Floorstanding loudspeakers — Albedo Alecta

Albedo Audio of Montelabbate, Italy, makes the ALECTA SGS as a tower with three frequency bands, and the brand is a company operated by Music Tools & More srl. Albedo's work on transmission line enclosures started in the early 1990s with a mathematical model of the principle, led to products sold as Apex Audio from 1995, and continued under the Albedo name after the firm was founded in 2008. The ALECTA sits in the current line above the ACCLARA and below the 3.5-way ATESIA.

Key specs that matter

Albedo equips it with four drivers. A pair of 8 inch woofers with aluminium sandwich diaphragms handle the bass, a 5 inch ceramic cone covers the midrange and a 1 inch diamond dome handles the treble. Division happens at 300 Hz and 3.0 kHz through second-order acoustic filters. Albedo specifies 86 dB sensitivity for 2.83 V at 1 m, an 8 ohm nominal impedance and a frequency range of 33 Hz to 25,000 Hz. The cabinet is 28.2 cm wide, 50.5 cm deep and 183.6 cm high, and a single speaker weighs 170 kg.

Engineering and use context

Low frequencies travel through a mirrored twin transmission line. Albedo filters that line with internal Helmholtz resonators, a patented variation it names the Helmholine System and fits to every loudspeaker in its catalogue instead of reflex or sealed loading. The tower is built for high mass, with two solid metal plates linked by threaded steel bars. It stands on a heavy aluminium base plate finished with hand-worked solid aluminium bars and four stainless steel spikes. Every crossover is made by hand using Mundorf components exclusively, including Supreme SilverGold oil-impregnated polypropylene capacitors, anti-inductive Supreme resistors and ZeroOhm coils wound from pure OFC copper with low resistance. The SGS suffix refers to that Silver Gold Supreme capacitor grade.

Pairing

Its higher nominal impedance makes the ALECTA an easier match than the lower-impedance towers in the range, although its moderate sensitivity still favours an amplifier with healthy power reserves. Transistor designs and higher-powered valve amplifiers both fall within its load requirements. Moving a pair at this weight needs several people, and the spikes should rest on a floor able to carry a concentrated load.

Alternatives

The Albedo ACCLARA is a shorter three-way tower that uses three 7 inch woofers and a lower nominal impedance.