JBLfan
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- May 19, 2013
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- #1
Thought I would do a basic review of the latest BE version of the Reference 3A MM De Capo monitor speakers now that mine are fully broken in.
Why did I buy these? Short answer is I needed a higher efficiency relatively compact sized monitor for my smallish listening room and a dealer I trust strongly recommended them. Although I was prepared to accept some sacrifices in bass response and overall dynamics given the size and higher efficiency of the De Capo I was pleasantly surprised in having to accept none.
I have long been a believer that while there is much that is required to build a great speaker – ultimately the drivers are a key ingredient and most of my favorite speakers to date have all used premium drivers. The De Capo uses a custom handmade carbon fiber woven driver that is 7” in diameter – surprisingly it can track down to 42 hz and with the cabinet being rear ported it is very punchy in the bass department. What is most interesting about this driver and the overall speaker design is that it has no actual crossover network – so in that respect the driver is essentially connected directly to your amplifier – this obviously hugely increases the efficiency of the speaker but it also places a premium on your upstream source components as what you feed the De Capo is truly what you will get out of it. In my case I viewed this as a positive as your source gear likely costing thousands of dollars is not compromised by a crossover network you typically have no influence over in your system setup (unless you are seriously into DIY or mods)
New to this particular model of the De Capo is the custom made BE (Beryllium) tweeters that have an impressive freq. response up to 40 KHz. Reference 3A uses a custom made BE tweeter of very tight tolerances – the BE panels are between typically 25µm to 50µm in thickness. Not having a crossover network the De Capo instead uses Mundorf Supreme Silver Oil capacitors as a tweeter high-pass filter. The front baffle of the De Capo is also sloped so that ultimately the tweeters sit behind the main drivers to achieve a “time aligned” configuration. The tweeters are also set on the outer outside corners to increase the soundstage – thus these speakers are asymmetrical meaning there is a dedicated left speaker and a dedicated right speaker.
Build Quality? Reference 3A did something controversial this year, some would say goofy. They went away from the traditional furniture grade wood finished cabinets and instead use an industrial coating called “Nextel” that was originally developed for the aerospace industry. It’s a patented finish and is said to absorb light and sound and the theory is it will reduce cabinet diffraction and absorb surface vibrations for a more silent cabinet. Does it work? I have no idea. Is it ugly? Yes, very much. Reference 3A also uses another patented application called the “Surreal Acoustic Lens” -to prevent formation of air vortex's generated by condensed air particles and turbulence in the deep center of the loudspeaker driver cones. To me it looks like a white Devo band helmet and I will have to default to the patent office that it actually does anything. Beyond these quirks build quality is very high – brass screws are used throughout and all internal wiring is continuous cast, single crystal high purity OFC with PTFE (Teflon) dielectric. All parts including the high quality bi-wiring terminals are cryogenically treated and the cabinets are very solidly constructed.
Sound? Sound is very subjective but I will say they have tremendous low end bass response for the size, are incredibly dynamic overall and the beryllium tweeters are incredibly articulate and detailed. If you like the highs of panels and or ribbon/diamond tweeters you will not be disappointed. Imaging is almost pinpoint with a minimal fuss of speaker placement although they do like to be a few feet off the rear walls given that they are a rear ported design. Probably one of the greatest attributes of the overall sound it is that it is not “warm” nor “dark” nor “analytical” – there really is no coloration – basically they are indeed “monitors” and what they are fed is what you will hear – basically the sound of your gear and source material.
Summary - Ultimately if you are looking for a high efficiency speaker that is as dynamic as it is easy to drive it is hard to go wrong with the De Capo more so when you consider the surprisingly strong low end response. Biggest criticism is that they are incredibly ugly and with a $ 3200 list price I don’t know that I would consider them as outstanding value. One thing I can say is that once you move away from a crossover I can’t say I would ever want to go back and would likely look for a larger pair of Reference 3A’s in my other system. I greatly enjoy how they sound and find on most any type of music they are lively and engaging. What more can you ask of a compact monitor that can even make a flea powered tube amp belay its own size?
Why did I buy these? Short answer is I needed a higher efficiency relatively compact sized monitor for my smallish listening room and a dealer I trust strongly recommended them. Although I was prepared to accept some sacrifices in bass response and overall dynamics given the size and higher efficiency of the De Capo I was pleasantly surprised in having to accept none.
I have long been a believer that while there is much that is required to build a great speaker – ultimately the drivers are a key ingredient and most of my favorite speakers to date have all used premium drivers. The De Capo uses a custom handmade carbon fiber woven driver that is 7” in diameter – surprisingly it can track down to 42 hz and with the cabinet being rear ported it is very punchy in the bass department. What is most interesting about this driver and the overall speaker design is that it has no actual crossover network – so in that respect the driver is essentially connected directly to your amplifier – this obviously hugely increases the efficiency of the speaker but it also places a premium on your upstream source components as what you feed the De Capo is truly what you will get out of it. In my case I viewed this as a positive as your source gear likely costing thousands of dollars is not compromised by a crossover network you typically have no influence over in your system setup (unless you are seriously into DIY or mods)
New to this particular model of the De Capo is the custom made BE (Beryllium) tweeters that have an impressive freq. response up to 40 KHz. Reference 3A uses a custom made BE tweeter of very tight tolerances – the BE panels are between typically 25µm to 50µm in thickness. Not having a crossover network the De Capo instead uses Mundorf Supreme Silver Oil capacitors as a tweeter high-pass filter. The front baffle of the De Capo is also sloped so that ultimately the tweeters sit behind the main drivers to achieve a “time aligned” configuration. The tweeters are also set on the outer outside corners to increase the soundstage – thus these speakers are asymmetrical meaning there is a dedicated left speaker and a dedicated right speaker.
Build Quality? Reference 3A did something controversial this year, some would say goofy. They went away from the traditional furniture grade wood finished cabinets and instead use an industrial coating called “Nextel” that was originally developed for the aerospace industry. It’s a patented finish and is said to absorb light and sound and the theory is it will reduce cabinet diffraction and absorb surface vibrations for a more silent cabinet. Does it work? I have no idea. Is it ugly? Yes, very much. Reference 3A also uses another patented application called the “Surreal Acoustic Lens” -to prevent formation of air vortex's generated by condensed air particles and turbulence in the deep center of the loudspeaker driver cones. To me it looks like a white Devo band helmet and I will have to default to the patent office that it actually does anything. Beyond these quirks build quality is very high – brass screws are used throughout and all internal wiring is continuous cast, single crystal high purity OFC with PTFE (Teflon) dielectric. All parts including the high quality bi-wiring terminals are cryogenically treated and the cabinets are very solidly constructed.
Sound? Sound is very subjective but I will say they have tremendous low end bass response for the size, are incredibly dynamic overall and the beryllium tweeters are incredibly articulate and detailed. If you like the highs of panels and or ribbon/diamond tweeters you will not be disappointed. Imaging is almost pinpoint with a minimal fuss of speaker placement although they do like to be a few feet off the rear walls given that they are a rear ported design. Probably one of the greatest attributes of the overall sound it is that it is not “warm” nor “dark” nor “analytical” – there really is no coloration – basically they are indeed “monitors” and what they are fed is what you will hear – basically the sound of your gear and source material.
Summary - Ultimately if you are looking for a high efficiency speaker that is as dynamic as it is easy to drive it is hard to go wrong with the De Capo more so when you consider the surprisingly strong low end response. Biggest criticism is that they are incredibly ugly and with a $ 3200 list price I don’t know that I would consider them as outstanding value. One thing I can say is that once you move away from a crossover I can’t say I would ever want to go back and would likely look for a larger pair of Reference 3A’s in my other system. I greatly enjoy how they sound and find on most any type of music they are lively and engaging. What more can you ask of a compact monitor that can even make a flea powered tube amp belay its own size?
