Floorstanding loudspeakers — Lawrence Audio DOUBLE BASS

The Double Bass is a tall passive tower by Lawrence Audio, shaped after the string instrument of the same name. Founder Lawrence Liao is an artist, interior designer and musician, and his range follows the instrument theme. It is a 4.5-way design, priced at USD 28,500 per pair.

Key specs that matter

Lawrence rates the Double Bass at 24 Hz to 40 kHz with a sensitivity of 89 dB at 2.83 V and 1 m, a voltage that corresponds to 1 W into the nominal load. The nominal impedance of 8 ohm has a stated minimum of 6.4 ohm. Recommended amplifier power is 50 to 250 W. Each cabinet stands 140 cm tall, 35 cm wide and 50 cm deep and weighs 52 kg. Finishes are gloss rosewood or black high gloss PE paint.

Engineering and use context

Six drivers are used. A 12 inch woofer and an 8 inch midwoofer have non-woven carbon fibre sandwich cones, so the bass and lower midrange share one cone material. Two 4.7 inch air motion transformers handle the upper midrange and treble, arranged with the midwoofer in an MTM layout. A 2.4 inch ribbon of purified aluminium on the front baffle covers the top octaves, and a 4.3 inch aluminium ribbon fires rearward to add ambient output. The crossover points sit at 150 Hz, 1.8 kHz, 7 kHz and 9 kHz. The woofer is filtered with an 18 dB slope, while the midwoofer and the tweeters use 12 dB slopes. The cabinet is built from high quality MDF and uses bass reflex loading. Its instrument profile avoids parallel internal walls, which Lawrence says prevents standing waves in the enclosure. The narrow neck at the top reduces diffraction of midrange and treble around the enclosure edges. Four WBT posts on the rear panel permit bi-wiring, and the rear ribbon means the back panel carries a driver as well as the connections.

Pairing

The high minimum impedance makes an easy load, so amplifiers without heavy current reserves can drive the speaker, and big transistor amplifiers also fall within the recommended power window. With the double set of WBT posts, the bass and treble sections can each get their own cable run or be fed from two stereo amplifiers in a vertical bi-amp arrangement. The Double Bass is supported by Devialet SAM processing, which matters for owners of its amplifiers. The rear ribbon needs free space behind each cabinet so that its output is not blocked.

Alternatives

The Lawrence Audio Cello is the smallest floorstander in the range, a 3.5-way design with a 4 ohm load.