Floorstanding loudspeakers — Brodmann VC 2

The VC 2 is the slimmer of the Vienna Classic towers from Brodmann Acoustics, the Austrian brand connected with a Viennese piano workshop founded more than 200 years ago. The loudspeaker range came to Brodmann from Bösendorfer after Yamaha took over that piano maker, and the Vienna Classic line keeps the VC names, with the VC 7, VC 1 and a VC Center completing it. In 2022 the VC 2 was listed at EUR 13,800 per pair.

Key specs that matter

The VC 2 is passive and splits the band into two ways. Bass/midrange drivers are mounted in the side panels, and a silk dome tweeter made by Brodmann is the only front-firing unit. Brodmann lists a range of 31 Hz to 25,000 Hz within plus or minus 3 dB and says that 1.7 W gives 91 dB at 1 m. Nominal impedance is 8 ohm, the nominal load 90 W and the music load 180 W. At 1110 mm tall, 168 mm wide and 304 mm deep the VC 2 has the narrowest front of the maker's floorstanders, and one speaker weighs 22.5 kg.

Engineering and use context

Brodmann builds the cabinet around the horn resonator concept of designer Hans Deutsch. Below 130 Hz the side drivers load an internal channel that works as an acoustic filter with a linear roll-off of 4.5 dB per octave, so no bass reflex tuning is used. Vibrating panels on each side are loosely coupled to the cabinet, which lets a large radiating area contribute at low frequencies. The electrical crossover to the tweeter lies at 2.15 kHz with a 6 dB per octave slope. The cabinet body is made of HDF and built as stiff as possible, and like the other Brodmann models it has no internal damping. Real wood veneers with lacquer are used for the finish. The model first appeared under the Bösendorfer name, and that earlier version used a 1-inch doped silk dome tweeter with a four-layer voice coil on a Kevlar former, 5-inch side drivers with paper cones including hemp and carbon fibre, and a veneered and lacquered wooden board fixed to each side panel through four gold-plated bushes. All Brodmann drivers are produced in-house.

Pairing

A benign load and good efficiency mean the VC 2 is not demanding on the amplifier, including valve designs within the stated load figures. Its slim cabinet and side-firing drivers suit living spaces of about 20 m2, where modest output per channel is sufficient.

Alternatives

The Brodmann VC 7 is the bigger Vienna Classic tower, with four side drivers and a 4 ohm rating.