This is a review, listening tests, EQ and detailed measurements of the Audio Smile Little British Monitor (LBM) Active Speaker (Monitor). It was sent to me by the company and costs £529.00 (VAT Excluded). Kit version is available for £349.00.
As a woodworker, I appreciate how the baltic birch plywood edges are used as a design element around the edges. I am not sure if it comes across but this is a tiny speaker! Low frequency is handled by a 3 inch driver. Dual class AB amplifiers are used for each channel:
Dual analog inputs are provided together with bluetooth. A subwoofer output is provided as well (which I did not measure).
As you see power is external through a switching adapter.
Dual controls are provided for gain and "boundary." I found that it is best to set the gain to max as otherwise input can overload. Boundary at 12:00 o'clock gives you flat bass. Turn it one way or the other and you adjust the bass through a shelving filter.
The design is DSP optimized which we don't usually see in such low cost/small speaker (together with bi-amping).
Unusually, the port is on top!
Clever idea as then you don't have to worry about putting it flush to the wall.
Audio Smile Little British Monitor (LBM) Measurements
As usual, we start with our family of anechoic frequency response measurements:
I was stunned at how flat the on axis response is! This is better than vast majority of speakers I test regardless of cost. There is just a tiny dip around 1.07 kHz. Directivity is smooth but it takes a step function around the same frequency. This impacts early window response together with predicted in-room:
Sadly I forgot to measure the port response but here are the other two drivers:
We see that the break up in the woofer is nicely attenuated. Company has a nice sound sample comparison showing clean output of the port:
This is a small speaker so of course, can't get too loud but I was still impressed that it got up to 91 dBSPL:
There are internal limiters to keep the drivers from being damaged which may be responsible for much worse response at 96 dBSPL (not shown).
Horizontal directivity narrows with frequency:
Vertical response shows that you better listen at tweeter axis:
Finally, here is the CSD (forgot to capture Step Response):
Audio Smile LBM Listening Tests and Equalization:
I should start by saying that my reference tracks are designed for larger speaker and in some cases, full range ones. So it is a bit unfair to throw them at the LBM. I did anyway as I don't want to lower my standard here and set wrong expectations.
Going into the listening tests, I expected superb fidelity but I got the opposite at first. The sound was dull and quite localized to the speaker. Then I realized that the LBM is fair bit shorter than the typical speaker in my near-field setup so I raised it to near ear height. Difference was dramatic with far better overall response and more spacious sound. Going through my track list, I would say about half sound excellent but the other did not. At first, I filled the on-axis dip. That was a toss up as far as improvement.
As it sometimes happens, I resorted to equalization using the predicted in-room response. There, we have flat bass and what we should have is one sloping down. At first, I corrected the response below 1 kHz but there still was not enough bass to satisfy me. Using a trick I have used before, I dialed in a bass boost to simulate a small subwoofer. This made a huge difference:
I couldn't believe that the LBM was able to handle that bass boost which was just a guess on my part. The sound now had warmth down to low frequencies. Combined with startling treble detail at times, made for a mostly excellent experience. There were of course tracks that could still use a much larger speaker but the promise was delivered.
EDIT: company is changing DSP filters to fill the on-axis response and give it a slight bass boost. See: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...o-smile-lbm-monitor-review.66859/post-2431414
Conclusions
The LBM shows what happens when you put your mind towards highly optimizing a speaker design despite severe size and cost limitations. Audio Smile objectively gets there as far a frequency response, delivering some of the best I have ever measured. Off-axis is good but there is a step in there and flat response otherwise. A couple of filters fixed that although a subwoofer may be a more ideal setup.
Despite the speaker being built in UK, the cost is kept extremely low. Availability as a full kit at even lower price is nothing short of amazing.
I am going to recommend the Audio Smile Little British Monitor (LBM) for its excellent design and great value.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
As a woodworker, I appreciate how the baltic birch plywood edges are used as a design element around the edges. I am not sure if it comes across but this is a tiny speaker! Low frequency is handled by a 3 inch driver. Dual class AB amplifiers are used for each channel:
Dual analog inputs are provided together with bluetooth. A subwoofer output is provided as well (which I did not measure).
As you see power is external through a switching adapter.
Dual controls are provided for gain and "boundary." I found that it is best to set the gain to max as otherwise input can overload. Boundary at 12:00 o'clock gives you flat bass. Turn it one way or the other and you adjust the bass through a shelving filter.
The design is DSP optimized which we don't usually see in such low cost/small speaker (together with bi-amping).
Unusually, the port is on top!
Clever idea as then you don't have to worry about putting it flush to the wall.
Audio Smile Little British Monitor (LBM) Measurements
As usual, we start with our family of anechoic frequency response measurements:
I was stunned at how flat the on axis response is! This is better than vast majority of speakers I test regardless of cost. There is just a tiny dip around 1.07 kHz. Directivity is smooth but it takes a step function around the same frequency. This impacts early window response together with predicted in-room:
Sadly I forgot to measure the port response but here are the other two drivers:
We see that the break up in the woofer is nicely attenuated. Company has a nice sound sample comparison showing clean output of the port:
This is a small speaker so of course, can't get too loud but I was still impressed that it got up to 91 dBSPL:
There are internal limiters to keep the drivers from being damaged which may be responsible for much worse response at 96 dBSPL (not shown).
Horizontal directivity narrows with frequency:
Vertical response shows that you better listen at tweeter axis:
Finally, here is the CSD (forgot to capture Step Response):
Audio Smile LBM Listening Tests and Equalization:
I should start by saying that my reference tracks are designed for larger speaker and in some cases, full range ones. So it is a bit unfair to throw them at the LBM. I did anyway as I don't want to lower my standard here and set wrong expectations.
Going into the listening tests, I expected superb fidelity but I got the opposite at first. The sound was dull and quite localized to the speaker. Then I realized that the LBM is fair bit shorter than the typical speaker in my near-field setup so I raised it to near ear height. Difference was dramatic with far better overall response and more spacious sound. Going through my track list, I would say about half sound excellent but the other did not. At first, I filled the on-axis dip. That was a toss up as far as improvement.
As it sometimes happens, I resorted to equalization using the predicted in-room response. There, we have flat bass and what we should have is one sloping down. At first, I corrected the response below 1 kHz but there still was not enough bass to satisfy me. Using a trick I have used before, I dialed in a bass boost to simulate a small subwoofer. This made a huge difference:
I couldn't believe that the LBM was able to handle that bass boost which was just a guess on my part. The sound now had warmth down to low frequencies. Combined with startling treble detail at times, made for a mostly excellent experience. There were of course tracks that could still use a much larger speaker but the promise was delivered.
EDIT: company is changing DSP filters to fill the on-axis response and give it a slight bass boost. See: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...o-smile-lbm-monitor-review.66859/post-2431414
Conclusions
The LBM shows what happens when you put your mind towards highly optimizing a speaker design despite severe size and cost limitations. Audio Smile objectively gets there as far a frequency response, delivering some of the best I have ever measured. Off-axis is good but there is a step in there and flat response otherwise. A couple of filters fixed that although a subwoofer may be a more ideal setup.
Despite the speaker being built in UK, the cost is kept extremely low. Availability as a full kit at even lower price is nothing short of amazing.
I am going to recommend the Audio Smile Little British Monitor (LBM) for its excellent design and great value.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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