This is a review and detailed measurements of the HSU CCB-8 "constant directivity horn" speaker aimed at home theater market. It was kindly drop shipped by a member and costs US $389 each.
I kind of like the subwoofer styled, chunky enclosure. Back side shows dual ports which came partially plugged:
But I read the instructions and it suggested leaving them open so I tested it that way. But do show the difference in one of the measurements.
The manual also recommends listening off-axis at 15 degrees. The intent seems to be wider sweet spot (which you can get from any speaker). For ease of measurements, I used 0 degrees but again, show what would happen if you sat at off-axis.
As usual, measurements were made using Klippel Near-field Scanner with the magnetic grill removed (as seen in the picture above).
HSU CCB-8 Speaker Measurements
As usual, we start with the so called spinorama family of anechoic frequency response measurements:
Wow, I did not expect this seeing how this is a design collaboration with the famous designer, Don Keele. We have some kind of massive cancellation centered around 1.7 kHz. Same region presents directivity error which goes against the ethos of the speaker marketing material. With the dirctivity index climbing, we don't have constant dispersion either. While we are missing a lot of lower treble energy, we have excess amount which is mostly mitigated if you listen at -20 degrees:
Sensitivity is a good 5 or so dB better than average speaker I test which is the main good news here.
Near-field response of the woofer shows classic effect of ports:
And this is the response of the ports and woofer:
We see the sources of our frequency response errors given that large resonance from the port/cabinet between 1 and 2 kHz where woofer response is down.
Going with our 0 on-axis response, early window and hence predicted in-room responses don't look that good:
The high sensitivity pays dividends in loudness where the sweep was quite clean at 86 dBSPL:
Being designed for home theater, I also tested it at 101 dBSPL:
I could clearly hear distortion during the sweep.
Directivity is anything but "constant:"
If you go off axis as recommended, you then get more uneven directivity at higher frequencies due to its roughness and narrow width.
Impedance is typical for bookshelf speakers at a bit below 4 ohm:
It naturally exposes (low frequency) resonances.
As does csd/waterfall measurement:
Step response shows uneven output from the tweeter:
Let's just say at this point I was very motivated to listen to this speaker.
Conclusions
I don't know if it is the price point or lack of attention to optimizing multiple design parameters but we have quite a messy speaker here. The sacred on-axis response is quite poor with its large suck out which is harder to fix with EQ than peaks. I guess with high sensitivity you could pull the rest of the spectrum down but then you lose the one advantage the CCB-8 brings to table. It is claims of constant directivity are not visible in any measurements.
Needless to say I can't recommend the HSU CCB8 speaker. Company's reputation demands that they do better!
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
I kind of like the subwoofer styled, chunky enclosure. Back side shows dual ports which came partially plugged:
But I read the instructions and it suggested leaving them open so I tested it that way. But do show the difference in one of the measurements.
The manual also recommends listening off-axis at 15 degrees. The intent seems to be wider sweet spot (which you can get from any speaker). For ease of measurements, I used 0 degrees but again, show what would happen if you sat at off-axis.
As usual, measurements were made using Klippel Near-field Scanner with the magnetic grill removed (as seen in the picture above).
HSU CCB-8 Speaker Measurements
As usual, we start with the so called spinorama family of anechoic frequency response measurements:
Wow, I did not expect this seeing how this is a design collaboration with the famous designer, Don Keele. We have some kind of massive cancellation centered around 1.7 kHz. Same region presents directivity error which goes against the ethos of the speaker marketing material. With the dirctivity index climbing, we don't have constant dispersion either. While we are missing a lot of lower treble energy, we have excess amount which is mostly mitigated if you listen at -20 degrees:
Sensitivity is a good 5 or so dB better than average speaker I test which is the main good news here.
Near-field response of the woofer shows classic effect of ports:
And this is the response of the ports and woofer:
We see the sources of our frequency response errors given that large resonance from the port/cabinet between 1 and 2 kHz where woofer response is down.
Going with our 0 on-axis response, early window and hence predicted in-room responses don't look that good:
The high sensitivity pays dividends in loudness where the sweep was quite clean at 86 dBSPL:
Being designed for home theater, I also tested it at 101 dBSPL:
I could clearly hear distortion during the sweep.
Directivity is anything but "constant:"
If you go off axis as recommended, you then get more uneven directivity at higher frequencies due to its roughness and narrow width.
Impedance is typical for bookshelf speakers at a bit below 4 ohm:
It naturally exposes (low frequency) resonances.
As does csd/waterfall measurement:
Step response shows uneven output from the tweeter:
Let's just say at this point I was very motivated to listen to this speaker.
Conclusions
I don't know if it is the price point or lack of attention to optimizing multiple design parameters but we have quite a messy speaker here. The sacred on-axis response is quite poor with its large suck out which is harder to fix with EQ than peaks. I guess with high sensitivity you could pull the rest of the spectrum down but then you lose the one advantage the CCB-8 brings to table. It is claims of constant directivity are not visible in any measurements.
Needless to say I can't recommend the HSU CCB8 speaker. Company's reputation demands that they do better!
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
