Floorstanding loudspeakers — Lawrence Audio VIOLIN SE

The VIOLIN SE is the special edition of the VIOLIN monitor from Lawrence Audio, a Taipei loudspeaker company set up in 1996 by Lawrence Liao that draws both its model names and its faceted cabinet outlines from the string family. In the United States the SE was listed at USD 8,500 per pair with its stands, and the maker's catalogue places it in the Instrument series.

Key specs that matter

A 2-way vented cabinet holds three drive units. The front tweeter is an Air Motion Transformer type with a 25 x 120 mm field-replaceable diaphragm, the bass and midrange come from one 200 mm (8 inch) woofer, and a rear-firing ribbon of purified aluminium, 60 x 8.5 x 0.01 mm, faces backwards. The published frequency range is 35 Hz to 40 kHz, sensitivity is 88 dB at 2.83 V and 1 m, and nominal impedance is 8 ohm with a floor of 6.4 ohm. Amplifiers from 30 to 150 W are recommended. The speaker is 81 x 26 x 40 cm and 19.5 kg, and its stand is 42 x 35 x 43 cm and 7 kg.

Engineering and use context

On the original VIOLIN the front high-frequency unit was a 5 inch ribbon, and the SE changes it to a 5 inch Air Motion Transformer while keeping the carbon fibre woofer. That woofer uses an aluminium chassis, a sandwich diaphragm with a cell layer between two sheets of non-woven carbon fibre, and copper clad aluminium for the winding of its coil. The crossover splits the signal at 2 kHz and at 9 kHz, where the rear ribbon joins in, and the slopes are 12 dB on the woofer, 18 dB on the front tweeter and 12 dB on the ribbon. Lawrence Audio fits MKP capacitors, OFC coils and metal oxide film resistors, wires the cabinet internally with Teflon insulated OCC cable and builds the enclosure from MDF. Input is through two connectors, meaning a single cable run per side. The tweeter diaphragms can be exchanged in the field if damaged, which avoids replacing a complete driver. For transport each speaker goes into a 58 x 40 x 47 cm wooden crate weighing 17 kg. With stand in place the assembly fits a 20 m2 room.

Pairing

The sensitivity is 3 dB below the brand's small Accuton-equipped models, so an amplifier from the upper half of the recommended window is a better fit than a very low-powered design. A high minimum impedance keeps the load easy for tube and solid-state amplifiers alike.

Alternatives

The Lawrence Audio BULBUL from the Bird series is a smaller 2-way stand-mounted speaker with Accuton ceramic drivers.