Ελληνικά
Acapella is best known about their unique horn loaded large speakers with plasma tweeters. Outside Germany it may not be so well known that the manufacturer has got also a line of products consisting conventional designs with excellent performance. Harlekin is Acapella's latest addition to their range of "affordable" speakers.
Acapella is best known about their unique horn loaded large speakers with plasma tweeters. Outside Germany it may not be so well known that the manufacturer has got also a line of products consisting conventional designs with excellent performance. Harlekin is Acapella's latest addition to their range of "affordable" speakers.
It obviously took a while from Alfred Rudolph and Herman Winters to develop this speaker. Harlekin debuted at the 2001 Frankfurt High End Exhibition. It took a year before the production model ended up to our review bench.
Harlekin meets very tough competition in it's price class against a range of excellent recent designs on this price range.
Acapella Harlekin is a two-way, sealed design. There's a separate cabinet for the mid/bass range and for the tweeter. The tweeter housing has a frontplate with a very small area. The structure of the bass/mid range cabinet is exceptionally rigid.
260 mm Mid/Bass drivers are manufactured by SEAS. The tweeter, a 26 mm soft dome is manufactured by Dynaudio.
The crossover has been placed into it's own housing inside the mid/woofer cabinet. Very little technical details are available about the crossover, but we found out that the design is very simplistic with a crossover point at about 3000 Hz. Only a single wired version is currently available.
The High Harlekin is a special version with silver foil inductors and internal wires, all of this with a substantial extra price. We used the "regular" version for this review with copper wiring.
During my listening sessions I found the best position for the speakers at a 4 meters distance from the listener in an equidistant triangle, ca 1,5 meters from the rear wall.
Like all Acapellas I'm familiar with, the Harlekins are extremely sensitive with all accompanied components on the chain -- cables and electronics. For instance, with a low-end interconnects and a generic power cords of the electronics, the speaker had a tendency to emphasize upper bass range. When cables were replaced to more appropriate type, this deviation almost, but not entirely, settled.
If you find these speakers let you down, you probably have to seek cure for rest of the system.
In terms of large orchestra playback, brass and timpani on March Triumphal on Edward Elgar's opera Charactacus, exposed masterful orchestration in it's full scope and glory. Soundstage was very wide at the same time it was well in focus., Harlekins performed visceral impact of this work with flying marks, which is, by the way, quite an achievement.
Resolution was in the same league as with the best designs I have heard with the tight, multilayered sonic texture of this work.
Regarding transparency and naturalness of the sound, Harlekin's were capable to produce discrete and delicate sound of period instruments and vocals, particularily on the Bach/ Morimur (ECM) in a way which was next to a live performance.
I liked a lot how millions of distinct tones of the cymbals and percussions on the Niels Henning Oerstedt-Pedersen's ingenious album Friends Forever were reproduced, yet I might have heard even more details with the ring radiator and plasma tweeter designs.
On the opening track, For Kenny, piano hammer attack revealed accuracy being very close to what it ought to be.
On Diana Krall's Love Scenes vocals there was no sign for sibilance, neither dullness. Miss Krall become very well present in the listening room.
George Duke's After Hours is a test for speakers' bass and dynamic response. Harlekin produced clean, slightly warmish, controlled and resolute bass -- with a minor reservation:
During the tuning of the system for this review I found Harlekin's upper bass region more forward than ideal. We found that the culprit were the intrconnects, obviously not upto level this speaker would require.
Changing the cords into better, more neutral type, changed most of this symptom. Though, at times, I had a gut feeling having double bass playing slightly differently I preferred would have heard it.
Slightly hot upper bass may lead to a strength many might appreciate: Harlekin has got a distinct, warm appearance on the midrange with rich harmonics. Overall the sound reminds me the big, horn loaded Acepellas. Perhaps this may be called as a sonic signature of Herman Winter's products in positive sense.
When compared Harlekin against one of it's fierce competitor, the venerable Audio Physic Virgo 3, I found Harlekin being capable to present large orchestra more convincingly in terms of the orchestra's physical size.
Another sonic charecteristic of the Harlekin was, that it painted sonic landscape with wider, more expressive brushstrokes than the Virgo 3, which I found in it's part, more accurate in small details of the sonic texture. Besides being capable to reproduce more minor details, Virgo 3 created perhaps more air around the instruments.
Overall sound: the chorus had a very rich tonal character - Great; vocals were full bodied and very natural. Piano had slightly warm, romantic klang instead of being hard and steely. Guitars and strings were both very natural, but warmish. Brass was ok, but not as excuberant as the ring radiators and Ion tweeters were capable to reproduce. The large orchestras were resolute with a slight warmish signature.
Balance: Silky and smooth higher end, rich and balanced midrange. Upper lows are slightly hot bringing richness and forwardness for vocals, which many will like.
Lower register is warmish, but still controlled and articulate. Roll of starts at ca 45 Hz
Transparency was very good - instruments presence was imminent, however I hesitate to give an "reference" grade in this as some of the current designs are capable to create even more air around the instruments with even less veil between the speakers and the listener.
Resolution - was very good, but there are designs I have heard even more low level details.
Treble as I found it, was silky and smooth without a sign of sibilance. Again, I might have heard even more resolute treble with ring radiators or the plasma tweeters, latter in an Acapella system with significantly higher price.
Midrange - very rich, full bodied. Female vocals sounded natural, but slightly hot. They were brought to more forward than I might have used to. There was no hint of nasality nor sibilance. Male vocals were full bodied and powerful as one should expect.
Bass was warmish, still articulate and controlled. Upper bass region at 200-350 Hz had a tendency to come up to the front of the stage than was ideal. I found this as a minor shade in the speaker's very neutral tonal balance.
The lowest bass in Harlekins dies out as low as 35-40 Hz, so there's no need for subwoofer.
Transient response sounded fast with a hint of warmness in piano attack. Overall, no complaints in this area.
Dynamics is one of the particular strenghts of this speaker, would summarize this with one word: Excellent
Soundstaging was large: wide deep, very well in focus. however the result is very sensitive with the listening position. Provided placing is correct, the system provides a very holographic, focused image.
Visceral impact was excellent in absolute terms, regardless of speakers physical size.
Acapella Harlekins produced rich, warm and detailed sound with very good soundstaging capability.
Just like the other Acapellas I have reviewed, it was a pure pleasure to listem them with any kind of music. They are truly all-round performers doing well from intimate solo music to large orchestras from jazz to rock and everything between.
A safe bet for music lovers - recommended.
| Κατασκευαστής | Acapella |
|---|---|
| Τιμή Καταλόγου | 8.900,00 € |
| Δρόμοι ηχείου: | 2 |
| Ευαισθησία: | 89 |
| Αντίσταση: | 8 ohms |
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