Buchardt Anniversary 10 Measurements and Review

[peniku8]

I wish Amir also tested for compression. The distortion plots would lead you to believe that the speaker would be perfectly good to use at 95dB when you have a subwoofer, but the 2dB of compression tells a whole different story. That compression is the amp's (woofer's?) limiter kicking in, judging by its profile (uniformity) and might not be as severe on short impulses. Would be interesting to know the limiter's attack time so we know if this limits dynamic headroom or just long term output.

 

[Mads Buchardt]

Regrettably, the speaker in question is no longer with me, so it's impossible to conduct the additional measurements you mentioned. If I had known about this earlier, I would have performed various types of measurements and retained the data. I apologize to the readers of my review and your company for this missed opportunity.

Regarding the 0.2dB, I will quote directly from another comment I made earlie

-- Quote Below --


Regarding the 0.2dB, I was not pointing out any discrepancies in the units or measurements. I think this part caused the biggest misunderstanding in the translation.

I always conduct variance measurements for speakers I receive as a matched pair. I am aware of the limitations of my measurement environment to a certain extent.

In my reviews of speakers controlled via DSP, like Neumann KH120 ii, Genelec 8330A, 8351B, I wanted to suggest the aspect of amp level matching.

If the manufacturing process is not top-tier, encompassing in-house pair matching from units to the finished speaker, a variance within 0.5dB in the linearity of the final speaker product is commendable. The Buchardt A10 I measured this time is insanely excellent in this regard. However, the overall level being offset implies amp level matching. Considering the other performance aspects, I expressed a slight disappointment thinking, "For a company capable of handling details to this extent, they could have matched the amp levels a bit more precisely."

---

Your company's A10 maintains a top-tier level of linearity variance among active DSP speakers. I have only seen this level of performance from Neumann.

Thank you for developing such an excellent product.

As I mentioned earlier, I will refine and adjust my comments to minimize nuance and content distortion and will promptly make these edits with a record of the changes.

Thank you for your kind response and for bearing with the inconvenience.

Thank you so much for this, it's really appreciated. We do have A10 going to Erin's audio corner shortly, I hope he would also have the time to do some tests on the different tunings.

I would also say that if you didn't know about the Mastertunings when doing the measurements. It's a valid point that it would be a little too extreme with the bass extension on such a small speaker, but Mastertunings does let us go to the extremes so end users can get something that is out of the ordinary for performance/size ratio if high SPL is not their priority

 

[Deleted member 48726]

No matter the EQ profiles active in the tested speaker, it does show the limitations of the speaker.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

Do you know of other 6.5” drivers that can reach that output in a small sealed cabinet with extension to 25hz?

I didn't claim to do. Anything (almost) is possible by EQ. This review shows the limitations of that.

 

[sharock]

I suppose the question is what does this offer over the A500 other than the nice wooden cabinet?

 

[GNK]

Do you know of other 6.5” drivers that can reach that output in a small sealed cabinet with extension to 25hz?

You can bass boost any speaker literally as much as you want.
At the cost of of power sacrifice and increased distortion to the upper frequencies as well as the lower ones. Like this speaker.
It's a tuning that runs counter to the Purifi's philosophy of aiming for clean distortion across all frequencies. At least what I expect Purifi-equipped speaker to be.

I know that this tuning is intended, but I think it has to be 3-way to implement the concept.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

Yes almost anything like voice oil burnout and bottoming out. The Purifi woofer has a big 39mm 4 layer voice coil that keeps it from burning out under these conditions. Most 6.5’s would burn out before even 85dB with this same eq tuning.

Would they? Haven't seen that. You may be right though. Who knows.

 

[GNK]

To me it looks like a tuning profile designed for lower SPL usage. What a smart person would do is change the tuning to one with less boost for high SPL listening with a click of a button in the app. Better yet would be if the speaker offered adaptive tuning. Not sure this DSP does. How it works is the boost decreases with SPL automatically to keep distortion low at high SPL and full range at lower SPL.

Yes that's exactly what I thought @ #13.
The measurement claims otherwise.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

Still shows the shortcomings of a small speaker though. I don't say it's not an okay performance. But it shows clearly the limits of even the best small driver in a small box. If you were to use adaptive EQ and low shelf the bass you would just end up with even less bass than the measurements show and a mid+mid high heavy response.

 

[Ajax]

Thank you for such a kind reply, that is rare to see in online communities where the tone is usually harsh, big respect!

If you still have the A10s, it would be great to see you do measurements on the "S400 simulation" mastertuning and the "nearfield" (which we see nearly all customers end up liking the most, despite not being in nearfield setups).

We are also working on more tunings, and we are also working on some improvements to the limiter and how we "attack" the limitations of the speakers, we did actually found that we can squeeze a bit more performance out of the bass in them, so that would be implemented soon.

Looking a bit closer on the measurements done on the 0.2dB, it looks like the one speaker is generally 0.2dB under, which seems very strange considering you normally have these deviations a bit mixed over the frequency curve. It would be strange if both the tweeter, woofer and all 4 amps are a result of the entire speaker being 0.2dB under the other one? (4 amps as the purifi have 3 x 50watt amps connected to it) Could the speakers have been placed just a hair differently when performing the measurement?

Hi Mads,

One of my retirement projects is to build an active speaker using a Purifi woofer driven by a minidsp flex 8 / hypex multi channel amp combination. Your excellent speaker is a source of inspiration.

Hi Nuyes,

Thank you very much for the effort you put into this review and others I have read.


Well done to you both in the respectful manner that you have shared your knowledge and findings with the community and each other. It is a lesson for us all that mutual respect without chest thumping egos is the way forward to educate and develop better products. Too often we become defensive/aggressive when met with constructive criticism.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

Yes obviously there’s going to be limitations to a small monitor compared to a big floor standing 3 way. But for a small 2 way you’re not going to get more performance with a 6.5” driver of any type. You’ll need to go up to the 8” Purifi or add more drivers.

I agree. The range of low frequencies should be acknowledged. It would've been insightful to see measurements of other EQ profiles.

 

[ROOSKIE]

Apples and oranges, I regret. And I'm not even talking about active Vs passive : These measurements aren't done with Klippel NFS so can't be compared IMHO. Also, Erin is measuring anechoic distortion, which does not appear to be the case here.

How is Erin measuring anechoic distortion?
I can't see how he would be doing that.
I'm certain he uses a similar nearfield method, as do most everyone else.
Still different mics and situations will yield somewhat different HD/IMD results for the same speaker. Yet unless something is broken they should still be reasonably similar.

Nothing here is anechoic. Other reviews shows @Nuyes testing set-up.

There is no chance that properly designed ported or passive system will not have less HD/IMD distortion vs the sealed version in much of the bass region. It absolutely will be less.
The port or radiators take over and at/near tuning the woofer is actually not moving. This greatly reduces all distortions for the obvious reasons.
How much less HD/IMD will be specific design and driver related.

Below tuning the HD/IMD increase quickly though in radiator/ported but so does acoustic roll off to offset some issues.

 

[Open Mind Audio]

Thanks for taking the time to measure them and provide your comments.

I feel your evaluation is overly critical considering the speakers' intended purpose. If you had taken into account the entire package and what we offer, the perspective might change significantly.

This speaker wasn't designed to be an SPL champion. If you're seeking something that can play very loud and powerful, we have speakers that excel in that aspect.

The A10 was intended as a compact speaker suitable for small to medium-sized rooms, capable of standing alone without a subwoofer and delivering music at respectable SPL. Our aim with the A10 was sound quality over quantity, which is why we opted for a sealed construction.

Mastertunings are a significant aspect of our active speakers, which unfortunately you haven't tried or mentioned here. These would have addressed your issues with the speakers. Mastertunings can substantially alter various aspects, and it's not merely basic EQ adjustments that we apply. We also offer tunings that optimize performance in the crossover region, making them more nearfield optimized, as some customers use them as studio monitors. Flexibility and the ability for our customers to choose have always been very important to us. That also allows us to go to extremes like this, without being set in stone.

Regarding the 0.2dB difference, I don't quite see the concern here considering the industry standard, even for much more expensive speakers. Drivers, even those as sophisticated as the Danish-built Purifi, have tolerances.

Customer feedback indicates people are very satisfied with the design choices made on the A10. Most individuals are pleasantly surprised by how powerful they are for music playback, despite our marketing statements advising to "be realistic with expectations." As a consumer-direct company, overselling them would result in more returns, which can be quite costly for us, so would be a very bad business decision ;D

Thanks for this response - the speaker looks fantastic to me, and the review seems to quibble over details that actually show what an amazing piece of audio engineering it is. I would love a sealed enclosure with this much bass at moderate SPL.

 

[sharock]

Yes obviously there’s going to be limitations to a small monitor compared to a big floor standing 3 way. But for a small 2 way you’re not going to get more performance with a 6.5” driver of any type. You’ll need to go up to the 8” Purifi or add more drivers.

What do you think of the A10 compared to the A500 which has 2.5-way and 3-way mastertunings, is cheaper, but doesn't have Purifi drivers?

Data here: https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/buchardt_a500/

 

[ROOSKIE]

Yes obviously there’s going to be limitations to a small monitor compared to a big floor standing 3 way. But for a small 2 way you’re not going to get more performance with a 6.5” driver of any type. You’ll need to go up to the 8” Purifi or add more drivers.

Well, as I mention a slightly larger version of this using passive radiators would handily beat this sealed version. Better performance is available that way. I have not checked exactly how much bigger it would be. Probably notable.

The Purifi has about double the xmax of a typical nice 6.5"
If course as we know that doesn't double the bass ability. The extra few db gained by tha extra excursion make this similar to a typical nice 8". So probably something like a $400-500 retail(not OEM) Purifi 6.5 vs a $150 retail 8".
A lot of extra money but I suppose a bit smaller enclosure vs an 8 and better midrange integration with a typical tweeter even in a large guide.

The A10 was intended as a compact speaker suitable for small to medium-sized rooms, capable of standing alone without a subwoofer and delivering music at respectable SPL. Our aim with the A10 was sound quality over quantity, which is why we opted for a sealed construction.

I do appreciate the care, consideration and balance that must go into each design choice.

While I appreciate the stated goal of 2.0 in small room from a small speaker, not sure I feel you on the comments regarding sealed design.

Can you elaborate here, sound quality? Are you saying that sealed designs sound better @ least in your view. If so why?

Frankly, I think a lot of decisions are based on keeping the speaker small and lightweight for shipping which makes sense given you ship internationally often. Sealed is best for size.
Also the radiators cost a bundle so the price point is a big factor. Sealed is best for $.
IMHO, I see no other reasons to chose a sealed design. Again fine given the situation your company is in but not exactly a 'sound quality' based decision & I find it fair to point that out in the forum as folks consider the realities. These are surely sealed designs for practical reasons. Which is fine of course.

 

[peniku8]

If you want more low distortion SPL capability you use 6 of them

Or well... use a sub

 

[DearSX]

I am little disappointed in this but this makes sense. Physics. this speaker is super compact and lightweight. I was hoping not to need a subwoofer, but physics is physics, it sucks that distortion is bad with deep bass music. I thought it was just my room being too big. For most music at moderate volumes it may not even matter, I listened to the large Revel F228be and the KH120ii and they sounded very similar in extension to me for music that only goes down to about 40hz. The F226Be sounded thinner.

The speaker sounds great at lower to moderate volumes and everyday listening, with deeper extension than the KH120ii I had, Sounds very neutral too. It does not sound as great with deep bass music when getting loud, although movies sound pretty good and dynamic (just saw Super Mario). I thought it was just my room was too big to get louder and deeper for these little speakers. Its supposed to have filters automatically cut off bass to keep distortion at bay.

I can tell easily that moving around the speaker the music changes in tone some, but its still pretty good. It actually sounds like it has very good dispersion overall, but it gets better the more you get to the "sweet" spots. Overall I'm pretty happy with the speaker, but I will give this data some thought now and listen more closely to them. They are not cheap after all.

 

[VintageFlanker]

How is Erin measuring anechoic distortion?
I can't see how he would be doing that.

That's a function of the Klippel ISC module, as he explained quite a few times:

JBL Stage A130 Review (speaker)

Erin's review is up: https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/jbl_stage_a130/ oh yeah My Top Ten Speakers Regardless of Price cheapaudioman Emotiva Airmotiv B1+ he is agree with Erin's review

www.audiosciencereview.com

Nothing here is anechoic. Other reviews shows @Nuyes testing set-up

Which is not the Klippel NFS.

 

[Pearljam5000]

This or KH150 ?

 

[sharock]

The Purifi drivers are way better than those SB’s. I also prefer sealed bass. A single 6.5 isn’t enough to fully satisfy me. I made a 2 way with the Purifi 8” and it was definitely much more impressive. But you can’t pair that with a 19mm tweeter. It starts beaming earlier. I went with 1400hz 4th order crossover and a 34mm Bliesma beryllium tweeter. But if Buchardt was to do that the price would increase significantly.

So I guess Buchardt need to start mass producing the A500 SE which has the best of both models.