I've just been reading about these in a review by Jonathan Valin, in media.avguide.com/2011_Loudspeakers_Buyers_Guide. (It is free for anyone to look up so I assume there is no problem in pasting a very short extract, properly acknowledged).
In particular I was astonished to learn how heavy they are:
Of course, there were the little problems of the
Xes’ sheer size and mass to deal with.
What we have here, on each speaker-side, is
essentially two 101 Es without their subwoofers
and subwoofer cabinets—one trio of Radialstrahler
(Deutsch for “omnidirectional”) drivers facing
upward and another, immediately above it,
down, in a mirror-image array. The bottom trio
of Radialstrahlers is mounted on a massive (over
500 pounds) base constructed of birchwood,
brass, and aluminum in a constrained-layer
sandwich; the upper set is bolted to a similarly
massive top piece, also made of a constrained-
layer sandwich of birch, brass, and aluminum,
with a high-quality dynamic “ambience tweeter”
nestled out of sight on its roof. Thick struts of
stainless steel and cross members of powder-
coated brass provide top-to-bottom and side-to-
side structure and support. Each speaker-side
weighs half-a-ton.
In addition to the gigantic Radialstrahler
“towers,” the 101 X-Tremes come with two six-
and-a-half-foot-tall subwoofer towers that weigh
better than half-a-ton all by themselves. Each sub
array comprises three ported, lacquered-birch
and aluminum boxes, fitted on top of each other
via heavy-duty aluminum pegs and sockets, with
the sub crossover controls and the MBL amplifier
that drives the entire array housed in the middle
box. Two 12" aluminum-cone drivers with very
wide and flexible surrounds are mounted in
a push-push configuration inside each of the
three boxes—one woofer on the right side of
the enclosure, one on the left, both stabilized
and cross-braced by a massive aluminum rod
running between them to prevent the drivers from
passing resonant energy to each other and to the
box itself. That makes a total of six 12" woofers
per speaker-side, twelve 12" woofers altogether.
That, my friends, is a lot of bass.
Although the 101 X-Tremes break down into
pieces, the pieces themselves are massive
(roughly 300 to over 500 pounds each).
Presumably if you can afford the $200k or so to buy these then you can also afford the specially reinforced room to house them in. I've failed to win the Euromillions yet again this week, so these are not yet on my shopping list........
In particular I was astonished to learn how heavy they are:
Of course, there were the little problems of the
Xes’ sheer size and mass to deal with.
What we have here, on each speaker-side, is
essentially two 101 Es without their subwoofers
and subwoofer cabinets—one trio of Radialstrahler
(Deutsch for “omnidirectional”) drivers facing
upward and another, immediately above it,
down, in a mirror-image array. The bottom trio
of Radialstrahlers is mounted on a massive (over
500 pounds) base constructed of birchwood,
brass, and aluminum in a constrained-layer
sandwich; the upper set is bolted to a similarly
massive top piece, also made of a constrained-
layer sandwich of birch, brass, and aluminum,
with a high-quality dynamic “ambience tweeter”
nestled out of sight on its roof. Thick struts of
stainless steel and cross members of powder-
coated brass provide top-to-bottom and side-to-
side structure and support. Each speaker-side
weighs half-a-ton.
In addition to the gigantic Radialstrahler
“towers,” the 101 X-Tremes come with two six-
and-a-half-foot-tall subwoofer towers that weigh
better than half-a-ton all by themselves. Each sub
array comprises three ported, lacquered-birch
and aluminum boxes, fitted on top of each other
via heavy-duty aluminum pegs and sockets, with
the sub crossover controls and the MBL amplifier
that drives the entire array housed in the middle
box. Two 12" aluminum-cone drivers with very
wide and flexible surrounds are mounted in
a push-push configuration inside each of the
three boxes—one woofer on the right side of
the enclosure, one on the left, both stabilized
and cross-braced by a massive aluminum rod
running between them to prevent the drivers from
passing resonant energy to each other and to the
box itself. That makes a total of six 12" woofers
per speaker-side, twelve 12" woofers altogether.
That, my friends, is a lot of bass.
Although the 101 X-Tremes break down into
pieces, the pieces themselves are massive
(roughly 300 to over 500 pounds each).
Presumably if you can afford the $200k or so to buy these then you can also afford the specially reinforced room to house them in. I've failed to win the Euromillions yet again this week, so these are not yet on my shopping list........
