he Divine Acoustics company, founded in 2003, offers loudspeakers that are different than any other one might find on the market: drivers are mounted to the wide front baffle and the depth of the cabinets is really small. The proportions of these cabinets attract attention of most people even if they are not audio aficionados. Mr Gałkowski's, Divine Acoustics' owner and designer, intention was to make loudspeakers that would stand out among all others, but also that would benefit from this type of design sonically. Most loudspeaker manufacturers worked really hard for the past 10-15 years to offer speakers with as narrow front baffle as possible, increasing depth and internal volume of the cabinets.

One of the advantages of a narrow front baffle, especially if this dimension was smaller then a distance between listener's ears, was believed to be a more precise presentation of phantom images. And it was hard to resist such a type of presentation. But in time people learned that such imaging wasn't actually true, attractive – yes, but not realistic, taking listener further away from a real event towards a new, artificially created one. Since any recording combines these two perspectives, it wasn't really cheating – it was more of one of the possible ways to present music.

An idea of a flat, wide front baffle, used by Divine Acoustics, comes from the oldest designs that were in fact drivers bolted to a wide, open baffle. Only later designers decided to add side walls, upper and lower ones, with the back still open. It was Edgar Vilchur (1917-2011), an American inventor and designer who, in 1954, developed an acoustic suspension loudspeaker, starting this way a new era in loudspeakers' history. From that moment loudspeaker's cabinets could have all walls, smaller size and a better bass extension.

I've been using for years loudspeakers that benefited from ideas on sound propagation from before Vilchur's invention, namely Harbeth M40.1. They might not be exactly the same as speakers from, say, 60 years ago, as they sport vented cabinets, but their front baffle is really wide. For me the way they present spacing and imaging is much closer to what I can hear during live concerts, than the presentation of any speakers with a narrow front.

Electra Generation 3

Electra Generation 3, the latest product presented by Mr Piotr Gałkowski, belong to the same family but taking this concept even further. Their proportions are unique for this manufacturer, and reminded me a bit of old electrostatic Final speakers. They are pretty tall and very shallow. To make sure they keep their balance and not fall they are equipped with laser-cut feet with spikes. Bass-reflex port is placed on the bottom of the cabinet.

It's a two-way speaker with relatively small woofer and a soft-dome tweeter. The cabinet is a quite complex design – you can find some details below. The wooden elements are finished with either wonderful, natural veneer or with ecological leather. Additional, reinforcing elements are attached to the cabinet in the front and in the back, and their job is also to mask screw heads. In the reviewed version, called Avantgarde, these elements take a form that reminds me of a propeller, in the Elegance version I'd say it's an ellipse. The tweeter is placed off axis of the loudspeaker so one can use these speakers with tweeter closer to the “outside” (like me) or “inside” edge of the cabinet.

Make&finish of these speakers is both, unique and excellent. That puts Mr Gałkowski together with Eryk Smólski (Eryk S. Concept) and guys from Amare Musica, in a group of the designers who really “feel” the importance of their products' form and know how to use it. Each element, including spikes and crossover that is visible behind a small “window” on the rear baffle, were well thought-trough and composed together into the bigger whole. These loudspeakers have a very “light” form and surely are not another, as my dear wife calls them, “coffins”.

PIOTR GAŁKOWSKI
WłaOwner, designer

Four years after premiere of the Electra2 time came to introduce a new model. Electra Generation 3 is a brand new design, which means new drivers, new crossover, and new elements of the cabinets and some other details. All that new model has in common with older one is a flat shape of the cabinets with their semi-round side panels finished with leather.
The Electra Generation 3 loudspeaker should suit many different interiors very well. A highly customizable looks makes sure of that. There are seven colors available, two different shapes of the front panel – Avantgarde and Elegance, and three color versions of a tweeter's finish.

Electra Generation 3 is a vented design with bass-reflex port located at the bottom of a cabinet. Cabinet is a multi-layer design using many different types of materials. Side panels constitute a multi-layer frame made of MDF and blockboard additionally reinforced with a steel truss that also joins together front and back panel. To even further reinforce the whole design I have decided to put a laser cut steel flange in the cabinet at the same height as the woofer. Another element that adds to the stability of the whole cabinet is a metal base. Whole cabinets stands on a steel plinth that sports four chrome-plated graphite spikes.

For this model we have chosen a custom made 25mm silk dome driven by a magnetic system working in two chambers. We use these to damp resonances and to match tweeter's sensitivity with woofer's. The magnetic motor is grounded and it uses our BAD (Basket Accurate Dampening) system that optimizes driver's performance. As a safety measure we use a steel element to protect tweeter from external damage. Driver is fixed to the cabinet using our TMI (Tweeter Multilayer Isolation) system that utilizes a few carefully selected washers made of different materials with different damping properties.

Low and mid-frequencies are reproduced by a 130 mm woofer. It combines a coated paper cone, that has very good resonance damping properties, with a very light and rigid one-layer carbon fiber, that improves impulse response. Drivers sports a vented magnetic system protected by a copper ring, that additionally stabilizes magnetic field. Its basket is grounded and our BAD system optimizes performance.

A true heart of our new Electra Generation 3 is brand new crossover with second order filters and impedance adjustment. The crossover uses Divine Acoustics' proprietary SGP (Single Ground Point) system and RFpath (Resistors Free path). The former brings ground of the whole circuit to one point, shortens signal's path and enables correct discharging of capacitors. The Rfpath system allowed us not to use either serial nor parallel resistors in tweeter signal's path. For our crossover we used selected elements like Jantzen Audio Z-Superior, Z-Standard and Cross-Cap capacitors, precise metallized resistors and air core coils.

Another novelty in Electra Generation 3 is new cabling. The internal wiring was done with a OFC ribbons of specific lengths and directionality.

SETUP

Most speakers with wide front baffles deliver optimal performance when tweeters are pointing directly at my ears. It worked best also in this case. Distance between me and each speaker was 2 m and they stood 2,2 m apart. For others willing to try Electra 3 I would suggest to sit even closer to them. Implementation of a bass-reflex allows users to place them close to the wall or even in corners of the room with degrading their performance.

I'd recommend pairing them with amplifiers capable of delivering energetic, powerful bass like: Creek Audio Evolution 100A, SoulNote SA300 or even SA730, but at the same time offer a good clarity of treble range. I think that these speakers could create a very, very good sounding system also with Audiomatus AS125 power amplifier driver directly from the adjustable output of Ayon Audio CD-07s Player.

Music means emotions – that is an indisputable fact. Even though contemporary composers of classical music tried to deny that, but it was only a temporary “lack of reason” that is fortunately gone now. Music is a part of life so I couldn't start this test in any other way but by listening to Chopin.

At this time I almost finished reading the Nieboski Chopin by Piotr Wierzbicki, and just a while ago the laureates of the 10th Literary Awards Gdynia were announced. Mr Wierzbicki was one of them. He was awarded for his previous essay, Boski Bach (Devine Bach). It so happened that both me and my son bought this book last year while visiting Cracow Book Fairs and we both had them signed by their humble author who sat there at the Sic! stand. If you like classic music you definitely should have and read both these books. And listen to attached CDs – each with author's selection of composer's pieces.

Anyway I started my audition with 4 Scherzi performed by Ivo Pogorelich. This Croatian pianist was a reason of a great scandal in 1980 during The International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition. He did not make it through the third round which was a reason for one member of the jury, Ms Martha Argerich, to resign from this jury as a protest against, in her opinion, wrong decision of the jury. I am not a musicologist – when it comes to my choices of music I follow my instinct and emotions. In this particular case my choice was based on the latter – years ago this particular recording was one of the very first that I had a chance to listen using high quality audio system.

Electra 3 delivered a wonderful, very clean, selective sound of the piano, with great dynamics, too, despite the fact that this Deutsche Grammophon album was surely not an easy one to play. They used so called 4D technique when recording this album. This technique apart from classic “DDD” from the SPARS code added also a fourth one (more about SPARS HERE). In this technique A/D converter followed directly microphones, so the signal sent to a digital console was already a digital one. Usually A/D follows mixer.

Anyway, such recordings might sound a bit “glassy”. Even more so in this case as the pianist technique particularly emphasizes dynamic contrasts. When played on high quality system this is not an issue – there is simply a lot of information in the midrange and treble area. Polish speakers handle this part of the range particularly well. It is obvious that this tweeter performs exceptionally well, and the elements of the crossover are also of high quality. But there is more. Even though I described only a particular part of the frequency range it is not really as one perceives this presentation – Electra 3 sound like a single-driver speakers and it's hard to tell where exactly one driver stops and another starts. After thorough analyses I'd say that frequencies of around 2 kHz carry more energy and the ones below 1 kHz carry bit less. But these modifications are very small and hard to notice.

Clarity and coherence are the elements that any buyer of these speakers will appreciate with any played recording. Another very positive feature of the sound is its openness. The woofer in relatively small and so is the cabinet it is working in. And yet I didn't really hear any signs of compression of the sound, easily reproducing all, even sudden changes of dynamics. Bass was not particularly well extended, but I didn't have an impression of the sound being too “light”, not carrying enough “weight”. All three,listened in a raw, recordings - Revolver by The Beatles on SHM-CD, X by Ed Sheeran and Enya's debut on original Nimbus release sounded really good in this regard. It was also easy to notice how differently each of this albums had been recorded and produced.

Large size of the speakers suggests a large bass performance. Anybody who listened to many speakers knows from experience that this is not an universal truth. Designers making their choices have to choose some solutions which also means compromises in some aspects of the design – that's how it works. Electra 3 are intended for small rooms. They can be placed near the wall and, if possible, they should also stand close to listener. In such conditions most people will appreciate the fact, that bass extension is somewhat limited.

There are many not too big monitors on the market that are able to “pump more air” into the listening room and they even do it pretty well – like, for example Dynaudio from DM line, PMC from Twenty, and others. But one has to realize that they do it at the cost of lower clarity and lesser openness of the sound. You want miss anything in Polish speakers bass as long as you won't play them really loud, or you won't play music that is not subtle but carries a lot of pure energy. Those who prefer some heavy genres of music should probably look for their speakers elsewhere.

Summary

These speakers take us on a different journey. They offer a trip into world of music where what matters most are colors, dynamics, naturalness and “freshness” of the sound. Separation of instruments is surely not a key element of the presentation – they all are elements of a bigger picture. Such approach is not a mistake – it is one of the possible choices. This presentation actually sounds a lot like we hear instruments playing live.

It's a sophisticated performance, open, effortless and most of all – very clean. These are not speakers that will perform at their best when pushed to the limits, but as long as you keep the volume at reasonable levels they will perform great. It is a well thought-through, wonderfully made speaker for true connoisseurs.

Electra Generation 3 is a floorstanding, vented, two-way loudspeaker. Proportions of its cabinet are quite particular. The pretty standard height is 1070 mm (with spikes). As for the size of used woofer width of the front baffle is relatively big - 260 mm. The most unusual dimension is speaker's depth – it's just 120 mm. To ensure proper stability of the whole speaker one has to screw two laser-cut, steel elements to the bottom of the cabinet and then very nice spikes to these elements. There are no protective elements one could use under spikes attached.

The cabinets are made of few layers of MDF and reinforced with metal elements mounted in the front and inside. It is finished with one of beautiful natural veneers. Sides, top and some other elements sport black leather finish.

Drivers

Speakers use a 25 mm silk dome tweeter, that is fixed to the cabinet with few washers made of different materials with different damping properties. It is a custom made tweeter made for Divine Acoustics and it sports a metal front. Designer focused a lot of efforts on vibration damping. One of his proprietary solutions, dampening of the driver's basket, is called BAD - Basket Accurate Dampening, plus he grounded metal elements to eliminate eddy currents. Placement of the tweeter on the front baffle was chosen so that it matches the height our ears should be on.

Low- and midrange are delivered via 130mm woofer. Mr Gałkowski told me that: „it combines a coated paper cone which ensures good damping properties, with a rigid, very light carbon fiber, that improves impulse response”. Also woofer's basket is grounded, and the BAD system is used to eliminate resonances.

Crossover

I mentioned a small “window” on the rear panel before. This idea came, if I'm not mistaken, from Focal-JMLab. The intention was to let customer see the crossover. Focal could do it for their more expensive lines where they used high quality elements and put them together in a nice, orderly fashion. But such crossovers are rather costly and not all manufacturers want to everybody to see crossovers they used in their speakers.

So it would seem that it is a crazy idea for such an inexpensive product as Electra Generation 3, right? Wrong! Polish company used high quality elements that are at least as good or even better that those use by many high-end manufacturers. So yes, they should brag about it and they should let people to see that. Designers used a few of his proprietary solutions here - the SGP (Single Ground Point) system and RFpath (Resistors Free path). The former concentrates ground of the whole circuit in one point, reduces signal's path and permits proper capacitors' discharge. The RFpath system allowed designer to resign usage of any serial or parallel resistors in tweeter's signal path.

This window allows you to clearly see copper ribbons used as internal wiring. It is made of OFC and each length and its directionality was carefully chosen. Elements chosen for the crossover are of highest quality like Jantzen Audio Z-Superior, Z-Standard and Cross-Cap capacitors, precise metalized resistors, and air core coils. Electra 3 sports single, gold-plated speakers posts.

It is a beautiful, fantastic design and I have no idea how it is possible to offer it with this price tag. There is only one explanation for this – this is a creation of a true passionate who made these speakers for other aficionados and in particular for those who can't afford high-end/priced products.

Parameters (according to manufacturer):

dimensions:
height with spikes: 1070 mm, width: 260 mm, depth: 120 mm
plinth dimensions:
W: 287 mm, D: 253 mm
cabinet's volume: 10 liters
impedance: 8 Ω
sensitivity: 87 dB
recommended power: 8-60 W
recommended room size (stereo setup): <20 m2<20 m2

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