Полочная акустика — Castle Windsor Earl

The Windsor Earl is the compact stand-mount in the Windsor series from Castle, a British brand with roughly five decades of history. The range was voiced and engineered by Karl-Heinz Fink and the Fink Audio team, and assembly by hand happens at the Huntingdon factory of Castle's parent group IAG, which marked the return of Castle production to the UK. Windsor followed Knight, launched in 2010, as the next completely new Castle line. The Earl was priced at GBP 3,850 per pair in the UK, and GBP 4,250 with its optional stands.

Key specs that matter

The two-way ported design combines a 165 mm woven polypropylene bass unit with a 28 mm microfibre dome tweeter in a 15.8 litre enclosure. Frequency response is 58 Hz to 22 kHz within 3 dB, extending to 45 Hz at -6 dB. Rated sensitivity is 89 dB at 2.83 V and 1 m, and Castle gives a peak output of 95 dB. The speaker is described as 8 ohm compatible, with a minimum of 4.3 ohm. Recommended amplifier power is 25 to 100 W. Height is 430 mm, width 240 mm and depth 260 mm plus 36 mm at the rear.

Engineering and use context

Panels are made from twin sheets of MDF bonded by a thin layer of acoustic glue, which limits panel resonances, and the box is braced point to point. The port exits at the rear to extend bass output. The cone of the bass unit is a polypropylene-based material that is woven and then bonded, held in a rubber surround with low hysteresis, while its voice coil former is glass fibre set in high-temperature resin and the motor carries an aluminium ring for compensation. The treble unit has an exposed polyester dome of high consistency, a 28 mm voice coil and a copper-capped pole piece in a ferrite motor with pressure equalisation. Castle leaves out ferrofluid in this tweeter to keep the widest possible dynamic range, and its resonant frequency stays below 800 Hz. A fourth-order Linkwitz-Riley filter divides the signal at 2.2 kHz, built with air-core inductors. Veneers in walnut or mahogany are hand-selected, book-matched in pairs, cut from sustainable timber and finished by hand.

Pairing

Integrated amplifiers from 25 W upward cover the needs of the Earl, and the impedance minimum asks for an amplifier happy with 4 ohm loads. The optional Castle stands suit the design, and the back-firing port likes a little free space behind it.

Alternatives

The Castle Windsor Duke is the larger stand-mount in this series, with a 200 mm bass-mid driver and a 26 litre enclosure.