Buchardt A10 Active Speakers

[Bruce Morgen]

Buchardt gives 10 years of warranty, certainly it does include the wooden cabinet. IMHO see no issue here as long the speakers are not used in an exposed environment.

Guttenberg says the A10's warranty is five years on drivers and four years on the electronics.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Guttenberg says the A10's warranty is five years on drivers and four years on the electronics.

Then, Guttenberg should read better...

 

[Qba3d]

After few more days I am puzzled. I did room correction in the hub, it did work. I used Flat in room profile to tame a bit lively room I have… compared the sound to my two systems, Sony XBA-Z5 - Kimber Silver - zx507, and IFI Zen Dac 2 + Focal Clear OG.. and have no clue what to ask more from speakers…

Yes I did hear more sharply reverbs around Singer vice in Electric Feel / Henry Green on Focals, but wohoo it was a close matched fight as A10 gave a bit more background echoes.

Compared to Focus 30:
Dynaudio had way way way less detail, way less base extension, more narrow stage but deeper one, more effortless sound and somehow more air in lower mids. I liked Dynaudios a lot too in my room, but I feel A10 give more detail and provide more value.

I would love to see a pro review of those speakers, not by Mr Guttenberg ( and I love his reviews most of the time) who uses them in the very odd way ( maybe let’s add one or two more DA/AD conversion) as I am sitting surprised really…

If I could be picky I would love the base to be a bit more effortless as I am not sure I love the laser sharp base and the treble could be sweeter but it’s me.

 

[VintageFlanker]

compared the sound to my two systems, Sony XBA-Z5 - Kimber Silver - zx507, and IFI Zen Dac 2 + Focal Clear OG.. and have no clue what to ask more from speakers…

Yep, seems like you have not. That would be quite an apples and bananas comparison.

I would love to see a pro review of those speakers

Not sure why you would need that, TBH. You have the speakers at home and can evaluate them subjectively with different placements. We have the objective measurements. What would you need more ? For someone else to tell you how you're supposed to like a speaker or not ?

 

[Qba3d]

Yep, seems like you have not. That would be quite an apples and bananas comparaison.

Depending on a perspective. I own Kanta 2 with Naim Nova in different room but with all my love to that system I miss some mids there. I own a lot of headphones and in terms of Sound I use them as my sound reference not necessarily a hardware reference. So what I did was compare a studio grade headphones to a speaker- a high compliment in my book and an easy reference for sound composition.

Not sure why you would need that, TBH. You have the speakers at home and can evaluate them subjectively with different placements. We have the objective measurements. What would you need more ? For someone else to tell you how you're supposed to like a speaker or not ?

We have one objective measurement that look phenomenally, we have three subjective reviews with very little direct comparisons done properly. Why would I need it is obvious I hope from my post: those speakers sound absolutely amazing, way above their price and would love to see if my observations match more properly done ones too. Isn’t that part of that hobby and that forum fundamental drive?

 

[Grotti]

Depending on a perspective. I own Kanta 2 with Naim Nova in different room but with all my love to that system I miss some mids there. I own a lot of headphones and in terms of Sound I use them as my sound reference not necessarily a hardware reference. So what I did was compare a studio grade headphones to a speaker- a high compliment in my book and an easy reference for sound composition.

We have one objective measurement that look phenomenally, we have three subjective reviews with very little direct comparisons done properly. Why would I need it is obvious I hope from my post: those speakers sound absolutely amazing, way above their price and would love to see if my observations match more properly done ones too. Isn’t that part of that hobby and that forum fundamental drive?

No other subjective experience of this particular speaker could by definition confirm your observation: not your room, not your ears, not your brain. If another reviewer seems to confirm your listening experience, this is just coincidence...and biased for sure since subjective listening experience at home is nearly always a sighted experience.

So you have the measurements and you seem to be very satisfied with the speakers. You have all you need: enjoy!!!

 

[VintageFlanker]

No other subjective experience of this particular speaker could by definition confirm your observation: not your room, not your ears, not your brain. If another reviewer seems to confirm your listening experience, this is just coincidence...and biased for sure since subjective listening experience at home is nearly always a sighted experience.

This.

would love to see if my observations match more properly done ones too. Isn’t that part of that hobby and that forum fundamental drive?

Absolutely not. What you are looking for is feeding your confirmation bias.
IMHO, you should stick to that:

those speakers sound absolutely amazing, way above their price

...And enjoy music !

 

[Chaos01]

It is my first day with a10… and it is a significant displacement from my previous Buchard speaker experience… a10 sound like my focal clear headphones and I am in total shock to be honest. Listening from Roon. It is a first day so far.


They are way lighter clearer and brighter that 400 mk2

Thanks for sharing your experience. Did you do inroom measurements with REW + Umik or something else? You could verify your experience with the frequency response or show that there is a differnce between the A10 and the 400mk2 altough the high frequency is "nearly" identical or isn't.

Did you test the Mastertunings? There is one that calls "Flat - In room (less treble)", maybe with this one they sound more like the 400mk2 in hf. Also here i would love to see measurements.
https://buchardtaudio.com/pages/a10-mastertunings
Description: "This optimizes for a flat estimated in room response. Our waveguide/tweeter design keeps a constant wide dispersion at higher frequencies, unlike your typical speaker. So despite a flat frequency response, the estimated in room response when counting for reflected sound is a bit higher than other speakers. This tuning is designed to reduce the treble slightly, so it matches a flat estimated in room response."

 

[DearSX]

Just got mine yesterday. Very cool design, love the look of the woofers. They are also very small and light weight speakers. The cabinet also looks beautiful. The Ash looks a little more grey than I expected, so does not match my TV stand as well as I hoped. Matches my black sofa at least.

So far I like the sound in many ways. It's more lively sounding than my DIY, Linton and Concept 50 speakers. Not fatiguing, just some extra crispness. Its also has more sensitively to where I sit. It has an enjoyable lively sound, less neutral than the KH120 II I had. I think the KH120's bass had more presence in my room, but these do go deeper and are not boomy like my 10" DIY 3-Ways in my room. Still getting used to them, no tweaks made yet, standard out of box master tuning with the Platin hub running WISA wireless. Sounds cliche but I am hearing all kinds of things I never heard before in songs, like what the background singers are singing, its there in all my speakers and its not quiet in any of them, I just never noticed it before till now.

I have an odd room, 23 ft x 12 ft. with the right side opening up into my hall way and kitchen, so no symmetry. Left are about 11.ft from the side walls and the other one is about 6.ft, they are 6.3ft from me and each other(ish). I will plan to use the provide microphone in the future to correct the sound and try different master tunings.

 

[Vacceo]

Depending on a perspective. I own Kanta 2 with Naim Nova in different room but with all my love to that system I miss some mids there. I own a lot of headphones and in terms of Sound I use them as my sound reference not necessarily a hardware reference. So what I did was compare a studio grade headphones to a speaker- a high compliment in my book and an easy reference for sound composition.

We have one objective measurement that look phenomenally, we have three subjective reviews with very little direct comparisons done properly. Why would I need it is obvious I hope from my post: those speakers sound absolutely amazing, way above their price and would love to see if my observations match more properly done ones too. Isn’t that part of that hobby and that forum fundamental drive?

You don't need the validation of Darko, Gutemberg or any other salesman.

 

[DearSX]

So far the default setting (Totally flat) is my favorite, the other master tunings tame things a little and they end up sounding a lot like my others speakers (KH120ii, Linton, Concept 50). I like the room flat master tuning also, good balance and seems neutral to me. The default master tuning sounds more exciting to me, I end up going back to listen to a lot of non audiophile songs, but instead the songs I grew up with in 90 and 2000s from Rock to Rap. The bass extension on these gives them a little extra something non of my other speakers can do, although I want more volume or chest pounding, I think my room is too big for that. So far, I'm very much leaning towards keeping these and getting rid of some others instead.

I'm liking the color more and more also and the unique wood grain of each speaker. Really love the style of the woofers and not having wires, amps, and DACs to mess with.

 

[Penelinfi]

I guess if you remove some boxes then you can add in other boxes designed to give you more chest pounding bass

 

[VintageFlanker]

So far the default setting (Totally flat) is my favorite, the other master tunings tame things a little and they end up sounding a lot like my others speakers (KH120ii, Linton, Concept 50). I like the room flat master tuning also, good balance and seems neutral to me. The default master tuning sounds more exciting to me, I end up going back to listen to a lot of non audiophile songs, but instead the songs I grew up with in 90 and 2000s from Rock to Rap. The bass extension on these gives them a little extra something non of my other speakers can do, although I want more volume or chest pounding, I think my room is too big for that. So far, I'm very much leaning towards keeping these and getting rid of some others instead.

I'm liking the color more and more also and the unique wood grain of each speaker. Really love the style of the woofers and not having wires, amps, and DACs to mess with.

This finish looks absolutely stunning. I wish my A500 SE had this color at launch...

 

[DearSX]

I guess if you remove some boxes then you can add in other boxes designed to give you more chest pounding bass

Yeah, I do have a sub I will try to dial in later.

 

[Bewateraudio]

Just got mine yesterday. Very cool design, love the look of the woofers. They are also very small and light weight speakers. The cabinet also looks beautiful. The Ash looks a little more grey than I expected, so does not match my TV stand as well as I hoped. Matches my black sofa at least.

So far I like the sound in many ways. It's more lively sounding than my DIY, Linton and Concept 50 speakers. Not fatiguing, just some extra crispness. Its also has more sensitively to where I sit. It has an enjoyable lively sound, less neutral than the KH120 II I had. I think the KH120's bass had more presence in my room, but these do go deeper and are not boomy like my 10" DIY 3-Ways in my room. Still getting used to them, no tweaks made yet, standard out of box master tuning with the Platin hub running WISA wireless. Sounds cliche but I am hearing all kinds of things I never heard before in songs, like what the background singers are singing, its there in all my speakers and its not quiet in any of them, I just never noticed it before till now.

I have an odd room, 23 ft x 12 ft. with the right side opening up into my hall way and kitchen, so no symmetry. Left are about 11.ft from the side walls and the other one is about 6.ft, they are 6.3ft from me and each other(ish). I will plan to use the provide microphone in the future to correct the sound and try different master tunings.

I am about to order this -- still hesitating -- would be great to hear further updates.

 

[DearSX]

I am about to order this -- still hesitating -- would be great to hear further updates.

Yeah, I'm using the in room flat master tuning this week. Comparing them to the Linton: Bass is expended more than the Linton, but it is not enough to feel in the chess in my large room. These are very small speakers after all. You can hear lower notes in music which I can't on my Lintons for example. So I continue using these for music I didn't really try so much on my others speakers cause they miss these notes, like Korn, DMX, even pop music from my youth or modern pop. Dynamics are very good, but again its not a JBL PA speaker. Right now it has a very neutral sound with the in-room flat master tuning. It kind of has that standard non offensive good performance sound, similar to the KH120ii and Linton. I do sometimes wish for a more sultry sound, but maybe that is just a tuning/EQ setting away. The default master tuning has a little extra spice, and other tunings add a few different flavors to the music, which is fine by me.

The WISA device works well most of the time, seems to stutter a little bit with ultra HD music from Amazon music, but 95% it works well. I have not tried it directly connected to a Pre-amp. It works well connected to my TV and WiiM Pro. Remote works from anywhere in the house! I turn on and down the volume from my kitchen or bed room. Sucks a little bit that I need the remote to turn it up and switch settings, no settings on the WISA box. another positive is that changes of the master tunings is very easy, takes like 20 seconds.

Quality of the speaker seems pretty good so far, I likely would consider a different color like Walnut to better match my living room, but I think I may just get a black TV stand or get rid of my TV stand all together now that I don't need speaker wires, amps, DACs etc. At least not for these speakers.

So overall so far I think its a very good all round speaker that can replace my other setup(s) including electronics. I think its my favorite speaker out of the ones I tested in my space (Linton, LS50, Polk R700, Linton, KH120ii, Concept 50, DIY Satori). Partly because it can many of the things the others can and a few other things too. Still each speaker has its strengths and weaknesses. I don't know that I need anything more than this but I have speakers that can do some things this one can not, ones that have an enchanting sound in some songs, or amazing 3D bass (like Awolnation's Sail 24hz), or provide a more audiophile goosebump inducing sounds, like my friends DIY 4-way towers. In my room, these have probably sounded the best with the widest genre of music to my ears and my tastes so far, but my journey is not done yet.

...Tried the near field tuning again and got great staging and drama. This is more like it. I'm pretty happy with these speakers.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Buchardt Anniversary 10 Measurements and Review

This speaker is from Buchardt, a manufacturer based in Denmark. Someone purchased their 10th anniversary model and sent it to me for measurement. In Korea, there's no official distributor for this product, so to acquire it, one would have to contact the Danish headquarters for a direct...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[VintageFlanker]

New Stained White finish for Anniversary 10s, announced along with their new SUB10 subwoofer.

 

[DearSX]

So many nice options, the Ash I got matches my black couch, but the walnut is really nice too!

 

[Matias]

@Mads Buchardt any chance of providing the spin data of all your speakers to @pierre 's Spinorama.org? I know there are several master tunings on the active ones, so maybe just the default one? Would be awesome as your speakers measure so well. Thanks for considering this.