This is a detailed measurements of the Verdant Audio Bambusa AL-1. It is on kind loan from the company and costs US $3,499. I am in mail it back so please excuse the brevity of this write-up.
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
All measurements are referenced to the tweeter axis with frequency resolution of 2.7 Hz.
Spinorama Audio Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker can be used. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
The AL-1 could certainly benefit from level equalization of the drivers.
Impedance is a bit higher than average for the class which is appreciated:
Distortion graphs are now at calibrated SPL level of 1 kHz tone at 96 dB SPL at 1 meter:
And for compatibility with measurements posted by others:
Finally the waterfall:
Conclusions
It is clear that by standards with which we measure speakers, the performance of AL-1 does not measure up. I appreciate the company sending them to us though for evaluation.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Allergies are killing me on top of heavy review workload. I hope you all feel sorry for me by donating using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
All measurements are referenced to the tweeter axis with frequency resolution of 2.7 Hz.
Spinorama Audio Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker can be used. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
The AL-1 could certainly benefit from level equalization of the drivers.
Impedance is a bit higher than average for the class which is appreciated:
Distortion graphs are now at calibrated SPL level of 1 kHz tone at 96 dB SPL at 1 meter:
And for compatibility with measurements posted by others:
Finally the waterfall:
Conclusions
It is clear that by standards with which we measure speakers, the performance of AL-1 does not measure up. I appreciate the company sending them to us though for evaluation.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Allergies are killing me on top of heavy review workload. I hope you all feel sorry for me by donating using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/