Gurkerl
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- Jan 22, 2021
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On this site and other US-focused communities you read a lot about ELAC, Neumann, Kii, and (to a lesser extent) about Adam, Hedd etc. - and rightfully so, as their speaker designs are usually well-engineered and highly regarded. In the case of Neumann and Kii they are even regarded as SOTA in their given use cases.
Operating primarily in Europe, you naturally read/hear less about the "other" German speaker manufacturers in the US-based HiFi scene. Brands like Canton, Magnat, Heco, Quadral and so on can be found in Big Box stores all throughout Europe, and on the Second Hand market with heavy discounts. These are quite big companies, which produce a lot products per year. They are featured a lot in German Hi-Fi magazines (duh), where one can find measurements of some models - though usually hidden behind paywalls.
I am now wondering what one can expect from these companies. From what can be found online, they seem competent and reasonably priced - although not really state of the art in the strictest sense.
Here for example are measurements of the relatively new Quadral Signum 90 - for a price of 900€ per pair, this looks surprisingly good. However, I don't know what measurement method was used, how accurate the results are.
Compared to the older, but more "high-end" Magnat Signature 1109 - this looks better, but also more smoothed? And bolder lines for some reason? Either way, it looks like it has good sensitivity and bass extension. New price was 4000€ I believe.
Another comparison, the previous generation Canton Vento 896 DC - seems rather linear, with what I assume to be a directivity error at 2.5khz? Since the current generation Vento has been out for a while, you can find these discounted at around 1800€ for the pair.
So where do these companies stand, in the grand scheme of things? Hard to say without full spinorama measurements, but for the price of some of their offerings, they seem to be viable options?
Any input would be greatly appreciated
Operating primarily in Europe, you naturally read/hear less about the "other" German speaker manufacturers in the US-based HiFi scene. Brands like Canton, Magnat, Heco, Quadral and so on can be found in Big Box stores all throughout Europe, and on the Second Hand market with heavy discounts. These are quite big companies, which produce a lot products per year. They are featured a lot in German Hi-Fi magazines (duh), where one can find measurements of some models - though usually hidden behind paywalls.
I am now wondering what one can expect from these companies. From what can be found online, they seem competent and reasonably priced - although not really state of the art in the strictest sense.
Here for example are measurements of the relatively new Quadral Signum 90 - for a price of 900€ per pair, this looks surprisingly good. However, I don't know what measurement method was used, how accurate the results are.
Compared to the older, but more "high-end" Magnat Signature 1109 - this looks better, but also more smoothed? And bolder lines for some reason? Either way, it looks like it has good sensitivity and bass extension. New price was 4000€ I believe.
Another comparison, the previous generation Canton Vento 896 DC - seems rather linear, with what I assume to be a directivity error at 2.5khz? Since the current generation Vento has been out for a while, you can find these discounted at around 1800€ for the pair.
So where do these companies stand, in the grand scheme of things? Hard to say without full spinorama measurements, but for the price of some of their offerings, they seem to be viable options?
Any input would be greatly appreciated