AsciLab F6B Bookshelf Speaker Review

[Deleted member 88295]

Sorry, I don't get it. You buy a speaker with great measurements like this, confirmed with Klippel, and then change it randomly (meaning without measuring pre/post).

I think MarkS explained rather well.

It was not that random, first I eq'd them for my room to my liking.

Then I entered the woofer and PR in WinISD and played around with the tuning of the PR. I was expecting endless changes to mass of PR, I know myself.

It is true that the first extra mass I chose was a "best" guess. That is why I was so surprised I got the wow factor and said to myself, this is it.

I really enjoy the speakers, I am going to measure them though but I will not change anything.

 

[dalbert02]

Not something I would advise but if the process is reversible ( without damage to the speaker) I don’t see any harm.
Keith

Why? What are you scared of? One carefully controlled experiment is often worth more than a thousand expert opinions.

 

[Purité Audio]

AsciLAB manufacture amongst the finest ( if not the finest) measuring loudspeakers currently available, I wouldn’t advise modifying a spectacularly well designed product.
But if the customer wants to.. I would ensure any modification is reversible without damaging the product if only to preserve re-sale value.
Keith

 

[mj30250]

At a high level, passive radiators effectively serve the same function as ports. Many objectively high quality speakers are shipped with port plugs for the purpose of helping their owners tune bass response to a specific room/position if desired. I can believe that someone who knows what they're doing could achieve similar results via PR modification. Of course, in lacking any before/after measurements, all we can do in this particular case is speculate.

 

[Breeze98]

AsciLAB manufacture amongst the finest ( if not the finest) measuring loudspeakers currently available

and not a hint of bias coming from the retailer..

 

[stigger]

and not a hint of bias coming from the retailer..

Please, continue.

 

[Purité Audio]

That’s why I represent them and I suspect the reason Amir and his brother were keen to become distributors.
Keith

 

[tw 2022]

AsciLAB manufacture amongst the finest ( if not the finest) measuring loudspeakers currently available, I wouldn’t advise modifying a spectacularly well designed product.
But if the customer wants to.. I would ensure any modification is reversible without damaging the product if only to preserve re-sale value.
Keith

you don't have to defend yourself on this one...ascilab speakers are obviously objectively "good" speakers.. it's like a Toyota dealer trying to rationalize his choices to a Honda fan...personally I like wider dispersion ,more "airy" speakers in general .. but as a contrast these would be just fine...

 

[Matt_Holland]

personally I like wider dispersion ,more "airy" speakers in general .. but as a contrast these would be just fine...

huh?
Seem pretty wide to me and unlike most wider designs these have very consistent directivity which really matters.

 

[kyuu]

huh?
Seem pretty wide to me and unlike most wider designs these have very consistent directivity which really matters.

View attachment 474098

It's not super narrow, but it's also not as wide as others known for that characteristic such as Revel. For comparison's sake, here's the Spinorama.org plot for the F6B:

And now for the Revel M126Be:

The F6B is remarkably consistent, yes, but I would say it's about +/- 50-degrees whereas the Revel is +/- 60-degrees for most of the frequency range.

 

[staticV3]

huh?
Seem pretty wide to me and unlike most wider designs these have very consistent directivity which really matters.

View attachment 474098

AsciLab designs have "studio" levels of dispersion, on par with speakers from KEF, Neumann, Genelec, Buchardt, Dutch&Dutch, Kii Audio, and modern JBL waveguides e.g. 4305p, 4309, 4329p, 708p, HDI-1600

They're distinctly different from some wide dispersion "HiFi" designs:

 

[Matt_Holland]

It's not super narrow, but it's also not as wide as others known for that characteristic such as Revel. For comparison's sake, here's the Spinorama.org plot for the F6B:

View attachment 474103

And now for the Revel M126Be:

View attachment 474105

The F6B is remarkably consistent, yes, but I would say it's about +/- 50-degrees whereas the Revel is +/- 60-degrees for most of the frequency range.

Generally wider I agree, but where “air” is concerned the F6B is arguably a touch wider.

 

[MarkS]

personally I like wider dispersion ,more "airy" speakers in general ..

That's what I believed about my own preferences before buying a pair of C6Bs ...

 

[tw 2022]

huh?
Seem pretty wide to me and unlike most wider designs these have very consistent directivity which really matters.

View attachment 474098

I'm talking philharmonic bmr/ ascend sierra wide.. like 80 degrees ... these are about 55/60 degrees from what I see....it makes a difference in stage size ,"air" and focus of instruments/ vocals inside the stage ...

 

[Purité Audio]

Incredible clarity, everything is razor sharply defined, it’s like sitting near field when you aren’t.
Keith

 

[mj30250]

That's what I believed about my own preferences before buying a pair of C6Bs ...

The fact that its directivity starts to decrease after 5kHz where most speakers will start to beam may help it to provide more of a sense of "air/spaciousness" than others with a similar overall dispersion width.

 

[antisuck]

Nice to see conversations about directivity/dispersion pop up in discussions like this; I think most of us here understand the importance of smoothly controlled directivity, but descriptions of "wide", "narrow" and "in between" (whatever those may be) with comments about the subjective results are comparatively infrequent. It took me a long time to learn my preferences in this regard.

Does anyone know, does the literature support a correlation between directivity and sensitivity? It would seem to me that one exists, since I believe sensitivity is derived from a measurement at a single point one meter directly in front of the speaker, and must then disregard all the sound energy that went off to the sides.

 

[Selkirks]

Incredible clarity, everything is razor sharply defined, it’s like sitting near field when you aren’t.
Keith

Although I've moved on from the C6B's they were perfect in that aspect, everything was clearly defined.

 

[tw 2022]

Incredible clarity, everything is razor sharply defined, it’s like sitting near field when you aren’t.
Keith

Exactly , that's the upside to the trade off with losing the soundstage width and " air "... It's purely subjective preference... In certain ( mostly smaller ) rooms the narrow dispersion will be preferred by many

 

[MarkS]

Although I've moved on from the C6B's

What did you replace them with?