Напольная акустика — AKu Audio Talos

The Talos is a powered three-way tower system from AKu Audio of Athens, Greece, rated at 2,200 W in total and driven by a separate AKu-Hypex Ncore six-channel amplifier with DSP and digital and analogue inputs. For the 2023 update the maker redesigned the amplifier system and moved to a beryllium tweeter. The company pitches the Talos at buyers who want a speaker that departs from the usual box shape, and in its range it sits below the Enarghia and above the Onar standmount, the MaYa II monitor, the Perix compact system and the Mito and Athena models.

Key specs that matter

Each cabinet uses one 12 inch aluminium high-excursion woofer mounted on rubber and aluminium decoupling rings, two 7 inch midrange units with air-dried paper and nylon fibre cones driven by symmetrical motors, and a 1.34 inch tweeter using a beryllium dome and a high-excursion neo magnet system. Amplifier power per pair is 2 x 500 W for bass, 2 x 500 W for midrange and 2 x 100 W for treble. With DSP the range is given as 10 Hz to 50 kHz, and the measured response is 33 Hz to 22 kHz within plus or minus 1.5 dB. Signal to noise ratio is 111 dB, THD+N is minus 102.5 dB and maximum SPL reaches 117 dB. Each speaker measures 1,400 mm high, 600 mm wide and 565 mm deep and weighs 96 kg.

Engineering and use context

Filtering and voicing take place in the DSP inside the amplifier chassis, which stores three presets - Maximally Flat, Bass Contour and Party Mode. The rear panel offers a Neutrik XLR socket that accepts analogue or AES signals, an RCA socket that takes either analogue or coaxial S/PDIF at up to 192 kHz, and optical Toslink up to 96 kHz, which lets a digital player connect without an outboard converter. The amplifier unit is 320 mm high, 260 mm wide and 350 mm deep and weighs 11.9 kg, so it needs its own place on a rack or floor. Standard finishes are Cadmium Red, Ivory Black, Titanium White and Karmin Red, and the maker states that the cabinets can be ordered in hundreds of colours.

Pairing

A preamplifier with balanced output, a streamer or a CD transport with coaxial or optical output can connect straight to the amplifier unit, and no other power amplifiers are needed. Given the cabinet mass and width, the Talos is suited to a room of 20 m2 or more with a solid floor.

Alternatives

The AKu Audio Enarghia is the larger active floorstanding system, with two 12 inch woofers, four passive radiators and an 8-channel Ncore amplifier.