Forums - Caladan Speakers

x2turbo

Verified Member

Posts: 16

Caladan Speakers
10/25/23 at 21:10:40

Curious if anyone else has seen the review of the new Caladan OB Speaker by New Record Day on YouTube?

I'd post a link, but don't have enough posts to do so.

I've been looking at finding a new pair of speakers while waiting for my ZMA. Currently using LII Audio Fast-10's in a DIY TL cabinet with my Taboo III and love them. So I've been thinking about building something with Platinum=10s, but this review really has peaked my interest.

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RonP Verified Member Posts: 32	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #1 - 10/25/23 at 21:29:35 The timing of these speakers announced is basically perfect. I have been in mad scientist mode for the past several days thinking about a DIY open baffle build. I've already emailed Clayton about these. They seem pretty ideal for my purposes. video is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRrgJ-_npls
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x2turbo Verified Member Posts: 16	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #2 - 10/25/23 at 21:42:52 and hard to beat the price at @$2950
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Kamran

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Posts: 949

Re: Caladan Speakers
Reply #3 - 10/25/23 at 21:51:46

I just logged in to share the video (after watching it twice) but you beat me to it, lol. I was impressed by the quality of the audio from YT-it was atypical in being stop the presses fantastic. I’m evaluating where I go from Lii Audio FR drivers and was going to (and still going to) evaluate PAP Duets as an upgrade but this video gave me some pause-will need to evaluate this option more closely. The price is very compelling and perhaps the only thing that mildly concerns me is that the sensitivity is not as high as Lii or PAP at 93/94.

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x2turbo Verified Member Posts: 16	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #4 - 10/25/23 at 22:13:26 I agree and in the same boat. Wouldn't work well with my Taboo III, but might be a great match with a forthcoming ZMA.
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Geno Seasoned Member Without music, life would be a mistake. Posts: 2003	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #5 - 10/26/23 at 15:56:14 I did not recognize his name, but I see that he was the Spatial dude. The Caladans sound amazing! The size seems to be just about right for most rooms. Are those 12" bass drivers? The thing that i don't like about the Spatials that I've seen, is that they are soooo big. You need an above average size room to accomodate them.
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x2turbo Verified Member Posts: 16	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #6 - 10/26/23 at 17:14:53 How do you like the PT-10\W-15 OB? That's the speaker I was planning on building until I saw this review of the Caladans.
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Geno Seasoned Member Without music, life would be a mistake. Posts: 2003	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #7 - 10/26/23 at 20:12:38 I like the combo very much. No real reason to be interested in another speaker setup, but the Caladan size, styling and sound(at least in the video) have me intrigued...
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Doug

Seasoned Member

Posts: 274

Re: Caladan Speakers
Reply #8 - 10/27/23 at 03:08:49

Just watched/listened to the Caladan review. Here are a few quick thoughts.

Pros:
The Caladans are OB speakers. I absolutely love open baffles and will never again have box speakers, of any kind, in my main system.

$2950 seems like a reasonable price.

Rather small size for an OB speaker.

Cons:
Low efficiency, relatively speaking.

High crossover point (again, relatively speaking), which is a huge concern.

If I had plans to spend $3,000 on a pair of speakers I’m not sure what I would do…….probably utilize Lii Audio products and build OB’s.

Good luck as you proceed!

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Jay’s CD2T-Mk3
Denafrips Pontus II
ZROCK2 25th Mods
CSP3 25th & Custom Mods
PAP Quintets with Voxativ 1.6
First Watt J2 or Cary 300SEI
driving Voxativs—no crossover
LFD NCSE driving 15” Woofers

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GroovySauce Seasoned Member Posts: 825	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #9 - 10/27/23 at 12:05:07 Quote: High crossover point (again, relatively speaking), which is a huge concern. Why is a high crossover point a concern?
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x2turbo Verified Member Posts: 16	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #10 - 10/27/23 at 14:59:12 I had to rewatch it to make sure, the xover point is 1K. I didn't think that's considered high
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RonP Verified Member Posts: 32	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #11 - 10/27/23 at 15:02:00 I thought the 1k crossover was to the tweeter.. IE it's actually a pretty low crossover point to hand off to a tweeter.. when "typically" it's 2-3k handoff to a tweeter. As I recall from watching the video
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CAJames Seasoned Member "I've run every red light on memory lane." Posts: 1684	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #12 - 10/27/23 at 15:16:13 Yeah, the guy in the video talked about "lowering the crossover point as much as possible."
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GroovySauce Seasoned Member Posts: 825	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #13 - 10/27/23 at 16:05:31 I haven’t watched the video. I don’t get why the crossover point is something to be concerned about. I can see not wanting the crossover between ~100-600hz as that is the lions share of the vocal range. My guess is all crossover points or single full range have trade offs. What’s the trade off of a xo at 1,000hz?
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Doug

Seasoned Member

Posts: 274

Re: Caladan Speakers
Reply #14 - 10/27/23 at 17:03:01

I suppose it’s more of a personal preference. Over the past 10 to 12 years I’ve discovered that I don’t care for the sound of speakers that have crossover components working in the 150 to 3000 hertz range.

More than 10 years ago I removed the very high end crossovers from my Azzolina Audio Gran Sferras in order to run the big Lowther horns full range. With my current PAP Quintets, I stopped using the highly upgraded crossovers a few years ago, leaving the Voxativs to run full range. With both speaker systems, the woofers were/are gently crossed over with a single inductor at around 100 hertz.

I even disliked the 10,000 hertz tweeter crossover on my Zu Audio Definitions, but opening those cabinets and messing with the crossovers on that complicated system was not at all practical. The crossover from the woofers to the full range drivers was also horrible sounding, so they were sold after a couple of years.

Many people find crossovers anywhere in the audible frequency range to be distasteful. The last thing I would ever do is attempt to speak on behalf of Mr. Deckert, but check out his speaker offerings—90% of the speakers he sells have no crossover at all.

My perception is that reproduced music is far more emotional, personal, real, life-like , etcetera, when no crossover is present anywhere in the low to high midrange. Crossovers in the midrange seem to be perfectly acceptable to many, but I find them problematic. Just one man’s take on the issue.

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Jay’s CD2T-Mk3
Denafrips Pontus II
ZROCK2 25th Mods
CSP3 25th & Custom Mods
PAP Quintets with Voxativ 1.6
First Watt J2 or Cary 300SEI
driving Voxativs—no crossover
LFD NCSE driving 15” Woofers

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Zork Verified Member Posts: 24	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #15 - 10/27/23 at 17:16:04 The microphone placement seems odd in that room.
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GroovySauce

Seasoned Member

Posts: 825

Re: Caladan Speakers
Reply #16 - 10/27/23 at 18:15:07

Thank you Doug, that clarified your statement for me.

Seems it's another one of those hifi things where certain people are more sensitive to certain aspects than others.

A speaker with a single full range driver with no crossover suffers from the doppler effect. Some people enjoy this, others are bothered by this and some don't even consider it.

As they say, there is no free lunch in audio.

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Doug

Seasoned Member

Posts: 274

Re: Caladan Speakers
Reply #17 - 10/28/23 at 16:41:33

Hey Groovy,

Yeah, though I really don’t play much dense music with lots of bass, when I do, and when the volume is cranked, that doppler effect, along with other likely distortions, can be heard. However, the Voxativ 1.6, as you well know, is quite a remarkable driver, and it always seems to stand above the fray. As you stated, speaker design, and the audio game in general, is certainly full of trade offs.

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Jay’s CD2T-Mk3
Denafrips Pontus II
ZROCK2 25th Mods
CSP3 25th & Custom Mods
PAP Quintets with Voxativ 1.6
First Watt J2 or Cary 300SEI
driving Voxativs—no crossover
LFD NCSE driving 15” Woofers

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RonP

Verified Member

Posts: 32

Re: Caladan Speakers
Reply #18 - 10/30/23 at 19:08:17

FYI All

Clayton replied to my email inquiry with a PDF that has some details on the speakers. I hope no-one minds if I post a snippet of that PDF Newsletter

"Finish Options:
Caladan offers a choice between a 1.5" thick baffle crafted from solid American hardwoods like Walnut, Cherry,
and Maple, or a painted MDF version available in White and Black.

North America Pricing:
Caladan in MDF with painted surface: $2950 /pair
Caladan in Solid Hardwoods: $3295 /pair

Features:
- Extreme high-end crossover parts (Jupiter/Janzten/US Coils/WBT are all standard).
- IsoAcoustics Gaia footers are standard.

Purchase and Lead Time Information:
Following the overwhelming response after Ron’s New Record Day YouTube video, production is set to
commence immediately. Orders for November are now full, with new orders scheduled for December delivery,
prioritized by the date of order. "

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x2turbo Verified Member Posts: 16	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #19 - 10/30/23 at 19:15:03 Thanks Ron I think most of us are not surprised with the rush in orders.
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kulafu Seasoned Member Posts: 208	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #20 - 11/02/23 at 13:09:37 Looks like Clayton will be at the Capital Audio Fest. Anyone going? Kamran? I might just go to see if he has the Caladan's on demo. Bob
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Kamran

Seasoned Member

Posts: 949

Re: Caladan Speakers
Reply #21 - 11/02/23 at 13:48:21

I had also received the pdf spec sheet from Clayton, but unless I overlooked it, the sensitivity of the speakers was missing? I wrote back to Clayton but haven’t heard back yet.

Bob, yes I do plan to attend CAF for a variety of reasons and if Clayton will also be there demoing Caladan, it makes the event even more compellingQ!

Let’s coordinate if you also end up attending. I’m only going to be there for one day (Saturday).

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Tony

Seasoned Member

"Life without
..music is
inconceivable"
A.Einsteln

Posts: 627

Re: Caladan Speakers
Reply #22 - 11/02/23 at 15:31:18

Good morning, guys,

I found this information regarding the Caladan speaker.

"According to the Clayton Shaw Acoustic Lab, the Caladan speaker has a sensitivity of 94dB/1W/1m. This means that it will produce a sound pressure level of 94dB when driven by 1 watt of power at a distance of 1 meter.

This is a relatively high sensitivity rating, which means that the Caladan speaker is capable of producing a loud sound level with relatively little power. This makes it a good choice for applications where high sound pressure levels are required, such as home theater systems and PA systems."

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pursuitofnow Seasoned Member Posts: 449	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #23 - 11/02/23 at 16:31:38 Would these work well with our 2 watt zens? Seems like it would be right on the cusp, but maybe being open backs they'll work?
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RonP Verified Member Posts: 32	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #24 - 11/02/23 at 17:39:38 Check the chart about half way down the page https://www.decwareproducts.com/ampbuyingguide
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pursuitofnow Seasoned Member Posts: 449	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #25 - 11/02/23 at 17:44:54 Thanks, I'm familiar with that page and see red = nice pairing. Was hoping for a little more feedback and descriptions from similar speakers. I guess time will tell as these seem to be a hot speaker right now. I also noticed on the website they are now listed as 93db.
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kulafu Seasoned Member Posts: 208	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #26 - 11/02/23 at 20:02:18 Kamran, If I would go, it would have to be friday or sunday. I have a previous commitment on saturday. Bob
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DADOWNS Verified Member Posts: 7	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #27 - 11/06/23 at 20:58:27 Did anyone here listen to these Caladan speakers at Capitol Audio Fest?
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Kamran Seasoned Member Posts: 949	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #28 - 11/06/23 at 21:22:24 CAF starts this Friday and lasts till Sunday. I plan to be there Saturday.
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Kamran Seasoned Member Posts: 949	Re: Caladan Speakers Reply #29 - 02/26/24 at 03:21:03 3 months later and I haven’t heard anything. Anyone? The initial orders should have been out in Feb. Wonder if Clayton ran in to production problems?
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