Unisound Loudspeakers Redesigned for Improved Performance

I first met Michael Wo of Unisound about three months back when my buddies at Speaker City USA ( Burbank , CA ) excitedly showed me a new line of very high quality speakers they had taken on. The quality materials and fit and finish of Unisound's cabinets are right up there with the best European offerings and the very nice tweeters come from the Vifa , China factory while the woofers are from Audire . After taking out the solidly mounted and gasketted drivers I had found an expensively built crossover using all mylar caps and air core inductors on the tweeter. There were even a couple of Zobel networks in evidence which usually points to a designer who has paid alot of attention to the frequency response, power response and the impedance curve. Very impressive.

So it was time for a listen. Humm... a bit disappointing to say the least. When listening to a speaker for the first time I do my listening evaluation identically to the way I do as outlined in my article:

Loudspeakers When is Good Enough, Enough? - Part II

That is, place a single speaker roughly in the center of the sound room, as far away from all room boundaries as possible, and play in mono. My reference cut is " It's Just the Motion " by Clair Marloon Sheiffield Labs records. What I heard from the original Unisound SP18B 5.25" two-way was an uneven octave-to-octave spectral balance which is a sure sign that the frequency response isn't all too flat. Sure enough, when we took the SP18B outside to check it out, it didn't me a sure well. But curiously, when the impedance curve was taken (on LMS) it me asured very, very flat indeed, indicating that a) the Zobel networks were doing their jobs and b) the designer seemed to have a philosophy of designing for flat impedance first and letting the frequency response do what it may. Hmmm, sort a weird. But this is now the fourth time I had seen this priority swap of flat impedance over flat frequency response from a Chinese source...

At the time of these tests, back in October of '04, I went to visit Michael Woo at his Anaheim facility to talk a bout what I'd found. Michael, who is not a designer himself, indicated that he had heard of others findings being similar to mine. He told me that he had enlisted the help of a well known, American crossover designer/systems engineer to retune the crossover and that he would let Audioholics know when his Unisound line was ready once again for another listen.

Fast forward now to January 8th, day 3 of CES a t the St. Tropez. This site of "The Show" is a spin-off event which piggy-backs on CES at much lower cost to the exhibitors. Hey, nothing wrong with that. Especially if you can keep your product costs down. Unisound is in a room a cross the rainy courtyard of the St.Tropez and its late afternoon. Almost no showgoers means I've got the Unisound suite to myself.

I sit down to listen to the rev a mped SP18Be (or whatever Michael decides he wants to call it) and the completely new BE16 6.5" two-way. A revelation. Both of these speakers, with their redesigned crossovers, sound terrific on first listen. Smooth, refined and with very good octave-to-octave spectral balance. The Unisounds are ready for a formal Audioholics review. Pricing of the two models is remarkable for the quality of drivers used, their finish and construction. The SP18Be 5.25" two-ways are $1000/pair and the BE16 6.5" two-ways are $1500/pair. Note that viewed up close the veneer finishes on these speakers is even more stunning than the photographs.

More info can be found at www.unisound.net or they can be heard at:

Speaker City USA

115 South Victory Blvd.

Van Nuys , CA

Phone: 818-846-9921

Check out Speaker City 's website for some Unisound specials that are running www.speakercity.com .

We're setting up for our first review pair, the BE16s ASAP. Stay logged-on to Audioholics for the scoop, with curves . Not just flowery prose.