Here are measurements of a Proson Twin 716 floorstanding speaker.
It was made in Falkenberg, Sweden, in the early 2000s. The factory also produced JWS and Genexxa-speakers. You've probably never heard of any of them, but they were all inexpensive and had a poor reputation. People who worked at the factory told stories about drivers having such poor quality, that they had to discard half of them.
There are very few measurements of these speakers available, and as far as I know, no one has measured the 716 before.
It looks like a 2,5-way design, but it's not. Both woofers are playing the same signal.
My measurements are quasi-anechoic, with nearfield port+woofers, corrected for baffle edge diffraction, combined with gated 1m measurements.
As usual, I started by measuring the on-axis response:
The 10+ dB dip in the crossover region looks like a cancellation due to reversed tweeter polarity, but it's not. This is the response with the tweeter inverted:
I also measured the second speaker, and the response was almost identical. All crossover components are within spec, and all drivers look fine as well (no visible damage, and no audible distortion).
Here's the CTA-2034 data:
A huge, broad dip at 2.5 kHz, and a smaller one at 7 kHz. Poor directivity.
Estimated in-room response:
Horizontal directivity:
0-90 deg:
Vertical directivity:
0-90 deg:
Near-field:
This explains the poor frequency response.
The System One-speaker I measured recently performed better, even though the woofer was playing full-range. That's how bad the Proson woofers are (this speaker has a 12 dB / octave crossover).
Distortion:
Distortion is probably a bit higher than this (very uneven response at the 30 cm distance I use for distortion measurements - hard to get the levels right). Not too bad though.
The vertical directivity is very poor. You can hear the sound change by just moving up and down a few centimeters. That's what happens whey you have two woofers next to each other playing the same midrange signal.
Subjective test:
I started by listening to Eva Cassidy - Anniversary Song, and oh boy is it bad. It sounds exactly like I remember other Proson speakers sounding. Very boxed in, dull and with a non-existent soundstage.
Imagine having a cold, and a pair of closed-back headphones on, while listening.
I then continued with Alison Krauss - River In The Rain. It sounded like she had a thick blanket over her head, and the musicians were playing inside a cardboard box.
Proson and it's sister brands are loathed by Swedish Hi-fi enthusiast, and it's not hard to understand why. They were inexpensive though.
It was made in Falkenberg, Sweden, in the early 2000s. The factory also produced JWS and Genexxa-speakers. You've probably never heard of any of them, but they were all inexpensive and had a poor reputation. People who worked at the factory told stories about drivers having such poor quality, that they had to discard half of them.
There are very few measurements of these speakers available, and as far as I know, no one has measured the 716 before.
It looks like a 2,5-way design, but it's not. Both woofers are playing the same signal.
My measurements are quasi-anechoic, with nearfield port+woofers, corrected for baffle edge diffraction, combined with gated 1m measurements.
As usual, I started by measuring the on-axis response:
The 10+ dB dip in the crossover region looks like a cancellation due to reversed tweeter polarity, but it's not. This is the response with the tweeter inverted:
I also measured the second speaker, and the response was almost identical. All crossover components are within spec, and all drivers look fine as well (no visible damage, and no audible distortion).
Here's the CTA-2034 data:
A huge, broad dip at 2.5 kHz, and a smaller one at 7 kHz. Poor directivity.
Estimated in-room response:
Horizontal directivity:
0-90 deg:
Vertical directivity:
0-90 deg:
Near-field:
This explains the poor frequency response.
The System One-speaker I measured recently performed better, even though the woofer was playing full-range. That's how bad the Proson woofers are (this speaker has a 12 dB / octave crossover).
Distortion:
Distortion is probably a bit higher than this (very uneven response at the 30 cm distance I use for distortion measurements - hard to get the levels right). Not too bad though.
The vertical directivity is very poor. You can hear the sound change by just moving up and down a few centimeters. That's what happens whey you have two woofers next to each other playing the same midrange signal.
Subjective test:
I started by listening to Eva Cassidy - Anniversary Song, and oh boy is it bad. It sounds exactly like I remember other Proson speakers sounding. Very boxed in, dull and with a non-existent soundstage.
Imagine having a cold, and a pair of closed-back headphones on, while listening.
I then continued with Alison Krauss - River In The Rain. It sounded like she had a thick blanket over her head, and the musicians were playing inside a cardboard box.
Proson and it's sister brands are loathed by Swedish Hi-fi enthusiast, and it's not hard to understand why. They were inexpensive though.
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