B 200 - 6 Ohm

The SOLITUDE set-up combines the direct, highly precise soundreproduction of the B 200 - 6 Ohm wide-range speaker with the dynamic bass of two GF 200 - 2 x 4 Ohm. The B 200 - 6 Ohm is fitted in a completely enclosed, heavily damped compartment. The two GF 200 - 2 x 4 Ohm woofers are mounted in a voluminous cabinet with a generously dimensioned bass reflex tube. Owing to the very low-frequency separation, SOLITUDE is, in effect, a wide-range speaker with a subwoofer.

First impressions: fantastic sound! A synthesis of the precision localisation, clarity and analytical precision of the SOLO 100 or SOLO 50(straight down the axis) and the level accuracy of the CONCORDE MK III. The bass is deep but not heavy, the medium range clearly evident, with no fuzzy fringes. We could not detect a break between the bass and the rest - the sound was more homogeneous and pure than we had ever heard from any other wide-range speakers.

The two sections have to be reverse connected. In so doing, it does not matter whether the bass is connected correctly or not as long as the SOLITUDE is playing on its own. In conjunction with other speakers (e.g. in a multichannel system) the bass must, of course be in sync.

The B 200 - 6 Ohm was fitted in a narrow column speaker with a net volume of around 100 litres. Due to the high Q-factor, one would normally have a relatively strong increase in reverberation response at around 60 Hz in a normal enclosed chamber or bass reflex cabinet. To prevent this, and indeed to take full advantage of the bass reflex principle, we thought up this little arrangement which, to our knowledge, has not been done before.

The chamber is split into two equal parts by a separator. On the rear wall, we built a vertical tunnel as a Helmholtz resonator which was tuned exactly to the frequency of the increase. This tunnel was then loosely filled with a packing of wool. In its undamped state, this resonator absorbs just the amount of the increase and even causes a slight dip in this range. You can vary the amount of packing used to achieve the required frequency response. In this way, we managed to ensure that the bass reflex did not produce overpowering bass despite the bass reflex tuning.

In keeping with the frequency response so typical of wide-range speakers with increasing medium- and top-range frequencies, this speaker, too, has an unacceptably high-pitched sound. So we applied a passive correction circuit (five simple components) to smooth off the frequency response in a very simple but effective manner for a full-range loudspeaker. Depending on the acoustics in the room and personal preference, the 15 ohm series resistance can be changed. Reducing it to 10 ohms will result in an increase in the high-frequency range, while increasing it to 22 ohms will dampen the treble more effectively.

The smallest member of the SOLO family with its high-end B 200 - 6 Ohmfull-range loudspeaker has an inside capacity of only 20 l. The lower limiting frequency is at 52 Hz (-10 dB) and 65 Hz (-6 dB).

The correcting circuit for making producing a linear volume increase in the B 200 - 6 Ohm can be made even more simply in the SOLO 20. All we need is three components. There is also an linearisation of the impedance which means that the SOLO 20 can also be connected up without problems to amplifiers with a low attenuation factor.

The compact design enables these speakers to be placed unobtrusively on a sideboard or in a shelving unit or to be mounted on their own stands. If a powerful subwoofer for the low-range frequencies is integrated, the user has a system which provides enough flexibility to deal with even difficult acoustics in many rooms by careful positioning and adjustment of the output levels.

The SOLO 20 is also highly suited to home theatre applications. The speakers can be used for all the channels and should be supported at the lower end by a subwoofer.

In terms of its sound qualities, the SOLO 20 provides all the positive properties of its larger cousins, the SOLO 50 or SOLO 100, as regards sound source, transparency and analytical clarity. Add to this the increased, robust output stability due to the fact that the B 200 - 6 Ohm is relieved of the bass frequencies.

- No longer available -

The SOLO 50 applies the SOLO 100 concept to a more compact cabinet. This makes the units suitable for smaller rooms where the larger version would be too physically overpowering or the bass too powerful.

With a net volume of 50 litres, it is essential to have an internal resonance absorber as with the SOLO 100 owing to the Q-factor of the B 200 - 6 Ohm. This can also be used to fine-tune the bass reflex. The lower limiting frequency is not as low as with the SOLO 100 but is certainly sufficient for small to medium-sized rooms. The absorber must be carefully damped again.

The correcting circuitry is designed by analogy to the SOLO 100. If you replace the 15 ohm resistance with a 22 ohm, the increase in high-frequency frequency response will be eliminated and the result as measured in the measuring room was a well-balanced spectrum. Listening tests showed, however, that, as a result of the beaming effect of this wide-range speaker, a slight increase is beneficial in most listening environments.

It is a physical characteristic of all wide-range high-sensitivity loudspeakers, and that includes the high-end B 200 - 6 OHM speaker, that they reproduce higher frequencies louder than the lower ones. To compensate for this, we have designed speaker cabinets for the corners of the room. Corners tend to boost the bass but not the higher frequencies. This allows us to use a very simple correcting circuit (consisting of a coil and a resistance) and we still get a very pleasing, natural overall sound.

With relatively little effort, it is possible to produce efficient, high-end speaker cabinets with excellent sound properties which also fit in optically. If you want to, you can even make them blend in completely or almost disappear by wallpapering them the same as the walls or painting them the same. The shape can even be adapted to take full advantage of the height of the room, for example. What matters is that the inside volume is kept the same.

A complete kit for this suggestion is available via www.vc-mailorderservice.de.

Full-range loudspeakers are enjoying another comeback and arousing increased interest, embodying, as they do, everything that a point soundsource should be. Large full-range loudspeakers like the B 200 - 6 Ohmhave the additional characteristic of transmitting the sound in a tightly bundled beam, which produces a very tangible, three-dimensional effect and allows individual instruments to be easily located. A drawback of the system, however, is that this beaming process and the sensitivity are reduced at lower frequencies. The PENTATON BB was developed specifically as a cabinet based on the legendary B 200 - 6 Ohm but designed to compensate for these two disadvantages.

In a similar way to the QUADRO, additional full-range drivers are switched in to supplement the central driver, which is connected direct to the amplifier without an intervening filter, as the frequencies go down the scale. This allows the B 200 - 6 Ohm to develop its full potential with none of the impairments caused by frequency-dependent signal-carrying components, while the BG 20 - 8 Ohms, that are optimised for low-frequency response, maintain the extremely high sensitivity and beaming effect right down to the bass range. The additional full-range drivers are arranged symmetrically in two groups around the main speaker, which again creates an acoustic focus in the centre of the speaker cabinet. On top of this, the baffles in enclosures 2 and 4 and in enclosures 1 and 5 are angled inwards by 6° and 12° respectively. This feature guarantees that, assuming a typical listening distance of approx. 3 m, each of the drivers is exactly the same distance away from the ear and at the same angle. Given the size of these speaker cabinets, this is the only way to ensure that the phases of all the drivers are in sync across the entire frequency range.

The result of all these characteristics taken together is a sound image of the stage that could hardly be clearer or more precise. Even baritone male voices and large instruments such as the double bass or bassoon appear to be present full-size, in the right place on the virtual stage and in tangible 3D. Thanks to the enormous diaphragm area and the low moving mass, the PENTATON BB transforms dynamic jumps in the recording decisively and seamlessly into sound pressure and, with its superior handling, encourages the listener to increase the volume level until it is physically felt and yet it never becomes obtrusive or laboured.

And yet, this is definitely a speaker for connoisseurs of lower volumes. Even at low output levels, the overall sound quality is tangible and mature so that every tiny musical detail, however small, is projected audibly without the slightest distortion. The frequency response is remarkably linear for a loudspeaker of this kind, which is why the PENTATON BB is ideal for the authentic reproduction of every genre of music without restriction and will allow the listener to rediscover even old favourites thanks to its analytical and highly detailed approach.

Thanks to its high sensitivity and uniform impedance curve, the PENTATON BB is predestined for use in connection with high-grade tube amplifiers with relatively low output wattages.

The basic concept, as simple as it was ambitious, that lay behind the creation of the La Belle speaker was to define a perfect speaker system with no measurable or audible weak points in any test discipline and that would, as a result, ensure maximum listening pleasure in any room and with any music. To achieve this aim, a number of factors had to be taken into consideration, the most important of which were linear frequency response along the axes and across a certain angle coupled with minimum distortion, even for higher dynamic peaks.

A crucial factor in this respect is the choice of the right drivers. To obtain supreme large-signal behaviour in the bass it is necessary to provide an expansive diaphragm area in connection with long cone strokes. In this respect, there was no real alternative but to opt for the extremely long-excursion TIW 200 XS - 8 Ohm driver. Mounted as a pair, these two woofers on each side even out-do the TIW 300 - 8 Ohm, and have the added advantage that they require less space and thus enable the speaker columns to be built as a remarkably slim unit with the bass drivers in the front panel.

Thanks to the absolutely inexhaustible volume reserves inherent in these woofers and the specially adapted crossover, it was possible to dispense with a bass reflex arrangement to limit cone excursion. La Belle's base is, as a result, even more precise and clear and, depending on the room, go even further down the bass frequency scale than you would expect of conventional bass reflex speakers. To cater to dynamic mid-range frequencies with adequate diaphragm area there could be no better choice than the B 200 - 6 Ohm. Originally designed as a full-range driver, the B 200 - 8 Ohm boasts minimum mechanical losses and a light-footed, responsive mid-range. Protected against overly long cone excursions in the bass range and supported at the upper end of the frequency range by the tried-and-tested KE 25 SC - 8 Ohm ceramic dome driver, the B 200 - 6 Ohm in this combination excels itself and leaves nothing to be desired.

The tweeter, in cooperation with the Waveguide WG 220x150, displays qualities undreamed-of. Thanks to its optimised directivity, the ceramic dome driver in the Waveguide can ideally by linked to the large mid-range driver, which ensures an absolutely homogeneous, seamless unit. Even at the crossover between the mid-range driver to the woofers, there is no gap in the beaming effect, which is why the frequency response for the entire speaker unit is wonderfully linear not only along the axes but also at various angles. In addition, the separating frequencies have been selected in such a way that each branch covers a similar band of frequencies, which minimises annoying intermodulation distortion.

A listening test will confirm that this concept is an unqualified success - in creating La Belle, we have made a loudspeaker that has not the slightest weak point and reproduces any musical material with such authenticity and accuracy that one soon gives up trying to detect a flaw and just enjoys the music at a quality level as yet unknown.

The peculiarities of the individual room are far less significant than with most other loudspeakers. Thanks to its steady directivity, La Belle sounds equally as good in heavily damped rooms as in poorly damped, modern living environments. The good, solid deep bass is not excessive in smaller rooms thanks to the enclosed compartments but, on the other hand, is not inhibited by large rooms and high volume levels and is happy to descend into the deepest of low-frequency regions. Finest-quality high and medium frequencies combine to create a virtual stage which is presented to the listener as firm as if cut in stone and well differentiated, irrespective of the pitch. La Belle's special fascination is in the extremely broad dynamic range covered. Even at very low volume levels, it projects instruments and voices realistically and tangibly into the listening room and yet retains such a degree of lightness and fidelity, even at very loud volumes beyond the threshold of pain, that listening to is not wearing.

La Belle is, then, definitely the recommendation for demanding listeners who wish to rediscover their entire music collection and do not want to have limits imposed on them by the loudspeakers.