Super high-end speakers with the best bass I’ve ever heard

“The perfect sounding audio product is the one which reveals the least audible flaws.”
So suggests Dr. Floyd Toole, one of the crucial influential researchers of acoustics and loudspeakers, within the introduction to his e-book, Sound Reproduction. The quote reads like a tautology at first, however the extra audio system I take a look at, the extra I see — or slightly, hear — what Dr. Toole meant.
It’s exhausting to meaningfully consider high-end audio system simply by the issues they do proper. In any case, there’s solely so good an instrument or voice can sound; essentially the most you possibly can ask for a speaker is for it to sound “right” — to approximate actual life.
As a substitute, it’s usually simpler to evaluate audio system by what they do incorrect. Maybe voices sound just a bit too vibrant, or maybe the soundstage is fuzzy. It's these flaws that break the stereo phantasm, reminded you're listening to a pair of wood bins slightly than stay music.
All this preamble is to contextualize my admiration for the Dutch & Dutch 8c, a $12,500 pair of state-of-the-art audio system geared toward professionals and audio lovers alike.
Amongst audio system this listener has heard, they could simply be those that exhibit the least audible flaws. For not solely do the Dutch & Dutch 8c supply class-leading efficiency in their very own proper — in addition they dramatically scale back the acoustic issues in your room itself.

The way it works

In contrast to most hi-fi audio system (however like most studio displays), the D&D 8c are energetic audio system, which means the amplification and sign processing is built-in. It’s an method I want extra high-end audio system would observe, because it permits engineers to push the bounds of the {hardware}, providing you extra bang on your buck.
After all, $12,500 remains to be wildly costly for most individuals, however not essentially by high-end audio requirements. Furthermore, the 8c does extra on the acoustics entrance to earn that price ticket than most of their bracket, primarily within the effort to minimizes the detrimental variables of your room.
All of it begins with the bass.
Audio system are inclined to sound fairly constant inside their center and excessive frequencies from room to room, however the bass is a distinct story. It's the Achilles heel that usually makes a speaker sound nice in a single room and terrible in one other.
That is largely as a result of whereas the mids and highs are inclined to radiate ahead, bass radiation is omnidirectional on typical audio system. When these frequencies bounce off a wall or different reflective floor, they create interference that causes all types of audible messiness. Correcting these errors normally requires giant and ugly bass traps or strategically positioned subwoofers and intensive EQ.

The D&D 8c, nonetheless, dramatically reduces bass messiness by merely not radiating as a lot rearward sound within the first place.

See these vents on the edges of the speaker? The 8c makes use of them to cancel out rearward radiation from the woofer, yielding what’s often known as a ‘cardioid’ radiation sample right down to about 100Hz.
To see what I imply, right here’s what a typical speaker‘s horizontal radiation sample seems to be like at 220Hz:

It radiates the identical quantity of power in each path, like a sphere increasing from the drivers— therefore the ‘omnidirectional’ bit.
Then again, that is roughly what the 8c seems to be like:

You'll be able to see there's far much less power radiating again. The 8c is actually not the one speaker with cardioid bass – the Kii Three is a direct competitor – but it surely’s a part of a really small membership.
Taking a broader view of extra frequencies, right here is the horizontal radiation of a typical speaker from 200 Hz to 20,000 Hz:

The areas marked crimson are loudest. You'll be able to see how under about 600 Hz, the bass turns into utterly omnidirectional on this speaker; the crimson zone covers all angles.
Whereas the 8c maintains its ahead radiation right down to the bottom:

Apart from considerably lowering interference, the cardioid radiation has the good thing about permitting you to position the audio system near the wall behind them with out muddying up the sound. In reality, the 8c is meant to be positioned close to a wall, because it makes use of the proximity for one more trick: A pair of 8-inch subwoofers on the again of the speaker use your wall as a launchpad to enhance the low bass.

What it feels like

To optimize efficiency, D&D asks you to enter the space to your partitions utilizing the speaker‘s net app. As soon as I put the measuring tape away, the following listening expertise was one of many few occasions I’ve been wowed by a speaker in current reminiscence.
Bass.
It wasn’t simply the amount that was spectacular; I’ve examined loads of audio system with equally deep bass extension, and I exploit subwoofers for my on a regular basis listening. Moderately, it was the truth that with hardly any effort on my half, the bass was appeared so proper. Not an excessive amount of, not too little, and all the things sounded snappy and ‘tight.’
Wanting on the measurements, it’s straightforward to see why. Under is the sound as captured from my listening place for 3 audio system:

A median of seven measurements in a grid round my listening place 10 toes away from the audio system. Audio system weren't toed-in for this measurement.

In orange is the D&D 8c’s frequency response. Under are two different audio system with extra conventional radiation patterns for comparability.
See these large dips within the bass which are absent or diminished on the 8C? These are room artifacts messing up the bass. They're current in each single speaker I’ve measured from my listening place till I examined the 8c. In a monitor like Beyonce’s Partition, which begins with a giant ol’ bass sweep, I can clearly hear these dips on the opposite audio system, however not on the 8c. It’s clear the cardioid radiation is working.
As famous earlier, I can considerably clear up these issues with my subwoofers and cautious room EQ, but it surely includes plenty of trial and error to get near what the 8C’s do out of the field.
The clear bass units a basis that by no means infringes on the opposite frequencies, and it’s exhausting to explain any explicit sonic qualities of the mids and treble when the principle impression was of transparency. The 8c merely sounded impartial, and if I ever wished to tweak the sound a bit for a selected music, the 8c’s app comes with fast controls for the sub-bass, bass, and treble. I personally simply bumped up the sub-bass a notch.

By way of soundstage, the 8c introduced one of the crucial exact, almost-physically-tangible stereo pictures I’ve had the pleasure to take heed to. That mentioned, its tendency is in direction of a sharper, extra front-row expertise than, say, the large however extra diffuse soundstage I had with the JBL L100 Classic. I choose the latter presentation, however 8c’s soundstage could be influenced considerably by the way you place the audio system.
In contrast to many audio system, the 8C change little in tonality with toe-in, so that you’re free to experiment together with your most popular soundstage width. Level them proper at your ears and the soundstage snaps into focus. If you happen to level them straight ahead to invoke extra sidewall reflections, the soundstage expands considerably on the impact of slightly sharpness.
Unsurprisingly, I most popular the latter setup, although I nonetheless discovered myself wishing for a extra expansive soundstage than pinpoint precision the 8c gives.

Extra measurements for the audio nerds

You may be questioning why the audio system sounded impartial given the downward tilt in my earlier measurements. That is truly factor; research present such a tilt tends to be perceived as impartial and gratifying for audio system measured in a typical room.
The lean occurs as a result of a room will have a tendency to strengthen bass frequencies and attenuate treble. Regardless of this, our brains are nonetheless fairly good at listening to the speaker ‘although’ the room, the identical means we are able to acknowledge a good friend’s voice whether or not in an open subject or in a closet. Take away the reflections – similar to by measuring in an anechoic chamber – and also you get to the true sound of the speaker; the lean disappears.

Such is the case with the 8c. Utilizing a technique that permits me to take away room reflections from my measurements, I can approximate the speaker‘s anechoic response, on the expense of decision at decrease frequencies.
Under is a graph colloquially known as a ‘spinorama,’ so-called as a result of it includes rotating the speaker to seize its sound at complete lot of horizontal and vertical angles — 70 whole. The spinorama distills all that knowledge right into a extra digestible kind, giving us an in depth overview of a speaker‘s efficiency.

Knowledge is reduce off under 200Hz as a result of restricted decision invalidates my measurements at this level. Fortunately, the room response shared earlier tells us most of what we have to know concerning the bass, which is that it might attain 20 Hz comfortably.

Thorough explanations of how one can interpret these graphs are offered over at Speaker Data 2034 and Audioholics. However at a really fundamental degree:

The On-Axis and Listening Window curves ought to be comparatively flat. They characterize the ‘direct’ sound of the speaker earlier than any reflections. The On-Axis is measured with the speaker aimed straight on the microphone, whereas the Listening Window is a median of some angles to account for the very fact most individuals don’t sit nonetheless or centered. These have the most important impression on our notion of timbre.
The Early Reflections curve averages numerous angles to estimate the very first bounces off your partitions, flooring, and ceiling to succeed in your ears. These reflections, that are largely within the entrance hemisphere, considerably have an effect on timbre too. We would like the ER curve to tilt down however in any other case be fairly just like the Listening Window response. This curve additionally finest predicts the ultimate in-room response.
The Sound Energy curve represents a median of the speaker‘s sound in all instructions, but it surely’s not as helpful because the ER curve for audio system that largely radiate sound ahead.
The Directivity Index and Early Reflections DI curves inform us how related the off-axis sound is to the direct sound. These are calculated by subtracting the Sound Energy and Early Reflections curves from the Listening Window, respectively. Clean DI curves recommend the off-axis and direct are related, which bodes properly for the soundstage.

There’s simply not a lot to report right here: D&D 8C performs admirably on each entrance. It is among the flattest audio system I’ve measured, and it reveals within the sound. In response to Dutch & Dutch‘s Martijn Mensink, the speaker required nearly no guide ‘voicing’ – its measurements had been sufficient to make sure clear sound.
For the speaker nerds, the gallery under incorporates a extra detailed breakdown of the 8c’s sound, together with detailed horizontal and vertical response, and deviation from linearity (how the sound adjustments at totally different quantity ranges).

Sound design

I’ve solely talked about sound to date as a result of in case you’re spending 13 grand on a pair of audio system, I’d hope acoustics are your precedence.

However the 8c will get a lot of the different fundamentals proper too. I personally love the look; they adeptly stroll the road between skilled utilitarianism and living-room pleasant furnishings. Although the all-black mannequin I examined seems to be stylish, I significantly dig the white-on-wood colorways.
Granted, they're large for ‘bookshelf’ audio system, however they don’t visually dominate a room the way in which many towers do. In addition they have a extra fashionable and smooth design than the overwhelming majority of studio displays.
The online app is a welcome little bit of modernity as properly. You get entry to fundamental changes for sub–bass, bass, and treble, which makes it straightforward to regulate these parameters on the fly for various recordings. However you may as well go deep into EQ filters to excellent sound on your tastes and explicit room utilizing measurement software program like Room EQ Wizard. Whereas different high-end speaker producers appear too proud to allow you to regulate the built-in sound, Dutch & Dutch embraces this flexibility. There’s even an evening mode that reduces bass frequencies more likely to disturb your neighbors.

This brings me to my greatest qualm: there’s no Wi-Fi or Bluetooth onboard, so that you want an Ethernet connection to make any adjustments. Whereas for skilled studios this won't be an issue, there aren't any Ethernet cables in my lounge, nor do I need there to be. I had to make use of a spare router simply to arrange a separate community for the 8cs. It additionally means it is advisable run three thick cables per speaker if you'd like prompt entry to sound setting – energy, sound, and ethernet – which fits in opposition to the minimal aesthetic.
Lastly, it’s price noting that in testing one in all my audio system all of a sudden stopped working because of an electronics failure. This was disappointing given the speaker‘s worth, but it surely in the end highlighted one thing I appreciated concerning the 8c. As a substitute of getting to ship the speaker again to the producer, D&D‘s US distributor instantly shipped me a alternative board, and it took lower than 5 minutes to switch the defective part. The complete set of electronics is straightforward to tug out from the speaker after eradicating a couple of screws, which bodes properly for future repairs and even potential function upgrades.

A few person expertise points apart, the D&D 8c is essentially the most irreproachable speaker I’ve had the pleasure of listening to.
The 8c’s uncommon design is a breath of recent air in a world of hi-fi audio system which are all variations on the identical fundamental theme. It merely sounds higher than any speaker I’ve listened to with out intensive bass EQ, and its cardioid design makes it adaptable to nearly any listening house with minimal effort. Which you can shortly and simply modify the sound to your style is additional icing on the cake not normally accessible on such high-end audio system.
Did I point out the 8C is Dutch & Dutch‘s solely speaker to date? What a option to enter the market. Right here’s hoping the corporate branches out into extra mainstream (learn: inexpensive) designs going ahead. If you happen to do have the $12,500 to spend on audio system — whether or not since you’re an audiophile otherwise you work will depend on good sound — it’s exhausting to think about a greater option to spend it.
For extra gear, gadget, and {hardware} information and critiques, observe Plugged on
Twitter and
Flipboard.

Revealed April 3, 2020 — 22:07 UTC

Source link

Guru Blog Smash

Search This Blog