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Thomann/Swissonic A306 - Review & Measurements by Erin

Interesting real budget option, for those that bought them, how's it going?

@Weeb Labs have you kept yours? Would you still recommend the A306? or have you moved on to something else? Cheers
I still have my pair of A306 but have since transitioned my main office/HT to Genelec 8030Cs (FL/FR), an 8020D (C) and 8010As (SR/SL/RR/RL).
 
I am on a trip and the only measurement I have is a photo of the latest version of Dirac Live measurements screen. Sorry for the low quality.

(Based on 17 point measurements done by MiniDSP SHD using a calibrated UMIK-1 with its own calibration profile installed. Measurements were repeated multiple times using between 9 and 17 varying points all as per instructions all looked almost identical.)

In gray is the response corrected to my preference curve, the dotted yellow is my personal preference curve. The important is in pink: the uncorrected response in a real world room. Let's zoom in to some details, going left to right:

The overall measurement window matching the Dirac requirements in my case is 21hz - 21khz (bound by the vertical yellow curtains), with the sub crossed at 80hz. There is a SVS sub resulting in the bass bump below 80hz - I like my bass slamming as you can see by my preference curve's bass shelf.

- The 40-110hz hump is due to the placement of the speakers and the sub 15 cm against a wall, as seen above on my photo of the speaker. I didn't use the A306 built-in preset to correct for placing close to the wall because Erin advised me to leave it this way and better let Dirac take care of that.

- Around 3 db deviation at 200-300 hz, again due to the room, really low, gradual and wide enough not to be audible even uncorrected.

- Very linear mids, subjectively they are very coherent with truly impressive tembre nuances. And they feel fast and revealing but without any edginess.

- The highs are very extended and very linear, all the way.


Short version: Overall crazy flat and linear for real world, at any price range.

My personal take is that this is an amazing uncorrected room response and can easily be used without room calibration in my case. Listening confirms that.

And subjectively they sound wide, very fast, precise and detailed. Most importantly with an "authority" that is absolutely unexpected given their medium size. I don't hear any uneven parts of the FR and the "placement/separation" and "large stage" are top notch.

View attachment 368648

How is the low response? Like is the range between 30-100 hz good? Thanks a lot
 
Since Thomann is not opposed to sending out samples, I think the most cost-effective method would be to contact them and ask them for another round.

There should be plenty of incentive, since their remaining A306 stock sold out in just a few days after Erin uploaded his review.

Erin is unlikely to agree to measuring any more Thomann products given that it seemed like the A306 review sample "generosity" was instead just to help Thomann clear their shelves with no intent of re-releasing them [my own speculation]. In fact he even said he got given the A203BT but has not measured, or at least released any data for them.
 
Erin is unlikely to agree to measuring any more Thomann products given that it seemed like the A306 review sample "generosity" was instead just to help Thomann clear their shelves with no intent of re-releasing them [my own speculation]. In fact he even said he got given the A203BT but has not measured, or at least released any data for them.

You mean to tell me companies send their products to reviewers in an attempt to generate buzz around the product to get people to buy it?! I'm shocked I tell ya.
 
You mean to tell me companies send their products to reviewers in an attempt to generate buzz around the product to get people to buy it?! I'm shocked I tell ya.

Do you not see the issue with sending someone a review sample of a product that is discontinued, without informing the reviewer that the whole series has been discontinued?
 
Only issue is you can't buy em new, data is still useful for used buyers and establishes some confidence in the brand, I hardly see any nefarious intent from Thomann considering they can only profit so much from selling what stock they had, and who cares, people are getting a pretty good speaker. How about spending your previous energy being upset at the companies who will gladly rip off customers and sell them dog shit products.
 
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