Leave it to the Germans, Abacus Mirra 14

[Rizzle]

I stumbled upon this monitor and it seemed like a very interesting product to me:
https://translate.google.com/transl...ktivlautsprecher/studiomonitore/mirra-14.html

• Good quality components
  • Wavecor TW030WA09/10, WF120BD05/06 and WF223BD01/02
• DSP room correction available
• Decent price if it performs as promised: €2490.- per pair (€1990.- for early birds)

Their own measurements look good, and I'm a big fan of the "science-based" crowd development approach to speaker development "ABACUS expects feedback from a professional application environment, if necessary with specific suggestions for improvement and ideally measurements" (this is specifically aimed at people that participate in the crowd development deal).

 

[Pawelekdabek]

Driver layout very similiar to the one in Neumann KH310's

 

[Rizzle]

Driver layout very similiar to the one in Neumann KH310's

Definitely so, but it is a quite common three-way design.

 

[Katji]

Looking good........very good. Serious amplifier and DSP work. Configurable, yesss.

 

[LearningToSmile]

Almost glossed over it, but then realized it's €2490 per pair, that's quite good. Very few serious 3-way monitors are cheaper. I dig the "just what is necessary and nothing more" aesthetic. Bass extension seems a bit ambitious:

Frequenzgang (+-1dB): 30 – 18.000Hz
Frequenzgang (-6dB): 16 - >20.000Hz

Definitely something to keep an eye on in the future.

 

[changer]

What is happening with directivity between 3 and 5 kHz?

 

[TimW]

What is happening with directivity between 3 and 5 kHz?

You can also see a similar aberration at around 700 - 1200 Hz. These directivity disturbances are likely around where the crossover points are and correlate to a directivity mismatch between the drivers. To me this looks to have worse performance than a Neumann or Genelec alternative.

 

[Rizzle]

You can also see a similar aberration at around 700 - 1200 Hz. These directivity disturbances are likely around where the crossover points are and correlate to a directivity mismatch between the drivers. To me this looks to have worse performance than a Neumann or Genelec alternative.

Pardon my ignorance but I know very little of reading directivity. Is it because the differen axes' responses move towards each other?

I am curious to see measurements of the final product and preferably also measurements of third parties.

 

[TimW]

Pardon my ignorance but I know very little of reading directivity. Is it because the differen axes' responses move towards each other?

Yes that is what indicates a "directivity mismatch." You see, as a driver plays higher in frequency, it becomes more directional. We call this "beaming." How directional the driver is at a given frequency is largely determined by its dimensions. For example, an 8" woofer will start to "beam" (narrowing of directivity) at a much lower frequency than a 1" tweeter starts to "beam" at. So if we attempt to crossover from an 8" woofer directly to a 1" tweeter, the woofer will begin to beam before the tweeter takes over. This results in an off axis frequency response that is not smooth, with a dip at the upper end of the woofer response followed by a peak where the tweeter takes over. This is directivity mismatch. If the on-axis response of the speaker is tuned to be perfectly flat, it's likely the in-room response will not be flat because in-room response is a combination of the direct sound from the speaker and room reflections. The Abacus Mirra 14 does not have as bad of a directivity mismatch as many simple 2-way speakers but it does not do as well as waveguide designs from manufacturers who put effort into excellent directivity and off-axis performance.

 

[FrantzM]

Almost glossed over it, but then realized it's €2490 per pair, that's quite good. Very few serious 3-way monitors are cheaper. I dig the "just what is necessary and nothing more" aesthetic. Bass extension seems a bit ambitious:

Definitely something to keep an eye on in the future.

bold is mine : understatement of the (new) year ... 16 Hz at - 6 dB .... !!!???
Price is very interesting and if the FR and directivity of the final products holds between 50 Hz and 20,000.. It would be a product to count on ... I am officially curious about it.

 

[thewas]

You can also see a similar aberration at around 700 - 1200 Hz. These directivity disturbances are likely around where the crossover points are and correlate to a directivity mismatch between the drivers. To me this looks to have worse performance than a Neumann or Genelec alternative.

Which is to be expected if you compare the optimised and much deeper waveguides of the otherwise very similar from driver placement and driver size Neumann KH310. Unfortunately many audio manufacturers think its nowadays enough to use some good quality drivers and DSP for crossover and flat FR on axis, but that isn't the case, as it also never was.

 

[thewas]

bold is mine : understatement of the (new) year ... 16 Hz at - 6 dB .... !!!???

Abacus had also a tiny loudspeaker which had a DSP setting for 16 Hz, but at what SPL...

 

[LearningToSmile]

Abacus had also a tiny loudspeaker which had a DSP setting for 16 Hz, but at what SPL...
I really don't know why this loudspeaker seems to be interesting to some here when you can get the better engineered KH310 for even less money.

KH310 is a lot more expensive - those are €2490 a pair at regular price, KH310 is €1700 each, so €3400 a pair.

 

[thewas]

KH310 is a lot more expensive - those are €2490 a pair at regular price, KH310 is €1700 each, so €3400 a pair.

Yes, I saw that a minute after I posted my above response as I mistook the Abacus for a unit price (as at monitors usually) and immediately corrected it. For the introductory 2000€ pair price I personally might even consider getting them and living with the compromise in directivity as its at a price region which has unfortunately almost no competition.
I am also hoping for a refined higher end Kali IN-8 3-way coax for approximately double the price of their current one.

 

[Rizzle]

@thewas thank you for the great explanation, it really helped a lot. I've also edited the TP to clearly indicate that it is the pair price.

Indeed at the introduction price it still seems like a great value product. I will share the notion about the waveguide with them, I wonder if they'll do anything with it.

I have some good memories of their Ampollo amplifier, but that was 1. purely subjective and 2. 8 or 9 years ago. It that definitely contributes to my curiousity though. I was going to visit the company to listen to the Cortex 6, but then the obvious changed those plans.

 

[Sepehr]

Good day.
I have a question, I hope someone can help.
I am looking for a pair of 3-way speakers. I was going to buy a dynaudio Lyd48, which was introduced by a friend of this speaker (Abacus Mirra14).
Can anyone help me which one is better?

 

[oivavoi]

Wow, this looks very interesting. A compact active three-way speaker for a good price... what's not to like? Personally I'm in the camp which is not completely sold on waveguides yet, so that's an additional plus for me, even though it will have a less even directivity pattern than the Neumann 310 for example. I've also always had the impression that Abacus is a serious and science-oriented company.

 

[Rizzle]

Wow, this looks very interesting. A compact active three-way speaker for a good price... what's not to like? Personally I'm in the camp which is not completely sold on waveguides yet, so that's an additional plus for me, even though it will have a less even directivity pattern than the Neumann 310 for example. I've also always had the impression that Abacus is a serious and science-oriented company.

While I'm not opposed to waveguides, I do share the impression that they are a serious and science-based company. I had some email back-and-forth and they experimented with a waveguide, but ultimately they felt like they were overrated. They are now doing the final tuning based on customer feedback. All-in-all, I'm also very intersted in the product, but I'll wait for hopefully third-party measurements (plus I'm moving soon so I'll refrain from large purchases).

Good day.
I have a question, I hope someone can help.
I am looking for a pair of 3-way speakers. I was going to buy a dynaudio Lyd48, which was introduced by a friend of this speaker (Abacus Mirra14).
Can anyone help me which one is better?

Hard to tell, the final product isn't even out yet.

 

[seyl3r]

I'm wondering if anybody here has enough background knowledge to say something about their amplifiers, since that's what they advertise most:
https://www.abacus-electronics.de/info-service/informationen/audio-akademie/emk-control.html

If google translator is not sufficient, since I'm German, I can translate it to English if required .

 

[thewas]

While I'm not opposed to waveguides, I do share the impression that they are a serious and science-based company. I had some email back-and-forth and they experimented with a waveguide, but ultimately they felt like they were overrated. They are now doing the final tuning based on customer feedback.

Sorry but that doesn't really sound science oriented. I know the company since many decades and they were an old and very good electronic manufacturer who relatively recently jumped also into the loudspeaker market and imho cannot be compared there to our known science oriented references.