Larsen Model 9

We’ve said this a lot, but hi-fi+ was, until recently, focused on ‘metropolitan’ systems. A fine example of this is the Larsen Model 9. These high-performance speakers are perfect for smaller listening rooms. Even when money is not a problem, space can be a premium for city dwellers. Larsen Model 9s work against the rear wall, thereby maximising floor space.

Boundary designs were once trendy, especially amongst UK companies who got used to trying to squeeze loudspeakers into small spaces. I vividly recall visiting the tiny London living room of the late Malcolm Steward decades ago, where he had shoe-horned a pair of active Naim SBLs into a room about 10’x12′ at best. But boundary loudspeakers fell out of fashion in the 1990s. Today, boundary loudspeakers are rare, and the Larsen Model 9 is one of the exceptions. It’s also the current top of the Larsen range.

Larsen’s resident big brain Stig Carlsson has been championing the boundary loudspeaker for decades. But, unlike those 1980s Brit-fi favourites, he has approached the concept from mathematics. So, this isn’t simply a sealed box loudspeaker with a suck-out in the bass to compensate for rear-wall reinforcement. Instead, these are loudspeakers designed from the outset to use the rear wall to avoid baffle-step concerns in the bass.

The science bit!

Loudspeakers are inherently omnidirectional in the bass until the baffle’s width changes the sound’s directivity in free-space designs. The loudspeaker then shifts the radiation pattern at the baffle-step frequency to what’s known as ‘half-space radiation’, which is the more direct-radiating sound we are used to from our midrange and treble drive units.

The problem is that the baffle-step point is directly linked to the front baffle’s size (specifically, the width). Until the 1950s, this wasn’t an issue, as horn-loaded loudspeakers and the large, sand-filled baffle beloved by Gilbert Briggs of Wharfedale fame meant the baffle-step frequency was sufficiently low to have a limited impact on the sound quality.

That all changed with the invention of the acoustic suspension system. Suddenly, a loudspeaker could deliver reasonably deep bass without the large cabinet volumes required from the 1920s to the 1950s. Loudspeaker cabinets shrunk in size, and by the 1990s, the slimline fronts of floorstanding loudspeakers began to replace the broader baffles of loudspeakers like the Spendor BC1 and Snell E designs. The result is a baffle-step frequency that gets alarmingly close to our ears’ most sensitive frequencies: the all-important midband. A loudspeaker that shifts radiation patterns at 1kHz isn’t ideal, but we have become so used to this radiation pattern change that we almost dial it out when listening. The question then becomes, “Is ‘almost’ enough?”

The Larsen Model 9 says an emphatic ‘no’. By placing the loudspeaker at the room’s boundary, that baffle-step frequency is defined by the size of the rear wall, not the width of the speaker cabinet. This moves the radiation pattern shift out of our peak hearing-sensitivity range. But that’s just the start.

Fancy floorwork

Larsen mathematically modelled the design to suit boundary room interaction. Where other designs try—and fail—to ignore the room in the development of the loudspeaker, Larsen makes it an intrinsic part of the design. This is why the Model 9 has a woofer close to the floor to engage the floor in the most appropriate manner possible in the room. Placing the mid-woofer diagonally changes the first reflection parameters.

Then, the tweeter fires further into the room, thanks to its placement at the interface between the two loudspeaker’s top panel surfaces. Finally, two tweeters are firing upwards to create a reverberant field for the upper registers. The whole design simultaneously ‘works the room’ and presents a uniform sound. The absence of rear-wall reflection, the baffle-step frequency moved to a safe place beyond our most discerning hearing region, those sidewall reflections pushed as far as possible… all these things add up to make a loudspeaker that sounds less like a loudspeaker and more like a musical event taking place in your room.

Some observations

There are some observations here. First, placement along that rear wall is essential. The loudspeakers work best when firing across the room rather than down, contrasting with most loudspeaker designs. In fairness, the Larsen Model 9 is not ‘most loudspeaker designs’. However, if you have built a system in a room where conventional placement is the only option, the Model 9 will fail to shine. The speaker works well but diminishes the ‘living, breathing musicians in the room’ effect.

In that vein, if you define your musical experience by how the loudspeakers shape it, designs that do things differently (like the Larsen Model 9) will probably never get a fair hearing. But if you can move your listening room around, put the speakers against the wall, and roll back to a time when you didn’t go to an acoustic concert and lament the lack of decent imagery, then the Larsen Model 9 sings a siren’s song.

In the concert hall

The Larsen Model 9 is among the most ‘live-sounding’ loudspeakers I’ve heard. Not ‘live’ as in the cabinet resonates, but ‘live’ in terms of that feeling you get when sitting with a group of good musicians playing live in a room. The loudspeaker acts like it isn’t there. Instead, your wall miraculously transforms into an acoustically transparent curtain between you and the musicians. It’s an uncanny feeling and one that’s captivating and invigorating.

This is the antithesis of loudspeakers that define audiophile performance purely by imaging. The Larsen Model 9 has good imaging, but not in traditional loudspeakers’ pinpoint, precise holographic style. This is good because that imaging style never happens in the real world. Instead, you are aware of a physical musician playing because of the sound’s dynamic range and leading-edge immediacy.

While the loudspeaker is outstanding at playing the usual ‘audiophile-approved’ music, I found it best playing the kind of music we never see in a hi-fi review. It got behind ‘Intergalactic’ by Beastie Boys [Hello Nasty, Captiol]. Here, the loud and raucous sound gets all the dynamism and intensity it deserves. It brings out the fun of the recording as much as the clarity of the sound. No one uses Beastie Boys tracks to check for vocal clarity or articulation. For that, I used Joyce Di Donato, whose diction was exceptionally well represented. Still, for the sense of a few guys having fun in a studio… the Larsen 9 nailed it!

Everything, everywhere, all at once!

The word I wrote most often in the notebook was ‘convincing’. They made a convincing sense of bass depth and force in a small room. Larsen Model 9s were convincingly real-sounding when playing orchestral passages, whether genteel Mozart confections or Mahlerian bloodletting. The tonal balance and the sense of rightness to the sound are also, you guessed it, convincing. It made music sound like convincing and properly balanced real music, whether live or studio recorded.

The Larsen Model 9s do everything well. They laugh at the constraints usually applied to get a big sound in a small room. Instead, they fill the room with good sound: rich, deep bass, a natural and fluid midrange and keenly extended highs. It does everything for every kind of music and does it exceptionally well. This was one of those times when I was sorely tempted to put my hand in my pocket and buy a pair. Were it not that they worked better in the studio than in my listening room with alcoves and chimney breasts where the loudspeakers should go, I’d be living with Larsen Model 9s for years to come.

Technical specifications

• Type: 2½-way floorstanding loudspeaker
• Sensitivity: 88dB
• Impedance: 4 ohms
• Frequency response: 23Hz–20kHz
• Finishes: Ebony, walnut, golden maple, maple, white
• Dimensions (W×H×D): 93 × 30 × 38cm
• Weight: 25kg each
• Price: £13,490 per pair, $14,995 per pair

Manufacturer

Larsen hi-fi

www.larsenhifi.com/en

US Distributor

Audio Skies

www.audioskies.com

+1(310) 975-7099

UK Distributor

Audio Emotion

www.audioemotion.co.uk

+44(0)1333 425999

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