Напольная акустика — Grandinote MACH 8 XL

The MACH 8 XL is a floorstanding loudspeaker from Grandinote, the Italian company founded by owner and designer Massimiliano Magri, known for its amplifiers combining valve and solid-state ideas. It premiered in North America at AXPONA 2023 and uses no crossover.

Key specs that matter

Each speaker uses eight full-range 16 cm drivers, unfiltered and unequalised, and one horn compression tweeter. Frequency response is 19 Hz to 20 kHz, sensitivity is 98 dB at 1 W/1 m and impedance is 8 ohms. Cabinet dimensions are 174 x 34 x 34 cm. A single pair of binding posts sits low on the rear panel. Grandinote lists black and grey tulipwood finishes, gives five years of warranty and priced the pair at EUR 24,000 including tax.

Engineering and use context

The eight woofers of the MACH 8 XL run with no crossover, so there are no capacitors, inductors or resistors between the amplifier and them, while the horn tweeter is limited to a simple first-order high-pass. Removing reactive parts keeps the impedance linear and the damping factor seen by the amplifier high, and it avoids the phase shifts that crossovers introduce. Instead, the drivers are filtered mechanically. A special treatment behind the membranes prevents cone break-up, so the drivers roll off naturally above about 13 kHz, and the horn tweeter takes over the harmonics above roughly 7 kHz. The cabinet uses Grandinote's S.R.T., Semi Resonant Tube, loading, which Magri describes as a solution between bass reflex and transmission line, a tube with a large downward-firing port. The bass extension comes from the combined radiating area of eight drivers. The large area means each cone moves little for a given output. The cabinet is built from reinforced MDF, with matte black laminate for the baffle and rear panel and grey wood laminate for the sides, and it stands on a metal plinth with threaded inserts for spikes. Grandinote designs and builds its products in Rea, in the province of Pavia. With no crossover in the path, the load stays benign for single-ended Class A valve designs.

Pairing

The high sensitivity and resistive load suit Grandinote's own amplifiers and low-powered valve designs. The size and deep bass extension call for rooms of 30 m2 and more.

Alternatives

Grandinote's MACH 9 is the other large crossover-free model of the brand's MACH range.