Thanks for the thoughts on the Chane A1rx-c, F12Bwth. You have an interesting style and the review format gives the viewer good hands-on experience. There's a real world element to this format that isn't present in standard text reviewing and I wish you well with it. I look forward to seeing more.
I would like to add some thoughts as well because a few important points stand out, most or all of which are addressed in our previous material on the Chane A1rx-c. (We have a dozen-plus page user guide that goes into intended use and best setup and it defines what the A1rx-c and its companion models are about.)
Frankly, the review format here is well suited to the desktop monitor, a condition I believe you tell the viewer and one clear from the review setups. The nearfield or desktop monitor is designed differently than the far field, main channel, and/or stand monitor is, which I'll go into.
The A1rx-c is decidedly not a nearfield desktop speaker, at least not as its primary, intended use. This starts to become clear just from its size, which is not exactly what folks gravitate to when adding compact audiophile 2.0 channel sound to small spaces. Scores of folks with sufficient room to situate a 12 or 14 liter cabinet certainly do use the A1rx-c as a fairly nearfield speaker, but as our user guide and general audio convention require, then need to treat the speaker accordingly.
In the nearfield, and on axis, the stand monitor is generally not going to acquire a number of the important setup features a main speaker simply needs to come into its design center.
1. Diffraction compensation. Notice how low the A1rx-c goes? In order to balance the bass wrapping around the cabinet with far more directional midrange and highs, a main speaker not designed for boundary reinforcement includes its own equalization. The A1rx-c is no exception. None of these stand monitor or main channel speaker types really like excess wall proximity, floor or desktop reinforcement, and they especially disagree with use in a baffle, like flanking them with lots of furniture or boxes. The stand monitor really wants to see some fairly open space so its design tuning can reach its center.
2. Axial alignment. Also discussed in our user guide, the stand monitor requires that toe angle be adjusted. Too closely focused at the listener, and the sound brightens while the image suffers. Too broad an axis, such as square to each other, and the soundstage fragments and the speaker dulls and loses its balance above roughly 1500Hz. Speaker toe is an important user tuning aid and has been for about as long as the speaker type has existed. Rooms will have a significant effect too, so use toe as in-room EQ before you try any other type.
We strongly advise that in the classic 3:4 listener triangle, the A1rx-c be rotated in about halfway between square and pointed at the listener. My experience over the past decades confirms that this is fairly conventional for the stand monitor class. Speakers generally come into their own when you find this sweet zone and when you do, that start disappearing.
3. Flat response and rooms. Design philosophies vary, and even if they didn't, most designers will make fairly radical adjustments between near-field and far-field, in-room intended uses. While the use of a textbook flat response can be initially compelling, the effects of the room, of flight length on frequency response, and of axial adjustments will alter what happens at the listener versus what's measured at any one arbitrary point in space. I'll come back to this in another post.
4. Ports and their loading (which is less germane to these reviews but relevant for users). Ports are tuned to replace cone motion at one central very low frequency with air motion in the port itself. At the tuned frequency the port and cone operate in phase to lower distortion, raise bass output, and increase bass efficiency. Bass reflex tuning imparts a cost, however, which is that once it is exceeded on the low end, bass response falls at roughly double the rate of the sealed equivalent. The port does not need a lot of air or space to operate as intended, The port on the back therefore adds no penalty for fairly close spacing to a wall, and any location capable of allowing the stand monitor, in this case, to work and sound as intended is more than enough space for the port to work too. The A1rx-c's port is on the back simply to minimize what's really just a hole in the box at midrange frequencies from bleeding internal midrange into the main signal.
5. Efficiency, loudness, impedance, and bass cutoff. The A1rx-c is a true 8 ohm speaker. At any given volume setting on any capable modern amplifier it will play softer than it would if it were a 4 or even a 6 ohm speaker. This is not strictly an inefficiency, but reflects the amplifier's output into the higher impedance, among other things - the amplifier's initially lower power output into the higher impedance simply asks for a simple adjustment in gain, which for any one amplifier is to say, in volume control setting.
Bass response also factors heavily into a speakers efficiency. With the Chane A1rx-c's obviously deep response, even its large net internal volume may not recover more efficiency or loudness, especially with the diffraction step compensation applied, as noted above. That large internal volume may go entirely to the extended bass, and give us no net change in efficiency. As they say, your results may vary across any dozen different speakers because they're all juggling bass extension, bass damping, enclosure size, efficiency, and driver area.
6. Convertible design. Some speakers can be converted to a closed box system by simply stopping their ports. The bass will roll out maybe an octave higher, but can do so at roughly half the rate. The result is a speaker more friendly with subwoofers, with close boundaries, and with lots of nearby furniture. We discuss this in the user guide too. Try it.
I'll post some other facts and observations a little later, including examples of how responses are both calculated for and influenced by the speaker's use in its environment.
Every speaker will "like" a best setting and setup, and in the case of the A1rx-c, it's as a stand monitor. A lot of them are used in a lot of other applications, but users generally apply the same rules they would for any fullrange monitor as they adapt its use.
Great reviews and thanks again for the service to the viewer. A lot of work goes into these reviews and my hat's off to anyone for having that much dedication and talent. Thank you.
