New Bookshelf Speakers With Serious Buzz......

The Buchardt Audio S400 bookshelf speakers (Danish design with overseas manufacturing) are creating some serious buzz as the "best" speaker to buy in the $2000 US price range. Smart design features include inert cabinet, tweeter with diffraction / phase wave guide, robust 6" woofer and a 5X8 passive radiator.
Specs list the bass rolloff frequency at a seriously robust 33 Hz!
Passive radiator bookshelf designs are becoming a trend again, as witnessed by the new Definitive Technologies range which do offer impressively good bass for their size.

I am not in the market for speakers but if I were these seem like winners.
Anxiously awaiting hearing these locally as soon as possible (if possible! )

 

I'm seriously considering a pair of the S300's as my next speaker purchase.

 

Yeah, I keep hearing about these. I'd buy a pair but I'm chest-deep in speakers as it is. Anyone want to buy a pair of perfect Wayne Piquet original Quads with maple ends?

 

"Overseas" means China? Just to clarify...

 

Some of the parts are made in China, final assembly is in Denmark.

 

Better.

 

Interesting speaker.

 

They seem to have a smart combo of design features. The woofer appears to be borrowed from Revel's Performa series - looks identical.

My hunch is that it's a very "accurate" speaker.

 

much more bass than the typical "accurate" speaker. these things are very intriguing, even the lower models.

 

The thread title seems to imply defective speakers. I wouldn't be happy if my speakers had a "serious buzz".

 

That's exactly the meaning I got from the thread title.

 

I listened to these speakers at the UK North West Audio Show a few months ago and was seriously impressed with them. The guys from Buchardt who were demoing them were very friendly and let me choose which tracks I wanted to hear through them. I put on Amused to Death by Roger Waters, which is a very well engineered album to begin with, however I would go as far as saying it was the best I have ever heard that album sound. The soundstage was so incredibly wide and deep, instrument placement was spot on, and vocals were so centrally placed it was as if there was a hidden centre speaker. The UK price is something in the region of £1600, which is astonishing value given their performance. The guys from Buchardt explained that they sell direct to consumer to achieve this price - cutting out distributors, dealers, etc. This does make auditioning the speakers a little difficult - I believe you would have to buy them to hear them in your own home, however they have a no-quibble returns policy if you decide you don't like them.

 

Just so happens last week I convinced the wife (using equal parts persuasion and guilt ) it’s time to ditch the Sony soundbar on the TV and upgrade to monitors....so I pulled the trigger on the S400’s. My plan is to use them in a modest 3 channel Home Theatre setup, and occasionally insert them in the main system. My gut tells me from what I’ve researched the S400’s are going to be special. Anyway Buchardt offers a $ back warranty. Fingers crossed

 

Unless something has changed recently, that was just the preorders. Their regular production is in China; as outlined here, at Hansong (not that I have a problem with it).

 

Buchardt gets lots of love here in Scandinavia. I have heard them at two audio shows in Stockholm. First listen the 300 model was paired with electronics from Line Magnetic and they sounded pretty decent for the price especially the bass and considering the asking price.

This year at Stockholm high end show I was really confused when I heard the Buchardts ( I have forgotten which model that was demoed). They were paired with very low end electronics the amp were possibly even a chip amp from China. The source material came from Spotify. Yes, it sounded like crud. I suppose the exhibitors wanted to show faith in their product and make a statement that electronics does not play as much when you use our speakers. Which is really puzzling or audacious. To be fair I heard many visitors show keen interest in the Buchardt speakers.

On a side note the 300 model was reviewed very early by Z reviews on Youtube. He's still raving about them when he reviews speakers.

 

When I read the title I thought that you got some brand new speakers and they were buzzing....lol...I noticed others read it that way too... please continue.

 

Did you ever get these? Can you share your experience?

 

I ordered the s400’s a month ago and they should be here by end of January or early February. Very excited to hear them; I will let you know what I think.

 

The black version is listed as "Sold Out", which I find odd. I sent them an email two weeks ago asking about that with no response!!!

 

Not really. Manufacturing standards and QA are the arbiter not country.

 

It does look like a fantastic speaker. I have issue with the stated 33Hz bass extension figure though. I tried to ask them how many dB down that figure is, and they (while very nice and quick to respond) wouldn’t give me a straight answer and pointed me to the measurements instead. If you look at the measurements on their website, it seems like 33Hz is -10dB which is not very useful. The more standard -3dB figure looks more in the ~47Hz range. That’s still great bass response for small speaker, and you you could probably get a little deeper with proper placement (assuming these measurements are anechoic). Misleading frequency response specifications is just one of my pet peeves!

On the bright side, I did learn from my emails with Mads that they are coming out with an active speaker in the near future!

 

Fantastic!

 

I would also consider these:

Sierra-1 Bamboo Loudspeaker

They seem very comparable, but the Sierras are made in the US and quite a bit cheaper (and on sale right now). You could probably even find a pair of Sierra-2s for around the same price as the S300.

I’ll admit they don’t look nearly as sleek as the Buchardts though!

 

Mads said they have 400 prs. of blk. in production but it will be about 3 months. Also on the actives they sound like they will be pretty impressive but at a price of over 4k he said. Got back to me same day. These are on my short list also.

 

Anyone has these yet? what are you / will you be driving them with?