Напольная акустика — Boenicke Audio W11

The W11 is a floorstanding loudspeaker from Boenicke Audio, handcrafted in Switzerland, with an enclosure milled out of one solid piece of timber. It is sold in three versions - Standard, SE and SE+ - which share the same driver layout and differ in crossover components and accessories.

Key specs that matter

The design has four drivers. A 10-inch long-throw bass unit with a flat carbon fibre honeycomb diaphragm fires from the side and is tuned to 27 Hz. A 6-inch custom woodcone bass-midrange driver with an ash phase plug and 16 ohm impedance works above it, a 3-inch custom widebander with a 2 cm copper resonator covers the upper range, and a rear-mounted ambient tweeter adds output towards the back wall. Boenicke gives sensitivity as 86 to 89 dB per watt at 1 m depending on frequency. Nominal impedance is 6 ohm, falling to 2 ohm below 120 Hz when the loudest bass setting is chosen. Each speaker measures 105 x 16.1 x 39 cm and weighs about 25 kg, depending on version and wood.

Engineering and use context

The crossover is of first order, and the bass-midrange driver runs without any high-pass filter. Bass level is adjusted in 2.5 dB steps through a custom-made autoformer, so the owner can match low-frequency output to the room without an equaliser. The SE version adds upgraded parts, Bybee Quantum Purifiers, phase linearisation and an included Swing Base. The SE+ goes further with dual resonators, an additional Bybee Purifier, Harmonix tuning bases, a LessLoss Firewall and higher-grade capacitors. KLEI binding posts are fitted, in Classic Harmony Silver form on the SE and SE+. Wood choices are walnut, ash, core ash and cherry, with oak on request, and harmonisation of the pair is included with every version. The narrow 16.1 cm front baffle keeps the visual footprint small for a speaker with a 10-inch woofer, and side-firing placement of that driver is what allows such a slim front. Boenicke does not publish a frequency response for the W11, and gives the bass tuning frequency instead.

Pairing

Because the load dips very low in the bass at the maximum bass setting, an amplifier with a stable low-impedance output and good current delivery is the safe choice. At lower bass settings the load is less demanding, which widens the range of usable amplifiers.

Alternatives

The Boenicke Audio W13 is a larger floorstander with twin 13-inch sealed bass drivers powered by a built-in 2 x 350 W Class D amplifier.