Describing the original Kurres Greg Borrowman (Editor of Australian HiFi) stated ” an inspired design……..resulting in a sound quality that is second to none.”
Greg also reviewed the Kurre 4s saying “… (the Kurre 4s) set a new benchmark for small monitor loudspeakers …. they sound magic! …. I was transfixed by the speed of the Kurres and their lovely atmospherics.” (For full review please click here). They were runners-up against very expensive overseeas loudspeakers n the Audiophile Loudspeaker of the Year category of the Sound & Image awards.
The latest Kurres continue this tradition of excellence. Because the original cabinets were so good we have retained their cabinet with their extensive internal bracing and damping that reduce cabinet vibration; their complex internal shape to reduce internal standing waves; and their narrow front baffle with its asymmetric driver location for better external dispersion of sound waves to create superb acoustic images both in breadth and depth.
However, we have introduced new very low distortion drivers, both bass/midrange and treble. And the loading of the bass driver is now a sealed box that gives greater definition and speed to the bass – which can extend as low as 35 Hz in room.
The bass driver has an aluminium-alloy cone additionally strengthened by ribbing (and constrained-layer damping added by us) to push cone breakup well beyond the Xover point so that the upper midrange, often the weakness of 2-way loudspeakers, now remains free of distortion and crystal clear yet naturally warm & open.
With the Kurre Be we have employedfor the first time in our passive range a tweeter with a beryllium cone (we have used them previously in our top-of-range DEQX-active speakers). Beryllium (Be) is one of the strongest and lightest materials so making it a great cone/dome material for loudspeakers, allowing us to also continue the very low distortion of the bass/mid also into the treble.
The measurement graphs show the distortion is around 0.06% over much of it range, better than some amplifiers!
Further shown by the measurements is these new drivers are combined seamlessly using very high quality crossovers to produce an incredibly flat frequency response, within 2 dB over most of its frequency range – and within 1 dB over the critical midband – giving “monitor” tonal accuracy.
Also to reduce distortion, and so the fidelity/faithfullness of the reproduced sound to the original recording, the Xovers have only air-cored inductors, high quality polypropylene capacitors and high-powered non-inductive resistors, all hand soldered point-to-point as are the high quality wires connecting the Xovers to the bi-wire input terminals and to the drivers.
Because the Kurres are so accurate with such flat frequency response and low distortion they are very faithful (‘high fidelity’) and truthful to the music and equipment preceding them in the reproduction chain. When combined with suitable front-end equipment they are capable of playing a very wide range of music and you will hear all the emotional nuances of the artists’ playing, not just some homogenised or sanitised version – but “like being there”!
