Downsizing usually suggests sacrifice, but the trend in audio has been to arrest this negativism. After decades of whining wives exhorting their hubbies to buy small speakers, followed by the iPod’s attack on serious hi-fi equipment, the small loudspeaker is fighting back. Hi-fi manufacturers have always offered compact loudspeakers, but the laws of physics dictate that – in order to reproduce deep, realistic bass notes – a speaker has to move a lot of air.

That’s why panel-type speakers, like electrostatics, are so huge, while conventional box-type speakers of a convincing persuasion contain woofers (the speaker units that reproduce the low notes) with dimensions of 10-inches, 12-inches or even 15-inches, with commensurately large speaker enclosures. They are most assuredly not able to pass the Wife Acceptance Factor. As far back as the early 1960s, companies such as Acoustic Research (known as AR) were devising ways of extracting the greatest amount of bass from the smallest enclosures, and a number of techniques emerged. For AR, it was the sealed cabinets and their “acoustic suspension” capability, while some used ports, transmission lines, reflex loading and countless other means of making speakers more “room friendly” without giving up the bass that adds “weight” and substance to the sound.

Perhaps the definitive small speaker is the BBC-designed LS3/5A of 1976, no longer made but once licensed to a number of constructors including Rogers, Spendor, Goodmans and Chartwell, all using BBC-approved drive units made by KEF. It was conceived to provide professional monitor quality in confined spaces, such as cramped studios or while on location in a recording van. It was a masterpiece.

From a box whose dimensions measure only 310x190x160mm (HWD), with a 3/4- inch tweeter and a 5-inch woofer, came sounds that resulted in sales of over 50,000 pairs and the creation of an audio icon. Its sound reproduction, especially of voice, was captivating and convincing, and became the touchstone for all small speakers. It produced a truly three-dimensional “soundstage,” beloved of two or three generations of audiophiles. Now highly collectible, the LS3/5A is one of very few hi-fi products that has been “faked,” like a Rolex watch or a fine Bordeaux.

There was, however, a limit to the bass and the maximum volume that such a small box could deliver. In the intervening years, new materials have resulted in drive units able to handle more power, or to produce a certain amount of sound with less power. Enclosure materials and crossover components – the crossover being the network that sends the signal to the appropriate drive unit – having improved as well, while the use of laser technology and computers have provided designers with tools denied those in the 1950s and 1960s.

Because of these advances, “small” no longer means “compromised.” Apartment dwellers, the financially-limited, those saddled with a BWFH (“Bitch Wife From Hell”) can now enjoy satisfying sound without having to make space for a speaker the size of a coffin. Think “case of wine” and you’re closer to the dimensions of the latest super-minis. And I mean six bottles – not 12. In the battle to win back those seduced by the small, but vile-sounding “docks” that seem to have supplanted real hi-fi, the manufacturers have delivered great sound as well as cool looks. The latest generation of small speakers are not systems you’ll want to hide. Leave that to masochists prepared to suffer in-wall concessions. They range from the achingly modern KEF LS50 to the gorgeous retro styling of Tannoy’s Autograph Mini and the JBL 4312M II. While the latter pair may look like scale models of “real” speakers, they’re true monitors in their own right.

There are no longer any excuses to forego studio sound quality because of space – nor even cost – considerations. Try any of these speakers, and you’ll truly appreciate the concept of good things coming in small packages.

By Ken Kessler

Published in Playboy South Africa August 2012