Well, finally the time has come to bring to the market a floorstander with a 7" fullrange driver.
We have started 10 years ago with 8” Supravox drivers – a classic size for a full range drivers.
For many years since fifties it has been the standard size – a sort of best balance for bass, midrange and high frequency reproduction – with the whizzer or a second cone for highs - think of the Philips 9710 for example.
After we put our ears on the EMS LB12 driver – the 12“ piece of art by Michel Fertin, in 2016 we introduced Vigo, our flagship loudspeaker, first with ferrite magnet driver then with field coil magnet.
Next in 2017 came Allegra – again with 8” EMS LB8 with ferrite and subsequently with field coil version.
Finally our last baby was the little OGY – first bookshelf model debuted in 2021.
Now in 10th anniversary of Closer Acoustics we are launching the smallest so far floor standing loudspeaker with 7” EMS LB7 driver.
It is a very interesting driver with resonant frequency of 40Hz, going up to 18kHz without and addition of a whizzer. Moving mass 6,5 gr, Qts 0,215, Vas 56 L and efficiency of 94dB.
I was considering several designs for the cabinet and within it few sizes. Eventually, I stayed with our in house specialty – the distributed resonance cabinet – the same principle used for Vigo and Allegra, Adam and Eva. Ogy is of course a pure transmission line.
We landed with 42 liters volume, 1m height, 20 cm width, 34 cm depth.
So what the distributed resonance cabinet is all about?
An excellent acoustic efficiency of the driver and low level of distortion. Internal damping of the rear sound wave is realized by direct dissipation due to the air viscosity and the combination of systems of waves presenting phase differences – the result is an excellent reproduction of transients – standing waves are very well controlled.
How is it done? By a system of two channels in which the back wave travels inside of the cabinet. The two channels have a different shapes length and volume. The acoustic energy travels in opposite directions in both internal channels and then dissipates when the two ends meet.
You can see the internals of this speaker in the short video “Assembly of the Forlane” on our YouTube channel.
The sound is clean and airy, especially the low frequencies are restituted with a true naturalness.
Try to listen to the real live double bass, then one of our distributed resonance loudspeakers and finally a bass reflex loudspeaker… you’ll understand the difference.
Why another floor standing loudspeaker?
Because it is the smallest one but most certainly because the EMS LB7 is an excellent driver that deserved a distributed resonance cabinet to let it shine at the fullest extent. This 7” transducer has a very good speed, it is very linear in the critical range. There is no whizzer so there is less distortion in high frequencies. It is not as detailed and fast like LB5 used in OGY, but as always there are some compromises to be made. Here we have more body in sound in the lower midrange.
What we’ve known already for long time is that with fullrange – single driver loudspeakers the extreme ends frequency range are somehow limited, these are not designed for listening with very high level of sound as they tend to saturate and produce distortions. To some extend the same applies to standard loudspeakers with dome membranes. For very loud listening good compression drivers in well designed horns or waveguides are best suited – and these are found in pro audio systems and some audiophile speakers like DeVille - Fleetwood by OMA for an excellent example.
The best single driver loudspeakers are kings of coherence and imaging. Point source of sound makes them disappearing in the room. The feeling of being enveloped with sound is overwhelming. Again with the best you can get a very natural, true sound of instruments and vocals. Also usually high efficiency makes them ideal partners for tube amplifiers and above all low power tube amplifiers like single ended triode ones.
The musicality is their second name. And the Forlane lives in this corner of the audio universe.
While writing this blog entry I am listening to …Nothing like the Sun by Sting with Forlane and it is a treat – I did not listen to it for years and now all those details come to me with incredible reality… What a record it is!
Forlane - what this name come from?
That is very interesting. As usual it has something to do with my musical interests and choices.
It is a name of a solo dance for a female dancer with beautiful and very complicated choreography. It originates in the Friulli – a region in northern Italy. It was popular in XVII century and danced often during the carnival in Venise. You can see the story on the Cracovia Danza YouTube channel, charmingly explained and presented by Romana Agnel - it is in Polish but with English subtitles - the dance does not need to be translated fortunately. Please do watch, because it is definitely worth it.
But how come I found it… Well one of my most favorite composers is Maurice Ravel and in my music library one of the very first CDs with classical music I bought in the early nineties is Decca Sir Georg Solti with The Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Le Tombeau de Couperin composed by Maurice Ravel.
This piece of music is a tribute to François Couperin Le Grand the harpsichord virtuoso and the court musician of the the famous French king Louis XIV. Ravel wrote it in 1917 as a suite for piano in six parts: Prélude, Fugue, Forlane, Rigoudon, Menuet and Toccata. As a master of orchestration in 1919 he orchestrated Le Tombeau de Couperin (excluding Fuga and Toccata).
Le Tombeau de Couperin orchestrated by Ravel is one of most exquisite and refined piece of music I know. If by any chance you don't know it here is a very nice performance mit Paavo Järvi | NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester
The Forlane itself is inspired by the Forlane – the last part of The Quatrième Concert Royale written by François Couperin for Luis XIV who summoned Couperin "almost every Sunday of the year" to play the music. Royal Concerts were written as a small chamber concerts for harpsicord, flute, oboe, viola and bassoon.
Forlane seems to be just perfect keystone connecting all the threads together.
I wish you could enjoy it in the philharmonic. You can also Take Live Music Home with Closer Acoustics audio set up.
Don’t be mislead the Closer Acoustics Forlane is able to perform a very vast repertoire, not only such an oneirique like Le Tombeau…
Jazz and classical are more than obvious. All good recordings (except any heavy metal and related universe) will sound good with Forlane at the reasonable volume. The above mentioned Nothing like the Sun to begin with… Massive Attack, Portishead, chillout and ambient, film scores, electronic music, R&B, Soul, classic rock and pop, blues, folk and ethnic music …
So here it is, Forlane:
94 db efficiency
Impedance - 8 Ohm
Power - 30 W
Single driver- EMS LB7
No crossover or filters.
WBT-0703 Cu Nextgen pole terminals
Height 112 cm – with the base plinth
Width 20 cm
Depth 34 cm
all the best
Jacek Grodecki