OVERVIEW
The Zen Open Baffle is
completely unique. There is no other speaker like it.
Decware's owner, Steve Deckert, once again demonstrates radical
out-of-the-box engineering! It's an open baffle design featuring
a single full range driver in a tall narrow baffle. It has no
crossover and no other woofers to help out with the bass, yet it has
bass!
If you are familiar
with open baffle designs, you already know that to get any bass the
baffle must be wide and the driver low to the floor (and usually
multiple drivers must be used). The Zen Open Baffle, inspired by
some of Tesla's work, uses energy from the main driver to excite low
frequency resonances in a dedicated cavity which in turn produces
harmonically correct bass.
It's quite literally like pulling perfect bass out of thin air with no
woofer, no compression and no cabinet vibrations!
With the full range
driver up high at ear level and in a narrow baffle, reference imaging
and a total disappearing act is achieved - making this speaker qualify
for the axiom "Having your cake and
eating it too!"
With close to 100 dB efficiency, these speakers pack huge rewards with
amplifiers all the way down to 2 watts!
We are offering these wonderful speakers finished in banded cherry exactly
as
shown
above
with the shielded version of our DFR-8
full range driver . Additionally we are making plans
available for the D.I.Y. enthusiasts who would like to build their own
pair from scratch!
SPECIFICATIONS
95
dB
with
1
watt
at
1
meter
48Hz ~ 20kHz +/- 3dB 30Hz ~25kHz +/- 10db
8 ohm nominal impedance
Driver compliment - 1 Decware FRX full range driver
Crossover - none
2 ~ 15 watts continuous
Size 12.5" wide, 16" deep, 52" high
Solid 1.5" thick cherry baffle
No Grills
5 way binding posts on rear
Shipping weight 75 lbs ea.
30 day money back trial
ON THE SOUND & PERFORMANCE
The
Zen Open Baffle loudspeakers are designed to operate stand-alone
without requiring a subwoofer. In a decent listening space, with good
recordings and top grade tube gear they have perfect tone, good weight,
and a bass line that nicely underpins the tremendous presence of the
DFR-8S full range driver. However, if used with mid-fi
electronics or source and typical hard rock recordings these speakers
will come off thin sounding by themselves unless turned up good and
loud. This is true actually of all speakers to some degree, but
it's important to understand that the Zen Open Baffles have no bloat in
the bass. If you're planing to listen to rock at lower levels,
you'll likely want to integrate a subwoofer somewhere that can be
turned on or off. Put on some Larry Carlton or any audiophile
recordings and a sub is completely unneeded.
Amplification for these speakers is not technically all that limited,
however tube amps generally have less damping than solid state giving
the speaker a more open, less restricted sound with a fuller bottom end
and better weight. These speakers sound exactly like the gear you
hook them to so a warmer sounding amp is going sound warmer, and a
cooler sounding solid state amp is going to sound cooler.
The reason for the previous two paragraphs is due to the unrivaled
presence and detail these speakers offer. They will let you hear
inside the recording to a depth that rivals the best electrostatics
making listening to music change from "listening" to "experiencing"
it. They will also let you hear so deep that you'll hear into
your gear as well. A top grade audiophile speaker of 90 dB that
made a particular amplifier sound good, may not sound so good when you
amplify the grain, edginess, sharpness of notes and dryness living
just below the noise floor by 10 dB. Also, no 90 dB speaker can
move as fast as a 100dB speaker of the same size, it just has too much
moving mass to start and stop that quick. This "smoothing" of
dynamics is what makes Hi-Fi speakers sound like speakers. The
ZOB's don't sound like speakers.
If you're not sure your electronics are up to the level to use a
speaker like this, feel free to buy one of our amplifiers. These
speakers sound "right" with every amplifier we make from 2 to 25 watts.
HOW IT WORKS
SUPPORT
This
loudspeaker is hand built in the USA by
DECWARE / High Fidelity Engineering Co. It comes with a 5 year
warranty to the original owner.
We also
have a support forum
with
many people who own our speakers who's experiences you may benefit
from.
REVIEWS
You may
read reviews
on
our
products here.
|
