To start at the proper beginning, there's the 20cm cellulose pulp driver with its secret inclusions. Those added ingredients in the paper recipe eliminate the need for subsequent surface treatments which Galm and Gerhard say can overdamp micro detail. The driver's moving mass is a low 10 grams, "1/5
th to 1/10
th of equivalent woofers" to act dynamically very aspirated.
Its whizzer cone surrounds a wooden phase plug. The magnet is Alnico, the motor's pole cap encased in copper to avoid rising inductivity with frequency which extends the HF response. This twin-cone driver loads into a 44-liter bass reflex box with a QB3 tuning at 55Hz. Its front and rear baffles borrow from BBC convention—think Harbeth and Spendor today—by not being glued but screwed to the carcass using intermediary rubber bands for decoupling. The four-layer construction of 18mm Ply, heavy foil, damping layer and coconut mat is said to increase rigidity and reduce acoustic leakage over the BBC's traditional two layers.
The box is otherwise unbraced to avoid upshifted resonance modes. The voicing deliberately includes remaining box talk as a "quasi additional membrane in the lower midrange". The rear-firing port faces the driver's back to decompress it and raise overall efficiency. Interior surfaces are lined with a roll of coconut fiber and polyester. Three Mundorf parts become response correction filter by linearizing Ω to maximize sensitivity.
Final response is given as 40Hz to 25kHz -3dB. Linearity is a promised ±2dB from 50Hz to 15kHz. Nominal impedance is 8Ω, power handling is 50 watts, 2.85V/1W sensitivity is 95dB. The 59 x 34 x 31.4cm box is available in Macassar, Oak, Zebrano or Walnut with high-gloss black front and rear. The grill is either anthracite or beige. Stands from
BFly Audio co-designed with Joachim are available in a variety of materials and designs.
Cynics insisting that in his graying years Joachim must have gone soft pursuing a purist widebander whose driver development he was personally involved in will take note of his current Tangram model below.