Floorstanding loudspeakers — HECO Direkt Premium

The Direkt Premium is a large two-way floorstanding loudspeaker from HECO, designed and developed in Germany and styled after hi-fi cabinets of the 1970s. It follows an earlier Direkt model and pairs a single big kraft paper woofer with a horn-loaded dome tweeter in a 78-litre box. HECO lists it at EUR 1,499 per speaker, in black or white silk-matt lacquer with a strip of real walnut set into the middle of the front.

Key specs that matter

HECO fits one 275 mm woofer-midrange and a tweeter whose silk composite dome measures 28 mm. The crossover point sits at 2,150 Hz. HECO gives a frequency range of 25 Hz to 33,000 Hz and a -6 dB response of 34 Hz to 29,000 Hz. Efficiency is 94 dB at 2.8 V and 1 m. The impedance range is 4 to 8 ohm with a nominal value of 4 ohm. Load capacity is 200 W RMS and 320 W maximum, with 20 to 320 W named as the suitable amplifier range. The bare cabinet measures 440 x 900 x 200 mm, or 230 mm deep with the terminal, and 440 x 998 x 397 mm on its metal feet. Each speaker weighs 25.8 kg.

Engineering and use context

The reflex ports fire downward and have a specially shaped opening, and internal struts in the MDF cabinet are placed to cut vibration and resonance at high levels. The whole box leans back by 6 degrees to aim the drivers at the listener, and its corners are rounded. The woofer uses a light kraft paper cone, a fabric dust cap and a low-loss rubber surround, with its voice coil held in a die-cast aluminium basket. The Fluktus tweeter has an all-aluminium faceplate, a Wave Control horn geometry and a dual magnet system. HECO built the crossover with close-tolerance parts and phase-optimised filtering. Low-resistance oxygen-free copper wire feeds the bass section, while a twisted low-inductance cable runs to the tweeter. A switch on the terminal sets the tweeter to linear or +2 dB. The foot is an all-metal frame with three contact points, supplied with swappable metal and rubber spikes, and magnetic grilles clip onto both drivers.

Pairing

With its high efficiency the speaker reaches high levels from small amplifiers, which explains the 20 W lower limit, yet with its low nominal impedance it pays to pick an amplifier rated for such loads. Its gold-plated, encapsulated screw clamps are prepared for bi-wiring, or for bi-amping with the woofer and the tweeter each on its own amplifier channel.

Alternatives

The HECO Victa Elite 702 is a lower-priced three-way HECO floorstander with twin woofers, listed at EUR 449.