BigH said:
WIth that sort of budget I would look at B&O.
Well, I'm probably biased to a point, as I own B&O, but for the budget concerned I would definitely concur.
B&O is a bit of a cuckoo in the nest, as regards mainstream HiFi forums, as they resolutely do not market to audiophiles.
Indeed, you will not find any psuedo science or foo, either at an engineering or marketing level eminating from B&O - they are easily the most professional Hifi company I have ever dealt with.
B&O are often lambasted by Ivory tower inhabiting Audiophiles as being all about style over substance, or 'lifestyle' systems. I have often wondered where the idea comes from that a HiFi should NOT be an adjunct to your life, to enhance your enjoyment of recorded music and film in the home, but needs to be 'serious' to be of any value in audiophile terms.
So lets have a slightly more objective look at what B&O can bring to the party.
They've been around since 1925, and are arguably one of the oldest companies in the business.
R&D at the highest levels has been at the core of B&O's competencies for many decades. From a project run over several years in conjunction with KEF, B&O and The Technical University of Denmark, the Archimedes project was a mulit million pound investigation into psycho acoustics, and the speaker room interface.
They fund scholarships into relevant acoustic and electrical research with various Danish Universities at PhD level - one of these lead to the co-development of B&O ICE power amplification.
Another collaboration with Professor Dr. David Moulton of Sausilito Audio Works, lead to the commericial realisation of the Acoustic Lenses Technology, of which a full two years were spent on the Mathematical modelling and testing alone.
Their semi-anechoic chamber, the 'cube' is the largest independantly owned loudspeaker testing facility in Europe.
Every speaker system that leaves B&O's facilities is individually tested and calibrated by computer in an dedicated sound proof room, and the individual results recorded on computer file, logged against the serial numbers of the speakers in question. They also do extensive pre-production testing in terms of reliablity, overload protection, environmental protection etc (smoke, water, heavy knocks, dropped, crushed etc)
Their electrical engineering, acoustic and audio engineering staff are trained to the highest tertiary calibre.
Dr. Geoff Martin, who is their chief sound engineer, has a Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance; a Tonnmeister degree, and a PhD in acoustics.
B&O keep spares for their speakers, in some cases for up to 30 years.
As if that was not enough, there are a couple of also patented and proprietary features to their active speakers, apart from the ALT etc.
With the trend to ever smaller cabinets and speakers, B&O have researched and developed cabinet technology that has moved right away from conventional engineering with MDF built, wood veneered cuboid or rectangular boxes.
Manufacturing in engineering grade plastics and resin mixes, along with aluminum - all manufactured and machined in house - allows B&O to move right away from the acoustic and design limitations of conventional cabinet shapes and materials. B&O also make aluminium trim pieces for the likes of BMW - such is their in-house expertise.
Small elegant forms in loudspeaker cabinets, usually means small volumes and little space for actual drivers, and correspondingly a relatively poor bass response.
To answer this technical limitation, B&O have developed proprietary technology, called ABL, or Adaptive Bass Linearisation. Essentially, on-board DSP software looks at where the bass driver starts to roll off physically, and in turn boosts the ampflier output so as to extend the frequency response, hence getting excellent measured results from small speakers (relatively speaking) as regards bass extension. In turn, very comprehensive overload protection is built in as well, with thermal protection on all the individual drivers, and the system is also tuned and calibrated in pre-production, to cater for all testable overload conditions, such as for example mechanical overload of a bass driver - and protected against the event.
This sort of idiot proofing of a HiFi product is simply not practicable to try and build in to a passive speaker/separate amplifier system buidling scenario.
One of the trademark design elements of B&O's top tier speakers is the ALT lenses.
All cone speakers beam, that is the higher the frequency, the narrower the effective spread of frequencies is from the driver, whilst maintaing specification which is usually quoted as +/- 3 or sometimes 6db points, and measured on axis. Hence, a tweeter might have a frequency dispersion of 60 degrees horizontal, and 10 degrees vertical, +/- 3db limits, measured on axis, as per a B&W 800. But when you travel considerably off axis, as evidenced by a polar response, or as it's sometimes called a power response graph, in plan view usually, the output simply lobes all over the place with lots of frequency and amplitude humps and dips.
Now, measured anechoically, and on axis, this is of little consequence, however when you put a speaker in a room, the off axis frequencies, the ones that are up and down and all over the place in frequency and amplitude, reflect off the side walls and ceiling/floor, to arrive at your listening position milliseconds after the accurate on axis waveform has arrived at your ears - and distorts and colours it.
The ALT lenses have been specifically designed to ameliorate this issue, and constrain reflections to floor and celing, whilst allowing a near flat amplitutde and frequency response through a horizontal arc of 180 degrees, and a vertical one of 30 degrees.
Hence, unlike conventional box speaker designs, the secondary reflected waveforms from boundaries, arriving at your ears milliseconds after the direct waveform on axis with the speaker, are amplitude, phase and frequency coherent and virtually flat, such as to measureably and demonstrably limit audible colouration from the speaker/room interface, and provides a level of natural and accurate timbral response I've seldom heard equaled by any conventional 'box' loudspeaker - even the big B&W 800's with their separate Marlin Heads and wonderful cabinet design.
It's worth noting that some aspects of the goals achieved by the ALT lens design, were a direct outcome of the Archimedes project into speakers, rooms and psycho-acoustics.
I've deliberately avoided discussing particular models within the B&O portfolio; that is up to the OP to investigate should he desire, but the audiophile who writes off B&O as makers of 'lifestyle' systems is seriously misinformed to say the least.
Whether he or anyone else should feel interested enough to investigate B&O is entirely up to you; I simply relate some of their unimpeachable credentials in R&D and audio and acoustic design.
JB
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