The sound of the Barklays
The initial set up, used a 6dB passive crossover. A self wound, 1mm wire 300mH air cored inductor was wired in series with the woofers, and an 8uF poly cap in series with the tweeters. This gave a crossover point of around 3500Hz. Listening tests revealed a slight dip around the Xover frequency.
The speakers felt dull and lifeless. Immeadiately apparent (but not unexpected) was the lack of bass. These speakers need a huge running in period before they start to deliver the low end stuff, which even now, 3 months later seems to be revealing itself in tiny increaments.
Of course the passives where only a temporary fix. Active crossovers where on the way. A two way kit with the Xover frequency set at 3600Hz was thrown into the affray. My Playmaster Series 3 (Jaycar) was assigned the job of feeding the woofers with 20 AWG audio cable making the link.
The tweeters are hooked up to an Akai AM-U01 intergrated amp, using 17 AWG wire. The figures for this amp are unknown, At a guess it delivers about 20W RMS per channel, distortion is low and noise (hum and hiss) is not noticable. It handles the tweeters well, but maybe replaced shortly once funds become available. Acting as a preamp for this assembly is a Luxman LR 2500S, a surround sound amplifier, that itself delivers a nice stereo sound and is quite powerful in its own right.
CD player is my old faithful Yamaha CDC-625 (5 disk carousel), still going strong after 17 years.
Compared to my old L&G's, the Barklays offer clear vocals and good detail in the mid to high frequencies. This is apparent in the near elimination of the 'Shhh' or 'Shush' effect, noticable on albums such as Room for Squares by John Mayer.
As expected, drums snap crisply. The bass, I must admit is a bit lacking and I would suggest, there is not to much below 60htz. Up to that point though, they are not found wanting.
The most irritating aspect of owning a pair of quality of speakers is finding out how much room resonances interfere with the source. Unfortunately my listening room is the T.V. room, and SHMBO has taken control of the furnishing of this area. Delete nice carpet and heavy drapes, replace them with a vinyl floor, wooden blinds and lots of wood and glass cabinets and you find extraneous noises coming out of thin air. I might be listening to a favourite track, only to turn it down because I think I can hear the telephone is ringing.
