Напольная акустика — Gauder Akustik DARC 100 MK II

Gauder Akustik places the DARC 100 MK II, a three-way tower, in its DARC series - the German company builds its speakers by hand in Renningen and runs a final quality check with a listening test on every unit. The 100 MK II sits between the DARC 80 MK II and the larger DARC 200 MK II. The DARC family currently spans the 40, 60, 80, 100, 200, 250, 240, 500 and 750 MK II plus two centre models, and every model except the DARC 40 MK II monitor and the centres is a floorstander.

Key specs that matter

Gauder lists the DARC 100 MK II as a 3-way design with a 7 inch double bass system, a nominal impedance of 4 ohms and a power handling figure of 490 W. Each cabinet stands 124 cm tall, 24 cm wide and 35 cm deep and weighs 72 kg. Two ceramic bass drivers work in a high-pass filtered bass reflex enclosure, above them sits an XPulse midrange unit with a light cone and a strong FeNd magnet, and the top octaves go to a beryllium dome as standard or to a diamond dome as an option. The aluminium can be left brushed or powder coated in black, white, silver or anthracite, and the spacer ribs between the aluminium sections come in gold, silver, white or black.

Engineering and use context

Instead of solid aluminium walls, the drop-shaped enclosure is built from aluminium ribs with damping layers between them. Gauder developed this rib technique to stop the ringing that plain aluminium boxes tend to produce, a project backed with state money from the German research ministry. The curved shape also limits reflections and diffraction at the cabinet edges while adding stiffness. Inside there is one vented and one closed chamber. The symmetrical crossover uses filters with a slope of 60 dB per octave so each driver covers a narrow band with little overlap. Time Delay Control electrically aligns the tweeter and midrange signals, and parts come from Mundorf and Intertechnik. A jumper activates a bass extension that moves low-frequency reproduction down by about one octave. Wiring inside is by Clearwater, the terminals are WBT NextGen and the spikes adjust in height. A diamond tweeter can be fitted later without changes to the crossover, while the Double Vision package with upgraded Mundorf parts, better WBT terminals and rhodium-plated bridges must be ordered from the factory. Registered owners get a 10-year warranty and lifetime technical updates.

Pairing

With its low nominal load and high power handling, the speaker suits solid-state amplifiers that are stable into low impedances rather than low-powered tube designs.

Alternatives

The Gauder Akustik DARC 80 MK II is a smaller 2.5-way floorstander in the same series, rated at 330 W in a 116 cm cabinet weighing 65 kg.