Полочная акустика — Soundsmith Dragonfly

The Dragonfly is a compact two-way stand-mount speaker from Soundsmith of Peekskill, New York, the company best known for its phono cartridges, cartridge rebuilding service and phono preamplifiers. It is the smallest of the Soundsmith speakers, and like all of them it was designed by Peter Ledermann, the company's President and Chief Engineer, who earlier worked as Director of Engineering at Bozak alongside Rudy Bozak. The Dragonfly was shown at NYAV 2012 at about USD 2,000 per pair, and the current price is USD 5,999.95 per pair.

Key specs that matter

A 1 inch fabric dome tweeter works with a 4.5 inch woofer in a rear-ported cabinet. Sensitivity is 88 dB. The speaker includes tweeter protection and a peak amplifier power indicator. Each speaker measures 30.48 cm high, 19.05 cm wide and 27.94 cm deep and weighs 7.48 kg. A pair ships in a box of 55.88 x 38.7 x 43.2 cm weighing 17.24 kg. Finishes are Beech, Cherry and Piano Black. Soundsmith does not publish impedance, frequency response or crossover frequency.

Engineering and use context

The small woofer keeps the cabinet small and the front baffle narrow, and the rear port lets it go deeper than a closed cabinet of the same volume. Because the port faces backwards, the distance to the wall behind the speaker affects the bass level. The tweeter protection circuit guards the dome against overload, which matters with a small speaker that owners may push hard with a powerful amplifier. The peak power indicator shows when the amplifier delivers high peaks into the speaker, so the owner can see when the level approaches the limit. The sensitivity is relatively high for a woofer of this size, which means moderate amplifier power produces normal listening levels. Ledermann's background at Bozak, a maker of large American loudspeakers, carries over into the Soundsmith speaker range, in which the Dragonfly is the entry point below the larger Monarch. The finishes are real wood veneers or piano lacquer. The weight is substantial for the size and points to a solidly built cabinet.

Pairing

The Dragonfly suits desks, shelves and rooms of about 20 m2 or less, driven by integrated amplifiers of moderate power. Soundsmith's Versa stands, adjustable to heights of about 30, 61 or 91 cm, raise it to the right height.

Alternatives

The Soundsmith Monarch is the larger stand-mount model with a 6 inch long-throw woofer and a modified wide-bandwidth dome tweeter.