|
|
|
|
|
 |
It is a slim-line design in the characteristic B2 shape, but of more elegent, discreet, styling. Visually, it fits more harmoniously into smaller listening rooms and has greater appeal to female music lovers. The current B2, we recognise, has been rather an 'in-your-face', 'male thing' which achieves lower than hoped for approval rating from wives and partners.
While the appearance has changed somewhat, the Beauhorn characteristic transparency, naturalness of sound, and imaging which transports listeners 'right into the room where the musicians are playing', is unaltered. Many reviewers have remarked that they make a performance sound more 'real' than other loudspeakers. Good though they are with conventional voltage amplifiers, in conjunction with a TCA (transconductance amplifier) or current amplifier, the sound is simply breathtaking. There is nothing else like it. For more on this subject:
Then there was the ATD-driven B2.2 - faster and more detailed. We offered the B2.2 Revelation as a package - speakers and plinths at a very competitive price. This was the version reviewed by Paul Messenger, Ken Kessler and others. Over the last year, we have developed a technique of treating the internal cabling and the drivers. This effects a fairly dramatic increase in speed and smoothness of response to the extent that we feel the VibraPlinths are no longer an essential. To distinguish them from the earlier versions, we have designated them the B2.3s and gave them their first public demonstrations at the High Fidelity Show in April 2005.
Stunning; Sight and Sound
AND THEN: the B2.2 Revelation In Hi-Fi News, November 2003 , the Revelations were reviewed by Ken Kessler (not noted for his liking of horn loudspeakers - we knew that we were taking a risk). While aesthetically, he found them "goddam hideous," he was very honest about his appreciation of their sound quality. Some of what he said follows:
The B2 horn loudspeaker series
The new B2 Rhapsody (September, 2006)
Like all the Beauhorn speakers, the B2 Rhapsody has the very high sensitivity appropriate for use with low powered amplifiers and this one uses the well respected Fostex 168 Sigma wide frequency drive unit, handling up to 70 W music power.
For information about specifications and prices, click on Specifications and Prices
We have no independent reviewer's assessment of our latest models so far, and so we can only quote what customers have told us: unsolicited feedback
Transconductance made simple.
David Wright (Pure Music) has kindly provided two fairly non-technical articles to explain How
TCA: How the benefits of TCAs arise and also Why
TCA: Why.
ARCHIVE:
READ THE EARLY REVIEWS
The upgrade for 2005: the B2.3
First there was the Fostex-driven B2 - very nice, but a lot less detailed and dynamic than the Virtuosos (as reviewed by Roy Gregory, see below).
In September 2001 we were pleased to introduce the B2. Not only was it the most exciting addition
that we had made to our product range but it was also a product requested
by many of those who visited us at shows. With the Virtuoso sounding so
good what exactly where we asked for? No, not an improvement to the already
magnificent Virtuoso, but the same natural flowing music from a product
that was much more affordable. For many years we thought that it couldn't
be done, after all no other company had managed such a product so why
should we be able to?
The problem comes in trying to make the
product available to a wider audience. Cut corners and the compromises
are only too audible. Unless that is, you apply a bit of lateral thinking. Enter then the
Beauhorn B2.
~ Roy Gregory Hi-Fi+
After spending many months considering the possibilities and many more
months calculating, drawing, designing, prototyping and doing development
work we finally did it, we produced the B2.
But how? Intelligent cabinet design matched perfectly to a high quality
full-range drive unit, all beautifully styled.
But the really clever part is the cabinet,
a model of simple structural elegance.
~ Roy Gregory Hi-fi+
For the first time you have a single driver horn speaker available at
a realistic price.
What it does do is bring the musical insight
and dynamic discrimination of a single driver horn speaker down to something
like an attainable price. Look around and you'll see that the world isn't
exactly full of similarly priced competition.
~ Roy Gregory Hi-fi+
While staying true to its single driver/horn
creed, Beauhorn has managed to cut costs across the board. The single
driver means no crossover, instantly cutting out phase and tonal distortions
such circuits can cause. This also means exceptionally focused stereo
imaging: rarely do we come across speakers that plant instruments so securely
within the soundstage
~ Ketan Bharadia What Hi-Fi
Did we succeed in imparting the musical qualities of the Virtuoso, the
qualities that our show visitors so much wanted?
In fact, the sound had clearly the "Beauhorn"
signature. True, the B2's are less sensitive than the Virtuosos, but the
vivid, uncolored midrange that I so much liked on the Virtuosos was there
fully there.
Listening to Eric Clapton's MTV Unplugged Album showed voices to have
great clarity and directness. Acoustical instruments sounded natural and
realistic. Much of what I have said about the large Beauhorns holds true
for these as well.
~ Thorsten Loesch Enjoy the Music
Once you get location and toe-in right the
B2 is very definitely a Beauhorn. It has the same tactile immediacy and
directness that its more sophisticated elder brother possesses. It also
has the same ultra-revealing character, and tiny changes in set-up, not
just of the speaker but of the system as a whole, make clearly audible
differences to the sound. Change the amp, or what it sits on and you'll
hear it. Change the cables and again it will be obvious. Don't misunderstand
me here. I'm not saying that, in the style of some speakers, the B2s are
unforgiving, sounding awful on the end of all but a perfect system. In
fact it's quite the opposite. Their musical exuberance is such that they
always seem to make the most of what you feed them . . .
~ Roy Gregory Hi-fi+
Despite the cost-cutting, the sound quality
is great. Speaker agility is breathtaking: notes stop and start with minimal
overhang. Dynamics are superb - and not just the room-shaking kind, but
also the low-level type that gives instruments expression and voices emotion.
This kind of ability separates good mid-market kit from true high-end.
As a result, the "Lord of the Rings" soundtrack CD is unravelled with
ease: "The Shadow of the Past" is delivered with atmosphere menace and
verve.
~ Ketan Bharadia What Hi-Fi
That the price of the B2 is only a half of that of the
much acclaimed Virtuosos is also a great achievement, and one that is
hard to remember when you listen to the B2.
True, if you can spend more than twice that
money and get the Beauhorn Virtuosos plus suitable partnering equipment
one would get more music, yet what is available from the B2 is really
good and worthwhile for anyone on a somewhat limited budget.
~ Thorsten Loesch Enjoy the Music
The B2 cabinets are hand made (by the same craftsmen who make the Virtuoso)
from MDF and bending ply, with dimensions of 47x13x30 inches, or 1200x340x750
mm (height, width, depth) and weight 60lb, or 28kg. The cabinets
are finished in a metallic blue as standard, other colours to suit decor
or personal taste can be arranged.
The result is visually striking . . .
~ Roy Gregory Hi-fi+
The B2s are visually stunning speakers . . .
~ Ketan Bharadia What Hi-Fi
The B2 also has available a matching isolation platform. Better than the usual
type of air suspension, the VibraPlinth greatly improves the already
excellent musicality and makes an efficient and inexpensive upgrade.
These are an extra cost but having lived
with and without I have to say that I consider them absolutely essential.
At least you can buy them later, so spreading the cost, but buy them you
will.
~ Roy Gregory Hi-fi+
We also recommend mounting the B2s on Beauhorn's
VibraPlinths. These isolation platforms boost performance across the board
and are well worth the £556 cost.
~ Ketan Bharadia What Hi-Fi
A final word from the reviews
You will have to play MUSIC and LISTEN for
yourself to appreciate just what these do. But be warned, you may end
up liking what you hear. I for one would hope that once full production
has begun and another review unit is available to spend some more time
with the B2's and to experiment more to see just how good these can be.
~ Thorsten Loesh Enjoy the Music
Beauhorn has to be applauded for this brave
design.
~ Ketan Bharadia What Hi-Fi
It's a brave product, and it's one that
deserves to succeed. Life ís too short for boring hi-fi and the
B2 is anything but. Bravo Beauhorn!
~ Roy Gregory Hi-fi+
While we were pleased with the B2, (and more importantly visitors to the London
Hi-fi show launch were delighted and impressed, too) and while reviewers recognised that it it offered most of the desirable qualities enjoyed by the Virtuosos (as you have read above), nevertheless we have continued to seek enhanced performance. The B2.2 Revelation is the result of this endeavour.
The first review for this uprated version of the B2, packaged together with the very effective VibraPlinths was by Paul Messenger in Hi-Fi Choice issue 244. Some of what he has to say is contained on our NEWS page.
He also says:"Small combo jazz, blues or classical material is particularly well served, as is any recording featuring the human voice, from solo arias right up to large scale choral works. We particularly enjoyed the acoustic blues on Hot Tuna's Live at Sweetwater , and were astonished at the way this speaker provides a 'magnifying glass' onto the mix, revealing much more clearly than previously suspected the way instruments were being brought up or down. This speaker reminded me a little of the close-up analysis of headphone listening, albeit without the encumbrance."
We now feel that the new package performs to within a hairsbreadth of the Virtuosos. While it now costs nearly half as much (and more than we had intended), in terms of musical realism it is unrivalled value for money. As Paul Messenger concludes: "The B2.2 might not play to the same rules as regular hi-fi speakers, but for communicating the music it's a true Revelation"
And that's what we care about.
Ken Kessler hated them: Hi-Fi News review of the B2.2 Revelation, November 2003
Well, he certainly didn't like the styling! While KK, world famous
horn-o-phobe, could accomodate the fact that the cabinets failed the 'knuckle-rap' test - but didn't seem to suffer for it - and that the VibraPlinths defy the 'fix-'em-rigid' orthodoxy - but don't seem to suffer for it - we must admit that he could not come to terms with the convention-challenging shape, at all. (The B2 shape is the epitome of the 'form-follows-function' school of design and arose from our wish to produce a world-class speaker at a price that more people could afford).
We would rather not list the derogatory epithets KK used to describe our pride-and-joys (the only one we can think of that he missed out was 'outstandingly ugly') but he went on to say:
"However much taste, conditioning, intelligence or - yes - paranoia might want you to recoil from the Beauhorn B2.2, it is simply irresistable."
"Voices have a naturalness that I've only heard bettered by the L3/5a and the original Quads, and there isn't even a hint of sibilance. Ella, Aretha, Eva Cassidy and Peggy Lee, each had all the correct textures, the sounds of breathing, and presented in a clearly defined space - chilling veracity."
His conclusion?
"It breaks my heart that the Beauhorn is so goddam hideous because, at just under £4000 with the stands, it deserves a huge audience. It is so enjoyable a speaker that you forget all about the flaws."
Fortunately, many people are really turned on by the ground breaking styling of the B2.2s which offer something fresh and original for the eye as well as the truly outstandingly natural and transparent sound. So, don't let your preconceptions deter you, make the effort to hear them.
If there is any specific information that you require
that is not given within the pages of the site simply click the link below
and fill in the request form stating the additional
information required. This link is also a feature on the "UK
contacts" page.
Just click on:
Information
Request Form
To translate this page, click on the appropriate flag:
Back to top