REVIEW: Hammerdynamics Super 12 Speakers

High Efficiency Speaker Asylum

Need speakers that can rock with just one watt? You found da place.

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I've fallen in love with the musicality of full range drivers lately. The first time that I saw the design philosophy behind John Wycoff's Super 12 Driver I thought, "This could be something special".... I believe that was right .. In spades...This system has an uncanny ability to make a wide range of music sound wonderful.
The Super 12 is a 97 dB efficient full-range, near point-source, Driver that operates between 40 and 10000 HZ... In this system it has been augmented by a super tweeter that handles the harmonics 10k+... What is very unusual about this driver and system is the Dynamic Range capability (ie: diff. between softest and loudest simultaneous sounds possible at any given frequency).... A 12" Driver has 3 Times the Dynamic range of an 8 ... 9 Times that of a 4" Why is that important? .... Many instruments require full Dynamic Range in the area from 50-200 Hz. or so to sound real... The piano, drum Kits, Electric Guitar & Bass, Organ and on & on. All of my beloved satalite&sub systems and small full-range drivers fall apart when the demands are great.... A good sub doesn't help ... Hard to integrate and only active below 80 or so.... Result is, to my ears, at best , a "dynamic hole" above the subs output.... So I've always, As many do, been too quick to say, "oh, bad Recording", ....often that's Wrong! ....just Bad system dynamics! Most who try to solve this use larger drivers at the expense of speed. NOT so with the super 12. It's fast, very fast... So the Short of it is this, .... I believe that John Wycoff has pulled it off.... Made that 12" behave well enough to transmit some amazing music to the listener... These speakers allow the subtle interplay between these instruments to become a full part of the musicscape...
Many formerly "banned" recordings are now among my favorites because the Super 12 DOES Piano, Electric Guitars etc. Wonderfully..... Fact is, These are the backbone of much music today. BACK is : Stevie Ray, Clapton, Electric Blues in general... Pop ... Melencamp, Elton, The Beatles Etc.... NEVER sounded so good..... My acoustic Stuff sounds great too. Diana Krall and Mary Black etc... Miles... Kind of Blue Wow!... Sweet sounds.
My room is 16x13x9, no treatment yet, Amp is a modified Decware Zen, Front end is just a little Newcastle 980T until the format wars are over ...(slightly tweeked) and using Auric Illuminator... Lots of damping and John's custom Cables and interconnects. I've heard at length many fine small two ways with excellent subs, proac, coincident, audio concepts, also good planars Martin Logans and Pans and many others....
What do I hear? ....Well, The Speakers just disappear to be replaced by a Soundstage that starts near my back wall on most recordings.... And goes back ... Wayyy back. And wide... Excellent focus and Detail....space around each instrument and voice. Good Tonality...Bass is fast, Focused, and deep in my room....mids are silky smooth... Highs just seem "right"... There is a harmonic "correctness" to many instruments.. But most importantly... A wonderful sense that I am hearing the music that the guy on the soundboard was hearing....
To give a couple of examples: On Beatles Anathology 3 .... "Mother Nature's son" is astoundingly live and 3 dimensional.... Patty Larkin's "Angels Running", The Whole disk, is amazing.... Never "Falls Apart".... Every single cut on Eric Clapton Unplugged is as live as could be with tons of detail and hall acoustics evident. Basically I have rediscovered my entire record collection....
Two things worth mentioning.... It takes FOREVER to break these in. (I have 1.8 watts) Wires are VERY critical with this driver.... They sound big and TUBBY with large wire and cable...
They like 20 Ga. ALLOT....
What John Wycoff has pulled off is pretty amazing...... An inexpensive system that is amazingly musical with any music ... And it can be driven with 1 watt. Bravo...

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Topic - REVIEW: Hammerdynamics Super 12 Speakers Review by intraman at Audio Asylum - intraman 20:36:04 08/28/00 (2)

Hammerdynamics Super 12 Speakers - Kent 21:53:51 08/28/00 (1)

Re: Hammerdynamics Super 12 Speakers - intraman 05:58:49 08/29/00 (0)

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