Audiophilepure

Throughout the years I auditioned speakers of various drivers count and published my findings on a few flagship speaker systems of the larger physiques with the lowest drivers count, the most meritorious among them being the single-driver, dual-concentric Tannoy Churchill Wideband, the Tannoy Westminster Royal SE, the oversized horn of the Destination Audio Vista and the large electrostatic panels of the Sound Lab Majestic 645. Most noteworthy is the fact that Tannoy’s 15-inch dual-concentric driver was the only one with a solitary dual-concentric driver to exhibit nil excursion playing some of the most rambunctious passages I could muster from my music library. The importance of a woofer’s property of resistance to excursion cannot be overstated for a distortion-free sound, a problem resolved by the electrostatic membrane drive system summarily.

https://www.whathifi.com/speakers/hi-fi-speakers/proac-d20r

he technical highlight here is the use of ProAc’s well-proven ribbon tweeter. This 10 x 60mm design has long been used to good effect in the company’s premium Response range. It has a damped chamber behind the diaphragm to help with dynamics and clarity, and unusually uses an Alnico magnet-based motor system rather than the more fashionable Neodymium alternative on performance grounds. The company makes a slightly cheaper version of this speaker with a capable soft dome tweeter, but in our experience, its ribbon models tend to produce clearer and more insightful results, though they prove more exacting in terms of angling towards the listening position.

The D20R’s 16.5cm mid/bass unit is almost as impressive as the tweeter. It has a woven glass fibre cone, a generous motor system mounted to a rigid chassis and an unusual acrylic phase plug to help even out the response at the top end of its operating frequency range. The mid/bass is tuned by a downward firing port that exits in the gap between the base of the cabinet and the plinth. Such a design is claimed to make the speaker’s bass performance more consistent across a wider range of placements in a room, and that proves true in use, though these floorstanders still need space around them to shine. ProAc claims an impressive 28Hz low-end extension, but doesn’t quote the output level limit at that frequency.