Floorstanding loudspeakers — Albedo Atesia

The ATESIA Diamond SGS is a 3.5-way tower from the Italian maker Albedo Audio. Albedo is based in Montelabbate and operated by Music Tools & More srl. Its transmission line research began in the early 1990s with a mathematical model of the design, products first reached the market in 1995 as Apex Audio, and the Albedo company was formed in 2008. The ATESIA was listed at EUR 118,000 per pair.

Key specs that matter

It carries seven drivers. Four 8 inch woofers have aluminium honeycomb sandwich membranes and a stated excursion of plus or minus 16 mm, two 5 inch ceramic units handle the midrange, and the tweeter is a 1 inch inverted diamond dome. Filters are second-order acoustic types. Albedo lists sensitivity of 87 dB for 2.83 V at 1 m, a nominal impedance of 4 ohm and a frequency range from 27 Hz to 33,000 Hz. Each speaker stands 191 cm high, 32.2 cm wide and 62 cm deep, and weighs 215 kg. Ceramic midrange diaphragms from the Accuton Cell family are prized by Albedo for rigidity. It comes in glossy lacquered walnut or glossy lacquered black.

Engineering and use context

The woofers load a mirrored twin transmission line, filtered by internal Helmholtz resonators in Albedo's patented Helmholine System, which the brand applies to all its loudspeakers in place of reflex ports or closed boxes. The cabinet uses thick multilayer wood panels, and the company's stiffening system adds heavy steel reinforcement plates plus side plates clamped by steel bars. Albedo says the inverted diamond dome was chosen for wide off-axis dispersion and low distortion. The crossover is built by hand exclusively from Mundorf parts - capacitors of the Silver Gold Supreme grade, Supreme series resistors and ZeroOhm inductors - and internal connections run in silver-plated Van den Hul cable. Earlier versions of the ATESIA used Accuton Cell drivers and a leather-clad exterior.

Pairing

The low nominal impedance and four large woofers suit a high-current solid-state amplifier, whether one stereo chassis or two mono amplifiers, able to hold its output into low impedance. At this weight per side, delivery and positioning require a team and a floor built to carry that concentrated weight.

Alternatives

Albedo's ALECTA SGS is a smaller three-way tower with two woofers, one ceramic midrange and an 8 ohm rating.