Напольная акустика — Wlm Franz S

The Franz S is a floor-standing speaker with its own amplifiers, made by Wiener Lautsprecher Manufaktur (WLM), an Austrian firm whose development and production are based in Vienna, with a second studio in Innsbruck that houses a listening room and assembly facilities. WLM presents the Franz S as the little brother of its top model, the Franz, and carries over the same idea of bass drivers that radiate toward both floor and ceiling. The firm is led by owner Dr. Andreas Steiner together with Martin Schützenauer.

Key specs that matter

Every Franz S uses six drivers working in three frequency bands. Low frequencies come from two 9 x 12 inch racetrack woofers with hard-suspended paper diaphragms, the midrange from two 6 inch woofer-midrange units with papyrus cones, and the top octaves from two 8 cm Air Motion Transformer tweeters. WLM rates the amplification at 1,850 W per loudspeaker and quotes a frequency response of 20 Hz to 35 kHz at -3 dB. The cabinet measures 1,220 mm high, 520 mm deep and 230 mm wide without the separate high-frequency unit, and each speaker weighs 90 kg.

Engineering and use context

One AMT sits in the front baffle while the second rests on top of the cabinet in the manner of a supertweeter, and the pair act as dipoles. The two big woofers are mounted in bass chambers that fire upward and downward, a layout WLM uses to couple low-frequency energy to the room in a controlled way. The midrange drivers load into what the maker calls an Acoustic Chamber Line, vented through a reflex opening at the bottom. Each band has its own Class D amplifier module, and the crossover is built with analogue filters rather than DSP. Four large knobs on the rear panel adjust bass level, bass focus, midrange and treble, letting the owner adapt the speaker to the room and to personal taste. The enclosure is a multilayer structure combining materials of different hardness for vibration control, with solid wood used for the front baffle and for internal parts that damp resonances. Wall thickness varies between 32 mm and 74 mm depending on position, and the narrow front follows the brand practice of limiting diffraction.

Pairing

No outboard amplification is involved, so the shopping list shrinks to an analogue source or line stage, two interconnects and two mains leads. The rear offers unbalanced RCA and balanced XLR sockets next to the power socket and switch, so a streamer, DAC or line stage with adjustable output level connects without any further box in between.

Alternatives

The WLM Franz is the larger fully active floorstander above the Franz S in the range, built as the maker's top loudspeaker model.