This week I got the opportunity to listen to a pair of Buchardt S400 bookshelf speakers, which the hip audiophile crowd is going ga-ga over at present.
The pair I was able to hear were setup in a nice large performance room in a recording studio and was driven by a very capable high power Adcom amplifier and fed from the mastering gear in the mixing room (so the best audio gear you can get).
I listened to my usual speaker auditioning playlist as well as some other chosen tunes I have on my Sony hi-rez portable player as well some stuff the studio owner wanted to show off to me, which he thought would make these speakers shine. The studio bought them specifically because they are very popular among audiophiles so they could use them as reference when mixing higher quality acoustic or natural sounding recordings. This is a common practice when mixing and mastering to ensure what is released will at least not suck on common non-perfect systems.
My impression?
Well, they sound quite good. They sound far better than their size, design, or appearance would suggest. In fact, it is very shocking to hear what they can do while looking at them at the same time. They do not look like they would sound this good, at all.
However...
They don't sound half as good as any of the quality speakers selling for the same price that I've heard.
Assuming a US price of right around $2,000 for a pair, I can think of dozens of better sounding speakers at that price - including many studio monitors which would save the owner the cost of an amplifier to drive them.
The good?
The bad?
I don't recommend them if one is looking for the best sound for the money as there are so many better options of various sizes and style selling for this price or less. However, they don't suck, as many audiophile darlings do. So, there's that. If they were priced at about $700 for the pair I'd say they were a decent product for the money. If they were $1,000 a pair, I'd say they might be worth it. But for $2,000 they are not a good deal at all.
The pair I was able to hear were setup in a nice large performance room in a recording studio and was driven by a very capable high power Adcom amplifier and fed from the mastering gear in the mixing room (so the best audio gear you can get).
I listened to my usual speaker auditioning playlist as well as some other chosen tunes I have on my Sony hi-rez portable player as well some stuff the studio owner wanted to show off to me, which he thought would make these speakers shine. The studio bought them specifically because they are very popular among audiophiles so they could use them as reference when mixing higher quality acoustic or natural sounding recordings. This is a common practice when mixing and mastering to ensure what is released will at least not suck on common non-perfect systems.
My impression?
Well, they sound quite good. They sound far better than their size, design, or appearance would suggest. In fact, it is very shocking to hear what they can do while looking at them at the same time. They do not look like they would sound this good, at all.
However...
They don't sound half as good as any of the quality speakers selling for the same price that I've heard.
Assuming a US price of right around $2,000 for a pair, I can think of dozens of better sounding speakers at that price - including many studio monitors which would save the owner the cost of an amplifier to drive them.
The good?
- They are voiced to sound as if they are playing louder than they really are (like Klipsch does) with a boosted bass, a slight dip in the upper midrange, and sharp sounding treble. \
- They handle dynamics pretty well at reasonable SPLs for their size.
- They have a nicely controlled dispersion patter which isn't displeasing off axis.
The bad?
- The performance does not justify the price
- The bass is far too loud for my ears and at my preferred listening levels is very overbearing and clearly congested and compressed
- They are kinda ugly to me
- The waveguide on the tweeter presents the same old harshness in the treble that all horn suffer from at some level - more obvious in this model.
I don't recommend them if one is looking for the best sound for the money as there are so many better options of various sizes and style selling for this price or less. However, they don't suck, as many audiophile darlings do. So, there's that. If they were priced at about $700 for the pair I'd say they were a decent product for the money. If they were $1,000 a pair, I'd say they might be worth it. But for $2,000 they are not a good deal at all.
