Напольная акустика — YG Acoustics XV 3 SIGNATURE

The XV 3 Signature is a limited edition of the XV 3 from YG Acoustics, restricted to eight pairs worldwide. It was announced on 8 April 2024 and its first public appearance came at HIGH END Munich 2024. Each pair is built and tuned at YG's research and development facility in Cambridge, England, and the price is USD 498,000 per pair, against USD 398,000 for the standard XV 3.

Key specs that matter

YG built it as a passive four-way system in which every channel is made of two towers, a main column and a separate bass column, so a stereo pair consists of four cabinets. Per channel the driver count is a 26 mm Lattice hybrid tweeter, two 15 cm midrange cones, three 18.5 cm midbass cones and four 26 cm bass cones, every one using a proprietary YG aluminium diaphragm. The crossovers divide the signal at 90 Hz, 360 Hz and 1.85 kHz. YG lists output from below 20 Hz to 40 kHz, sensitivity of 88 dB and an impedance averaging 4 ohm that never falls under 3 ohm. The main tower is 179 x 43 x 72 cm and weighs 225 kg, while the bass tower adds another 188 kg, both figures unpacked.

Engineering and use context

The cabinets use three layers of aerospace aluminium with constrained layer damping. What separates the Signature from the regular XV 3 is the selection and tuning process. Drivers and parts are matched from hundreds of candidates, the crossovers use component values calculated for each individual pair, and a new capacitor built with a special copper alloy foil and an advanced dielectric appears in the networks. Relative phase between drivers is held within plus or minus 3 degrees over the range where their outputs are within 20 dB of each other. Tuning of a single pair takes many weeks of measurement, modelling and listening, supported by laser vibrometry, near-field robotic scanning and simulation on an in-house GPU cluster together with cloud computing. Each speaker carries gold-plated trapezoid details and a personal dedication plate signed by Dr Matthew Webster, CEO and chief designer, and the crossover board is signed by the R&D team. Finishes are custom anodised, with the colour selectable panel by panel.

Pairing

The minimum impedance sits above that of the Sonja 3.3, yet seven midbass and bass units per side still calls for high-current solid-state amplification, typically stereo amplifiers or monoblocks rated into 2 ohm. Positioning four heavy cabinets means planning floor strength and space for both columns of each channel.

Alternatives

The standard YG Acoustics XV 3 uses the same four-tower concept without the per-pair Signature tuning and costs USD 398,000 per pair.