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Thanks. I have good relationship with Buchardt so we are set there.Worth requesting samples of the S300 and S400 from Buchardt as well.
Thanks. I have good relationship with Buchardt so we are set there.Worth requesting samples of the S300 and S400 from Buchardt as well.
The M106s are on my list, Elacs never have been, regardless of the almost comical high praise they've gotten in the press. The R3's seem very nice indeed.Kef R3 and Revel M106's are pretty close I guess?
Anyway, these were on my list of speakers I was looking at but I don't like what I see. Especially cabinet vibration at higher volumes put me off.
So the big "woofer" (PR) in front is just for show, and the tiny one behind is the real one. That's cheating!![]()
I almost fell over when I saw the cutaway. I can't believe it's actually a passive radiator up front. Why? Why?
LS50 wasn't designed by AJ and has except its midcentric balance (which was done to voice it a bit similar to LS3/5a) no such issues of high upper bass distortion although it uses just a similarly small coaxial driver full range, and thus can corrected nicely with EQ.KEF LS50 is kind of similar underachievement. Both designed under AJ's conduction...
If you listen to him in recent interviews its seems he have changed a bit since then giving measurements less importance and more to listening which I guess shows on this review, which approach is more "correct" would be interesting to see in a larger blind A-B listening test for example versus the similar smoother measuring KEF R3 3-way coaxial.The discipline of good measurements correlated properly to listening
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Elac (USA designed) Adante AS-61 stand-mount (large bookshelf) speaker. It was kindly purchased by a member new and drop shipped to me. This is part of the series designed by Andrew Jones who is probably the most famous speaker designer in consumer world. The AS-61 has a retail price of US $2,500 for a pair but I see it on sale for US $1,500...
Spinorama Audio Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker can be used. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
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For whatever reason, I expected to see a much more flat response. We have a dip at 200 Hz where the crossover is from the woofer to mid-range. Maybe it is hard to better tune this with the internal woofer? Regardless, the room will obliterate this part of the response so what you get at the end of the day, is not this dip although we do want to start with flat response if we can.
The dip around 7 kHz seems to be typical of coaxial drivers and disappears off-axis. Don't have an explanation for the final dip as we approach 20 kHz. It seems to be designed that way.
the ”final dip“ is likely just the natural driver roll off. Since any do not hear much in that range, designers tend to leave alone. Can always tweak with eq. If it were a nasty peak, might add a notch filter but adds cost to crossover.
...Since reducing distortion is a key design goal in this speaker, let's look at those metrics:
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It seems like low frequency distortion below 200 Hz is indeed very low. But then it peaks likely because the mid-range can't handle such low frequencies well.
We also have rising distortion around the crossover frequencies indicating the midrange is starting to get unhappy before the tweeter takes over.
Note that all of this is gated in-room response so not the most reliable data.
the gating is affecting the measurement below what frequency? Speaker design is a set of tradeoffs, but getting lower distortion in bass for higher in mid-bass (and midrange!) seems very odd.
...As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome
Weather is warming up early this year so soon I need to get going on my vegetable starts. Alas, I spent all my money on measurement gear for speakers so need money for seeds, soil, etc. Please donate a few dollars so I can eat healthy come this summer using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Too low WM xo stresses the coaxial mid too much! The mid has small surface area (Sd) and thus is driven to excessive excursion causing THD and also IMD to skyrocket.
Highish distortion 1.5-2kHz obviously comes from stressed tweeter, but % is tolerable and typical for modern 2-way designs.
Bandpass makes woofer's low end too steep. 2 octaves band is enough for a subwoofer, but not for a woofer in a 3-way.
In total, Adante speakers are not well implemented. Even dsp-activation can't correct bandpass acoustic behaviour. I don't understand how they ended in production lines. KEF LS50 is kind of similar underachievement with massive effort. Both designed under AJ's conduction...
p.s. I guess now everyone understands why "we critics" wanted to see also distortion spectrum!
I need to get a comparably priced speaker as a reference for both objective and subjective comparisons. Without it, I am being a bit soft in my final stance.![]()
Too low WM xo stresses the coaxial mid too much! The mid has small surface area (Sd) and thus is driven to excessive excursion causing THD and also IMD to skyrocket.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/kef-ls50-bookshelf-speaker-review.11144/If you could you should get a pair of KEF:s
They sound and measure very good!![]()
Hope that Amirm will measure the active version of the LS50 - think this is an other league.
Matthias Böde has, as far as I know or recall, never said anything critical about anything he has reviewed. I witnessed 3 events (demos) which were flawed, especially one where three speakers were compared (different base width, the cheapest were closest together).Stereo Magazine 19 by Matthias Böde
https://stereo-magazine.com/flipview/28
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As another speaker DIYers this jumps out at me as well. 200hz is very low for a M/W crossover, and especially in a small format 3 way such as this. A bandpass woofer 3 way is frankly a bizarre design choice to my eyes, and it's all to produce loud bass in a small box.
As another speaker DIYers this jumps out at me as well. 200hz is very low for a M/W crossover, and especially in a small format 3 way such as this. A bandpass woofer 3 way is frankly a bizarre design choice to my eyes, and it's all to produce loud bass in a small box.
I suppose it goes to show how expensive big boxes are to produce and sell, because if you replaced this PR/woofer combo with a woofer and port of similar cost in a slightly bigger box, you'd have much better performance. Just to save money on a big capacitor/inductor and some mdf.
I could be totally wrong on the motivation but this is a very atypical speaker.