The low-pass for the woofer is formed by 3,9mH + 247uF, the small capacitor and resistor network parallel to the inductor is to cancel the cone break-up at higher frequencies. For the inductor low Rdc is extremely important if you want tight and well-controlled bass. A transformer type with a 130mm core is a must! Also the 247uF parallel to the woofers must be MKP types, cheap standard types like Clarity Cap APW work fine. The result is better bass definition compared to using cheap smooth foil electrolytics. The LCR-network parallel to the woofers is to flatten the impedance peak in the bass so that the low-pass function works properly, without this LCR there is a large bump at lower frequencies resulting in an over bloated and muddy sounding bass.

The midrange driver covers the spectrum from about 300Hz to 2000Hz. The high-pass is formed by 116uF + 10mH and the low-pass is formed by 0,68mH + 4,7uF. To keep the cost of the relatively large value of the series capacitor down I connected several MKP types parallel of which I find they have a very good price/quality ratio – in this case Clarity Cap SA and/or Jantzen Audio Superior Z-Cap. Anything less would compromise the very high quality of the midrange. The series inductor is a copper-foil type for best imaging and separation. A resistor network brings down the level of the efficient driver to match that of the woofers – I used Duelund Silver/Graphite resistors here simply because they sound the best! Clear, smooth and neutral, in comparison normal MOX resistors sound grainy and fatiguing. Furthermore they act as a sort of impedance flattening so that the high-pass and low-pass networks function as they should. The parallel LCR-network cancels the cone break-up at 4500Hz.

Finally the tweeter high-pass consists of 9,4uF + 1,0mH. There are no resistors in the signal path, so the character of the treble is determined by two parallel capacitors of 4,7uF each. Here personal taste will determine what you use, I had good results with Duelund VSF and Mundorf Silver/Gold. If you like a very detailed and clear top-end then use only Mundorf Silver/Gold, if you prefer a more natural and analogue approach then use only Duelund VSF. The parallel inductor must be a foil-type but it doesn’t need to have low Rdc. I found a foil type here to sound more spacious than a standard air-core even though it isn’t directly in the signal path. This is a good example of the extreme resolution of the Thiel & Partner ceramic drivers. Finally there is an LCR-network parallel to the tweeter that flattens the impedance peak at its resonance frequency so that the high-pass will work correctly. With this network the treble gets rough.

The result of all these elements together is one of extreme resolution from top to bottom. Overall balance is coherent and neutral with an impression of very low colouration. This loudspeaker is very revealing in that it lets you hear everything that comes before it, good or bad. This lets high-quality recordings take you to a different world, close your eyes and let the music take you on a magical tour! But also component matching becomes critical, this speaker doesn’t make things sound nicer than they are. This speaker is by no means over-etched, neither does it exaggerate any frequency spectrum to emphasize some “audiophile” recordings. It is just very honest.