Heco Direkt 2-way measurement interpretation request / should I buy?

[jyrg]

Hello,
maybe somewhat of an odd thread but is there anyone willing to give me a short rundown regarding the measurements linked below? Are these speakers measurements within an acceptable range? They are available for 1400€/pair in Germany online and would fit my space quite nicely. The German reviews claim they are relatively neutral with good bass extension and some slight roll off in the upper treble/details. That's how I would interpret the frequency response as well but I am a complete noob when it comes to speaker measurements. I tried to translate the descriptions under each diagram.

Heco Direkt: Labor Seite 6 - i-fidelity.net

www.i-fidelity.net

Horizontal frequency response - measured in room with 1m(3.2ft) distance - on axis/15°/30°

Vertical frequency response - measured in room with 1m(3.2ft) distance - on treble axis +/-10cm (4 inch)

Room frequency response - measure distance 1m (3.2ft) - 1/1 octave

impedance curve

not really sure what this is

Sensitivity 93 dB (2,83 V / 1m; 500-5.000 Hz)

I am compromised to about 6ft listening distance in a 13ft x 15ft room. I would hook them up to a SMSL su-1 dac and FOSI V3 amp (and maybe play around with some cheap xduoo tube preamp just for the fun of it).
Other speaker options I am looking at are Wharfedale Linton, Mission 700 or maybe Wharfedale Aura 2 but they are stretching my budget. Up until now I am listening to Hifiman Arya Stealth headphones as well as Ziigaat Odyssey and Kiwi Ears Cadenza IEMs which I enjoy a lot - in case thats of any help.

Thanks in advance,
Tim

 

[Ktacos]

Appears to be a fairly well designed speaker, although not sure I agree with the comment that the highs are rolled off, they are clearly elevated according to the graph. Can always fix that with EQ. Woofer looks like it has a resonance, possibly from the surround or cabinet. I'm not finding the dispersion waterfall to be very easy to read but I'd assume this speaker will have a dispersion mismatch between the drivers. The port tuning seems to be done well, impedance down there looks great.

They might a little big for the space, that's how big one of my rooms is and two bookshelves is more than enough.

Probably fine if you can EQ down the top end, or not if you like it elevated.

 

[thewas]

They are in my opinion a great bargain for the current price since their wide baffle moves the baffle step lower than in the typical mids, measure well and also did well in the blindtest here:

Binaural blind comparison test of 4 loudspeakers - II

Since the discussion on the last vote about the sound quality of speakers via binaural recordings was so harmonious, I thought it would be a good idea to repeat the whole thing with other binaural recordings of speakers. And that's why I just plagiarized the thread title (and more) from @thewas...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[jyrg]

Appears to be a fairly well designed speaker, although not sure I agree with the comment that the highs are rolled off, they are clearly elevated according to the graph. Can always fix that with EQ. Woofer looks like it has a resonance, possibly from the surround or cabinet. I'm not finding the dispersion waterfall to be very easy to read but I'd assume this speaker will have a dispersion mismatch between the drivers. The port tuning seems to be done well, impedance down there looks great.

They might a little big for the space, that's how big one of my rooms is and two bookshelves is more than enough.

Probably fine if you can EQ down the top end, or not if you like it elevated.

Thanks for the reply, that's exactly what I was looking for. I had no idea how to interpret the devations of the frequency response etc. Seems like it is a solid design.
If I use a small bookshelf speaker in a small room, is it comparable to a larger speaker in a larger room in terms of "fullness/immersion"? From my experience usually if a speaker sounds "full" and "realistic", it has a certain size. The smaller the speakers are, the more they sound like, well, speakers. Might this just be a wrong impression because I have never listened to higher end bookshelf speakers or the speakers were too small for the rooms?
You think the base response might go crazy if the room is too small or what would other disadvantages be?

They are in my opinion a great bargain for the current price since their wide baffle moves the baffle step lower than in the typical mids, measure well and also did well in the blindtest here:

Binaural blind comparison test of 4 loudspeakers - II

Since the discussion on the last vote about the sound quality of speakers via binaural recordings was so harmonious, I thought it would be a good idea to repeat the whole thing with other binaural recordings of speakers. And that's why I just plagiarized the thread title (and more) from @thewas...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Oh, very interesting thread. Seems like it actually is a real bargain. Probably people just don't like the look. Thanks a lot!

 

[thewas]

You are welcome.

If I use a small bookshelf speaker in a small room, is it comparable to a larger speaker in a larger room in terms of "fullness/immersion"?

It depends on many factors, especially listening distance and yes, when you leave the nearfield of a loudspeaker the sound balance usually changes.

You think the base response might go crazy if the room is too small or what would other disadvantages be?

In my experience small room is not so much a problem related to loudspeaker size as it is easier to reduce excessive bass than vise versa.

 

[Ktacos]

If I use a small bookshelf speaker in a small room, is it comparable to a larger speaker in a larger room in terms of "fullness/immersion"? From my experience usually if a speaker sounds "full" and "realistic", it has a certain size.

A speaker will begin to radiate omnidirectional at a certain frequency generally determined by the speakers baffle width. Smaller speakers will be omni higher up in frequency then larger ones meaning it will generally have more room interactions to deal with. The larger speaker is able to get more direct energy to the listener. I myself to tend to prefer wider baffle speakers but they're a bit harder to fit in terms of visuals. I tend to find wider baffle speakers to image the lower mids better, but you have to incorporate large radius round overs at the edges or else you'll get some annoying diffraction. The grimm ls1 is similar to the heco speaker here. They have a white paper you can read for some more info on the design philosphy behind wider baffle speakers.

You think the base response might go crazy if the room is too small or what would other disadvantages be?

The response in the low end will be all over the place regardless of what speaker you pick, that's just what happens when you put speakers in a room. The smaller the room the higher the number of reflection issues you'll get in the bass. I personally don't run any speaker setup with some EQ in the bass region to fix issues and I'd advise you try to do the same, a few EQ bands taming some bass peaks can really transform a speaker setup for the better.

 

[Penelinfi]

They don't really give wide enough off axis measurements to really show what happens out there. Within the listening window they seem good, a little treble rise. It may even out with extreme off axis roll off - I'd think that little waveguide would be a little more directional than just a dome by itself. The other thing about small treble lift is that it can sound good at "conversational listening levels" which I tend to do a bit.

Small-ish room, I'd try use something that can do a notch EQ as even 6.5" bookshelf speakers can drone at ~40Hz room peak. That said, it's not the smallest room ever and I've put large speakers in smaller rooms ;p

If you really love the look though, then that still counts for something. What are you currently using?