Now
these are loudspeakers that were built to make a statement—a
musical impression not easily forgotten by anyone who has seen
and heard them in operation.
Headed
by Canadian Lars Hansen, the company began research and
development of the “King” about two years ago. The design
goal was to create a no-hold-barred transducer that eliminates
the most troublesome elements in the loudspeaker manufacturing
business — cabinet resonance, driver complement and crossover
problems. Hansen decided to do it right, beginning with the
enclosures. However, before we get to the nitty gritty, a little
about Hansen’s interesting background.
He
became an audio enthusiast in the late 1960’s, while still in
his teens. As did many young folks at the time, he bought a
Dynaco PAT- 4 preamp with a Dynaco Stereo 120 power amp, Dynaco
speakers and a top of the line Dual turntable with a Shure V15
cartridge. Hansen states that he was hooked and began upgrading
and spending a lot of money on audio gear (while his friends
were buying cars). One of those upgrades was to the Dahlquist
DQ10 speaker in the mid 1970’s. He loved the speaker and
realized that he had become an audiophile. As he became more
aware of reproduced sound, he realized the many problems that
plagued loudspeaker designers and began thinking about building
the perfect loudspeaker.
After
graduating from university, Hansen formally studied electronics
and acoustics, which prompted the design of the first line of
loudspeakers in the late 1970s. The product line was called
Legacy (no relationship to the current company or products now
being produced) and it became the foundation for understanding,
designing and manufacturing.
Later
he became involved in the business end of the industry and began
to drift away from design work. In the early nineties Hansen
returned to the speaker industry and eventually became President
of the Dahlquist Corporation—the company that started his
passion for loudspeaker design many years before (Dahlquist
himself had long since sold his company). He headed the project
to design the new DQ10, which was shown at CES in Las Vegas.
However, it soon became evident that the corporation was not
going to fund the transition to high-end audio, the direction
taken with the new DQ10. Hansen left and founded Hansen Audio, a
new company that aims to produce only the finest products.
Hanson assembled an “incredible” team and, with solid
financial backing from "well heeled" partners,
launched “an all-out assault on building the very best speaker
in the world— no compromise”.
Now
on to the Hansen Audio the Kings…
Appearance:
Lars
Hansen wanted resonance free enclosures that would appeal to
folks with an eye for art. He consulted with an accomplished
graphic designer who presented a graceful, elegant design,
different from the traditional panel construction. The
enclosures had to be a free-flowing design to prevent any
diffraction distortion, as well as dispersion coherent and
acoustically and electrically phase correct. The Kings’ shape
meets both technical and aesthetic standards. Five feet four
inches tall, the enclosures can not be disregarded in any
set-up. However, the finish is far superior even to the finishes
one may find in fine furniture. The shape of the loudspeakers,
their smoothness, size and “feel” is almost sensuous, in
terms of satisfying the audio beast in ‘philes. They are
completely finished and look amazingly regal from all angles.
Finishes are customized for the end-user, although we only saw
the silver finish, which reminded us of the high-end colour and
finishes used by Mercedes Benz. We understand that each
enclosure is what the company calls a "Hansen Audio Class
A"—a multi-step “fine wet sanding” technique used
after each preliminary step and a final clear coat finish that
can’t be forgotten. Only two solid binding post on the Kings’
bottom rear remind us that this is a loudspeaker, not a
statue.
Technology:
This is where it gets really interesting. Hansen began with the
cone material for the woofers and midband drivers. These cones
are made from multi-layered esoteric materials that result in
the best prevention of sound wave deformity. The cones are
suspended with precision-made, real rubber surrounds in
specially designed (Hansen Architecture) frames. The cones are
perfectly placed and attached to a powerful motor assembly to
ensuring the fastest possible attack and the quickest recovery
time while operating in an accurate, piston-like environment.
The
in-house designed and built drivers are optimized to suit their
applications, but also matched to the 25mm high performance
tweeter—a precision unit made for Hansen. Along with the
tweeter, two 269mm woofers and two 182mm mid band drivers are
used in each enclosure (each driver is easily capable of
operating two octaves beyond its crossover points, both high and
low). This eliminates potential problems with "off the
shelf" or "modified" drivers that, as a rule, do
not match perfectly. The King uses a simple first order
crossover design, as it doesn’t have to function as a
"fix" within the system components. High grade
components and silver conductors are used throughout the
point-to-point wired and hand soldered crossover. Hansen states
that the resulting sound quality is as uncorrupted as possible.
Crossover points are 250Hz and 2,500Hz.
In
our opinion the real feat was accomplished with the enclosure
design. Hansen has incorporated all his own ideas with what he
learned over the years to produce what we see as the perfect
enclosure which we believe to be the most important factor to
attain a neutral, none-inhibiting environment for the drivers.
The enclosure material is stronger and more durable than
conventional wood products, but the most important element is
solidity and inertness. Hansen approached this by practically
inventing and developing a new material—the Hansen Composite
Matrix material. It took many months of R&D to find the “right
stuff”—a secret compound, known only to the Hansen folks.
The Kings enclosures use multiple layers with each layer
consisting of up to six different components. Each layer is hand
applied into the dedicated mould until the optimal thickness of
each layer is achieved. This is obviously one expensive
procedure and at least partially responsible for the overall
cost.
The
Sound:
Allow us to tell you first what the Kings don’t do: They don’t
scream at you, even when blasting at 105dBs with a large brass
band; they don’t hesitate when used with a good single-ended
vacuum tube amp; they don’t shilly-shally when connected with
a powerful solid state amplifier; they don’t seem to have a
sonic signature of their own and they don’t limit the
frequency reach up or down. Now to a more in-depth
analysis.
These
loudspeakers bear virtually no resemblance to other three-way
designs we have seen, though there are three drivers— woofer,
tweeter and midrange—as in so many other loudspeaker models.
The difference here is how they behave and perform in their
oddly-shaped, funky enclosures.
It’s
tough to explain the sound of a component or loudspeaker at any
time, but it is especially difficult to describe sonic
neutrality. We run across these predicaments continually,
especially when we attempt to describe a cable’s sonic personality.
Neutrality can be defined as having no definitive or distinctive
character. The words “bland”, “colourless” and “undistinguished”
appear in the thesaurus, but only “colourless”—as in free
of colouration —applies here. The Hansens’ “personality”
is arbitrarily neutral which, in the audio industry, is somewhat
rare. This said, here are some of the King’s sonic elements
that are the marks of excellence: harmonics are faithfully
reconstructed which results in a pleasant radiance that
completes the overall listening experience with an integrity and
sonic unity that synthesizes not only with the highs, but also
with the frequencies below. The all-round listening experience
is also enhanced by the lack of midrange colouration which
renders a balanced flow of music without enhancing the midband
between about 160Hz and 1300Hz. Therefore the midrange is well
tempered, yet very controlled in the transitions to the mid high
stage (from 2,600Hz to about 5,000Hz). As well, there is
sufficient crispness to allow sharply focused imagery and “inner
detail”.
Bass
deserves a bit of explanation, not because it is conspicuous,
but because it is totally organic. When bass is demanded by the
program material, the Kings will deliver and reproduce the
lowest note of an organ’s pedal with resolution and authority,
but without impairing the activities of the midrange drivers and
the tweeter. In other words, bass frequencies from about 160Hz
down to the lowest note—somewhere in the 27Hz region—is very
well balanced and appears to come from an instrument, rather
than loudspeakers.
Imaging
in audio lingo describes the ability of loudspeakers (and
electronics) to recreate a sound stage. While this is often
attainable in good loudspeakers, the Kings take it up a notch by
recreating the original size and location of instruments placed
across and to the front and back of its sound stage. This is
done with such realism that listeners can pinpoint horizontal,
vertical and front-to-back dimensions.
The
above (hopefully) describes what we heard using two sets of
amplifiers, one solid state the other tube; and both designs
rendered perfect synergy. For some auditions we used the Cary
500 monoblocks (reviewed in this issue), followed by the Audio
Aero Prestige monoblocks (reviewed in the last issue). This
established the Hansen’s reaction to fine vacuum tube and
solid state amplifiers and their compatibility with these
components. Our in-house Wyetech Labs Opal preamplifier
(reviewed in Vol. 10 #2) and Audio Aero Capitole CD player
(reviewed in Vol. 15 #2) all wired with Nordost Valhalla cables
made up the balance of the systems.
Synopsis
& Commentary:
Regular
readers will know that, in an effort to discover synergy, we
look at components as part of a string within a system. It seems
that Hansen has proceeded in the same manner seeking a
synergistic system whereby each component contributes to the
whole. Hansen looked around and listened to many loudspeaker
components and found that almost none of them can be matched for
maximum performance within an assembled enclosure. So he
designed his own components to achieve his goal. The result is
state of the art performance.
When
listening to the Kings, the sensation of effortlessly flowing
music is so profound that interruptions are annoying. It’s
hard to turn the music off or do anything else but listen. The
loudspeakers are simply great, but it is of the utmost
importance that back-up components are of top quality AND a
synergistic match. Any good amplifier will work, of course, but
with the “right” amplifier(s)— those that qualify as a
synergistic complement—the Hansens will sound superlative. We
fully understand that great sound is in the ear of the beholder,
and it is quite possible to achieve the kind of sound that suits
personal preferences, as these loudspeakers quickly adopt the
“attributes” of the auxiliary electronics. The amplifiers
used for our listening tests didn’t work merely well with the
Kings, they worked to perfection. While the solid state Cary
amps provided kinetic energy with correctly balanced highs, mids
and bass, the Audio Aero amplifiers offered additional harmonics
and that special musical glow usually found with high-end vacuum
tube designs. However, both brand amplifiers offer synergy and
provide high-resolution audio.
We
didn’t “like” the Hansen Kings—we loved them—and so
will you as long as money is no object. However, those fortunate
enough to afford these not-so-little babies will have
state-of-the-art audio combined with visually pleasing design,
resulting in what can only be called musical art. Go get a pair.