Verdant Audio Bambusa AL-1 Review

[amirm]

This is a detailed measurements of the Verdant Audio Bambusa AL-1. It is on kind loan from the company and costs US $3,499. I am in mail it back so please excuse the brevity of this write-up.

Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.

All measurements are referenced to the tweeter axis with frequency resolution of 2.7 Hz.

Spinorama Audio Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker can be used. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:

The AL-1 could certainly benefit from level equalization of the drivers.

Impedance is a bit higher than average for the class which is appreciated:

Distortion graphs are now at calibrated SPL level of 1 kHz tone at 96 dB SPL at 1 meter:

And for compatibility with measurements posted by others:

Finally the waterfall:

Conclusions
It is clear that by standards with which we measure speakers, the performance of AL-1 does not measure up. I appreciate the company sending them to us though for evaluation.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Allergies are killing me on top of heavy review workload. I hope you all feel sorry for me by donating using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

 

[MZKM]

Preference Rating
SCORE: 5.0
SCORE w/sub: 6.9

 

[napilopez]

This one looks a lot better to me than the MG-1, personally. EQ the mids down and maybe listen a little off axis and you should be good to go. Horizontal directivity looks well controlled for a cone and dome and even vertical isn't too bad. Overall less of a direcitivty mismatch than its more expensive sibling, and imo better on-axis/LW too.

Dunno about sound out of the box and how much that bump in the mids will affect things, but if you're willing to EQ this seems like the better bet to me.

 

[Cahudson42]

Still, for $3,500, I vote 'Bamboozle'...

For one, see the HDI-1600 at half the price..

 

[Selah Audio]

Again, decent drivers but poor crossover execution.

 

[MZKM]

@verdantaudio
Some specs:

Sensitivity: 86dB (300Hz-3kHz)
FR: 53Hz-20kHz ± 3dB (rounded, actual ± 3.4dB)

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Way, way too expensive for what it is.

 

[Sal1950]

$3495.00 for 2 small drivers and a wooden box?
No thanks

 

[Blumlein 88]

This one looks mid-range centric, and very EQ'able. Did you listen to it even briefly? I'd think it might be very serviceable for music if one isn't picky. More so with some EQ.

I'd not consider it a good value, but hardly a broken design. They appear to only need some improvement in cross-over handling to be pretty good.

 

[stunta]

$3495.00 for 2 small drivers and a wooden box?
No thanks

Quintessential ASR member response. 'nuff said I suppose.

 

[MZKM]

I know it uses a SEAS tweeter that's ~$250/pair (with no bulk order discount), but I can't help but think the ~$30/pair Peerless BC25TG15-04 gives similar performance for much cheaper.

https://hificompass.com/en/speakers/measurements/peerless/peerless-bc25tg15-04
https://hificompass.com/en/speakers/measurements/seas/seas-t25cf001

Peerless:


SEAS:


Peerless:


SEAS:


Peerless (~99dB):


SEAS (~98dB):


Peerless:


SEAS:


________________________

To make this speaker more competitive, having the Kimber wiring and WBT binding posts as a Level 1 upgrade (silver upgrade as Level 2) and offering regular wiring and binding posts as the default would be something I would consider.

 

[taisho]

I only wonder why the company sent it to Amir. They could try some audiophile sites that don't post brutal raw data and reviews look like a poem about audio equipment. Bamboo speakers would surely incite their imagination. These are not bad per se but bad for the price.

 

[edechamps]

I have added the Verdant Audio Bambusa AL 1 to Loudspeaker Explorer where it can be compared to other speakers.

Don't put this speaker above ear height…

 

[Billy Budapest]

I only wonder why the company sent it to Amir. They could try some audiophile sites that don't post brutal raw data and reviews look like a poem about audio equipment. Bamboo speakers would surely incite their imagination. These are not bad per se but bad for the price.

My guess is that they want to know what the flaws are so they can release a version 1.1 with a reengineered crossover.

 

[napilopez]

This one looks mid-range centric, and very EQ'able. Did you listen to it even briefly? I'd think it might be very serviceable for music if one isn't picky. More so with some EQ.

I'd not consider it a good value, but hardly a broken design. They appear to only need some improvement in cross-over handling to be pretty good.

Agreed, and the preference score suggests so too - most of the badness is in the smoothness of the PIR score, which is mainly affected by that wide midrange hump. But there are minimal directivity issues there so you can EQ very easily. Horizontal directivity is mostly wide too, which is nice if you like that as I do.

It's not a bang for your buck speaker, but not sure it's fair to expect that from a smallish, made in the USA manufacturer seemingly using relatively expensive parts. Not every speaker needs to be a good value. Whenever Amir gets around to testing his Salon 2's I'm willing to bet good money they aren't going to measure/score as pretty as the Genelec's...

I also think ASR has been a bit spoiled by mostly testing speakers in the "pretty good" camp. Our perspective is skewed because aside from a few speakers too cheap or old to possibly measure good, Amir has mostly tested speakers you would expect decent performance from. KEF, JBL, Revel... Pick a few random speakers from Soundstage network's speakermeasurements.com and see how many of them do great by our standards.

Not saying you should run out and buy these but there are some genuinely good qualities here.

 

[GXAlan]

I only wonder why the company sent it to Amir. They could try some audiophile sites that don't post brutal raw data and reviews look like a poem about audio equipment. Bamboo speakers would surely incite their imagination. These are not bad per se but bad for the price.

Ignoring price, it has a better preference score than the KEF LS50 so it's not horrible. I also think there are some customers who like the colored sounds for their speakers. I think the success of the B&W Diamond series is evidence of that: https://www.stereophile.com/content/bowers-wilkins-802-d3-diamond-loudspeaker-measurements

In contrast, the JBL Studio 530 never really hit it big with consumers (until it went to firesale pricing). Same with the Infinity speakers -- those should be killer at places like Best Buy, but we don't see it being popular at brick and mortar retailers and only gained popularity once it went to firesale pricing.

Time will tell how the HDI series sells.

 

[ctrl]

It seems that the baffle step was completely ignored in the design of the crossover.
Otherwise, the directivity looks pretty good for a standard 2-way speaker.

 

[Itay]

IMHO this speaker is a collection of high quality components all a round, but with a poor crossover design. a great example of just how important is the design of the crossover itself...

 

[spacevector]

If the manufacturer plans to continue selling this speaker as-is, they could spin it as "designed for corner room placement" to get that corner loading bass boost leading, hopefully, to eventual balanced presentation.

 

[amirm]

FYI I shipped the speaker back already. Had so many boxes piled up to be shipped that I needed to send it back today (I try to mail things no more than once a week due to social distancing).