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Arriving at my perfect system for the B10 meant evaluating each of my more powerful amplifiers. That whittled things down. The ModWright KWA-100SE was clearly best. Then came the preamp. The most winning from my stable of Bent Audio Tap-X, Esoteric C-03 and ModWright LS-100 was (perhaps not entirely surprising?) the ModWright. M squared. After I'd updated the AURALiC Ark MX+ converter to the latest 5.22 driver as per the designer's recommendation to increase performance on my OSX platform—installing said driver very strangely relies on Windows still—it took the Hong Kong machine slightly beyond my customary April Music Eximus DP1 at least in this context.
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The final review system thus became my AIFF-loaded 27" quad-core iMac with PureMusic 1.82 in preallocated hybrid memory play; the Ark MX+ converter with Entreq USB cable; and ModWright LS-100 and KWA-100SE for amplification. Cabling was my usual front-to-back Zu Event loom with a GigaWatt conditioner for the front end and a passive Furutech for the amp.
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AURALiC's control panel in four windows for i/o channels, synchronisation and settings
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The next order of business was fixing just the right physical location for the Boenickes. That's always relative to both the room dimensions and listening seat. Because these wideband woofers fire sideways, they interact with your space a bit differently than conventional. To overcome riding a pronounced room node—a narrow mid/upper bass range boomed—I swapped the original lower-woofer-outward orientation. I figured that sidewall+floor reflections might compound less if the woofers facing the walls sat higher to reduce floor bounce. Bingo. My final location also grew a bit narrower to increase sidewall distance; and a bit closer to the front wall to increase chair distance. Make no mistake, twin 10-inch woofers per side here generate true bass. Having such full-range high-output bass play the room optimally takes care with setup. A laser distance tool and bubble level are all the hardware you need for that. Add time for experimentation, shake and stir. The SwingBases made final leveling ultra convenient.
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Let's return to the flat diaphragm mid/tweeters. Their off-axis response is a definitive highlight. It goes far to explain the brilliant image specificity and ambient dimensionality this speaker owns in its back pocket. HF dispersion is such that even sitting in front of one speaker spaced widely from the other doesn't have the stereo image collapse completely into it. That makes for a usefully wide sweet spot and as such a more social listening furniture. The speaker also stages taller than its petite dimensions would let on. A violinist standing has the fiddle appear at realistic height. Even so best treble performance does occur when you sit down in your dedicated chair rather than listen on your feet.
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On extreme upper harmonic richness or tintinnabulation, Sven's 4-inch tweeter of choice does not exhibit the same stratospheric shimmer as Franck Tchang's resonator-enhanced Dynaudio Esotar clone in the ASI Tango or Stavros Danos' Raal ribbon in the Aries Cerat Gladius. To conjure up an image of minute low-level rustling which constantly changes location—think Pat Metheny's famous Offramp track—this doesn't diminish the acuity of tiny batwing flutters. It simply affects the endlessness and energy of particularly cymbal and triangle decays. Instead of cool platinum brilliance, the mood of Boenicke's treble is just a tad more burnished or heavy. Minuscule clicketty clacks of shakers or other percussive noises are very keen and perfectly anchored in three dimensions. They and upper piano registers which were captured deliberately tinkly simply lack the glassy silvery elements which other top tweeters show are actually recorded. Boenicke's tweeters with their Jack Bybee inline filters and phase compensation circuit have been stripped of zippiness to perhaps seem not 100% illuminated by comparison. Yet the obvious removal of otherwise pervasive electro grunge and subliminal grit adds a higher sort of intelligibility and finesse back into the mix which one might otherwise miss.
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Even so I desired just a skoch more. As final system tweak I thus engaged PureMusic's 64-bit software math in maximum-fidelity mode to 176.4kHz upsampling. Even though the AURALiC automatically upsamples 44.1kHz data to 176.4kHz, feeding it already upsampled signal created a subtly more elucidated and sophisticated treble in the source. I didn't ask why or how but simply acknowledged the effect.
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Let's talk tone next. Where audiophiles invoke harmonic distortion products, acousticians view tone as a function of the ratio between direct and reflected sounds. One real-world example is playing bathroom Pavarotti after you've moved. Once that highly reflective small space gets damped down by hanging towels, mats, shower curtains, plants and shelves, your voice returns to normal. Its enhanced prior richness is diminished or extinguished altogether. By design the sidefiring B10 energizes the ambient field more than a speaker which radiates forward exclusively. Tone here isn't merely a function of premium drivers, excellent rear-wave dissipation, good time domain behavior, esoteric tweaks and a non-resonant cabinet. It's a function of energizing the room differently.
The shallow high-pass has the tweeters operate well into the midrange. All the pinpoint imaging cues our ears look to the high frequencies for remain unaffected by the deliberately more omnipolar radiation of the overlapping mid/woofers. The upshot is a slightly richer ambient mix which unlike true omnis à la Duevel maintains all the 3D accuracy an expertly tuned modern hifi speaker with minimalist filter is expected to deliver. This tonefulness is simply independent from valves and their strategic alteration of THD weighting. This tonefulness is due to the speaker playing the room more 'actively'. It lacks the thickening effects of 2nd-order tube-derived artifacts which particularly with complex music always assert themselves as congealing. I think of what the Boenicke delivers as truer tone.
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| The very brilliant score card of this speaker comes at a price not only to the wallet. Its nearly shocking bass capabilities from such a small box mean low efficiency. My amp swaps also suggest quite the appetite for current. Powerful amps thus become mandatory. If Sven's own Italian-sourced Powersoft D-Cell amp is as good as claimed, those needn't be that expensive. |
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Even so
the price to pay still is less than ultimate alertness at very low volumes. Here the recently reviewed 97dB Rethm Maarga was clearly more capable and in its element. It was fully awake earlier on the dial. For Boenicke's B10 you'll want levels I'd find a bit higher than psychologically right for 6:00 or 23:00 sessions with townhouse neighbors. This is a common proviso for the high-power/low-efficiency amp/speaker concept. It's neither exclusive to the B10 nor intrinsically wrong. It simply warrants stating for the sake of completeness.
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B for bodacious. Whilst beauty must remain in the eye of the beholder, I find it nearly impossible to imagine how anyone would not accord Boenicke's cosmetics very high marks. Form factor, dimensional compactness and furniture-grade execution all come together in ways I find supremely attractive. It's arguably the least speakerish looking speaker I've ever hosted. Where the industrial design team at corporate giant Bang & Olufsen tends to go for the cooler more futuristic executive look, Sven Boenicke has—very successfully I think—tapped into something warmer. More human. More living room. You'll have your own response of course. I simply find it relevant to reiterate that very much to its own detriment high-end hifi routinely underestimates the visual lifestyle factor. Here Audiomanufacture Boenicke's efforts are to be applauded loudly.
B for ballsy. The sonic takeaway from this review should be a threesome of qualities:
• unbelievably specific hologrammatic ambient retrieval with spectacular soundstage width and particularly depth;
• truer tone from a more realistic in-room blend of reflected and direct sound plus superior drivers, minimalist filter, clever rear-wave dissipation and esoteric built-in tweaks;
• shockingly potent sealed sub bass from what amounts to a ca. 14-inch compound woofer per side to require high-current power to properly control.
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B for bold. Sven Boenicke's B10 is an unabashedly costly truly full-range high-performance speaker with a surprisingly compact 'non-techno' form factor. It goes after a particularly sophisticated customer of obvious means. Said customer not only recognizes truly advanced sound but admires and insists on equally advanced décor-friendly cosmetics. Said customer also has outgrown the common trappings of trophy hifi to find satisfaction without the usual endorsements of much press, easy sampling opportunities, physical stature and obviously exotic drivers. While transistor amps will likely be preferable into this load, the discussed truer tone from more omnipolar partial dispersion doesn't rely on tubes to assert itself. In short, this is a luxurious small floorstander of jewel-case spine width that sounds exceptionally big as though it were a combination of mini monitor for soundstaging and manly sarcophagus for low-frequency extension and weight. |
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Quality of packing: Very good.
Reusability of packing: A few times.
Ease of unpacking/repacking: Quite easy. This speaker isn't heavy.
Condition of component received: Flawless.
Completeness of delivery: Perfect.
Human interactions: Good.
Pricing: Seemingly high but relative to performance still very competitive.
Final comments & suggestions: Sven Boenicke is a very small artisanal speaker builder. This type of operation often entails slower production and longer delivery times. In this case the cabinets are available in various combinations of wood species and the speaker can be had passive (with a minimum filter) or active (no high-pass filter) to approach custom work. Interested parties should probably anticipate a concomitant waiting period.
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