Ascilab C6B Speaker Review

[Purité Audio]

Is that another way of saying that the boominess arising from close placement to a wall will mean in practice you’ll never place a port close enough to the front wall for it to affect the tuning?

Placing the speakers closer to a wall will increase reinforcement, but not necessarily ‘boominess’ which is the result of standing waves and entirely dependent on the physical dimensions of your room.
Keith

 

[Jarrett]

Have Spinorama scores been refreshed? All tone scores now are a half point or more lower than before (from memory of quite a few bookshelf speakers)

 

[azzy_mazzy]

Have Spinorama scores been refreshed? All tone scores now are a half point or more lower than before (from memory of quite a few bookshelf speakers)

scores based on Amir's measurements are a little lower than the others if that what you mean, i had to include a note in speaker comparison slop software i'm using for that.

 

[NTK]

Have Spinorama scores been refreshed? All tone scores now are a half point or more lower than before (from memory of quite a few bookshelf speakers)

Quoting Dr Toole:

... Stop trusting room curves, ignore the single number "Harman" rating. Learn how to interpret anechoic data. Spinoramas are becoming more common. They contain the "secrets"..

The "score" may be helpful for the purpose of sorting a big list of loudspeakers so you may roughly separate them into groups, but its uncertainties (error band) well exceeds ±1. It is useless at best, or misleading at worst, when used for predicting whether one speaker will "sound better" than another if their scores are within 1 point (likely even a bit larger IMO) from each other.

 

[AsciLab]

Thank you for the lot of discussions.
We are happy to see what you guys focus on and need, that’s what we have to achieve in next step. Several ideas come to mind. We’ll share when we are ready.

 

[HJCarballosa]

This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of the Ascilab C6B bookshelf speaker. It costs USD $1,357 per pair inclusive of import fees. Pricing varies in other parts of the world:
View attachment 550638

Important note: my other company, TestedAudio, is the sole distributor for all of Ascilab products. Indeed, C6B is by far our most popular speaker. So feel free to read my subjective comments with extreme skepticism.

The C6B shares the same everything with F6B but with an upgraded woofer. I like the white look which reminds of the iconic Yamaha studio monitors (there is a grill if you want to hide it).

This is surprisingly compact speaker yet feels quite heavy and dense. You can better see its compact dimensions from this side profile:

View attachment 550646

As with F6B, we have a passive radiator.

Ascilab C6B Speaker Measurements
As usual, we start with our anechoic measurements:
View attachment 550647
We have slightly flatter response before the step function but otherwise, it is in the same ballpark as F6B.

Early window is good but shows a small dip:
View attachment 550650

We can see that is caused by vertical reflections:
View attachment 550651\
You can see how the vertical response is compressed in the 3-D balloon visualization. As with most speakers, absorbing floor reflections with a carpet is advised if you want more perfection.

Horizontal is perfect which is the important bit as it means side wall reflections which can be beneficial have similar tonality to on axis.

Predicted in-room response shows more of a tilted down response indicating a warm sound signature:
View attachment 550652

Woofer response is a bit more refined compared to F6B:
View attachment 550815

Let's jump into distortion because that is what is unique here with respect to woofer upgrade. I will start with a comparison against F6B:

View attachment 550653

We see substantial reduction of distortion in upper bass and midrange relative to lower cost woofer used in F6B. However, there is an increase in distortion at very low bass frequencies. I don't know why that is the case but overall, this is an excellent improvement over F6B.

Here is our standard graphs:
View attachment 550655
View attachment 550812

And our bass response in both linear and log scales:
View attachment 550657

You can see how the 101 dBSPL is not usable given its massive distortion. Woofer distorted some but it was the passive radiator that bitterly complained. I heard a bit of distortion at the start of the sweep at 96 dBSPL and we see the reason for that: non-linear rise in distortion below 42 Hz. This is very typical even in larger speakers.

Directivity is highly controlled and beautifully smooth once it takes hold:
View attachment 550658
View attachment 550659

Vertical directivity allows a bit of freedom to sit above tweeter axis:
View attachment 550660

Someone asked for Group Delay:
View attachment 550664

And rest of the bits (yes, I am tired at 1:42am):
View attachment 550666
View attachment 550667

Ascilab C6B Speaker Listening Tests
The first impression is that of warmth: there is enough bass there that you don't wish you had a subwoofer. High frequencies are clear but not piercing/standing out. Sibilance, unless in the source, is not in the C6B's vocabulary.

Throwing my torture deep-bass track at the C6B, there was distortion at anything above modest levels in that region. For all of my other bass heavy tracks though, reproduction was superb. Ton of clean bass accompanying delight notes above it. Every track in my library sounded excellent.

Spatial image is limited to halo a foot or two round the speaker. This is of course due to controlled and slightly narrower than normal beam width. I listened in mono but in stereo, it is likely to have more focused imaging.

Unfortunately I don't have an F6B in stock to compare, nor is my memory of that with me. So rely on the measurements for that.

Conclusions
One of the best driving experiences I have is that of a Honda Accord circa early 1980s. That thing had such a smooth engine and low effort stick shift that put a smile on my face that you could not wipe out. It was no sports car but it was so competent for everyday driving. Such is the story with C6B. It is just full range enough, and accurate enough to just do the job. That is, do justice to your music making you want to delight in what you are hearing. If you don't want to go all out and spend a lot more money, then the C6B is a wonderful answer. Pair with a few hundred dollar amp and some EQ and you are good to go.

I am going to recommend the Ascilab C6B speaker.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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Early 80s Honda Accord with about 200,000 miles, in 1995, my girlfriend drove about 100,000 more, STILL felt more solid than early 80s GM, Ford, Chrysler! And, thanks for the ASR-ing, too.

 

[AndreaT]

And now, what story am I going to tell to my wife?? Impeccably packed and delivered to my door by Fedex. I will blame the bewitching power of ASR…

 

[AndreaT]

And oh boy…they sing!! Thank you Amir!!! Playing Franco Battiato album Patriots…

 

[amirm]

Boy, they look nice with those manly stands!

 

[Jonazkur]

I've had both. I prefer the ascilab as the M106 had something grating or harsh in the higher frequencies that I couldn't get rid of.

On the subject of subwoofers with the C6B, it would be helpful if members spoke about room size in terms of actually needing sub(s)—especially in small spaces like mine (3.6m x 4.1m / 34 m³)—as FOMO can hit hard unnecessarily. Erin does this as well, apparently everyone needs subs in all situations. I have never seen the need after comparing a 10" THX against speakers years ago: the extra excursion was not audible in 99% of music and the distortion was no lower

You can see in the Revel polar that it has a widening at 2-8khz so it will sound bright in room depending on the sidewall proximity. Its not that smooth or constant.

 

[AndreaT]

BTW, did I miss the impedance chart? The sibling without ceramic woofer was 3.5 ohm. If I did it is because I was distracted by listening to this thoroughbred speaker worth every single penny and more.

 

[Raiju]

My C6B became noticeably brighter after I removed the crimped connectors and soldered the wires directly to the driver terminals. Before this turns into an op amp style discussion, the crimped connectors on the C6B are aluminium. Weird choice if you ask me but hey nothing is perfect. I still highly recommend them.

 

[LiveTek]

My C6B became noticeably brighter after I removed the crimped connectors and soldered the wires directly to the driver terminals. Before this turns into an op amp style discussion, the crimped connectors on the C6B are aluminium. Weird choice if you ask me but hey nothing is perfect. I still highly recommend them.

Sounds like placebo to me.

What does aluminum have to do with anything?

 

[mrick39]

My C6B became noticeably brighter after I removed the crimped connectors and soldered the wires directly to the driver terminals. Before this turns into an op amp style discussion, the crimped connectors on the C6B are aluminium. Weird choice if you ask me but hey nothing is perfect. I still highly recommend them.

You do realize you posted your comment on Audio Science Review right?

 

[TheKoC]

Should be easily visible in a before / after REW measurment then...

 

[Raiju]

You do realize you posted your comment on Audio Science Review right?

Yep, and I even want to change brighter to more crisp as that is a better description.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

I can say for sure what it is not.

It is not magnetic, so no steel.

I broke it to look at the inside, it is not copper/brass.


View attachment 554092

It is very light, you can feel the weight of the end that has some copper wire left on it, and the color is dull grey.

View attachment 554093

400 series stainless steel, perhaps? Just guessing...

Perhaps Ascilab can clarify their sourcing for the part -- FWIW the consensus seems to be that aluminum would be an odd and inappropriate choice, but assuming it functions as a generic Faston equivalent should, it would incur no performance penalty.

 

[Raiju]

400 series stainless steel, perhaps? Just guessing...

Perhaps Ascilab can clarify their sourcing for the part -- FWIW the consensus seems to be that aluminum would be an odd and inappropriate choice, but assuming it functions as a generic Faston equivalent should, it would incur no performance penalty.

I think you mean 300 series (non magnetic). Afaik ss is not used in audio for electric connections, too poor of a conductor.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

I think you mean 300 series (non magnetic). Afaik ss is not used in audio for electric connections, too poor of a conductor.

True, but the same is said of aluminum, for various reasons.

 

[Emulator II]

That's why I am looking forward to the upcoming C5CTR. It's a sealed MTM design offered as a center speaker, though it presumably works well as a main speaker in a vertical orientation as well. Thanks to the larger cone area compared to the C6B, even better distortion figures can be expected. The only downside is the narrower vertical dispersion angle, though this can actually be an advantage in a dedicated stereo setup.
My question as to whether the center speaker will have a VESA mount has not yet been answered by Ascilab.

It actually will be a F5CTR:

AsciLab speakers are about to launch

With the BX8C, you can test things using the controls; one user posted what happens, but many others haven't—myself included :)

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