Heavenly Soundworks

[richard12511]

Seems like an extraordinary price for what you get. I can appreciate that design, and R&D can be an expensive part of speaker design, but this just seems extreme given the off the shelf drivers, and the veneer finish @ $10,000.

Here's the measurements from the manual, some interesting bits in there.

I agree about the price and veneer. Those off axis measurements look good, though they're very heavily smoothed, which I'm not a fan of.

 

[617]

One amazing thing about these two graphs is that, below 80Hz, the ND91 performs roughly as well at 90dB as the W5-1138SMF does at 80dB.

I recall seeing Klippel results for the ND91 at some point, but can't find them now. IIRC, it has a great motor. Would make an excellent tiny midbass driver in a soundbar or portable speaker etc.

Those ND90 or 105 or 130 drivers are awesome, and aren't bad for a mid, but they're designed to make an amazing boom box or small speaker. Their specialty is bass.

 

[richard12511]

Probably right. There is little incentive for manufacturers to send their equipment to someone like Erin unless it is actually good.
.

I respect manufacturers who send their speaker to Erin or Amir. Says a lot about the confidence they have in their speaker's engineering. Sending a speaker to most other reviewers is essentially just advertising(imo). Sending it to Amir or Erin is also advertising, but only if the speaker is actually good.

 

[617]

I respect manufacturers who send their speaker to Erin or Amir. Says a lot about the confidence they have in their speaker's engineering. Sending a speaker to most other reviewers is essentially just advertising(imo). Sending it to Amir or Erin is also advertising, but only if the speaker is actually good.

I respect KEF a lot because they play the audiophile game but actually deliver the performance. You can have it both ways.

Good engineering and design easily differentiates speakers for me, I mean what speakers would I consider getting? It's a short list.

 

[Frank Dernie]

I was aiming toward the fact that with that much cone surface passives will not be moving alot, which is good.

I was pointing out for the vast majority of the frequency range passive radiators are part of the cabinet wall and don't move at all.

 

[richard12511]

I respect KEF a lot because they play the audiophile game but actually deliver the performance. You can have it both ways.

Good engineering and design easily differentiates speakers for me, I mean what speakers would I consider getting? It's a short list.

Agreed, and it's no surprise that they sent an R3 to Erin, and I'm sure it will do well.

One thing that attracted to me to JTR subwoofers was that they would always send new subwoofers to databass for CEA2010 measurements and then post the link to databass on commercial release. It seems they've stopped doing this lately, as there is no measurements for the RS2(improved S2), but I'm kinda thinking that has more to do with databass, as I don't see any new data from them.

 

[617]

Is this going to be one of those threads where the manufacturer comes in and roasts all of us and says we're poor?

 

[jhaider]

I recall seeing Klippel results for the ND91 at some point, but can't find them now. IIRC, it has a great motor. Would make an excellent tiny midbass driver in a soundbar or portable speaker etc.

It should. It’s a knockoff of an Aurasound driver, and when Aurasound was in business (2009 crash casualty I think) Donald North et al. were the top of the game. Arguably still are.

 

[andreasmaaan]

It should. It’s a knockoff of an Aurasound driver, and when Aurasound was in business (2009 crash casualty I think) Donald North et al. were the top of the game. Arguably still are.

Hadn't heard that before, do you know which driver?

PS. found the Klippel results. Not bad, but not quite as impressive as I'd remembered.

 

[jhaider]

Hadn't heard that before, do you know which driver?

One of the NS3 variants. Basically the whole Dayton [edit] ND line are “inspired by” the old Aurasound mini drivers. Not their most advanced mini speaker line - that was “Whisper,” with inverted dome diaphragms and double half roll suspension, but the conventional cone and surround ones.

When Dayton ND came out I reached out to a contact at Aurasound to see if they were the OEM or ODM. The reply was a terse “we are aware of them.”

 

[Da cynics]

Hmm...
https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/review-heavenly-soundworks-five17-r984/

 

[Dialectic]

Hmm...
https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/review-heavenly-soundworks-five17-r984/

I stopped reading when he mentioned PRAT. In retrospect, I shouldn't have read that far.

 

[TulseLuper]

I stopped reading when he mentioned PRAT. In retrospect, I shouldn't have read that far.

Be glad you didn't make it to the component isolators.

 

[richard12511]

Hmm...
https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/review-heavenly-soundworks-five17-r984/

"the Kii Threes are dry and somewhat analytical. The FIVE17 speakers are more "organic," have more PRAT"



I grew concerned for the objectivity of the review when he mentioned that the Heavenly Soundworks designer sat down with him to compare the speaker to the 8C and A500. IMO, this introduces quite a large bias. Imagining myself in that same situation, I would have real trouble telling a speaker designer sitting next to me why other speakers are better than his own.

 

[617]

lol they stick their label over the hypex logo

Here is the scripture they use in their branding:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:
The old has gone, the new is here!

 

[thewas]

Fresh NRC measurements show poor engineering as it was feared already from the cheap drivers for that price:
https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...&catid=77:loudspeaker-measurements&Itemid=153

The corresponding review text:
https://www.soundstagesimplifi.com/...eavenly-soundworks-five17-active-loudspeakers

 

[richard12511]

Fresh NRC measurements show poor engineering as it was feared already from the cheap drivers for that price:
https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...&catid=77:loudspeaker-measurements&Itemid=153

The corresponding review text:
https://www.soundstagesimplifi.com/...eavenly-soundworks-five17-active-loudspeakers

Damn, those don't match the manufacturer measurements at all. Unfortunate, as I was hoping for another good audiophileish active speaker.

 

[MZKM]

Damn, those don't match the manufacturer measurements at all. Unfortunate, as I was hoping for another good audiophileish active speaker.

Scaling matter a lot. I can see the same dips in both, but obviously the NRC measurements look worse. I can if no one else wants to, but tracing the manufacturer FR graph and overlaying it on the NRC graphs would be interesting.

 

[napilopez]

Fresh NRC measurements show poor engineering as it was feared already from the cheap drivers for that price:
https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...&catid=77:loudspeaker-measurements&Itemid=153

The corresponding review text:
https://www.soundstagesimplifi.com/...eavenly-soundworks-five17-active-loudspeakers

Scaling matter a lot. I can see the same dips in both, but obviously the NRC measurements look worse. I can if no one else wants to, but tracing the manufacturer FR graph and overlaying it on the NRC graphs would be interesting.

This is why I'm always a stickler for consistent scaling...

But those measurements simply do not line up under any stretch of the imagination. Like, either something went terribly wrong with Soundstage's review unit, or Heavenly Soundworks is being incredibly disingenuous. No amount of smoothing can reconcile these measurements.

Heavenly Soundworks' in red, and the NRC's traced in blue. The dotted blue line is the NRC's measurement again, but with the strongest smoothing REW offers, 1/1 octave:

This is the same scaling I use in my reviews (vertical axis is 25dB, but the scaling is maintained). Not even 1/1 smoothing brings the measurements close to one another.

Honestly, the measurements are so far off I have no idea what's going on. It's hard to imagine Heavenly Soundworks would even dare send its speakers to soundstage network if it knew the results would be so off.

Directivity looks solid, at least, though without normalized measurements that's a bit hard to make sense of with an on-axis so ragged.

 

[MZKM]

This is why I'm always a stickler for consistent scaling...

But those measurements simply do not line up under any stretch of the imagination. Like, either something went terribly wrong with Soundstage's review unit, or Heavenly Soundworks is being incredibly disingenuous. No amount of smoothing can reconcile these measurements.

Heavenly Soundworks' in red, and the NRC's traced in blue. The dotted blue line is the NRC's measurement again, but with the strongest smoothing REW offers, 1/1 octave:

View attachment 122092This is the same scaling I use in my reviews (vertical axis is 25dB, but the scaling is maintained). Not even 1/1 smoothing brings the measurements close to one another.

Honestly, the measurements are so far off I have no idea what's going on. It's hard to imagine Heavenly Soundworks would even dare send its speakers to soundstage network if it knew the results would be so off.

Directivity looks solid, at least, though without normalized measurements that's a bit hard to make sense of with an on-axis so ragged.

Can you try it with their other graph showing the individual driver responses? That one is less smooth.