A Boenicke day in Gent, May '19

[bart]

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Gent (or Ghent, if you want), to see and hear the speakers of Sven Boenicke.
Lieu: Wide Screen Audio.

I had heard the little W5s last year, during the X-Fi show in the Netherlands, and Jacques and I walked away highly impressed. The soundstage and bass these gorgeous Lilliputians produced was amazing.

Another reason I specifically wanted to attend the Boenicke show was the presence of the Swiss creator himself.

So, on that Sunday morning I made sure I was on time, because I wanted to be one of the first visitors.
This would give me the opportunity to hear some of my favourite test tracks.

It worked out well, I arrived before any other attendees.
I talked a bit with Sven.
He started as a one man company, now there are three persons working at Boenicke Audio.
He is also a sound engineer, which of course helps him to voice his speakers.

There 4 models in the lineup: the W5, W8, W11 and W13. Each model has 3 levels: the basic version, the SE, and the SE+ version.
The owners of the shop said they were surprised that the better components used in the SE and SE+ versions upped the already good performance of the basic model in such a drastic way.

All 4 models were represented in the store.
3 were installed in a system.

We started with the W8 SE+.

As my wife Meta couldn't join me, you'll have to do without her photographical skills, and bear with my iPhone 7+ pics.

Source: a dCS Bartok:

Amplifier: a SPEC class D integrated amplifier:

You'll notice that you probably don't know the brand of cables.
You're right, more about that later.

The 2 youngsters who came also quite early proved to be real music lovers and connoisseurs!
Yippee, young blood in our hobby!

.

 

[bart]

Fit and finish of these rather small speakers is top notch.

The W8 is a 3-way speaker.
The woofer is side-firing.

The SE+ model offers a clever suspension system, called 'Swing Base', to isolate the speaker from the wooden surfaces of so many living rooms.
They isolate better than spikes.

'Swiss happiness in a box'...

The innards of the W8 & W5:

 

[bart]

We played a couple of albums that I have heard on at least 30 systems:

This wonderful mono recording, to test human voices:

For ambient sounds:

For textures of acoustic instruments:

And this well recorded harpsichord:

 

[bart]

How did the Boenicke W8 fare so far?

Well, detail, mids and highs, and soundstage were pretty good.
Ella & Louis sounded very natural, Muddy Waters also.
But I was disappointed about the bass.
That became more apparent with the Bruno Cocset album.
A speaker that costs 16K per pair needs more grunt.

We continued with Madredeus' 'Ainda'.
Track 9 'Ainda' has a continuous bass foundation which was simply lacking here.

And then this album: the second piece 'Ciacona in D minor' from Pachelbel is a real torture track:

It is available on Qobuz (24/96) and Tidal.
Try it out!
Big fun.
It is magnificent and will pressurise your room in an impressive way.
Your furniture will rattle if you listen in your living room.
You will notice all things that are loose!

One condition: your speakers must be able to dive well under 30 Hz.
I severely missed this here.
Only the overtones of the organ were present.

I was unhappy, even to the point that I thought about not posting a review.
I don't do negative reviews.
Only when something in a hifi show is really bad, I'll report about it briefly, and move on to the good rooms.

But you are reading this, I did post this, so there must have been something pleasing to my ears that day.

Let us go to the W13 SE+...

 

[bart]

I had expressed my doubts about the bass on the W8 SE+, and had said I was not hearing what I usually hear at home when playing this track.
So we moved to the other room, where the W13 SE+ was ready to play the same track.

This speaker still isn't big, but it has 2 woofers of 13 inches, with their own amplification.

According to the room, you can even tune the bass:

It makes these speakers semi-active, and that gives you a wider choice of amplifiers able to drive them.

 

[bart]

So, what about the organ track now?!

Yes!!
Yes yes and yes!
Sven even wanted to tune the bass down, but I assured him it has to sound like this.
When you are in the church where it was recorded, you do feel the organ in your guts!
We were smiling, as the paintings on the wall were rattling indeed, and the deep, warm organ notes caressed our bellies...

Also the Madredeus track now fully bloomed.

As everybody knows, when the bass is right, also the mids and highs flourish more easily.
The soundstage opened up, we could hear more detail, everything became more transparent, lifelike, natural.

I congratulated Sven by saying: "This is a wonderful, full range speaker, with a very high WAF!!".


Pre amp: ARC Ref 6:

The juice was provided by the VTL S-200 power amp:

 

[bart]

When you see the room, you will notice it is not well treated.
A choice of the shop owners.
It makes it all a bit too lively.
But you could easily appreciate the immense qualities of the Boenicke W13 SE+.
I'm 100% sure it can shine even more in a somewhat better damped room.

Wooden midrange!
It sent gorgeous sounds into the room...

Sven explaining.

He poked in the midrange driver in a way that made us hold our breath...

You wouldn't do that with aluminium drivers...

.

 

[bart]

Source here: dCS Rossini and Clock:

Notice the tweeter on the back of the speaker, that provides even more ambience:

 

[bart]

Then a pair of the basic version of the W5 was put in its place.
I found it a bit awkward, so close to their bigger brethren.

The new version of the W5 goes deeper (reaches 45 Hz officially, but I think it dips even deeper).

The stands seem wobbly, but have the same intent as the suspension of the SE+ versions of the W8, W11 and W13: isolation from the ground.

A little SPEC amp was providing the power, the source remained the dCS duo.

 

[bart]

The W5s are simply amazing!
They offer at least 80% (I dare to say even 90%) of the W8s, in a really tiny package.
If you have a 5K budget, and you value purity, soundstage and transparency, put these absolutely in your list of audition!
Make sure you have a decent amplifier though.
Their sensitivity is low.
And they will reveal all upstream weaknesses.

 

[bart]

The rest of the range on static display:

 

[bart]

Sven talked about his plans to make his own amplifiers, and even a DAC.

There is already a range of Boenicke speaker cables.

These are new, and I have no idea about the prices.

This is the price list of the speakers in Belgium:

You notice the important price difference between the basic version and the SE and SE+.
On his website, Sven explains the difference in materials of these versions.

.

 

[bart]

Conclusion:

The W5 is a fantastic little speaker.
To look at, to listen to, to touch even.
It might be all the speaker you'll ever need, if you can live without the lowest octave.
It has an impressive soundstage.
New attendees were trying to figure out whether the W13s or the W5s were playing...

The W13 SE+ is one of the best speakers I've heard.
Bass is top notch in all aspects, quite a thing for a speaker that is only 104.7 cm high and 17.9 cm wide.
It is fantastic for classical, as well as jazz, and pop.
Very natural sound.
Do audition it if you are shopping in this category.
Your wife will be very grateful, and you won't miss anything by not buying speakers that are 3 times as big and weigh 5 times more.
(I want a pair! In a second room! ).

The W8 SE+ is a good speaker, but not one I would put in my top 10 list in that price range.

.

 

[bart]

And this is a great recording done by Sven Boenicke:

 

[puroagave]

Wow Bart, thanks for this post. I heard the Boenicke W8 for the first time at THE Show in Long Beach this weekend. Boenicke weren't officially in the show but were used by CAD (DAC/server) an exhibitor and powered by the new Aesthetix Mimas Integrated amplifer. For me it was the unexpected surprise compared to some if the heavy hitting rooms which, by in large couldn't hold my attention. I suspect the W8's took a lot of credit for the excellent demo they were placed closer to the front wall and the bass was full and satisfying for the music selections used. Boenicke speakers are def on my radar for a future audition.

 

[soastrup]

Wow Bart, thanks for this post. I heard the Boenicke W8 for the first time at THE Show in Long Beach this weekend. Boenicke weren't officially in the show but were used by CAD (DAC/server) an exhibitor and powered by the new Aesthetix Mimas Integrated amplifer. For me it was the unexpected surprise compared to some if the heavy hitting rooms which, by in large couldn't hold my attention. I suspect the W8's took a lot of credit for the excellent demo they were placed closer to the front wall and the bass was full and satisfying for the music selections used. Boenicke speakers are def on my radar for a future audition.

I have heard the W8 in Stockholm in a mid size room and the W13 in Warsaw in a very big room. Both performed extremely well IMO, with the W13 one of the best sounds of the Warsaw Audioshow. I consider the W8 a great performer in its price range so I am a bit more positive than Bart here!

 

[puroagave]

I have heard the W8 in Stockholm in a mid size room and the W13 in Warsaw in a very big room. Both performed extremely well IMO, with the W13 one of the best sounds of the Warsaw Audioshow. I consider the W8 a great performer in its price range so I am a bit more positive than Bart here!

CAD were saying the W8's are power hungry, the sensitivity is quite low around 84 db nominally with an average impedance of 4 ohms. They thought the Mimas did an admirable job of driving them, an amp which can output 280 WPC into 4 ohms. This isn't a turnoff for me because every speaker I ever owned that I held in high regard sonically, also had a low sensitivity (Sound lab, Apogee, Celestion SL600, LS3/5a, etc). What it does mean is compression and the SPL threshold before significant distortion sets in, is lower.

 

[SCAudiophile]

Heard these (W11SE and I believe the W13SEs on 2nd or 3rd day) in Munich. Their speakers were small compared to the huge room
and the setup was not uber-$$$; I remember being blown away by what the speakers were conveying in the room, kept looking around
for surround speakers of some form, dual subs or other tricks of which there were none. This is one of the all-time best surprises in my
entire audio journey and easily one of the best speakers I've ever heard. It made one hell of impression....

 

[Nikhil]

Fantastic writeup Bart! Thanks for sharing!
Have been following Boenicke speakers for a long time and would love to hear them some day.

Thanks for the fantastic pictures and insights into the Boenicke lineup.

Time permitting do lookup the story behind the SPEC amplifier.
That is a very interesting piece of gear made by some remarkable folks from Japan.

Regards



.

 

[Golum]

Thanks for the report!
I have a personal experience with W8SE+ as a really good friend of mine owns them. In his room which is of "normal" sized living room they sound fantastic.
His initial amp was Accu e550 which make them play very nice but two weeks ago we made a huge and I mean huge improvement as we tested them with Einstein The Preamp and Acoustic Invader D class power amp and this combo just raised the bar so significantly that it was amazing. Guess I don't need to mention that Accu was send to the box immediately.
I believe that with w8 particularly, as they are power hungry, D class is needed while bliss is achieved with nice/great tube preamp ...
Guess you will also notice Sven speaker cables