AsciLab F6Bs Speaker Review

[Billy Budapest]

Yes, it's a phase plug, in this case it helps the highs to stay wide in dispersion, instead of narrowing like is normal.

Pretty standard tool in the “bag of tricks” available to speaker manufacturers. Many brands use similar phase plugs.

 

[Robbo99999]

Hang on, isn't this the same bass roll off as the Grimm speaker! (Just Kidding, will make a more serious post when I've read the review!)

 

[totti1965]

It is my pleasure to recommend the AsciLab F6Bs speaker. Don't walk, run to purchase a pair!
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But what if we've already run out to grab a pair of the AsciLabs C6B after seeing this new video from Erin :

 

[Lars Risbo]

Before I forget, sensitive is low as is the case for sealed enclosures.

sensitivity has not much to do with the box alignment which only determines how the bass rolls off. sensitivity is measured in the pass band.

 

[Lars Risbo]

it deserves to be highlighted that this speaker is a sealed box with a series capacitor. This gives an alignment in the middle between sealed and reflex (3rd order roll off) whilst offering excursion protection. All this without the issues with a port or PR. I am happy to see more designs like this.

 

[dfuller]

Pretty good, but this is probably a bit too sloped for my tastes. I tend to prefer roughly 1-1.2dB/Oct, this is more like 1.5-1.6.

 

[Lars Risbo]

I gave it a fine due to its 4 ohm rating and having a sensitivity of only 85db! That's going to take quite a bit of amp power to make it sing. However, remember - I only listen in the mid to far field (generally farfied) . I've got the amps to run them - I'm actually considering them for a secondary room....$200 shipping though

with higher sensitivity you would have less bass extension. always a trade off.

 

[xanalog]

To be sure, I switched to my Revel Salon 2 speakers and they definitely had less of a bass tilt. It is a small change though and preference will likely vary especially if you have some room modes piling on as well.

While reading the review (all the way down to your conclusions), I was forced to keep going to the top of the post and keep checking the price to confirm there was no typo (missing leading 1) in the price.
Heck, it even passed your brutal 'apples/oranges' test against Revel Salon 2s.

Thank you for the review, @amirm,
Is this that new chapter in speaker design/engineering, which you have [successfully] chaperoned and dreamed about for years?

 

[Cbdb2]

Is that thing stuck in front of the tweeter just for show? Or do they actually think it has some kind of positive acoustic effect? It's a little annoying to me...

Protection.

 

[cavedriver]

What is the F3 on that bass? Seems like it's over 80 Hz. Wouldn't that make it too high to crossover to a sub at the THX standard of 80 Hz? Granted I suppose being down up to ~6 dB at 80 Hz might be an ok value depending on the crossover slopes used.

 

[Lars Risbo]

Protection.

it’s what we call a coherer and it is carefully optimised to keep dispersion wide in the top octave. Ascilab is a heavy user of FEA and learns from the best in the industry

 

[dfuller]

it’s what we call a coherer and it is carefully optimised to keep dispersion wide in the top octave. Ascilab did a heavy user of FEA and learns from the best in the industry

I've seen more than a few of these, it's especially common on metal dome tweeters. Never see it on fabric, though... Maybe because by the time it'd have any effect a fabric tweeter is behaving as a ring radiator?

 

[kemmler3D]

Ascilab did a heavy user of FEA and learns from the best in the industry

For the listeners at home, Purifi also uses a similar coherer on tweeter reference designs.

I do think your two brands have shown that the future belongs to brands that are skilled in simulation. Good acoustic engineering and measurements are necessary but I'd say it's no coincidence that Purifi and Ascilab have both pushed the frontier of SOTA in different ways with their debut products.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Is it better than KH150/Genelec 8340?

 

[JohnnyNG]

I think the benefit of a new company is fresh blood with fresh ideas, who have learn the latest science, and engineering techniques to apply.

And it doesn't hurt that they invested in a Klippel NFS early on. Serious company.

 

[PristineSound]

I gave it a fine due to its 4 ohm rating and having a sensitivity of only 85db! That's going to take quite a bit of amp power to make it sing.

For the life in me, I don't understand why this is still such a big deal to so many people.

Back in the old days, speaker sensitivity was important because amplifier power was scarce.

This is no longer the issue. It is so ridiculously silly to be talking about speaker sensitivity and low impedance as some sort of hurdle.

Go get yourself a Buckeye Class D amp for cheap and your done.

In today world, speaker sensitivity and low impedance is the no brainier area to sacrifice if you need design trade off's.

 

[kyuu]

For the life in me, I don't understand why this is still such a big deal to so many people.

Back in the old days, speaker sensitivity was important because amplifier power was scarce.

This is no longer the issue. It is so ridiculously silly to be talking about speaker sensitivity and low impedance as some sort of hurdle.

Go get yourself a Buckeye Class D amp for cheap and your done.

In today world, speaker sensitivity and low impedance is the no brainier area to sacrifice if you need design trade off's.

Regardless of how much amplifier power you have, the speaker has to be able to handle that additional power. The more power, the faster voice coils heat up among other deleterious effects. You also have to have quite a lot of additional power to make up for the reduced sensitivity, forcing one to spend a lot more on the amp. Unless one has an unlimited budget, that's not a nothing.

 

[kemmler3D]

Regardless of how much amplifier power you have, the speaker has to be able to handle that additional power. The more power, the faster voice coils heat up among other deleterious effects. You also have to have quite a lot of additional power to make up for the reduced sensitivity, forcing one to spend a lot more on the amp. Unless one has an unlimited budget, that's not a nothing.

Yeah, I agree clean watts are cheaper than ever, but for a ~$600 pair of speakers, "just buy a bigger amp" isn't trivial, Buckeye amps cost as much as or more than the speakers. Most people can probably get by with 100w or so, but still.

On the other hand, it's not like you can find a lot of super-sensitive, small, high-performing, cheap speakers. Everyone knows louder is better. Ascilab didn't forget to make the speaker more sensitive. Something about an iron law or whatever...

 

[Berwhale]

I love the VESA 100 mounting holes on the back of these. They'll provide near infinite mounting options for a desktop setup using monitor arms. It would be nice if they were also on the bottom of the speaker to provide further mounting options.

 

[boXem]

Yeah, I agree clean watts are cheaper than ever, but for a ~$600 pair of speakers, "just buy a bigger amp" isn't trivial, Buckeye amps cost as much as or more than the speakers. Most people can probably get by with 100w or so, but still.

On the other hand, it's not like you can find a lot of super-sensitive, small, high-performing, cheap speakers. Everyone knows louder is better. Ascilab didn't forget to make the speaker more sensitive. Something about an iron law or whatever...

They start suffering (distortion) at 96 dB, 11 dB above their nominal sensitivity. 30-40 W in 4R should be enough to reach this threshold.