Floorstanding loudspeakers — Wolf von Langa SON AUDIO FRAME WVL 23239 CHICAGO

The WVL 23239 Chicago is the three-way member of the Audio Frame loudspeaker family from the German maker Wolf von Langa, priced at USD 61,995 in North America. Where the sister London relies on a full-range unit for everything above the bass, the Chicago splits that job between a dipole field-coil midrange with a silk paper cone, a 20 cm unit derived from the Western Electric 755, and a dipole air motion transformer for the treble. It stands taller than the London and extends further into the high frequencies, while keeping the open dipole construction of the range.

Key specs that matter

Wolf von Langa gives a response of 25 to 25,000 Hz, and efficiency is 95 dB at 1 W and 1 m. Power handling reaches 300 W, double the figure given for the London. The bass section uses field-coil dipole drivers with a combined cone area of 1,608 cm2. Each speaker is 571 mm wide, 1,297 mm tall and 419 mm deep and weighs 84 kg including the bass acoustic grilles, with ultra gloss black as the listed finish. Against the two-way London, that means an extra 150 mm of height and 2 kg of mass per cabinet on an identical footprint, while bass cone area and efficiency are unchanged.

Engineering and use context

Every driver type used in the Chicago works as a dipole, so the speaker has no enclosure in the usual sense and sends energy backward as strongly as forward from its steel frame. Two 38 cm woofers each occupy their own module, while the midrange and air motion transformer share a separate upper module. The maker notes that stereo base width and time alignment can be adjusted from the listening position. The electromagnets of the field-coil units are energised by a current-source power management unit connected through two 3 m cables, so the speaker has no mains cable of its own and no permanent magnets in those drivers. WBT nextgen terminals connect to a split crossover network that supports bi-amping or bi-wiring.

Pairing

Its high efficiency means low-power valve amplifiers can drive the Chicago, and the power handling also allows larger solid-state amplifiers. With the split network, one amplifier can serve the bass modules and a second the upper module. Because the dipole radiates rearward, placement well away from the wall behind the speakers is part of planning the system.

Alternatives

For a two-way variant built around a twin-cone field-coil full-range driver, Wolf von Langa offers the Audio Frame WVL 23216 London in the same series.