El Nino, Shelf speaker   as in Hobby HiFi 4/2010

For two way systems with high efficiency the editorial team of Hobby HiFi noticed the 20cm woofer JA-8008 HES by Jantzen Audio.

An adequate tweeter was needed: the HS-Device AMT 2510c by Mundorf was an obvious choice. The AMT 2510c is an excellent air motion transformer.

After a formidable woofer and tweeter had been chosen, the question came up where to place the bass reflex port: if at the front the timing difference is minimal – that’s how it should be; the tube, however, also radiates unwanted mid frequencies. IIf the port is at the rear the timing differences are so high that front and rear radiation don’t complement one another..

Bernd Timmermanns found an elegant solution: the bass reflex port is at the front pointing downwards; all requirements are complied with: no unwanted mid frequencies and low timing differences.

An excerpt from the Hobby HiFi review

"In our listening room the El Nino were placed on 60 cm speaker stands ("Trophy" by Partington), safely secured by Tesa Powerstrips, ergo still movable. Blu-Tack by Bostik has a similar effect. The speaker stands’ feet were placed on spikes. While using spikes with relatively lightweight speakers doesn’t always make sense, they certainly help when using heavy speakers, like in this case, to improve on the precision and tightness of the bass. We just couldn’t believe it; how can these speakers provide such a real sound experience? Fully three-dimensional, within your reach yet still showing a tremendous depth beyond the physical speakers and staggered widely. The bass - well, you don't notice the absence of low bass. The bass reproduced by these speakers is clean, punchy and clear, to leave nothing to be desired. In all fairness, there is also music that needs low bass. In that case a subwoofer like our XXL-Sub from issue 3/2010, that we could cut-off already at 60 Hertz with the new Reckhorn A-403, is really nice. The El Ninos harmonised extremely well with this bass module. "Havana Cafe" by Paquito D'Riveira was perfect even without a subwoofer The Latin percussions were spot-on like rarely before, explosive, highly dynamic. No aggressiveness was noticeable, as produced often by speakers that were spiced up with a more or less excessive high frequency range. Everything was real, crystal clear, punchy and sincere. Mundorf’s air motion transformer was the icing on the cake. The attention to detail didn't leave anything to be desired, even the finest details were resolved; music seemed to be created that had never been heard before – although the supposedly well known CD’s of the listening test pool were used. The AMT gave vocals a special appeal, resulting in permanent goose bumps. Like Jane Monheit with “Over The Rainbow“ (Best Audiophile Voices) or Eva Cassidy in duet with Katie Melua: unbelievably beautiful, exciting voices that are rarely reproduced with such authenticity."

Verdict:

"El Nino shows which capabilities are dormant in an allegedly simple two way design and what splendid sound may be reproduced by relatively small loudspeakers. We don't know of better compact loudspeakers. "

Our kit consists of

Kit without cabinet, price per speaker - not available
 

Kit with high-end crossover

In our high-end version only air core coils are used in the signal path to the woofer and in the signal path to the tweeter a Jantzen Z-CAP is employed

• Mundorf MCap EVO capacitor 1.0 μF / 450 V
• Mundorf MCap EVO capacitor 15 μF / 450 V
• 2 pcs. Mundorf MKP capacitor 68 μF / 400 V
• Mundorf MCAP Supreme silver/gold/oil 5.6 μF / 1200 V
• Mundorf baked varnish air core coil BL71, 22 mH/5.66 Ohm
• Mundorf copper foil coil CFC16-0.39mH/0.20Ohm
• Mundorf copper foil coil CFC16-0.47mH/0.22Ohm
• Mundorf copper foil coil CFC16-1.2mH/0.38Ohm
• Mundorf copper foil coil CFC12-1.5mH/0.21Ohm
• MOX10 resistor 2.7 Ohm/10Watt (red-purple-gold)
• MOX10 resistor 3.3 Ohm/10Watt (orange-orange-gold)
• 2x MOX10 resistor 4.7 Ohm/10Watt (yellow-purple-gold)
• MOX10 resistor 8.2 Ohm/10Watt (grey-red-gold)
• MOX10 resistor 10 Ohm/10Watt (brown-black-black)

Kit with high-end crossover without cabinet, price per speaker - not available

Impedance correction

If you want to use a valve amplifier with this speaker an impedance correction should be employed. In this case the component quality is less important; therefore, we offer only one kit (upon request higher quality components are available).

• electrolytic capacitor, unetched, 47uF / 70 Vdc
• Mundorf air core coil L71, 0.27 mH/0.45 Ohm
• resistor 5.6 Ohm/20Watt

Price per impedance correction for one speaker, to be mounted on a small wooden board.   EUR 20,00 excl. VAT: € 16.81 / $ 18.15