Studio series

S8

"Small Excel"

We are proud to announce the smallest studio series speaker, the S8, designed by Laszlo Barjak. He has constructed several speakers for local studios in the last years and he has been putting large amount of work to experiement with previous versions of the S series speakers before the current S8 is created. Now, this speaker represents an absolute reference product, since its frequency response is flat within close boundaries and remains constant under high power load. Its sound transmission elements operate in linear band even on maximum power loads, keeping musical transparency on high level and distortion very low, which make the S8 to an exceptional quality instrument used by studio professionals. Audio engineering work shall be based on reliable and transparent tool to allow quality recording production and the S8 serves this goal well in few studio installations so far.

The speaker is operating similarly well in other environments. Home usage is highly recommended where its musicality manifests in the first seconds of the presentation. This is a high-end instrument in the best musical sense of this term.

The speaker builds upon the possibile best loudspeakers from norwegian Seas, known to produce high-end loudspeaker components starting from the 50's and still being a well known brand. The company represents today high loudspeaker production quality, carefully maintaining the best know-how for items of its production line. The selected drivers, which are part of this speaker had to be also used with care and good knowledge.

The loudspeakers:

Seas T29CF002 "CRESCENDO" Sonomex dome

Seas W16NX001-4 magnesium midwoofer

Frequency response: 48 – 24.000 Hz +/- 3dB, keeping the response flat within the whole (105 W) power spectrum.

Sensitivity : 86 dB @ 2,83 V

Impedance : 4 Ohm

Crossover frequency : 2,2 kHz

Technical description:

The tweeter is the 29 mm sonomex soft dome of the Seas Excel line. According to seas, the T29CF002 has an advanced hexadym magnet system providing good air flow around the voice coil and is carefully damped to reduce cavities behind the voice coil, membrane and surround. Seas considers it as one of its best tweeters.

The midwoofer is a magnesium woofer of the Seas Excel line. The W16NX001-4 has a strong magnet and completely flat response curve in small enclosures. This woofer is emphasized on the Seas website with some simulation data, where response curves are shown in bass reflex and passive membrane equipped enclosures. (As Seas publishes rarely extra measurement data on this manner, this might be published to emphasize the qualities of this woofer.) Additionally, the W16NX001 shows the common characteristics of the Seas Excel line, well balanced and accurate midrange presentation with very low distortion if the driver operates in optimal enclosure.

The crossover is a first order network in the low pass section, extended with one filter damping the breakup of the magnesium membrane. The high pass section is a second order network containing similarly one extra filter to correct the response curve of the dome. The crossover frequency is 2.2 kHz, which is quite optimal for both woofer and tweeter if we consider the low order crossover network of this design. The crossover is therefore reasonably simple to provide good phase match and group delay characteristics in the crossover region and to keep on minimum level the crossover generated signal distortions.
The crossover is built with ClarityCap capacitors and MOX resistors, air core inductors. Tritec OFC cables are used in the enclosure.

The enclosure and the port tuning:

It has a bass reflex enclosure enforced with internal brackets, tuned to 46 Hz. External size: 210 x 300 x 270 mm, with internal volume of 9,5 litre. As the bass reflex tube has to be quite long, it must be bended twice with 45 degrees. Considering the internal brackets of the enclosure, it is quite difficult to get it right in small volume, but with right mounting steps this is also solved well.

It might be wise to study the following diagram, showing near field measurement data of the midwoofer and the bass reflex port, plus their response sum. The diagram below shows the extreme low end characteristics of the W16NX001, the very much flat response curve. As the baffle diffraction is taking some sound pressure from the output, this graph must be interpreted without the rising low end point and the response is expected to be flatten in far field measurement data. In addition to the above features, exceptional qualities of the woofer and the enclosure hold the response flat on high volumes too, in the whole power spectra of this speaker.

Near field measurements of the speaker (baffle difraction not considered).

The power spectrum and the linear band:

It might be necessary to reserve one paragraph to show the extraordinary power load spectrum of this speaker. Distortion measurements show, that the speaker is kept in linear band until 105 W load, where 102 dB sound pressure is produced. Mechanical power load is 250 W and this maximum power load is available on demand, not causing any permanent damage to this construction. Seas loudspeakers show on this point their true virtue, since their motor, the magnets and voice coil is optimised far more above the recommended maximum load. They are truly capable to operate in linear band on very high volumes. The music is presented with very low distortion level in the whole power spectra of this speaker.

Placement:

The speaker is relatively easy to place, since it has port on the front. While it is recommended some distance from the wall, it can be used in near placement scenarios too.

Speaker in Kit form:

Our company sells this speaker also in a loudspeaker Kit form, with or without cabinets. If one is building the kit, we recommend to order cabinets, since the speaker quality is guaranted only if proper cabinets are used. The Kit contains full description, crossover networks and damping material, the terminals, bass reflex port material and the four drivers. Delivery of cabinets in custom colors is also possible.

Warranty statement:

Our company gives two years warranty for all of the products. Special rules may apply, if the damage is caused by incorrect treatment on the loudspeaker membranes or cabinets, where the warranty can not be automatically enforced.
But since replacement voice coils are available from Seas, a repair is not impossible. Our company will be helpful in case of eventual damage and will try to de the best when some loudspeaker components have to be repaired.