Shelf speaker test 2.0 System Audio Mantra 10

Danish company System Audio was founded in 1984 by Ole Witthöft Ole Witthft . Back then Wittheoft was a drummer in a rock band, and he often found himself thinking that most loudspeakers couldn’t reproduce bass realistically. After getting acquainted with the issue closer, Ole understood: first of all the speakers lack the “speed” of the bass. Subsequently, it was the concept of “speed of sound” became a cornerstone in the philosophy of proper sound System Audio. Struggling for speed of the dynamic head cone response, the developers use only lightweight diaphragms in the speakers. Therefore, the speakers of large diameter are not suitable, because they have a large weight of the cones, which does not give them the necessary speed of reaction. Instead of one large woofer the Danes use several small bass drivers, and the penetration of the speakers working range in the lower octaves is achieved due to the increased stroke of the diaphragms of bass drivers.

CONSTRUCTION

Another important point in the design of System Audio speakers is their friendliness to different environments: they use small enclosures, which do not take much space, the classic shape without excessive glitter does not give a reason to raise the price. The company motto – total freedom of placement of acoustic systems. Many manufacturers do not recommend putting their speakers close to the walls, but in many situations the owner sometimes has no other choice. System Audio has specifically designed speakers that can be safely placed in close proximity to walls and corners. Moreover, the small drivers have a wide dispersion pattern, so they provide approximately the same frequency response in different angles. Consequently, you don’t have to sit directly in front of the System Audio speakers to accurately direct them, a good music scene will be heard across most of the room.

The Mantra, Aura, Saxo lines were part of a major upgrade to the System Audio lineup undertaken by the company in the late noughties. The Mantra lineup, which replaced the popular 7 Series, includes three models: two floorstanding Mantra 60 and 30 plus the Mantra 10, which is also available as a Mantra 10AV center speaker. Mantras have several distinctive features: first, they used technology top-shelf series Ranger, just slightly simplified, and secondly, in the floor-standing speaker line engineers abandoned the usual for System Audio symmetric configuration mids tweeters D’Appolito, however, we are interested in shelf Mantra 10 this change has not affected. Finally, in the Mantra 60 and Mantra 10 the designers changed from the traditional 2.5-band crossover circuit to 3- and 2-way respectively.

Mantra 10 is a compact, narrow speaker, despite using three drivers. The front panel is reinforced by a silver wooden cover that covers the entire front of the loudspeaker. On the back side of the enclosure comes the reflex port and a shield with a pair of terminals. The cabinets are veneered or lacquered, the possible colors are: white, black, ebony, maple, cherry, black ash. The pattern in the veneered version is made up of horizontal strips and formed by several 10 cm thick strips of veneer. The three drivers are arranged symmetrically with the T2504XS tweeter in the middle and the W1108XL midrange/midrange drivers at the top and bottom. The operating ranges of the speakers are separated by 3rd order filters at 3.1 kHz. The tweeter is equipped with a very lightweight 25mm diameter cloth dome, a powerful magnet, a large rear chamber reduces sound compression. Aluminum flange of the “squeaker” forms an “acoustic lens” around the dome, expanding the dispersion of sound XS-technology . The W1108XL midrange/midrange drivers are equipped with 110mm diameter paper diaphragms weighing only 0.8 grams and the long, semi-round rubber surrounds give the diaphragms very long travel of up to 1.2cm XL technology , several times the ‘freedom’ of movement of standard midwoofers diaphragms. The tremendous lightness of the diaphragm and the amount of travel that gives it the response you need for speed and dynamics.

SOUND

In general, the Mantra 10 bookshelf models retained the familiar System Audio sound signature. Speakers play a little restrained in the transmission of extreme dynamic contrasts, overtonal nuances and stage scales, but naturally draw the main timbre pattern, reproduce vocals sensuously, faithfully reproduce the mood of the musical work. The light top gives airiness to the discant imagery, though somewhere over-emphasizes the plumes and analog noise of older records. In fact, you can even up the MF/HF tonal balance in the usual way by twisting your speakers just a little bit, so the scene won’t be adversely affected.

The bass of the speakers is subjectively not too deep, but it is interesting because of the well-defined and rhythmic upper bass. And yes, speed – for its class the Mantras play the bass very fast, showing its natural texture, plus have a good control. True, at high volume the bass control gradually deteriorates, the speakers start to sound frantic, but some loss of rhythm correctness does not lead to a loss of clarity, the Mantras retain their speed here too.

Mantra’s music scene has average volume, but is built with neat localization and good background detail. Solo images are brought forward directly to the listener, which only adds to the performance emotionality.

SUMMARY

The Mantra 10 loudspeakers are emotional-sounding bookshelf speakers with a wide genre repertoire, from popular music and classic rock to jazz and chamber music. They do a little worse for symphonic forms and heavy rock.

39,990 Dollars.