WORLD PREMIERE

ow and then a test happens that required a long wait. I wrote about it several times. I find an interesting product or interesting manufacturer, collect information about it and apply for a test. I usually get a reply to my email, and sometimes we come to an understanding and the manufacturer sends me his loudspeakers, amplifier, source, or some other product for a review. Often, it takes a some time for the company to get to know me better, sometimes we have to meet first – usually in Munich during the High End Show - and only then, when a trust is built, I get a "blessing" and green light for a review.

Never before though, a story like this one happened: I have been waiting for a chance to review Lumen White's loudspeakers for about 15 years. I sent the first email to this small company, quite mysterious one at the time, when I was working for Sound & Vision magazine. As far as I can remember, the answer from this company read something like” thank you for your email but... because: a) there is no distributor in Poland; and b) they are not planning too many tests of their White Flame loudspeakers, they have to postpone the test for an indefinite future.

History

I do not remember who wrote to me, I mean which of the three owners, but they kept their words – the Lumen White loudspeakers appeared in just a few tests, mostly in Germany. However, something unique happened - this design, the only product of this company, has reached a “cult” status and probably as the only product from a small European manufacturer it was featured on the cover of the Japanese quarterly magazine "Stereo Sound" after receiving the most important Stereo Sound Grand Prix 2002 award with a summary, which read: "One of the best audio components in history". Let's add that in its 150th edition this one of the most important audio magazines in the world named these speakers "one of the best audio components in the history of our magazine".

I saw and listened to these loudspeakers numerous times in Munich, but for the first time I could take a closer look in my friend's, Dirk Sommer home that is also his mastering studio. Because Dirk was actually the first journalist in the world to review these speakers in 2001. At the time he was a chief editor of the “Image Hi-Fi” magazine and already back then he was known for his work in analogue mastering studio. As a result of this test, the Lumen White White Flame loudspeakers stayed in his studio as his listening monitors, and he used them while working on a few hundred of remasters and masters of original recordings, almost all of which were released as analogue records. That's how the legend of this brand was born.

Lets fast-forward. In 2017, the Lumen White belongs to two gentlemen: Hartmut Roemer, the designer, and our good friend, a member of the Krakow Sonic Society, Gerhard Hirt, whom we know well as the owner of Ayon Audio. Gerhard joins the company to help voicing the loudspeaker, as well as to organize production and sales. Together they form a "dream team".

They met years ago under completely different circumstances. Gerhard at the time was still a distributor of several high-end brands in Austria, and a beginner manufacturer (Ayon Audio), and Hartmut was his customer. At that time he liked a lot the Avalon speakers with their distinctive ceramic drivers. Despite their obvious advantages, in his ears, they still lacked something, even the most expensive models.

Frustrated, he finally asked Gerhard whether he would be interested in making "the best loudspeakers in the world". He was. And so began the story of Lumen White. The assumptions were, of course in theory, simple: transducers, cabinets, crossovers and components were to be designed, selected and paired in order to obtain precise signal impulses, phase and time coherence, energy balance between successive octaves, controlled rise and setting times, and elimination of the effect of energy building - both in transducers, crossover and cabinets. The theory and practice, however, are half siblings, they sometimes differ dramatically. The theory must be skillfully translated into the language of practice through appropriate techniques, technologies and studies.

Cabinet

The most important development that was then put into production was the unique cabinet for the loudspeakers. Hartmut had reservations about both the bass-reflex and the closed designs. In the former, bass is assisted by adding to the base signal a narrow band of signal from the back of the diaphragm generated by the bass reflex port - this solution, he says, causes an unnatural bass boost, which in addition is blurred. The latter causes loss of sound energy, because the back of the diaphragm must be heavily damped with dissipative materials such as wool or foam.

He proposed a solution he called „driver-, port-, loading- and air-damping”. In general, the cabinet was supposed to simulate an open baffle but without its issues, i.e. limiting the radiation of the low tones. The baffle was thus "rolled" into a shape that, in general terms, resembles a lute, formerly developed and popularized by Frank Serblin of Sonus faber. However, the similarity is only general - the side walls of the LW loudspeakers come together in the rear with their edges bend inward, which looks more like an engine exhaust than the lute.

On the acoustics point of view, this design resembles a cabinet with a variovent. On the narrow rear wall there is a narrow, longitudinal opening, which can be reduced by means of plywood strips screwed on if necessary. This is not a bass reflex or a horn design because it is not tuned to boost bass. This is a part of the acoustic system that is supposed to suppress the sound coming from the rear of drivers' diaphragms, but in such a way that will not create any air turbulence or cause any loss of energy. Researching proper solution consumed a lot of time and money, but the effect satisfied Hartmut to such an extent that it is the primary distinguishing feature of all his loudspeakers.

The cabinets of Lumen White loudspeakers are build of specially formulated 3cm thick plywood. Curving this type of material is nothing new, because other manufacturers did it before but here a super-precision was required because the internal shape was calculated so that it would work with drivers in a very wide frequency range. Any deviation could result in a failure to achieve the goal. After many years a secret came out that explained a fantastic sound of these loudspeakers.

As recently Gerhard told me, the plywood for his loudspeakers is made specifically for LW and it's made using natural glue made of bones, rather than widely used synthetic adhesives. The company never shared this information because there were no other commercially available loudspeakers featuring cabinets made of such plywood. Because this plywood was custom made for their needs, it also had a different construction than commercially available materials - the individual layers of wood, selected for their mechanical properties, differed in thickness. During the study, an optimal pattern of interlacing of thicker, thinner and even thinner layers of different types of wood was established. The wood was machined so that its fibers were not cut, which was equally important for the final result.

Drivers

The Lumen White loudspeakers' cabinets therefore feature no internal damping, but are internally reinforced with ribs. Working in such an environment is a real challenge for transducers because any problems within the frequency range can not be solved by damping or smoothing impulse, etc. As I said, Hartmut was interested in the loudspeakers made by the American company, Avalon. And Avalon is one of the pioneers and promoters of extremely demanding in application, but potentially excellent transducers from the German company Accuton. Their story dates back to 1984, when Berbhard Thiel, then a Backes & Müller engineer, found a way to produce ultra-thin membranes of "oxide aluminum". A corundum is the aluminum trioxide, enriched with other oxides, often used as abrasive. Sources say that it is one of the hardest minerals in the world, just after the diamond. In short: ceramics.

The diaphragms of this type are absolutely rigid, i.e. they behave like a perfect piston and generate a sound with a flat frequency response. Their problem is their own high Q resonance. To remedy this, Thiel drilled whole in the membranes and put Sorbotan inside to damp these resonances. After Thiel founded his own company, that today is known as Accuton, his drivers became available for other loudspeaker manufacturers, such as: Avalon Acoustics and Kharma. Today these drivers are used also by brands such as: Estelon, Tidal, Marten and Lumen White. (More on Accuton's story: Jonathan Valin, Ceramic Drivers in: The Absolute Sound’s Illustrated History of High-End Audio. Volume One: Loudspeakers, ed. Robert Harley, Austin 2013, p. 299-300).

The latest series of Lumen White loudspeakers uses the latest versions of these transducers with an extremely distinctive shape: the honeycomb-shaped membrane is convex and not concave. It is no longer pure ceramics, but a 3D ceramic-aluminum sandwich which is surprisingly thick, yet very light and incredibly rigid. For his speakers Hartmut ordered a special version with custom made neodymium-cobalt magnets. These drivers feature the "overhung" coil that ensures very low distortion.

There are three bass woofers. Above there is the ceramic midrange driver and a small, also ceramic, inverted dome tweeter. Upon order, it can be replaced by a more expensive version with a diamond diaphragm.

Crossover

Accuton's new transducers have much better internal damping than their older versions, so their diaphragms have not been modified for a long time. Yet, there are still significant parasitic resonances outside the frequency range, which resembles some drivers with metal membranes. Manufacturers usually deal with this issue by using high-order crossovers - see Isophon and now Gauder Akustik. But do you remember what the company wanted to accomplish and why did they develop this particular type of cabinet for their speakers? One of the primary goals was to preserve the signal's energy. The easiest way would be to use crossovers with a slow rolloff rate. So Lumen White uses only 1st order crossovers with a rolloff of 6 dB per octave and the resonances are suppressed using additional circuits.

What else? Hartmut, a man of great passion and musical culture, will add some information for you. Please note that his statement was quoted without capital letter correction. In his e-mails, corporate materials, etc., he just writes this way. I also preserved the original division of his text. Like Lumen White, it is unique.

HARTMUT ROEMER
Owner, designer

Mr Hartmut Roemer (Lumen White)

actually, there is no extravagant philosophy behind having three models. the idea is simply to make our design and technologies available in three different price - and size - classes, so people with different means and listening environments can acquire and enjoy them.

doing so we try to maintain as much of the premium design features in the lower price segments as possible.

that's why we do not use mdf or particle boards in our speaker cabinets which are constructed from custom made, variable density, multiple tone- woods based, instrument-grade plywood. 

i believe that materials used in the construction of music devices has significant psycho-acoustic impact (a theme we could discuss for hours...) and hence i have researched the sonic impact of countless materials.

a key finding from this research: very few artificial materials qualify for balanced spectrum performance and psycho-acoustic "invisibility" ("in-audibility" would be more precise).

based on that research, i find properly formulated natural materials acoustically superior to synthetic, metal and most solid wood enclosures due to a superior, balanced resonance-spectrum and a natural, psycho-acoustically benign sonic signature.

for decades, premium hollow body jazz guitars used to be carved from solid tone-woods following century old instrument building traditions. it was famous N.Y. luthier sandowski who first build a jazz guitar from instrument grade plywood - and surprise - it sounded more balanced and dynamic than the traditional solid wood versions.

basically, the plywood could be composed in such a way, that the resonances balanced out in the most complementary way and the uncut fibres have better energy transfer behaviour than the fibres shortened by the traditional carving method.

sometimes basic physics - and the courage to let our listening guide us - beats traditionalism.

a principle that has driven lumen white design work from the start.

i have heart multiple times so-called "experts" comment on my ideas stating categorically that what i want to do is "impossible". 

since 20 years my reply is simply "that's exactly why we research it - because others have not ventured into this territory. and only unknown will yield the new and potentially superior possibilities. 

the technical information (attached) on our three loudspeaker models list the various technologies and design- approaches which i have employed in the speakers.

there are others which i tend not to mention as protecting one`s know how has become a crucial rule for a smaller brand to succeed in this industry.

also, the "mystere" turntable brochure provides further inside into what drives my design work and how far i am willing to go to achieve  "musicality".

i consider music a key cultural pillar and boon, in fact a "life-elixir" as it can uplift the melancholic, inspire harmony, peace, joy and laughter. in asia, for thousands of years they even had traditions of applying music as medicine to the human body - seemingly with considerable success.

that's just to say i consider music a treasure and quality sonics in playback as essential to reap its full benefits and reveal its full beauty. 

an artistic quest and philosophic aspiration in essence.

played back properly, even recorded music can make us speechless - and where language ends the essential in life usually starts...

these views drive my work in audio design and explains why i by principle don't take "impossible" as an answer. 

signal purity and signal-time-coherence, correct and comprehensive overtone-reproduction (a key element in proper psycho-acoustics) and freedom from artifacts (from unsuitable materials and circuit behaviour) are key demands towards this goal and inspire some of my technical choices.

Kyara

Lumen White currently offers three models of loudspeakers, the Kyara being the smallest. Which does not mean it is actually small: each speaker measures 1190 x 300 x 600 mm and weighs 60 kg. These are floorstanding, three-way loudspeakers, described in the company materials as "studio reference monitors". The 'Monitor' in this meaning refers to the definition used by the BBC, i.e. it defines the intended use of speakers that are to aid in 'monitoring' the music.

The speakers feature five Thiel / Accuton drivers: 1" ceramic tweeter (which can be replaced by a diamond one), 5" ceramic midrange driver and three 7.5" woofers with a ceramic / aluminum diaphragm with special, Neodymium-cobalt magnets. Suspension of these drivers is hidden under the diaphragm so that it does not interfere with sound wave propagation. The speaker's bandwidth is split in a crossover, which together with the acoustic load of the speakers creates a 1st order filter (6 dB / octave). The crossover points frequencies are at 350 and 3000 Hz.

The cabinet is made of the highest quality plywood, custom-made for Lumen White. This type of plywood is used to build musical instruments. It is composed of layers of different types of wood differing in thickness. Instead of a synthetic glue, a natural one is used, made of animal bones. Veneers are unique - both popular and (at extra cost) exotic veneers perfectly matched for each pair of speakers. The loudspeakers have a unique shape and although quite large, they completely disappear optically from the room. In fact, they seemed to be much smaller than my own Harbeth M40.1 on their stands.

The rear wall is hard to see - it has a width of several centimeters. It hosts two pairs of excellent WBT speaker connectors from the latest nextgen series. The manufacturer provides also jumpers made of thick copper braid. A small switch was placed between the jumpers, that allows user to set the lower end of frequency response - 26 or 30 Hz. Accordingly one has to cover or open variovents. To do that one should use plywood strips, which are screwed on using ordinary screws. The loudspeakers stand on three spikes and those on small pads./p>

“High Fidelity” proudly presents the WORLD PREMIERE of the Lumen White Kyara loudspeakers!

The Kyara require quite a large room to be placed in, but not that big actually. Gerhard, who visited me and my room, gave his blessing for this test and he was probably right. The only thing I would change is the distance from the front of the speakers, which should be more than 3 m. The speakers were driven by the Soulution 710 power amp and the Ayon Audio Spheris III line preamplifier.

I used the Ancient Audio AIR V-edition CD player, and the Cantano W / T turntable with the Miyajima Laboratory Madake cartridge, Siltech Triple Crown interconnects and two pairs of speaker cables, interchangeable: Acoustic Revive SPC 3.0 Triple-C and Tara Labs Muse.

The loudspeakers were slightly toed-in and placed 240 cm apart (that's a distance between middle of their front baffles). The distance from the listening position was 220 cm, also counting from the front wall. The outlet of the variovents was around 1 m from the rear wall.

I have a request: if you have ever listened to any of loudspeakers with ceramic drivers - forget about it. Do not compare them to Lumen White, because it does not make any sense. In general, you can obviously compare any product with whatever you want. But in this case it makes no sense. You would have just wasted your time because Kyaras sound completely different and they reminded me - if I were to find any references - the sound of large horn speakers combined with a single-driver ones. Except, without inherent compromises of such designs.

I listened to them during long sessions, because I was very interested - on the one hand, how many of my favorite albums would sound like with these speakers, but on the other, with the music itself. How was it played, recorded and finally released. The Lumen White stimulate listener, make him think, wonder. Sometimes they even force him to re-evaluate certain, it would seem – indisputable views and opinions. But above all, these are loudspeakers that show the truth about recorded music, on every possible level. Calling them "Monitors" is just a precise description of what they are for.

These loudspeakers render a powerful image in front of a listener. It is very natural and full-bodied. Its power manifests itself in the perfect adaptation of the speakers to the recording, the music, the performance. In case of electronic components I would call this quality a "headroom", a power reserve. The point is that these loudspeakers scale the events as if they had no limits in terms of dynamics and resolution. These two qualities are the very foundation of everything we hear. So there is this ease of presentation I'd known so far only from large, high-efficiency horn speakers – it's something like the lack of "resistance," which is always there with other speakers.

After starting the music the first impression is different - it seems that there is not enough bass. But only until that bass (double bass, piano, organ, etc.) starts to play - then we get as much of it as the producer of the recording/mastering engineer wanted us to. Play a single voice you won't hear what my Harbeth speakers do with it (and that's what I love about them), i.e. the vocal won't be highlighted by being enlarged. Kyaras present the voice in the right proportions and a little farther away from listening position than most speakers do in my room. But they do it always in a way intended by people who created particular recording. In contrast to them it was obvious that my Harbeths have a little bump in the bass, which gives them a unique character, but which makes their performance not that precise. Kyaras were flawlessly aligned, but when it was necessary they delivered a lower, more natural bass.

But the most impressive is the scale of the presentation and differentiation of the volume within it. All the other speakers I know firstly "truncate" its upper dimension and then adjust the presentation to it. Kyaras do not seem to have these limitation. If this is the Nat King Cole his vocal will be bigger and deeper, just like the two male voices of Peter, Paul & Mary trio. Because that how they were recorded – using closely placed microphone - and tweaked on the mastering console. But when you decide to play Pet Shop Boys, T.Love, Laurie Anderson, Rosemary Clooney, Enya, or classical music the vocals will be smaller, singers will take a step back behind the line connecting speakers and set in a beautifully defined space.

Same will happen with any other instrument. Every signal manipulation, every choice is clearly presented, I would say even as clearly as never before. Because these speakers play the music without beating around the bush, compared to them most loudspeakers sound in a veiled, muffled manner. Even the best ones such as AudioMachina Pure NSE (Polish), or YG Acoustic Carmel 2, are not so open, so free of restrictions. Kyaras seem to be limited only by the signal one provides them with.

And one has to be very careful about what we deliver them with. Since these speakers seem to be free of compression and don't need to cover up for any own shortcomings, they act like a "pipe", showing everything that is before them in the system. So I immediately diagnose what the (more expensive) Tara Labs cables do better than Acoustic Revive's, I immediately heard the weaknesses of my AIR V-edition CD Player. Not real weaknesses but rather what could be done even better.

These speakers really hate an emphasis of the midrange attack, or impurities and harshness in this part of the band. The tonal balance of these loudspeakers, playing in my room, with my system, was very even, open, with a slightly highlighted upper midrange. Every higher quality component added to the system slightly leveled off this element, but I was never able to eliminate it completely. I know that in particularly unfavorable conditions, such as not well-matched amplifier, this could be unacceptable. I could hear that all the time, but it did not define my perception of music.

Perhaps because of this - because there are always two ends of the same stick in audio – the sound was so incredibly transparent and open. The band's extension was remarkable and it allowed me to realize mediocrity of the tweeter dome used in my Harbeths. I mentioned that already a few times when I reviewed some better speakers (in this regard), but earlier it was just an observation. After such a test, I returned to my speakers without any problem, accepting their weakness as a part of the "package" with all of their advantages that still make it one of the best generators of true emotions. I'm sure this time it will be different, that Lumen White's have burned on my hearing's "retina" a mark that will keep reminding me of this flaw of my speakers.

The "monitoring" aspect of Hartmut's speakers means also that we stop evaluating the music in "hi-fi" terms. That is, we still can, if we so choose. However, sooner or later we enter another listening mode, where we assess acoustics, tone, attack, playing technique, leaving everything else aside. Whether there is bass or not, it loses its raison d'être because these speakers are like a wide open window in which every recording fit easily. Kyaras simply are not a limiting factor.

Also in terms of speed of signal rise. This element was a great advantage of the both previously mentioned loudspeakers, but I have not heard it in this scale ever before. Maybe once, with Sonus faber Electa Amator II, but there with a fairly limited frequency range (after all these are “only” monitors). Here I hear the same ease of reproduction starting from the very low bass up to the upper treble. The treble is highly detailed, resolving and dense. There is a lot of high tones, but not too much. The difference between the Lumen White and other open sounding speakers is the same as between Master CD-Rs and the same material released on CD.

Let me explain. I do not know how many of you have participated in one of the workshops of the Pylon: Tour The Pologne where I talk about mastering, speaker placement, and how the recordings are prepared for a release. When I play the Master CD-R disc, and a regular CD featuring the same material, most of the listeners point to the latter version as better sounding one. And it is because only after listening to it several time and becoming accustomed to much more information on the master copy one can perceive a dullness of the commercial release, how harmonically poor it is in comparison. Before that the latter seems more pleasant, safer. Perception of Kyaras will be very similar in comparison to any other loudspeaker. The Lumen White will be more open and communicative, making music sound more natural and more believable. But one has to get used to this type of presentation.

Any downsides? It's hard to say because it's more about my system and the room than about the speakers. The only thing I would suggest is to combine these speakers with rather saturated, rich, maybe even a little warm sounding electronics. The midrange is very energetic and even the slightest deviation towards upper part of the band will be painfully audible. The manufacturer claims that the speakers should be paired with a powerful amplifier and I can confirm that. But I must also note that the Polish distributor drove these speakers with 18-watt monoblocks from Phasemation (2 x 300 B SET) and claimed it was a dream combination. I do not know, I did not listen to it, so you would have to check it for yourself, but it is a clue for you if you're interested in these speakers. It's an issue that needs to be clarified in a particular system.

Summary

It is easy to point out the areas in which the loudspeaker technology has changed most in the last dozen or so years. On one hand, it will be much more common than ever usage of the Dr. Heil's AMT drivers, and on the other usage of drivers with diaphragms made of metal and ceramics. Although all of them - apart from AMT - follow the same principles known for more than a century, starting with the first piston transducer patented in 1874, when Werner von Siemens first described the "dynamic" transducer, the progress in terms of purity, distortion and dynamics is enormous.

But the main role of loudspeakers has not changed: they are the last link in a system that converts an electrical signal into acoustical one, and it is them that decide what we actually hear and whether they can (or can not) trigger emotions embossed in music. The Kyara loudspeakers do it just amazingly. They are able to interest listener in music played even from poor recordings, and when played from high quality recordings they know how to wow listener with music's beauty. One does not treat them as "loudspeakers", but rather as an open window, with the whole world of recorded music on the other side, with its flaws and advantages, but above all with all of its beauty. But be warned: these speakers require the best possible system supporting them, as they do not tolerate any shortcomings!

It's an open, incredibly resolving sound with a wonderfully extended band from the very top to the very bottom. The latter is not as massive as delivered by the Harbeth M40.1, but is more resolving. There is never any shortage of the bass. An accent is placed on the upper midrange, not tonally but energetically, and this is the only thing that can influence a potential user's decision. But nobody's perfect, right? I do not care about it and I award these speakers with GOLD Fingerprint, an award rarely given and only to the absolute crème de la crème products. For the first time in the history of "High Fidelity" I would like to combine it with the award we give for the best quality recording, i.e. the BIG RED Button. I have the feeling that the combination of these two awards, one for technical accomplishments and the other for musical accomplishments, truly reflects the spirit of the Lumen White Kyara. If we understand beauty as the truth, then these speakers are simply beautiful.

Specifications (according to manufacturer)

one custom design 1" ceramic or diamond "cell" tweeter 
one proprietary "cell" 5" ceramic mid-range transducer, 
three 6.6" custom design "cell" ceradome woofers. 
precision matched and resonance tuned 

frequency response 26hz - 30 kHz/-3db, impedance: 5 ohm 
sensitivity (1w/1m) 89.5 db (90.5 db - average value ) 
recommended amplifier power 30 - 300 watt 
port adaptable to 26hz or 30hz for room matching 

custom internal wire harness 
wbt-nextgen bi-wire terminals 

dimensions (h x w x d) each 119 x 30 x 60 cm 
weight, each 60 kg