Напольная акустика — Nola CHAMP S3

The Champ S3 is a floorstanding loudspeaker from Nola, the name under which Accent Loudspeaker Technology Ltd sells its speakers, and it is one more Carl Marchisotto design. It made its world premiere at Capital Audiofest 2021 alongside the Metro Grand Reference Gold Series 3 and then went into production with a list price of USD 9,500 per pair in a standard American cherry finish. Marchisotto has said the design took inspiration from his original Alon 1 loudspeaker from more than 30 years earlier.

Key specs that matter

Nola fits five drivers per cabinet in a 3.5-way arrangement. A 25 mm silk-dome tweeter is joined by twin 3 inch midrange units, while two 6.5 inch woofers handle the low end. Nola quotes 90 dB sensitivity, an 8 ohm impedance and a frequency response of 30 Hz to 30 kHz. The cabinet stands 1,067 mm high, 241 mm wide and 305 mm deep, and each speaker weighs 34 kg.

Engineering and use context

Nola places the tweeter and both midrange units on an open baffle instead of enclosing them in a box, an approach meant to avoid enclosure colorations, and the pair of midrange units work side by side as dipoles, radiating to the front and rear. Each woofer lives in its own ported chamber, and the two chambers use different tunings. The woofer cones are low-mass parts weighing only 13 g each. Three cut-outs on the sides and back of the cabinet are covered by traditional grilles, which the owner can take off during listening. The half-way step in the 3.5-way description comes from the two woofers working with different chamber tunings rather than as identical parallel units. The crossover is built by hand on two point-to-point wired boards using Mundorf oil capacitors, with Nordost monofilament silver wire in critical parts of the signal path. A matching solid base with floor spikes is supplied as standard. An optional Dynamic Isolation System with double ball-bearing platforms costs USD 3,000 per pair and raises the speaker slightly.

Pairing

Being efficient and nominally easy to drive, the Champ S3 leaves room for modest amplifiers, and the speaker has been used with a 50 W per channel integrated amplifier as well as with larger monoblocks. Because the dipole midrange radiates backward, the space behind each cabinet becomes part of the system, so a position with some distance from the rear wall suits the open-baffle upper section.

Alternatives

Premiered at the same show, the Metro Grand Reference Gold Series 3 is a far larger Nola floorstanding design, priced at USD 60,000 per pair.