Floorstanding loudspeakers — Alexandria Audio Praetoria

Praetoria is a two-way tower from Alexandria Audio, a brand based in Bali, Indonesia, that was founded in 2019 by Kenneth Lin and Henry Kristanto. It combines a very large woofer with a horn-loaded compression driver in a wide cabinet, and the company lists it at USD 22,800. The Praetoria appears in the current collection next to the Atrium, The Monitor, the Legatus monoblock amplifier and the Zeus cables.

Key specs that matter

Per side, Alexandria Audio fits a 15 inch neodymium woofer, paired with a 1 inch neodymium compression driver. The crossover point is 900 Hz. The company gives a range of 30 Hz to 20 kHz and a sensitivity of 96 dB, with a maximum output of 114 dB. Nominal impedance is 8 ohm, and the published minimum is 6.3 ohm at 115 Hz. Each speaker measures 600 mm wide, 1,150 mm high and 340 mm deep and weighs 72 kg.

Engineering and use context

This is a reflex design with a bottom-mounted port, so the tuning opening faces the floor instead of the front baffle or the rear panel. The low crossover point asks the large cone to cover the whole bass range and much of the lower midrange by itself, while the compression driver on its horn takes over everything above that frequency. Using a single large woofer rather than several smaller ones is what makes the wide cabinet necessary. The maker says the size of the cabinet created engineering challenges, and that the components were selected, the horn in particular, so that it would not share the known weaknesses of vintage horn models, with low distortion named as one of the stated targets. The compression driver is fitted with its own horn to set the directivity of the upper range. Good efficiency plus an impedance curve without deep dips leaves amplifiers with a relaxed task. Given the weight of each cabinet, placement is best planned before delivery, and moving the speakers is a job for two people.

Pairing

Because of its efficiency and its gentle impedance, the Praetoria is a candidate for modest valve amplifiers of a few watts per channel as well as for larger transistor units, and the maximum output quoted above leaves headroom well beyond typical domestic listening levels in a 20 m2 room. The brand's own Legatus monoblocks and Zeus speaker cable offer an in-house option for building the rest of the chain.

Alternatives

From the same company, the Gaius is a slimmer three-way floorstander with two side firing 220 mm woofers, a 170 mm midrange and a 45 mm dual piston tweeter.