THE REAL BIG THING - Audio Physic Cardeas Review
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Loudspeakers › Floorstanding speakers
THE REAL
BIG THING
The new Cardeas from Audio Physic is an absolute premium-class speaker.
Surprisingly, the midrange driver does without a spider.
■ by Andreas Günther
I
t can turn out to be a fatal mistake to unde- big speaker is standing in front of me - 128
restimate other people for any reason. So- centimetres of height is a quite remarkable
meone who comes from a village or a small figure. We initially focus on the outriggers
town may know or produce just as much as and their feet: These beams look confidence-
a city dweller, sometimes even more. Thus, inspiringly massive. For positioning, however,
many a German loudspeaker manufacturer the manoeuvrable version with thick balls is
has settled beyond the metropolises; Audio indispensable. After some experimenting
Physic is one of them. The company‘s home with the placement, we eventually found the
is Brilon, a small town of 25,000 souls in the best point - not too far away, slightly angled
centrally located beautiful Sauerland region. towards the listening position. Actually, it ca-
Such a company domicile may not offer me to be the ideal stereo triangle. Then we
the Berlin Philharmonic or Elton John in con- replace the feet: Instead of the simple balls,
cert, but that can prove to be an unbeatable we affix the VCF V magnetic feet, which are
advantage: In the absence of major distrac- included in the delivery. For this, no additional
tions, one has time and above all the neces- investment is required, and the improvement
sary leisure for extensive tinkering. Manfred in sound is enormous.
Diestertich is the mastermind behind Audio
Physic and also the creator of this THE FLAT MIDRANGE
manufacturer‘s latest and tallest floorstan- DRIVER SETS THE SCENE
ding loudspeaker, the Cardeas. It’s a true Four drivers catch our eye: The mid-woofer
dream, a Mount Everest in the company‘s comes as a pair. They encircle a genuine mid-
own mountain ranges - and a miracle louds- range driver equipped with a phase plug. All
peaker for the world. cones are made of black anodised aluminum.
However, the high technology behind this The tweeters have a different cone design fea-
sound transducer also comes at a price: we turing a black dyed fabric dust protection dome.
are talking about two imposing speakers that The highlight of this speaker, however, is
together cost an imposing 36,500 euros. We the new and surprisingly flat mid-range unit.
take a heavy breath, we might even make an Manfred Diestertich, its incredibly skilful de-
appointment with the friendly representative signer, has come up with a transducer model
from our savings bank. that simply dispenses with the usual cente-
Let us get impressed. I flop elegantly into ring spider. How did you do that, Mr. Diester-
the sofa in the AUDIO listening room. A really tich?
24 www.audio.de ›06 /2021
ROOM AND
POSITIONING
Room size
kmg
mg Acoustics
ta
tahPositioning
dwf
wf
Set up close to
the wall or free-standing,
adjust brilliance by ang-
ling towards the listener,
neutral acoustics, liste-
ning distance from 2.5m.
You will find a breakdown of the
symbols on page 106.
25
Loudspeakers › Floorstanding speakers
TRUE AND CLEAR: The baffle reveals the bottom of the Cardeas hides two woofers
the concept of a three-way speaker. But, that are pumping against each other.
Well, the spider connects the os- ‘evil’ glass as part of the good sound in
cillating part with the basket, and it an absolutely effective manner.
ensures that the diaphragm and the
voice coil swing back again after an THE GLASS TRICK
impulse. For that purpose Diester- Audio Physic has developed a high-
tich has created an extremely com- tech honeycomb/multiplex sandwich
plex clamping system at the edge of construction. This means that the
the diaphragm, which takes over the glass panels are not rigidly connected
function of the spider, so to speak. to the cabinet, but are damped via a
We are seeing a truly remarkable in- honeycomb structure. It is precisely
novation here. the mixture that makes it so exciting:
Here, the inventors have combined
THE BASS REFLEX PORT IS two completely different materials
THE FINEST HIGH TECH with completely different natural fre-
What our eyes don’t see: At the bot- quencies. And with success: there
tom of the cabinet, two basses pulsate are no disturbing vibrations, we only
against each other. These show up as hear a perfect “knock“ when we tap
two 11-inchers, back to back, ready to on the enclosure. And so wonderful
lay out a massive bass foundation. The combinations are created in the
reflex energy is channeled towards the mind‘s eye: white lacquer, transpa-
floor. But, there is no traditional port rent glass, all the way to ebony in
design, but a large surface made up high-gloss finishing. Or, let‘s put it
from ceramic foam, ultra-hard, but per- absolutely: The room which isn’t rea-
meable. This is the finest high-tech, dy to welcome this speaker, simply
unique to Audio Physic. doesn’t exist. Visually speaking, of
The mix of materials, by contrast, course. Sonically, we recommend a
triggers astonishment: The shell, the ex- room with a size of at least 20
terior panels are actually made of glass. square meters.
How is that going to work? Glass is Vinyl or streaming? We are in the
known to ring, it abducts energy mood for hi-res, so we let a file fill
- why does Audio Physic use it the room in 24 bit and 96 kilo-
as the outermost layer? Be- hertz. Jean-Michel Jarre is
cause it looks extremely good back: The renowned French-
and because they have found man dedicates his new album
an elaborate way of incorpora- „Amazonia“ to the magic of
ting the commonly considered as the Amazon. The synthesizer
MEASURING LABORATORY
SCOPE OF DELI-
VERY: Audio Phy- Frequency response Amplitude & distortion response
sic includes their
superb proprietary
magnetic feet (RRP
1,400 €). A clear
improvement in
sound.
The Cardeas offers a balanced frequency response with a deep, rather slim bass
(-6 dB: 30 Hz, max. 97 dB SPL). Midrange and presence can be influenced by ang-
ling the speaker vertically, treble by angling it (laterally) towards the listener. The
mid-woofer‘s tendency to distortion can be measured, but is not critical to the ear
due to the K2 dominance. AK 65.
26 www.audio.de ›06 /2021
Loudspeakers › Floorstanding speakers
THREE MUSKETEERS: The Cardeas is a
true four-way speaker. 1 The woofers are
slim and invisible, two units with a basket dia-
meter of 28 centimetres operate against each
other. 2 The mid-woofers, on the other hand,
turn up in a classic appearance. 3 The mid-
range driver does without the centering spi-
der and is therefore so slender looking.
1 2 3
06/21
Highlight
Fact sheet
Audio Physic
Cardeas
Distribution Audio Physic GmbH
Phone +49 2961 96170
www. audiophysic.com/de
List price 36.550 euros
Warranty period 10 years upon registration
Dimensions (WxHxD) 25 x 128 x 43 cm
Weight 63 kg
Veneer/Foil/Lacquer •/–/•
Colours White, Black, Walnut etc.
Operating principles 4-way, bass reflex
Room adjustment –
sparks off a festival, shaped by Brazilian with the customary interplay of two op- Features Magnetic feet included in scope
atmosphere. A symphony of sound in ni- posing guitars, then speeding up to full of delivery
ne movements. First of all, a brutal bass throttle.
strikes us, but the Cardeas overcame it. And the Audio Physic Cardeas imme- AUDIOgramm 06/2021
There was nothing wafting around. Eve- diately felt at home with this music. The Åultimate transparency, Í
fantastic response
rything seemed almost smooth, but also sonic image clearly stood in front of the
Neutrality (2x) 108
up to the mark. In the fourth movement, drivers. These are the moments that se- Level of detail (2x) 108
violent beats below 80 hertz break forth. parate very good speakers from the le- Locatability 107
Spatiality 106
All details were there, but they did not gendary ones. Who’s got the time and Fine dynamics 107
superpose the overtones - somewhat gained a taste for it, should definitely gi- Peak level 106
Bass quality 107
austere, but in a deeper sense highly ve a listen to “Untouchable“ from the Bass depth 105
musical. And, here’s just another music new-old Taylor Swift album - a ballad wi- Workmanship outstanding
tip, almost too popular to mention: Taylor thout any kind of show. We think: This SONIC EVALUATION 107 Pioints
Swift completely re-interpreted and re- speaker sounds best when utmost con- PRice/Performance outstanding
recorded her early album “Fearless“. centration and sincerity are required.
Awesome. Everything appears to be Magnificent and strong. CONCLUSION
lighter and at the same time more gen-
teel, „Love Story“ strikes us straight to
Andreas Günther
the heart, starting over the stereo axis Audio-collaborator
This is one of those loudspeakers
MIGHTY THE NAME: Audio Physic has the
you dare to dream about. The
capacitors manufactured, but does not fore-
concept is classic, but ultimate.
go the magic of its own name -
Simply unbeatable. The struc-
which is printed there loudly
ture of the outer shell is perfect
and audibly.
and clever. The enclosure not on-
ly looks good, it also insulates to
the max. The sonic image is ult-
ra-fast and clearly snaps into
place centimetres before the
baffle plane. From here it already
becomes holographic, encoura-
ging to reach into it. A real big
thing, a solid investment.
www.audio.de ›06 /2021 27
You can also read
