Fleetwood Sound Company DeVille SQ loudspeaker Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Downward dual-ported bass-reflex, conical two-way standmount loudspeaker with horn-loaded tweeter. Driver complement: 1" neodymium compression tweeter driver with 6"-thick, solid wood conical horn and phase plug cast from a "3D printed sand mold in solid bronze"; 8" paper-cone woofer with neodymium magnet. Internal wiring is silver. Sensitivity: 94dB/W/m. Impedance: 8 ohms, nominal. Recommended amplifier power: 10W or more.
Dimensions: 24" (610mm) H × 18" (460mm) W × 10" (254mm) D; with stands, 48" H. Weight: 36lb without stand.
Finishes: Exposed wood in natural ash and light, medium, or dark torrefied ash; cabinets in a wide variety of painted finishes including basic black—plus antiqued leather, Japanese indigo-dyed denim, and Japanese washi paper.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 1021DV200 and 1021DV201. "Made in Fleetwood, PA, USA."
Price: $18,600/pair for SQ version; standard model starts at $12,600/pair. Custom stands, $750–$1550/pair. Grilles add $350–$450/pair. Approximate number of US dealers: Nine; also sold online. Two-week home trial available. Warranty: Lifetime.
Manufacturer: Oswalds Mill Audio/Fleetwood Sound Company, 130 South Walnut St., Fleetwood, PA 19522. Tel: (917) 743-3780. Web: fleetwoodsound.com.

COMPANY INFO
Oswalds Mill Audio/Fleetwood Sound Company
130 South Walnut St.
Fleetwood, PA 19522
(917) 743-3780
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
thatguy's picture

Kids, stay in school, pay attention and work as hard as you can, always towards a goal of a solid career. Use the money to enjoy hobbies that entertain and fulfill you. Which means you can buy beautiful speakers like these without batting an eyelid.
I on the other hand never listened to that advice so I get to look at pictures of them.

And remember, try your speakers in different positions to get the best sound out of them.

Anton's picture

Thanks for that glimpse into their world.

I love the look, too.

I could see this as an 'exit level' speaker to cap off one's 'career' as an audiophile.

Lovely to listen to, lovely to behold, relatively easy to drive. Pair it with a great integrated amp (Leben, Luxman, etc...) and donzo!!!

These are REALLY pretty.

bhkat's picture

The frequency response looks a lot better than I expected.

Anton's picture

My mind shrinks their look in the pics. In real life, I bet they loom larger.

Metalhead's picture

I am sadly but definitely in the small speaker-small sound clique.

I would take used big ass JBL's, Altecs, Klispch, et al over small speakers. Probably even in a small room as I need John/Paul, Joe, Jimi, Jim, Mick, and Roger to tell to me loudly.

If I HAD to live in small speaker ville I would definitely check them out. They are frigging GORGEOUS!!!!

remlab's picture

...loved the look of these speakers. She never says that. She would probably like the sound of the in room response too. :)

trmntr03's picture

Roughly $20K. I ain't losing sleep, though.

MattJ's picture

Although I am generally perplexed with the fascination that many audiophiles have with vintage design equipment, I have to admit that some of the aesthetics are really amazing. If you haven't checked the Oswalds Mill Audio's site, go look at the Ironic speaker!

MattJ's picture
Quote:

In addition, the nearfield responses of the woofer and ports roll off faster than the expected 12dB/ octave.

I thought ported speakers typically had a 24 db/octave roll off?

John Atkinson's picture
MattJ wrote:
I thought ported speakers typically had a 24 db/octave roll off?

That's correct, for the overall low-frequency rolloff. However, the port and woofer individually roll off at 12dB/octave. Because their outputs are in opposite polarity below the port resonance frequency, the combined rolloff is 24dB/octave.

John Atkinson
Technical Editor, Stereophile

ARX's picture

First of all, this:
"Conicals don't behave or sound like any other horns, they work differently. They have no constriction at the throat like curved-wall horns, which produce that honky, nasal coloration. They have a continuous expansion of the flare. Curved-horn walls change the wavefront as they expand. Conicals don't, so, you get a perfect spherical or hemicylindrical wavefront and constant directivity. So ... you don't have beaming."

...isn't entirely correct.
Not all curved horns are constricted at the throat, this even applies to Western-Electric's axisymmetrical wooden horn.
In an axisymmetric conical horn the wave-front is only purely spherical in the (hypothetical) 1P case.
The wavefront shape of conical horns also depends on the (compression) driver, more specifically the type of diaphragm and phase plug.
The transition from driver exit to horn throat is equally important.

The response irregularities in the top octave resemble break up resonances, but I wouldn't be surprised if the additional phase plug is also partly to blame.

That said, after a short initial listening session, my impression of the Deville is mostly positive.

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