency-response results, as such. But if you’re sensitive about this, hear fastidiously to some piano sound to get the thought. This makes a lot much less distinction on sustained materials, nonetheless.

Good News

It is necessary to appreciate that the R25As do quite a lot of necessary issues rather well, no matter points I might need had with absolute neutrality or lack thereof. As already famous, the R25As do a fantastic, certainly a spectacular job of stereo imaging. And they do that in a approach that’s of actual musical significance. Orchestral music, as an example, is correctly separated spatially, which provides to the listener’s capacity to listen to particular person traces. (Ernst Ansermet’s remark within the early days of stereo about how the primary musical job of stereo was separation of components got here to thoughts.) Comes to that, the R25As do a fantastic job of conserving complicated textures straight and unconfused. It is tough to say what’s concerned right here technically, however the lack of auditory confusion is hanging and musically rewarding.

In the Telarc Cleveland Quartet recording of Beethoven’s Opus 59, No. 2 and No. 3, the 4 devices are all the time separated in area and id, however the entire has a unity on the identical time. It actually sounds very similar to a string quartet does sound in a gratifying approach. (This is an efficient recording for these in search of the repertoire.) And when one strikes as much as extra complicated multi-lined materials, the gestalt stays wonderful. The Swan of Tuonela on Reference Recording’s Reveries CD (Minnesota Orchestra, E. Oue cond.) sounds each stunning and convincing, not solely when the solo English horn is taking part in with sparse accompaniment but in addition when the entire orchestra speaks in response. And the massive second is simply large, not in any approach muddied up. This feeling of effortlessness stays when even larger orchestral moments come up in different repertoire. Again, the readability with none harshness and with none sense of pressure (so long as quantity is stored rational—that is in spite of everything a small speaker) is musically gratifying. Even the heaviest scores of R. Strauss and Mahler stick collectively whereas remaining unconfused (the recording allowing). The sense that so typically turns up of issues falling aside, the middle not holding when the going will get intense, is blessedly lacking to an extent that’s exceptional, particularly in a speaker of this dimension. (It was a little bit of a shock to me to seek out this in a speaker with so little inner damping. I might have anticipated that the after-sound that one hears on the piano recordings would obscure barely complicated orchestra textures. however for no matter cause, the readability is there.)

At very shut vary, one hears the considerably difficult acoustic relationship among the many two drivers and the tweeter geometrically between. But at an affordable listening distance, the speaker turns into very coherent and of a bit. And the sound could be very “un-speaker-like.” These descriptions could look like customary audio-review boilerplate, however on this occasion, they’re really true. The lengthy work in adjusting crossovers and selecting crossover components which has been concerned with the design appears to have paid off—one thing has paid off, in any case. (It is all the time laborious to reverse-engineer, to know what a part of the design course of induced what, however the audible results are there it doesn’t matter what the rationale.)

One begins to know how different reviewers have determined to disregard problems with full neutrality and focus on what the speaker does properly—as a result of the issues it does properly it actually does do properly, and they’re musically vital. It is maybe foolish to name Beethoven and Sibelius “enjoyable,” however in some sense the R25As actually are “enjoyable” to take heed to or, to make use of a greater phrase, a pleasure.

Long Thoughts

As I used to be penning this, I recalled the passage on web page 102 of Issue 335 the place our editor RH discusses how even audio system on the grandest worth and dimension vary (on this case the Göbel Divin Noblesse) have a sure distinctive character of their very own, more likely to be completely different from different giant and costly audio system. This is maybe not shocking. Indeed, it even appears inevitable within the context that simply on-axis response alone, by no means thoughts the consequences of off-axis and room sound and all the remainder, the brink for audible distinction is about ±0.1dB for broadband shifts in response. All speaker designers are within the place of getting to decide on amongst a large number of potentialities, even when one supposes that they’ve full management, which, after all, they don’t.

But the odd factor is that folks, even confronted with the truth that there are going to be inevitable variations, turn into devoted to 1 or one other chance. We all need to consider that the speaker we like is one way or the other “proper” in a approach that others should not. Even amongst individuals who agree largely, impassioned disagreements come up. Have a have a look at any discussion board the place completely different variations of basically the identical speaker design are mentioned.

In this spirit, I’m in truth fairly satisfied that the R25As are too “midrangy.” But I’m ready to confess that others would possibly really feel in a different way. Perhaps it is a second when one ought to recall the traces from the Youngbloods’ “Get Together”: “Come on individuals now, smile in your brother.”

The R25As are a cautious work, refined over an extended time period and aimed toward a selected aesthetic in sound, as is any critical speaker design. In this case, the aesthetic appears to incorporate the maximization of midrange life in a speaker that’s, even so, almost full vary, reasonable in dimension, and excessive sufficient in sensitivity to be pushed by lower-power amplifiers.

If the latter level, particularly, is of compelling curiosity to you, you then positively have to audition the R25As. If you aren’t decided to stay with lower-powered amplifiers and don’t thoughts a bit of EQ to collar the midrange, the R25As are nonetheless of curiosity for his or her imaging, coherence, and bass extension in a comparatively small speaker.

Specs & Pricing

Driver complement: 1x Scanspeak 26mm (1″) comfortable dome tweeter, 2x Scanspeak 170mm (6.5″) coated-paper mid/bass drivers
Frequency response: 35Hz–22kHz, ±3dB
Sensitivity: 94dB
Nominal impedance: 6 ohms, nonreactive
Dimensions: 215mm x 1170mm (together with podium) x 270mm
Weight: 42 lbs. (every)
Price: $6995/pr.

LIVING VOICE
Long Eaton
Derbyshire, UK
44 (0) 115 9733222
livingvoice.co.uk

BORDER PATROL (U.S. Distributor)
(301) 705-7460
borderpatrol.internet

The publish Living Voice Auditorium R25A Loudspeaker appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

World News

Living Voice Auditorium R25A Loudspeaker

Posted on by Robert E. Greene

Living Voice has lengthy been a big presence within the British speaker business. The “25” within the mannequin quantity right here is in reference to the speaker being a 25th anniversary mannequin. In reality, the historical past of the design goes again even a bit additional, in that the unique Living Voice Auditorium was apparently strongly influenced by an earlier design from DALI, the Model 104. Meanwhile, the unique Living Voice mannequin has been steadily and thoroughly revised in a course of that resembles the Old Masters of violin-making refining their designs yr after yr, even era after era. Living Voice shouldn’t be distinctive on this respect. It appears a British custom, with the unique LS3/5a and the unique Spendor BC1 having led to many years of refinements and variants, over a 50-year interval for the BC1 and near that for the LS3/5a. Still, 25 years is in itself spectacular in a world the place technical merchandise are likely to have a brief life.

The design targets of Living Voice within the R25A and its associated fashions (there are different related designs at greater costs within the Living Voice line) have pursued an extra purpose in comparison with BBC designs, which have been searching for full neutrality. Living Voice sought not simply accuracy however excessive sensitivity. The Auditorium R25A has a listed sensitivity of 94dB. Compare this to say the LS3/5a, with its 83dB sensitivity. Clearly, we’re in a distinct world right here, supposed to be appropriate for lower-powered tube (or Class A solid-state) amplifiers and, certainly, Living Voice’s designer Kevin Scott voiced the audio system with tube amplification. Living Voice additionally makes horn audio system with the low-power tube consumer in thoughts: The Vox Olympian has a sensitivity ranking of 105dB!

But none of that is to counsel that the Auditorium R25A shouldn’t be of curiosity to people who find themselves proud of higher-power solid-state amplifiers. It is, actually, a speaker of basic curiosity, regardless that it might be significantly enticing to the low-power tube individuals.

Still, the sensitivity situation is a crucial side of the design, and it is sensible to have a look at that basic context first earlier than attending to the extra particular sonic description.

Living Voice Auditorium R25A Loudspeaker rear panel

Size, Sensitivity, and Bass

In the early days of the trendy high-fidelity period, the late Nineteen Forties and early Fifties, amplifiers of excessive energy by as we speak’s requirements weren’t out there. An amplifier with 30 watts (per channel) was thought of a powerhouse. But individuals wished bass with each quantity and extension. The reply was to make audio system large. The logic of that is based mostly on physics: Bass wavelengths are lengthy. A 40Hz tone is over 28 ft in wavelength. This implies that a small driver is not going to couple to the air at that frequency in any respect properly and must transfer violently to provide any substantial sound in any respect. Large drivers fare higher. So, individuals ended up making actually giant woofers: the ElectroVoice Patrican 800 had a 30-inch driver! That was then, however acoustic ideas don’t change, and if one needs bass with excessive sensitivity, dimension stays the way in which to go. The Cerwin-Vega CLS215s—my go-to audio system for reproducing the complete bass energy of the orchestra—are 96dB delicate, they usually get this mixture of bass energy and extension and excessive sensitivity by being nearly the dimensions of a small floorstanding fridge and utilizing two 15-inch woofers. At the opposite excessive, the diminutive Spendor S3/5, beautiful although it’s at reasonable volumes in midrange replica, is a fish out of water confronted with orchestral energy at full throttle. Its bass restrict is 70Hz, the sensitivity is 84dB, and the utmost energy enter is 70 watts: stunning sound inside its limits, however orchestral bass energy and extension are usually not on this system and most positively not so with a low-powered amplifier. A small speaker can pump out bass with sufficient energy driving it and the construction to deal with the ability: Subwoofers may be small and nonetheless produce low bass in a giant method. But they want plenty of amplifier energy. Many have amplifiers as highly effective as 1500-watt constructed into them. And the massive energy is required, and the bass driver is pushed very exhausting.

The Living Voice R25As are a well-chosen compromise within the inevitable trade-offs amongst dimension, sensitivity, and bass energy and extension They are delicate sufficient to be pushed by fairly small quantities of energy, sufficiently small to suit gracefully into unusual home environments, they usually have sufficient bass extension and quantity functionality to be fairly satisfying for many sorts of music.

The designer of Living Voice, Kevin Scott, is firmly of the opinion that amplification of any actual energy (by modern requirements) entails critical sonic errors. I have to say I don’t discover this to be so. But, after all, there isn’t any hurt in precept to having a speaker that’s so excessive in sensitivity that prime energy ranges are usually not even near being wanted. The energy that’s out there however not used shouldn’t be bothering something. And for some individuals, the comparatively excessive 94dB sensitivity will probably be fascinating. To try the lower-power scenario, I used the Schiit Aegir (solid-state, however comparatively low energy at 10 watts in pure Class A, 20 watts in what Schiit calls Continuity mode). It did a high quality job with the R25As. I didn’t have a low-power tube amplifier to strive, however normally it’s positively the case that 20 watts is a lot, and I might guess that 10 could be sufficient for many functions. Certainly, the Aegir was working fantastically properly on the ranges concerned, with Class A sound in the most effective sense—stunning amplification certainly, at a really rational worth ($799 if you don’t want extra energy than is on provide). The energy was enough within the case of the R25As so long as no substantial equalization was used—extra on that time later. I additionally used the 100-watt Benchmark AHB2, which, after all, was simply loafing alongside in its impartial, distortion-free method on the energy ranges doubtless with a 94dB-sensitivity speaker with or with out EQ.

What is within the R25A?

The R25A has two 170mm mid/bass drivers in an MTM (midrange/tweeter/midrange) driver configuration with a 26mm soft-dome tweeter. The drivers are made by Scanspeak. The mid/bass driver has a coated-paper membrane and is constructed particularly for Living Voice, the unique type of the motive force having been in any other case discontinued, it appears. The cupboard is a slim floorstander, uncommon in that it’s provided with a podium to raise it to a greater listening peak. (Bravo for this—all too many smaller floorstanders require the listener to sit down nearly on the ground to be on an excellent axis.) This is a good suggestion and in addition a crucial one, as a result of, actually, the response of the R25A varies an excellent cope with the vertical place of the listening place relative to the speaker, except the listener is admittedly distant. The speaker has fairly a large dispersion sample total, however it’s not significantly steady in frequency response with variations of the vertical listening place (listening peak). On the plus aspect, the MTM association makes the speaker work together with the ground, it appears, moderately lower than regular. The R25A is ported, with the port within the rear. Positioning the audio system pretty far into the room appeared to work greatest in my setup. (Close to the wall behind introduced up the underside however in a considerably coloured method.) The audio system sound like themselves normally phrases in a wide range of positions, however the very best efficiency is dependent upon cautious adjustment, apparently particularly so due to the speaker’s complicated radiation sample. Patience is rewarded. This shouldn’t be a speaker design of the equipment strategy, common with what was referred to as “mid-fi” corporations, the place you load up the dishes any outdated method and push a button and the dishes get washed. (One of the actually peculiar concepts concerned right here is that one ought to check audio system by switching between them however placing all of the totally different pairs in the identical place successively, by no means minding that the most effective place is likely to be totally different for various audio system.)

Starting to Listen and the Imaging Behavior of the R25As

When I first arrange the audio system, I ran Stereophile’s Test CD1 (as is my regular follow) to confirm that the channels have been wired appropriately and that the 2 channels have been “in part.” This is straightforward to detect on music materials, however it’s faster nonetheless to make use of alerts designed for the aim. The channels have been right (monitor 2) and so was the polarity (monitor 3). But the latter was startling to listen to. The distinction is obvious on any pair of audio system which might be intently matched in frequency response. But for the R25As, the distinction was excessive. Focus was excellent in polarity, and in reverse polarity, the barking canine was simply nowhere in any respect—whole lack of spatial focus. This was extra so than with nearly some other audio system I’ve tried, nearly on the degree of the Gradient Helsinki 1.5s, that are absolutely the champs at this in my expertise. No doubt there are those that assume that efficiency on such check alerts shouldn’t be related to music, however this explicit type of check, and the equally spectacular results of the pink noise correlated versus uncorrelated, is instantly associated to stereo imaging in concept, and so it proved in follow, with music materials. The lateral stereo efficiency of the R25As was tremendous. In addition, the depth of picture was additionally fairly startling good.

It is pure to ask whence this arises. What makes the R25As so good at stereo? The presently common perception is that superior stereo arises from uniformity of radiation sample. This is virtually a mantra amongst semi-technical writers on audio, that vast and uniform radiation offers rise to steady and proper stereo. Stable, possibly, however my expertise is that the very best focus and depth is definitely connected to sure sorts of deviations from theoretical point-source uniformity. It is hardly stunning that this is likely to be so. The ear/mind senses location of photos acoustically not from the alerts on the two ears with a hard and fast head place, however from how the alerts range with small, just about subliminal head actions round that place. It is thus greater than doubtless that sure small variations of the soundfield with such variations of head place would give enhanced outcomes, and others not. In any case, my expertise has been that audio system that run a single driver (or within the R25As a pair of drivers) as much as a comparatively excessive crossover level earlier than the tweeter is available in are likely to have extraordinary picture focus. And the R25As have the crossover to the tweeter at 2.85kHz. The off-centered tweeter placement, which tends to attenuate total diffraction results, may also play some position. Finally, the MTM driver association, which makes the ground interplay totally different from a two-way with two drivers performs a job I believe within the era of depth and in liberating the entrance of the soundstage from the airplane of the audio system.

In any case, leaving such tentative theorizing apart, the imaging conduct of the R25As is prime drawer. And this can be a fixed enhancement of the musical expertise. Even in the event you assume you don’t care, that solely the sound itself not the spatial side counts for you, I believe you will discover the way in which by which the R25As inhabit the room with out seeming to work together with it spatially enhances the sense of listening to music as if within the authentic venue. I, not less than, discovered this a seamless supply of musical satisfaction and to an uncommon extent.

The Tonal Character

The R25A’s fundamental tonal character is considerably distinctive, and the perceived frequency response is a bit up and down, though total it’s easily altering on the entire. From the underside up: Deep bass is lacking, although extension shouldn’t be unhealthy contemplating the dimensions and the excessive sensitivity. There is a type of lumpiness round 100Hz, and under that the bass is a bit light-weight, although it goes nominally right down to under 40Hz. Above that, there’s a dip (common, from ground impact, not so extreme as in some audio system). The midrange within the 500Hz-to-1kHz area is considerably over-prominent. Then, there’s a perceived broad dip across the crossover level (within the 3kHz area), arising from the truth that anyplace however precisely on the suitable axis vertically there really is a dip. The prime appears clean and prolonged, even barely rising precisely on the tweeter axis however considerably rolled not far off that axis. The most observable side of those options is the general lightness and midrange emphasis. And this actually is noticed, not a lot as a coloration in any slim resonance sense however as a shift in stability. The male talking voice is lightened up, the other of chestiness. And the feminine talking voice is equally affected. The cello sounds extra within the viola route than it ought to, extra alto than tenor. On musical devices this isn’t usually disagreeable, however it’s not actually proper, and the talking voice is commonly fairly peculiar, particularly in comparison with the BBC faculty audio system that are optimized for the talking voice specifically. To paraphrase Lewis Carroll, “Collar that midrange” is the factor to do with some EQ. Otherwise, issues are simply too unusual, to my ears anyway. It nearly sounds as if the baffle-step compensation had been omitted or not less than was incomplete.

What is peculiar to my thoughts right here is that this midrange emphasis, which is sort of conspicuous to my ears, is hardly commented upon in different opinions. The RM25A has been fairly extensively reviewed, however nearly nobody appears to have even seen the distinctive tonal character of the speaker. This is a part of a pattern: In the obvious zeal to speak about different issues than frequency response, modern audio opinions typically merely ignore frequency response results altogether. And then there’s the truth that the mix of the “ground dip” and the roll-off off-axis in most audio system leads very often to the midrange being considerably projected, as you may see in in-room measurements when they’re printed. In any case, the impact within the R25As doesn’t look spectacular in measurement phrases, however it’s there, and it has a musical impact, whether or not one likes this impact or not. To my ears, the R25As sounded quite a bit higher if one pulled down the 800–1200Hz area considerably, easily however positively down. With that achieved, one thing like impartial stability appeared exterior of the (not unpleasant) sense of dip round 3kHz arising from the near-but-not-on-axis dip if one strikes vertically. The corrected response was really extraordinarily enticing to my thoughts and made a stunning variety of recordings sound “good” within the sense of sounding moderately like live performance music. Euphonic in the most effective sense!

Back to the Sensitivity Question

This brings up the problem of precisely what sensitivity measurements imply. Traditionally, sensitivity is measured at 1kHz. The thought is that individuals are likely to set the amount in accordance with the extent heard at 1kHz, and that is doubtless kind of true, though a part of that is simply the comfort of the spherical quantity 1000. But in acoustic music, orchestras specifically, the massive energy calls for are literally additional down in frequency, as you may confirm for your self through the use of a peak-power-level meter and taking part in some music. The large energy calls for occur when the orchestra goes “whomp” within the bass. The impact of that is that if a speaker is elevated at 1kHz and down a bit decrease down, the sensitivity ranking at 1kHz will give a deceptive impression of what number of watts of amplifier energy you want total. (This was mentioned by RH in his editorial in Issue 335.) One watt could also be loud sufficient within the mids, however when the bass whomps come alongside, chances are you’ll be in hassle with the extent that was all proper for 1kHz.

This is a really actual situation. An amplifier that places out 1 watt will play 1kHz at 94dB earlier than clipping. That is sort of loud. But when the massive bass comes alongside, clipping will occur on the drop of a hat. How excessive is that this in follow? I attempted some time again a McIntosh amplifier that had peak-level meters on my Harbeth M40s, sensitivity 84dB. Playing orchestral music at reasonable ranges—mid-80dB forte degree total on an SPL meter (C-weighted), the massive bass whomps drew 170 watts ceaselessly. People who assume their micro-powered amplifiers are usually not going to clip are doubtless mistaken, except they pay attention solely to clavichords and soprano recorders. Of course, one of many nominal promoting factors of SETs is that they have an inclination to clip gracefully—they usually certainly must.

Looked on the different method round, with 1kHz being the determiner of the setting for the amount, a speaker that initiatives the mids will want much less bass energy as a result of the amount setting will probably be decrease. But in the event you EQ the bass as much as match the mids, then energy calls for go up. In impact, the speaker operates as having decrease sensitivity.

The impact of all that is that, whether or not consciously or subconsciously, the high-sensitivity/low-power world tends to pursue midrange forwardness most of the time. As one may anticipate, SETs are often rolled on the frequency extremes. People discuss their midrange superiority. But the midrange of SETs shouldn’t be essentially superior—it’s simply extra ample in comparison with the frequency extremes. These results are giant in listening phrases. And related bias is concerned generally in audio system.

I’m not making an attempt to counsel that anybody units out to make a speaker with pushed-up mids with the intention to make its listed sensitivity greater. Rather, there are components that make for greater sensitivity that additionally promote midrange forwardness. Among these are light-weight drivers, which usually tend to be energetic on the prime of their working vary, and the absence or close to absence of inside damping. This contributes to greater perceived sensitivity, since damping out sound in impact converts sonic vitality to warmth, so there’s much less sound vitality emitted to the skin world. Furthermore, the undamped sound appears livelier even when it’s not all that a lot louder: Resonances make issues sound louder. This is, after all, no place for a protracted technical dialogue, however the R25As do have moderately little inside damping, in accordance with Living Voice.

Let me give an analogy. If you sit down at a grand piano and depress the right-hand pedal (the damper pedal or sustaining pedal), which lifts the dampers off all of the strings. The instrument appears nearly alive—the very act of making use of the pedal and lifting the dampers makes a small sound reminding one of many resonances ready to be unleashed by pushing down the retains and having the hammers hit the strings. Now these resonances are what make the music, creates the sound of the piano taking part in. But they’re all ready there to be launched.

At first sight, one may assume that for a speaker to be lifelike, it must be related; it too must be a bunch of resonances ready to be unleashed. But this isn’t actually the suitable thought. If a grand piano with the dampers raised is a racehorse ready for the beginning gate to be opened, aquiver with pleasure of the ability to be unleashed, a speaker must be extra like a brick mendacity on a mud flat. It shouldn’t be about to maneuver except shoved and when the shoving stops, it stops transferring. Speakers want to breed the recorded results of the resonances of musical devices, however they don’t seem to be imagined to have any resonances of their very own.

Now, individuals fear quite a bit about the best way to deal with the motion of the cupboard partitions within the decrease frequencies, both by making the cupboards super-rigid or by making them barely versatile however damping them. What I’m describing is additional up in frequency than the bass. A midrange driver taking part in at say 2kHz is producing a backwave of a wavelength of about seven inches. It shouldn’t be pressurizing the field as a unit the way in which bass does, however it’s nonetheless bouncing round inside in varied methods. What is one to do with that sound? Ideally, one needs merely to do away with it as a result of it’s saved vitality that one doesn’t wish to hear. So, often, audio system are filled with one thing or have sound-absorbing damping materials on the partitions of the field. This materials eliminates sonic vitality—it’s imagined to, and it does.

You can skip doing this. If you skip it, the emitted sound will change. The ensuing sound is livelier and fewer “useless.” But useless is admittedly what you wish to hear—or, not less than, I believe so. In basic phrases, controversies alongside these strains have been happening in audio endlessly. How useless ought to issues be? How damped down ought to a listening room be? What concerning the backwave of dipole audio system, absorbed or mirrored? It is dependent upon whom you ask, particularly about listening rooms.

To return to the R25As, they belong considerably within the “undead” class. And to my ears, they’re (within the phrases of Rex Stout’s thriller traditional) “not fairly useless sufficient.” Even in the event you EQ down the midrange prominence to get the measured response flat, there’s a type of glow to the sound at a subliminal degree that I used to be not keen on. I stored wishing I may “put a sock in it,” actually—stuff one thing into the field, not the port however into the field itself.

Don’t misunderstand: This shouldn’t be an enormous factor. Musical devices, in any case, do “glow” on this sense—they’re resonators. But to my ears they have an inclination to amass a bit extra glow than is admittedly there. This is true particularly of the piano. I freely admit that a lot of individuals appear to love this. Reviews of the R25As have both ignored the query or have preferred the “energetic” sound. And some individuals have praised them for percussive sound particularly.

In any case, this can be a smaller matter than the frequency-response results, as such. But in case you are sensitive about this, pay attention rigorously to some piano sound to get the concept. This makes a lot much less distinction on sustained materials, nonetheless.

Good News

It is necessary to comprehend that the R25As do numerous necessary issues rather well, no matter points I might need had with absolute neutrality or lack thereof. As already famous, the R25As do a high quality, certainly a spectacular job of stereo imaging. And they do that in a method that’s of actual musical significance. Orchestral music, for example, is correctly separated spatially, which provides to the listener’s skill to listen to particular person strains. (Ernst Ansermet’s remark within the early days of stereo about how the primary musical job of stereo was separation of elements got here to thoughts.) Comes to that, the R25As do a high quality job of preserving complicated textures straight and unconfused. It is tough to say what’s concerned right here technically, however the lack of auditory confusion is hanging and musically rewarding.

In the Telarc Cleveland Quartet recording of Beethoven’s Opus 59, No. 2 and No. 3, the 4 devices are all the time separated in house and identification, however the entire has a unity on the similar time. It actually sounds very like a string quartet does sound in a gratifying method. (This is an effective recording for these on the lookout for the repertoire.) And when one strikes as much as extra complicated multi-lined materials, the gestalt stays wonderful. The Swan of Tuonela on Reference Recording’s Reveries CD (Minnesota Orchestra, E. Oue cond.) sounds each stunning and convincing, not solely when the solo English horn is taking part in with sparse accompaniment but additionally when the entire orchestra speaks in response. And the massive second is simply large, not in any method muddied up. This feeling of effortlessness stays when even greater orchestral moments come up in different repertoire. Again, the readability with none harshness and with none sense of pressure (so long as quantity is stored rational—that is in any case a small speaker) is musically gratifying. Even the heaviest scores of R. Strauss and Mahler stick collectively whereas remaining unconfused (the recording allowing). The sense that so typically turns up of issues falling aside, the middle not holding when the going will get intense, is blessedly lacking to an extent that’s outstanding, particularly in a speaker of this dimension. (It was a little bit of a shock to me to seek out this in a speaker with so little inside damping. I might have anticipated that the after-sound that one hears on the piano recordings would obscure barely complicated orchestra textures. however for no matter cause, the readability is there.)

At very shut vary, one hears the considerably difficult acoustic relationship among the many two drivers and the tweeter geometrically between. But at an inexpensive listening distance, the speaker turns into very coherent and of a bit. And the sound could be very “un-speaker-like.” These descriptions could seem to be customary audio-review boilerplate, however on this occasion, they’re really true. The lengthy work in adjusting crossovers and selecting crossover elements which has been concerned with the design appears to have paid off—one thing has paid off, in any case. (It is all the time exhausting to reverse-engineer, to know what a part of the design course of precipitated what, however the audible results are there it doesn’t matter what the rationale.)

One begins to grasp how different reviewers have determined to disregard problems with full neutrality and focus on what the speaker does properly—as a result of the issues it does properly it actually does do properly, and they’re musically vital. It is probably foolish to name Beethoven and Sibelius “enjoyable,” however in some sense the R25As actually are “enjoyable” to take heed to or, to make use of a greater phrase, a pleasure.

Long Thoughts

As I used to be penning this, I recalled the passage on web page 102 of Issue 335 the place our editor RH discusses how even audio system on the grandest worth and dimension vary (on this case the Göbel Divin Noblesse) have a sure distinctive character of their very own, prone to be totally different from different giant and costly audio system. This is probably not stunning. Indeed, it even appears inevitable within the context that simply taking a look at on-axis response alone, by no means thoughts the consequences of off-axis and room sound and all the remainder, the brink for audible distinction is about ±0.1dB for broadband shifts in response. All speaker designers are within the place of getting to decide on amongst a large number of prospects, even when one supposes that they’ve full management, which, after all, they don’t.

But the odd factor is that individuals, even confronted with the truth that there are going to be inevitable variations, turn out to be devoted to 1 or one other risk. We all wish to imagine that the speaker we like is someway “proper” in a method that others are usually not. Even amongst individuals who agree largely, impassioned disagreements come up. Have a have a look at any discussion board the place totally different variations of basically the identical speaker design are mentioned.

In this spirit, I’m actually fairly satisfied that the R25As are too “midrangy.” But I’m ready to confess that others may really feel in another way. Perhaps this can be a second when one ought to recall the strains from the Youngbloods’ “Get Together”: “Come on individuals now, smile in your brother.”

The R25As are a cautious work, refined over a protracted time frame and geared toward a particular aesthetic in sound, as is any critical speaker design. In this case, the aesthetic appears to incorporate the maximization of midrange life in a speaker that’s, even so, almost full vary, reasonable in dimension, and excessive sufficient in sensitivity to be pushed by lower-power amplifiers.

If the latter level, specifically, is of compelling curiosity to you, then you definately positively must audition the R25As. If you aren’t decided to stay with lower-powered amplifiers and don’t thoughts a bit EQ to collar the midrange, the R25As are nonetheless of curiosity for his or her imaging, coherence, and bass extension in a comparatively small speaker.

Specs & Pricing

Driver complement: 1x Scanspeak 26mm (1″) mushy dome tweeter, 2x Scanspeak 170mm (6.5″) coated-paper mid/bass drivers
Frequency response: 35Hz–22kHz, ±3dB
Sensitivity: 94dB
Nominal impedance: 6 ohms, nonreactive
Dimensions: 215mm x 1170mm (together with podium) x 270mm
Weight: 42 lbs. (every)
Price: $6995/pr.

LIVING VOICE
Long Eaton
Derbyshire, UK
44 (0) 115 9733222
livingvoice.co.uk

BORDER PATROL (U.S. Distributor)
(301) 705-7460
borderpatrol.internet

The publish Living Voice Auditorium R25A Loudspeaker appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

World News

2022 Golden Ear: Polk T50 Loudspeaker

Posted on by Robert E. Greene

Polk T50 Loudspeaker

$298

The tiny Polks benefit from EQ’ing (a 1/3-octave analog EQ device will be fine for this)—to remove a peak at around 1kHz and pull the treble down above 5kHz. This done, these inexpensive floorstanding speakers will produce a surprisingly accurate and musical sound with a good top end, adequate dynamic range, convincing bass extension beyond the scope of mini-speakers. If you must have even deeper bass extension, you could add a subwoofer (ideally multiple subwoofers—the best way to get ideal bass in actual rooms (for which, see my Golden Ear 2021 Award to the Audio Kinesis Swarm). But if you can live without the bottom octave, with bass adequate for almost all music, these speakers, properly EQ’d, will give you remarkable sound for minimal money.

The post 2022 Golden Ear: Polk T50 Loudspeaker appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

Uncategorized

2022 Golden Ear: Polk T50 Loudspeaker

Posted on by Robert E. Greene

Polk T50 Loudspeaker

$298

The tiny Polks benefit from EQ’ing (a 1/3-octave analog EQ device will be fine for this)—to remove a peak at around 1kHz and pull the treble down above 5kHz. This done, these inexpensive floorstanding speakers will produce a surprisingly accurate and musical sound with a good top end, adequate dynamic range, convincing bass extension beyond the scope of mini-speakers. If you must have even deeper bass extension, you could add a subwoofer (ideally multiple subwoofers—the best way to get ideal bass in actual rooms (for which, see my Golden Ear 2021 Award to the Audio Kinesis Swarm). But if you can live without the bottom octave, with bass adequate for almost all music, these speakers, properly EQ’d, will give you remarkable sound for minimal money.

The post 2022 Golden Ear: Polk T50 Loudspeaker appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

Uncategorized

Minoru Nojima (1945–2022)

Posted on by Robert E. Greene

The great pianist Minoru Nojima has died. Nojima was a child prodigy and studied in his early years with Lev Oborin in Moscow and Constance Keene and Abram Chasins in New York. He  came to international attention initially as the second prize winner in the 1969 Van Cliburn Competition.

He earned much admiration from his fellow pianists in his subsequent career. (I recall how, at the end of one of Nojima’s recitals at UCLA’s Royce Hall, Leonid Hambro ran down the aisle towards the stage shouting to everyone, “This is it; this is it. This is what piano playing is all about.”) But his public fame in the U.S. was, to begin with, inhibited by his reluctance to record, apparently through dissatisfaction with the sound available on commercial recordings. Then in the  mid-1980s, with approval from Reference Recordings founder Tam Henderson, I gave Nojima a pack of Reference Recordings records after one of his concerts, with a note asking him  please  to listen to see if the sound met with his approval and saying that, if it did, RR would be interested in making a recording with him.  In a fairytale ending, he took the records home to Japan, listened, and then called his U.S. agent, saying that he did not know who these people were but whoever they were he wanted to record with them. And thus, soon after, there came to be the Reference Recordings Nojima Plays Liszt and later Nojima Plays Ravel.

These were exceptionally well received musically and in audio terms, as well.  Regrettably, further recordings never quite came to pass, though interest remained on both sides. Nonetheless, these two recordings remain as treasured records of the artistry of one of the supreme pianists of our time—and even of all time.  Minoru Nojima will be much missed.

The post Minoru Nojima (1945–2022) appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

World News

Minoru Nojima (1945–2022)

Posted on by Robert E. Greene

The great pianist Minoru Nojima has died. Nojima was a child prodigy and studied in his early years with Lev Oborin in Moscow and Constance Keene and Abram Chasins in New York. He  came to international attention initially as the second prize winner in the 1969 Van Cliburn Competition.

He earned much admiration from his fellow pianists in his subsequent career. (I recall how, at the end of one of Nojima’s recitals at UCLA’s Royce Hall, Leonid Hambro ran down the aisle towards the stage shouting to everyone, “This is it; this is it. This is what piano playing is all about.”) But his public fame in the U.S. was, to begin with, inhibited by his reluctance to record, apparently through dissatisfaction with the sound available on commercial recordings. Then in the  mid-1980s, with approval from Reference Recordings founder Tam Henderson, I gave Nojima a pack of Reference Recordings records after one of his concerts, with a note asking him  please  to listen to see if the sound met with his approval and saying that, if it did, RR would be interested in making a recording with him.  In a fairytale ending, he took the records home to Japan, listened, and then called his U.S. agent, saying that he did not know who these people were but whoever they were he wanted to record with them. And thus, soon after, there came to be the Reference Recordings Nojima Plays Liszt and later Nojima Plays Ravel.

These were exceptionally well received musically and in audio terms, as well.  Regrettably, further recordings never quite came to pass, though interest remained on both sides. Nonetheless, these two recordings remain as treasured records of the artistry of one of the supreme pianists of our time—and even of all time.  Minoru Nojima will be much missed.

The post Minoru Nojima (1945–2022) appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

World News

Minoru Nojima (1945–2022)

Posted on by Robert E. Greene

The great pianist Minoru Nojima has died. Nojima was a child prodigy and studied in his early years with Lev Oborin in Moscow and Constance Keene and Abram Chasins in New York. He  came to international attention initially as the second prize winner in the 1969 Van Cliburn Competition.

He earned much admiration from his fellow pianists in his subsequent career. (I recall how, at the end of one of Nojima’s recitals at UCLA’s Royce Hall, Leonid Hambro ran down the aisle towards the stage shouting to everyone, “This is it; this is it. This is what piano playing is all about.”) But his public fame in the U.S. was, to begin with, inhibited by his reluctance to record, apparently through dissatisfaction with the sound available on commercial recordings. Then in the  mid-1980s, with approval from Reference Recordings founder Tam Henderson, I gave Nojima a pack of Reference Recordings records after one of his concerts, with a note asking him  please  to listen to see if the sound met with his approval and saying that, if it did, RR would be interested in making a recording with him.  In a fairytale ending, he took the records home to Japan, listened, and then called his U.S. agent, saying that he did not know who these people were but whoever they were he wanted to record with them. And thus, soon after, there came to be the Reference Recordings Nojima Plays Liszt and later Nojima Plays Ravel.

These were exceptionally well received musically and in audio terms, as well.  Regrettably, further recordings never quite came to pass, though interest remained on both sides. Nonetheless, these two recordings remain as treasured records of the artistry of one of the supreme pianists of our time—and even of all time.  Minoru Nojima will be much missed.

The post Minoru Nojima (1945–2022) appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

Uncategorized

2022 Golden Ear: Schiit Audio Loki Max Analog Equalizer

Posted on by Robert E. Greene

Schiit Audio Loki Max Analog Equalizer

$1500

You need this, even if you think your system is already neutral or even if it actually is. Recordings do not show up perfectly balanced in any precise sense. Even though the people who made a recording heard in monitoring exactly what they had in mind, their monitoring system almost surely does not match your playback system exactly! This remote-controlled device is effectively completely transparent, doing nothing except alter frequency response and make the associated minimum phase changes. You can move the balance of each recording around to fit how it fits your system and how loudly you want to play it back. (Volume level affects perceived balance.) The device is easy to use, easy to the point that you can dial in it very fast for each recording. And there is a bypass button, so you can instantly check what you did. With only six bands of eq, the Loki is not designed to fix speaker/room problems—for that you need more bands, a lot more, or parametric with variable Q. But for the day-to-day fixing up of recordings, six bands are enough to correct the things that are most likely to need correcting. And being able to do so becomes indispensable. Take control of your life in a way that far transcends the usual audio accessories or tweaks, in a way that really counts, as you will find when you switch even small corrections in and out. You’ll be glad you did.

The post 2022 Golden Ear: Schiit Audio Loki Max Analog Equalizer appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

World News

2022 Golden Ear: Schiit Audio Loki Max Analog Equalizer

Posted on by Robert E. Greene

Schiit Audio Loki Max Analog Equalizer

$1500

You need this, even if you think your system is already neutral or even if it actually is. Recordings do not show up perfectly balanced in any precise sense. Even though the people who made a recording heard in monitoring exactly what they had in mind, their monitoring system almost surely does not match your playback system exactly! This remote-controlled device is effectively completely transparent, doing nothing except alter frequency response and make the associated minimum phase changes. You can move the balance of each recording around to fit how it fits your system and how loudly you want to play it back. (Volume level affects perceived balance.) The device is easy to use, easy to the point that you can dial in it very fast for each recording. And there is a bypass button, so you can instantly check what you did. With only six bands of eq, the Loki is not designed to fix speaker/room problems—for that you need more bands, a lot more, or parametric with variable Q. But for the day-to-day fixing up of recordings, six bands are enough to correct the things that are most likely to need correcting. And being able to do so becomes indispensable. Take control of your life in a way that far transcends the usual audio accessories or tweaks, in a way that really counts, as you will find when you switch even small corrections in and out. You’ll be glad you did.

The post 2022 Golden Ear: Schiit Audio Loki Max Analog Equalizer appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

Uncategorized

Heavenly Soundworks Five17

Posted on by Robert E. Greene

It has been just over 25 years since I reviewed the Quadrature Model 5, the first American DSP-based speaker (Issue 107) and declared it a revolution in the making. In the intervening two-and-a-half decades, the DSP revolution has indeed spread around in audio quite a lot, with digital room correction devices and digital EQ being widespread—really widespread. Roon, for example, offers DSP EQ as an option. And various devices have arrived to apply DSP processing to the signal in ways adapted to the speaker at hand—notably the remarkable Devialet SAM (Speaker Active Matching) system that I reviewed in Issue 293. And on occasion, speakers based on DSP have appeared, recent notable ones being the Dutch & Dutch 8c and the Kii Audio 3. Still, the appearance of a new DSP-based speaker remains relatively rare and something to take a special interest in.

Heavenly Soundworks is a newcomer on the high-end audio scene. It is a relatively small U.S.-based company, with the Five17 being its first product, but other, larger, and more expensive designs are in the works. The Five17 is a rather small speaker, but it offers impressive bass extension for its size as well as the claims of flat response and phase linearity that should come with the territory in DSP speakers. Its design approach is, however, quite different from the Dutch & Dutch and Kii 3, which focus on controlled directivity (involving narrowed dispersion in the higher frequencies). The Five17 pursues something else entirely—a wide pattern all the way from bottom to top.

The Speaker in Physical Terms and the Rationale for It

The Five17 is a three-way speaker, with a small (5″) bass driver supplemented by two 8″ passive radiators on the cabinet sides, a 3.5″ midrange driver, and 1″ tweeter. Tri-amplification is from a Hypex nCore Class D module and is internal to the speaker, and crossovers are done by DSP. The speakers will accept an analog input, converted to digital internally, but the design is really oriented towards digital operation. There is a remote control to set the volume level and choose the preset curves (discussed in the next section).

Heavenly is not revealing the source of its drivers, only that they have been carefully selected after experimenting with many possibilities. It is also closed-mouthed about its crossover design. But the composite effect of the small drivers, especially the midrange, would be expected to be an unusually wide radiation pattern. And this actually happens, on the whole. In the NRC measurements I’ve seen, the level at 45 degrees off-axis at 2kHz is practically the same as the on-axis level, and even at 75 degrees off-axis it is down only around 5dB. This is quite different behavior from, say, the Dutch & Dutch 8C, which is down about 10dB from its 200Hz level at 3kHz at 75 degrees off-axis, and at only 45 degrees is down 5dB from its 200Hz level. In the Dutch & Dutch, DSP is being used for something else; the difference in the Heavenly is quite deliberate. Heavenly’s people, the father and son team of Kevin and Jonathan Couch (Kevin does the audio engineering, Jonathan the industrial design), firmly believe in this business of wide pattern. 

Volume Compensation

A striking option is available in the Five17: Fletcher-Munson compensation for reduced listening level. This involves boosting the bass to offset the fact that as volume is reduced the perceived loudness of low frequencies drops faster than the perceived drop in the midrange. Quite a large boost is implemented in the Five17, amounting to over 5dB at 50Hz on one setting, and I estimate another 3dB or so on the more extreme setting (on the remote these are labeled F2 and F3, with F1 being the “neutral setting”). Which of these works best will depend on level, room, and, of course, recording.

It turned out that this was quite useful in my experience. I used setting F2 a lot. The actual level of live orchestral music at close range (where recordings are made) is not astronomical, but it is somewhat higher than most home listening rooms comfortably accommodate, and the result is that some extra bass energy can be very useful if you are not blasting away but are intent on hearing a natural balance. 

In a concert hall, the sound at distance has extra bass because a good concert hall lifts the bass in the reverberant field more than it does higher frequencies, and the fraction of the sound that is reverberant field is higher at increased distance. For the same reason, highs are reduced at a distance. So, the bass-lifting kind of compensation makes sense, even at the levels corresponding to live sound at a certain distance. In any case, it is a useful thing to have available. It is worth noticing in this connection that the “target curves” of DSP room correction devices are often recommended to be elevated in the bass somewhat. A complex set of issues is involved here, but in any case, I found the presets provided in the Five17 desirable. Of course, one could do this by the also-available user-controllable EQ (to be discussed below), but it is very convenient to have this instantly available on the remote control. 

Measurements and History 

The measurements on the website for Heavenly Soundworks show very flat and smooth response. This is one of the things that got me interested in the Five17s in the first place. But there is a slightly convoluted history here.

The NRC measurements on the early version of the speaker looked rather bumpy. But Heavenly discovered that there were errors in the measurements of their own that they used to set the response of the speaker, this being easily controlled in a DSP speaker. This was corrected, and the speaker now really is smooth and flat. You can read this story in detail at heavenlysoundworks.com/post/in-pursuit-of-perfection. If you are interested in measurements, you should check this out.

Meanwhile, my own measurements on the current, presumably final version show flatter and smoother response than most speakers—with one exception. The upper frequencies are elevated, smoothly but definitely. And this counts audibly. You really need to shelve the treble down to get natural balance. The speaker sounds somewhat midrange-recessed because of these elevated highs, an effect emphasized by the fact that the area around 500–1000Hz is down in level off-axis compared to around 3kHz. More on this point later.

The Built-in EQ 

The balance of the Five17 is adjustable. Part of the Hypex amplification internal to the Five17 is EQ adjustment, which you can do via computer and then store in the Five17s themselves, so you do not need to leave the computer attached. This is useful—indeed, it is really important, since otherwise the combination of the rising response on-axis and the wide pattern results in a top-end orientation, which is not really what you want for the vast bulk of recordings. The EQ is easily done—and shown on the computer screen before you install it. It would be awkward to change this to fit each recording, though you could. But it is easy to install once and for all, and indeed one can install three settings on the remote control, which would enable quick change to match a given recording. This is a good feature to have, and you should check it out. It is not heavily emphasized in the owner’s manual, but it is well worth looking into. 

The Sound of the Speakers, When Set Just Right

To some extent, when a speaker has built in EQ—not just level controls on the drivers like those of the old days (the AR3, for example), but actual EQ in detail—reviewing it is talking about a moving target. You can get in there and change the sound a lot. In a sense, you become a participant in the design process. Most speaker reviews amount in good part to a more or less poetic description of what the response of the speaker does to music. Even things like depth of image and so on, many things which do not seem to be a matter of frequency response at first sight, actually are in good part. So, when one encounters a speaker where the response is adjustable, one must think of the review process in a new way. 

Of course, nowadays, external DSP EQ makes every speaker adjustable in this sense. The real question about a speaker today is not only how good it sounds, but also how good you can make it sound with such adjustments. Of course, not everything can be changed by such adjustment.

This comes to mind especially with the Five17 since the EQ is built in, even though you can, of course, leave it in its default position. The default position was not, however, in my experience the way to make the speaker sound as good as it can sound. As noted, pulling the top down a few dBs makes the sound better. But it does not make the Heavenly sound exactly like other speakers. Factors other than EQ settings are always involved and reducing the treble level in a wide dispersion speaker does not create the same sound as it does in a speaker with increasing directivity as frequency increases. (Too bad—if nothing counted except on-axis response, one could DSP to make anything sound like anything else. But, of course, this does not quite happen.)

In the Five17s, as with any speaker, there is a kind of ineradicable character which remains even if you make the speaker completely flat in direct arrival. This character, which exists for any speaker but varies from speaker design to speaker design, is in this case derived, I think, from the fact that the far-off-axis response is a bit pushed down in the 750–1500Hz octave, or so I estimate, compared to below and somewhat above that. The really high treble rolls off off-axis, which is true for almost all speakers and is desirable. But the Five17 rolls down in the 750-1500Hz range, while minimally doing so in the octave from 1500–3000Hz. Now, many speakers have some dip over a range of frequencies, but it is often further up in the spectrum. BBC-style two-ways, for example, tend to have a dip off-axis around 3–4kHz and a return to flat at 5kHz. This has a considerably different sonic effect.

In the Five17, if you make it totally flat on-axis—which it is not all that far from being in its default EQ setting, except for that small, general top-end rise—the midrange sounds suppressed somewhat, and the image is recessed, in particular. Whether or not I am correct in my explanation of this, the sound is definitely there as described.

Now, this is not at all unpleasant in many cases. Lots of recordings can afford to be pulled back in this way, and, especially at not too high volume levels, the effect can be pleasant. Sometimes, it is beyond pleasant and verges on the magical. The depth of image can be hypnotic. But the sound is skating somewhat too close for comfort to too much 3kHz and thereabouts, which is not always a desirable effect depending on material.

How Good Can You Make Them Sound?

As noted, you can change the sound with the built-in EQ. This is easy. One downloads a program online, then attaches a computer via a suitable USB cable, and then adjust the speaker’s response (doing each channel separately, but you can copy the setting you come up with on one speaker and transfer it to the other so that they remain pair-matched). This is easy to do. But deciding on the best EQ requires some experimenting. The idea is that you want to add just a little to the part of the range—750–1000Hz, say—that is down off-axis and subtract a little from the region around 2–3kHz that is up in level off-axis, to get a neutral perceived balance. 

The question, of course, arises whether this is possible. The direct arrival and the off-axis sound bouncing off the walls are not controllable by EQ independently. So, there really is a question. In extreme cases of wild off-axis behavior, the answer would be no, you can’t fix it. With the Five17s, which are smooth off-axis, I found that you could make a real improvement by this kind of EQ compensation. Nothing extreme or abrupt should be done, but you can get rid of the sense of pushed-back mids and excess presence to a good extent. Not completely I found—although I may not have worked hard enough. 

Since the early reflections and the direct sound are pretty much lumped together perceptually, it makes sense that some compensation is possible. But probably you cannot expect the compensation to be totally successful.

In practice, working with the built-in EQ I got something that sounded “good,” smooth, and quite neutrally balanced to my ears. But it took experimentation. In effect, you are doing a bit of speaker design for yourself here. And the amount and kind of EQ needed was room dependent. 

I tried the Five17s in two rooms quite different from each other acoustically. What needed to be done was different in the two.

Properly adjusted, the Five17s sound very musical, smooth, clean, and invisible as sources, too. But they always have a distinctive character associated to their radiation pattern. Of course, in a sense, all speakers do. But the directional behavior of the Five17s is unusual in its nature. 

In other directions, the Five17 performs well. The bass is surprisingly extended for a speaker of its size, though you cannot really crank it with bass-heavy material in a large room without running up against limits. The speaker is, as I understand it, protected from damage, but really high levels start to make it sound compressed and a bit distorted in bass-heavy material—not that this was an issue for me in the relatively small rooms I was using and at the natural (not-too-high) levels I prefer. But the Five17s are designed it seems for rooms of small to moderate size—if you want to fill a ballroom, Heavenly has larger models in the works that are considerably more expensive.

Overall

Putting all this together was a fascinating experience. Getting the EQ tweaked out just right took some time, but the result was impressive in many respects. The depth of image was very lifelike, and aspects of the music emerged that might have passed unnoticed with other speakers. To take a random example, the Telarc recording of the Debussy and Ravel string quartets played by the Cleveland Quartet (an Aubort/Nickrenz recording masterpiece) had a realistic ring to the pizzicato in the second movement of the Ravel, which is seldom heard in music reproduced by speakers, a kind of subtle sonic spectacular in a context—a string quartet recording—where spectacle is not really expected. 

Or take the Centaur CD of the late William Parker singing Copland’s Old American Songs. Word clarity was perfect; the animal sounds of “I bought me a cat” were startlingly vivid. Parker is sadly no longer with us, but his marvelous singing lives on. 

The fabulous Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade recorded by Aubort/Nickrenz—with the St. Louis Symphony, Semkov conducting, in Powell Hall—was too recessed and unnaturally edgy with the default EQ, but with the right user-chosen EQ setting it sounded very convincingly like the sound one hears in Powell (to the extent I can remember—it has been a while) and, in any case, sounded very natural and like an orchestra in concert in a good, or in this case, super-good venue. 

Note in this connection that the Five17s need to be listened to on a lower axis than might arise if you are close to them sitting on a chair of regular height. The stands supplied and, indeed, the speakers themselves look elegant, but the stands really ought to be higher. You could put the stands on pedestals—they are flat bottomed and would be stable placed on say an eight-inch-thick slab of some sort. Getting on the correct axis makes a considerable difference. Sitting above the ideal axis, the sound is just too recessed.

In sum, I had an intriguing time with the Five17s. There are a lot of interesting thoughts here. And if it takes some doing to end up with the best results, still the best results are good ones. Their sound is unusual but unusually good in a certain way. The difference between the Five17s and something like the KEF Reference 3s that I had around for my Devialet SAM system review is large, the KEFs being rolled off-axis starting at 500Hz on up (exactly what a speaker ought to be doing off-axis—or even on). 

As designers get more control over frequency response and radiation pattern, it becomes more and more clear that they are not all aiming at the same thing. This situation makes it even more important that one listens carefully for oneself. No one else can walk that path for you, of trying to decide what you want your speakers to do. The Five17s present a distinctive view and a definite philosophy of how a loudspeaker should behave. It is surely worth checking them out—there is not much else around like them, since most DSP designers are going via the narrow-pattern controlled-directivity route and for a slight, or not so slight, downslope in on-axis response. The Five17s do neither of those things but present a different view of neutral sound, and one which can be convincing, indeed. Your choice. What they do, they do very well, and in a remarkably small and elegant package. 

Specs & Pricing

System: Three-way active (tri-amped) speakers, with remote volume control and response presets (three)
Driver complement: 1″ tweeter, 3½” midrange, 5″ woofer, two 8″ side-firing passive radiators per speaker
Frequency response: ±1dB 30Hz–20kHz, –3dB at 27Hz, –6dB at 24Hz
Inputs: AES/EBU digital, SPDIF digital, TosLink, plus analog input (internal A-to-D conversion), balanced XLR, unbalanced RCA
Internal amplifier power: 100W tweeter, 125W (bass), 125W (midrange) (Hypex modules)
Max output level: 108dB continuous @1m, music source
Dimensions: 8.5″ x 15.25″ x 11.5″
Weight: 24 lbs. each
Price: $10,000/pr.

Heavenly Soundworks, Inc.
heavenlysoundworks.com
[email protected]

The post Heavenly Soundworks Five17 appeared first on The Absolute Sound.