Напольная акустика — Davone Audio Solo-R

The Solo-R belongs to the tower range of the Danish company Davone Audio, designed by Paul Schenkel. The R version marks the tenth anniversary of the Solo, a model whose sculpted cabinet is formed from bent wood rather than assembled from flat panels.

Key specs that matter

A 25 mm tweeter with an aluminium-magnesium alloy dome of variable thickness handles the treble. The midrange is a 4 inch cone of interwoven Kevlar and carbon fibres, and the bass is covered by an 8 inch aluminium cone with geometric reinforcement. Crossover points sit at 240 Hz and 2.6 kHz. Davone quotes a response of 30 to 30,000 Hz and a sensitivity of 89 dB at 2.83 V and 1 m. Nominal impedance is 4 ohm, falling to a minimum of 2.5 ohm at 450 Hz. Davone recommends amplification of 100 to 200 W. Each speaker is 109 cm tall, 38 cm wide and 38 cm deep, and weighs 30 kg.

Engineering and use context

The enclosure is pressed from ten layers of beech veneer into a curved form, and several internal stiffeners brace it. Moulded plywood of this kind has few parallel walls, which reduces internal standing waves, while the multiple layers glued under pressure give a stiff shell with modest mass. Bass loading is by reflex port. The low lower crossover lets the woofer handle only the lowest octaves, while the small midrange takes the span up to the upper crossover with a light, stiff cone. The equal width and depth give the speaker a square footprint, and its shape is meant to be seen from all sides, so it can stand away from the walls as a piece of furniture as much as a loudspeaker. Because the impedance minimum falls inside the midrange band, the load on the amplifier is highest where vocals and most instruments have their fundamentals.

Pairing

This low impedance dip, well below the nominal rating, calls for an amplifier whose output stage copes with loads close to 2 ohm and can deliver current freely. Within the recommended power window, an integrated amplifier of around 150 W into the nominal load is a sensible match, and the fairly high sensitivity means such an amplifier has ample reserve in rooms of about 20 m2. Speaker cables of generous cross-section keep resistive losses low at that impedance.

Alternatives

The Davone Twist is another floorstanding tower by Davone, built with a cabinet shape of its own and the same bent wood approach to construction.