CES 2007

ProAc's D28

Larry Greenhill  |  Jan 11, 2007  |  First Published: Jan 12, 2007

Modern Audio Consultants’ Richard Gerberg showed me a new $6000/pair loudspeaker from English company ProAc, the two-way D28. The 60 lb floorstander, designed by ProAc founder Stewart Tyler , includes a 1" silk-dome tweeter and a 6.5" bass/midbass driver. I was able to audition the loudspeakers driven by a new $3000 Sugden 21 SE CD player, a $4000 Sugden 21SC integrated amplifer, and ProAc speaker cable. The D28’s sound was smooth, detailed, and musical. I particulary enjoyed playing Jamie Cullen’s Twenty Something album. Richard told me that the album had been recorded and edited using ProAc loudspeakers. Perhaps that was one reason the D28s sounded so good!

COMMENTS
CE's picture
Submitted by CE (not verified) on January 15, 2007 - 5:27pm

$6K, they forgot to put in the drivers? This looks like a wood box, someone messed up, where da' drivers at?

SJH's picture
Submitted by SJH (not verified) on February 7, 2008 - 6:40am

Drivers-smivers. There are plenty of examples of speakers with 4,6, even 8 divers that don't sound as good as a pair or Proacs. Speaker design is complicated and getting both the electronics and physical aspects just right is important. In most cases using the best quality parts and keeping the design simple will result in the best possible sound and it is after all the sound that matters. Anyone can put a bunch of inexpensive drivers in a black plastic cabinet and it will look cool but sound awful. The proof is in the value too. Buy a pair of Proacs and sell them three years later and you'll get close to what you paid for them. Their inherent worth is obvious. If it is more drivers you want though, may I suggest a pair of Proac D80's? They have five drivers each but at $18,000 they are a little more expensive then the D28's.

Mike Schmidt's picture
Submitted by Mike Schmidt (not verified) on February 17, 2008 - 7:39am

Anyone have these speakers, I will be using them with a 6 box cyrus system, and upgrading as I go with X powers. I have the smart powers running in mono so the power is there. Any suggestions, thanks MikeMy room is small 11.5 x 12 and 9" ceilings with french doors that opens up behind me making it longer in legnth. Not much on volume rather soundyou can find me at schmdtmike76@hotmail.com

The Mad Mick's picture
Submitted by The Mad Mick (not verified) on April 1, 2008 - 4:34am

Just auditioned a huge number of mid range speakers like this for my 22' x 14'3" x 8'6" room driven by an MF kW550 - and the sound is GLORIOUS. I'm putting my money where my mouth is.

cntlaw's picture
Submitted by cntlaw (not verified) on April 9, 2008 - 10:12am

I auditioned D28 with both MF A1008 and KW550 today, all I can say is WOW ! Someone is telling me the single bass driver two-way D28 can not handle the KW550 huge output, is this true? I am really keen on the D28 sound, especially for female vocals.t

Lamprologus's picture
Submitted by Lamprologus (not verified) on April 17, 2008 - 2:57pm

cntlaw, sure it will work with a powerful amp. It would be worse if you were to use a less powerful amp and drive it into clipping.Did you audition any other speakers to compare with? I'm interested in the D28 myself but I have never heard it so it would be interesting to learn how it compares to other speakers.

Mike Pool's picture
Submitted by Mike Pool (not verified) on November 9, 2010 - 3:53pm

IT ALL DEPENDS .... I've owned the D25, Response 3.8 and the D38. Although the D28 replaced the D25, the D25 was already a most impressive successor of the legendary Response 2.5. A truly marvelous 2-way speaker if set up properly. Nothing compares to the natural, real and balanced sound ProAc's produce paired with good tube or solid state amps! Even the smaller D15 is marvelous for acoustic jazz or small classic ensembles. The bigger the speaker (D38, D80, D100) the better it is for symphonic orchestral music providing you have a big room to match. For "acoustic jazz" (Miles, Coltraine..), I found that the smaller D15 (in a A/B test with D38) delivered the most realistic and intimate sound image as strange as this may seem! Yet for electric jazz (Yellow Jackets, Pat Metheny...) the bigger speakers sounded more real and generous. Small acoustic Jazz ensembles sounded too big and exaggerated! => bigger is not always better! Hence, what kind of music you listen to should be a primary buying consideration.

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