Snell Acoustics XA Reference Tower loudspeaker Manufacturer's Comment

Sidebar 4: Manufacturer's Comment

Editor: Wow! Thanks to Larry Greenhill for such a glowing review of our XA Reference Tower. As you can imagine, a lot of hard work goes into the designing and manufacturing of such a flagship, and it's very gratifying when that effort is acknowledged. Especially gratifying are the comments on the system's neutrality and balance of strengths. We feel it is easy to design a system that focuses on and excels at a single attribute. It is much harder to achieve a balance across all performance areas, although we believe it is the only way that a speaker can truly "get out of the way" of the music.

I'm glad that Larry found that the system "define[s] what I want in a flagship design," even if their size makes them "physically imposing." As Larry knows, this size contributes to their "thunderous" and "first-class bass response." I can't promise that my wife will be there to help unpack every pair, but our dealers are equally helpful.

One detail of the measurements has been attended to. John noticed a large reactive component to the impedance of the woofers. There is a conjugate circuit, as Larry describes, that flattens the 38Hz impedance bump and at the same time reduces the phase angle to a much friendlier -20 degrees. This is part of the network, but apparently is misconnected in your test sample (arghh!). I've sent measurements of the impedance of the proper circuit to John. Rest assured that it is part of all XA Reference Towers.

Thanks again, and let me add that a vote of confidence from the late Peter Snell, as well as from Larry, means a lot to me.—David Smith, Snell Acoustics

COMPANY INFO
Snell Acoustics
143 Essex Street
Haverhill, MA 01832
(978) 373-6114
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