Benue   Floorstanding as in Newsletter

Technical data
  • impedance: 6 Ohm
  • sensivity (2,83V/1m): 89 dB
  • size (HxWxD): 1000 x 200 x 220 mm
  • frequency range (-8dB): 38 - 32000 Hz
  • crossover frequency(s): 2600 Hz
  • speaker type: bass reflex
Enlarge

Descriptiom

The French manufacturer Focal is well-renowned for making splendid drivers. Those with a "W" membrane deserve special attention. These handmade high-end drivers perform well, inside and outside the testing lab. In our listening studio, the six-incher 6W4359 demonstrated its capabilities. It's not often that we experience such a spacious and three-dimensional sound. The music appears to be simply detached from the loudspeakers, hovering in space. Our lab measurements confirm our listening impressions. The waterfall plot and the distortion spectra are faultless. The frequency response proved linear to an extraordinary degree.

The Benue is a small floor-stander at barely one meter height. This speaker comes with high-value components, providing for a very good price to performance ratio. The combination of the Focal "W" driver and an air motion transformer by Audaphon turned out to be an excellent symbiosis with a beautiful sense of musicality, good rendering of space and splendid resolution of details.

Enclosure construction

The "W" membrane of the Focal 6W4359 consists of a hard foam stabilized by several layers of glass fibre. This driver puts out a remarkable deep bass in a bass reflex enclosure of only 26 litres. But the special treat of the Focal driver is its detailed reproduction of the mids, combined with the exemplary deep bass output. Its sensitivity of 88 dB with a response down do 37 Hz (at -8 dB) are very good for a loudspeaker of this size.

Crossover

Enlarge

The Benue has a quite straightforward crossover. Its Audaphon AMT air motion transformer is running via a third-order filter and the Focal driver yields best results at a second-order filter. The illustration shows the frequency response plots of the Audaphon AMT driven directly (the black curve) and via its crossover (the blue curve). The 3rd order filter is implemented with just three components. The two capacitors of 3,9 µF and 10 µF, connected in series, should be selected as high quality ones, staying tightly within their specification values.

Enlarge

This diagram shows the Focal driver with the 2nd order filter without the LC attenuation circuit (in black) and with the LC attenuation circuit (in blue). Three components parallel to the driver reduce the bulge at 1,500 Hz by 4 dB. By means of this attenuation circuit, any kind of music will sound balanced and coherent through the Benue loudspeakers. All instruments are located in the right place. With live recordings, listeners of the Benue may feel like being back at the venue.

Enlarge

The Benue comes with another peculiarity of construction. Before the AMT tweeter, a third capacitor is wired in series. This capacitor causes a 3 dB rise in the treble from 15,000 Hz onwards, improving especially the off-axis response. In particular the measurement at 30 degrees off-axis proves how even the directionality of the Benue is. And the capacitor improves the resolution of fine detail as well. The diagram displays the Benue's frequency response without the tweeter capacitor (in black) and with it (in blue).

Here you find all measurements of the Benue: Benue measurements

The sound

The Benue excels at playing music in a fleshed-out and spacious way. Only on a few occasions do we listen to loudspeakers in our studio that display the positions of single instruments in an orchestra so precisely. We are just thrilled by such a vivid sound, and it comes with details and splendid image localization, too.

Summing up

If you're looking for a speaker with a modest footprint that provides the sound of a grown-up floorstander, you may have found it in the Benue. For a long time we had not heard such layers of detail and such a precise localization of sounds. Besides, the benue is also an excellent choice for tube amp lovers.

Our kit consists of

  • air motion transformer Audaphon AMT-2i
  • Focal woofer 6W4359
  • PE sealing tape, 5x2 mm
  • Damping Sonofil 100 x 35 cm for 20 litres
  • Binding Post PK31, gold plated (one pair, red and black)
  • 3m Speaker cable 2x1.5 mm2, transparent
  • Pan screws 4x20 black, cross recess, 4 pieces
  • Plan for DIY kit

the crossover components (right),
to be mounted on a small wooden board.
  • Audaphon MKT CAP 10 μF / 160 Vdc
  • Audaphon MKT CAP 15 μF / 160 Vdc
  • Audaphon MKP CAP Superior 1.0 μF / 400 Vdc
  • Audaphon MKP CAP Superior 3.9 μF / 400 Vdc
  • Audaphon MKP CAP Superior 10 μF / 400 Vdc
  • 0.7 mm air core coil, 0.39 mH/0.49 Ohm
  • 0.7 mm air core coil, 2.2 mH/1.3 Ohm
  • 1.4 mm air core coil, 1.2 mH/0.33 Ohm
  • Metal-oxide resistor, 10W 5.6 Ohm (green-blue-gold)
  • Metal-oxide resistor, 10W 15 Ohm (brown-green-black)

Kit without cabinet, price per speaker   - not available

Kit with high-end crossover

  • air motion transformer Audaphon AMT-2i
  • woofer Focal 6W4359
  • PE sealing tape, 5x2 mm
  • Damping Sonofil 100 x 35 cm for 20 litres
  • Binding Post PK28 I, gold plated (one pair, red and black)
  • 3m Speaker cable 2x1.5 mm2, transparent
  • Pan screws 4x20 black, cross recess, 4 pieces
  • Plan for DIY kit

the crossover components (right),
to be mounted on a small wooden board.
  • ClarityCap PWA capacitor 10 μF / 160 Vdc
  • ClarityCap PWA capacitor 15 μF / 160 Vdc
  • ClarityCap ESA capacitor 1 μF / 250 Vdc
  • ClarityCap ESA capacitor 3.9 μF / 250 Vdc
  • ClarityCap ESA capacitor 10 μF / 250 Vdc
  • Mundorf air core coil L71, 2.2 mH/1.3 Ohm
  • Mundorf baked varnish air core coil BL71, 0.39 mH/0.51 Ohm
  • Mundorf copper foil coil CFC16-1.2mH/0.38Ohm
  • Metal-oxide resistor, 10W 5.6 Ohm (green-blue-gold)
  • Metal-oxide resistor, 10W 15 Ohm (brown-green-black)

Kit with high-end crossover without cabinet, price per speaker   - not available

Impedance correction

If you want to use a valve amplifier with this speaker an impedance correction should be employed. In this case the component quality is less important; therefore, we offer only one kit (upon request higher quality components are available).


Price per impedance correction for one speaker, to be mounted on a small wooden board.     EUR 12,10 excl. VAT: € 10.17 / $ 10.88 Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge

Home