Reckhorn experiments (BD-Design)

by Bert , Saturday, August 21, 2010, 10:33 (4990 days ago)

Hi All,

As promised some feedback about the experiments I did with the Reckhorn S-1, B-2 and A-403...

To be honest... all EQ functions are useless for the average user as its functionality does not act (not even close!) to what the manual is trying to believe you. You will need measuring equipment and knowledge to see what you are doing because the knob settings indication values are not correct...

On top of that is that the implemented functions are influencing each other making it nearly impossible to set it correctly by hand. Furthermore the EQ (room mode correction) does not work as it should (okay, it is doing something but with the effective Q being less than 0.5 makes it useless).

However, I did managed to adjust a pair of S-1's in a way that it does work very well with my Orphean MkII Ultra (REF2010) and I have to say I like it a lot! The sound from the S-1 is very good but that is all the good news...the S-1 is basically the only device that turned out to be useable (not the EQ...).

It could work too with other Oris systems but I do not feel confident that customers can tune this themselves without any help of useable measuring tools towards their satisfaction...

The B-2 (stereo!) could be used too but having the same limitations and awkward behavior as the S-1's and without the 24dB crossover on board...

Finally the A-403. Same story as above being basically useless in the EQ settings but the 24dB crossover seems to work well enough making it useable as amplifier with crossover in one external housing.

I have tested the internal A-403 amp without EQ itself (compared it to the BD30) and it does not impress me much. If you like a full bodied bass with enough output power then this is the amplifier for you but if you like clean, articulated and tight dynamic bass then its not for you.

The amp makes the BD15's sound like they are having more heavy diaphragms as common 15" woofers have and makes them tend to sound alike.

Still, for the money involved and if you know what you are doing and if you can measure to check things then it might be very useful for you in the end.

The S-1's will stay in my system until I have a more dedicated and for_all_to use solution and the A-403 is now used to drive my BIG subwoofer (home theatre only) where it seems very usable (used in combination with my Behringer Ultracurve 2496) for all frequencies below 23Hz...

Bert

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