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Larsen speakers

Posted: 2019-10-10 17:24
by Matteo
Had anyone listened to these Swedish speakers?
http://www.larsenhifi.com/en/index.htm

They are designed to be placed close to the front wall.

The entry model (4) seems interesting (€ 1,400).

M.

Re: Larsen speakers

Posted: 2019-10-11 11:54
by maffe
I think Larsen carries the legacy of Stig Carlsson and his design and sound philosophy with honour.
The L4 have not impressed on me but I have heard one of the larger models ad a HiFi show a few years back and that room was best in show for me. Think it was the L6.2 (?) with a vintage system in front, Thorens TT.

For not being that into the “ao” design philosophy I do have 3 different Carlsson/Sonab speakers at home. Playing at A pair of oa116 in the livingroomvas we speak. They kind of work with the rest of our furniture and plays ok. One of the good things with moving to house from a 2 room apartment ;)

Re: Larsen speakers

Posted: 2019-10-11 13:34
by Ianw
I’ve heard Sonabs many years ago. From memory they sounded OK but just floaty music and no imaging. Not criticising them as I think they were designed for the ambient listening experience.

Re: Larsen speakers

Posted: 2019-10-11 14:08
by maffe
There’s a big difference in design on the Sonab/Carlsson speakers. Started with indirect sound in the 60’s to be more of a mix indirect/direct sound in the 70’s with as many as 16 elements in each speaker, the oa2212 with 2 mid, 2 woffers and 12 tweeters in one speaker!
80’s design was even more direct and only 2 elementsstill designed to be placed agains a wall. This is the design that Larsen still use.

Re: Larsen speakers

Posted: 2019-10-11 14:21
by Freddy
https://www.carlssonplanet.com/2019/03/ ... son-oa-61/

This is the new Carlsson speaker based on OA51 which was Stig Carlssons last speakerdesign, OA51 sounded really good when last heard them but it was over 10 years ago. Many people love them so they must have something.

Have a pair of OD11 from the 70s that I have renovated. They sound very pleasant and musical. Actually it was these speaker and a Sonab 85S record player that made me start the interest for music and hifi when I was a kid.

Re: Larsen speakers

Posted: 2019-10-11 14:38
by maffe
I have a pair of OD11’s that need attention one tweeter is dead. So at the moment one have a ikea symfonisk “guts” inside one of them just for fun, so active 2-way with built in streamer :)
Little hesitant to “upgrade” with new tweeters, woofer and filters. High cost and how will they play compared to the original idea of the design.

Re: Larsen speakers

Posted: 2019-10-15 21:22
by ThomasOK
I have not heard the Larsons but do have some experience with Sonabs. I rebuilt a pair of OA116s for my brother. These were honestly not purchased for sound but for looks - he wanted a vintage system that looked like it came from the Museum on Modern Art, based around a Transcriptors turntable similar to the Saturn I owned in the mid 70s before I bought my first LP12 in 1978. I thought I had written about the whole process here but can't find it with a search so it must have been on the Linn forum. As a result he has a system consisting of a Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference turntable with their Fluid unipivot arm and a Grado Gold cartridge, a Lecson AC1 preamp and AP3 poweramp and the pair of Sonab OA116s in rosewood finish. Somewhere I have a good photo I should put up here.

The system actually isn't bad, the Transcriptors being at about the level of a Rega 3. I cleaned up everything, we rebuilt the power amp (a major pain) and restored the preamp. The speakers came with rebuilt bass drivers and several tweeters replaced. But they had replaced three tweeters on one unit and five on the other?! This left four old ones, which sounded noticeably worse, unevenly distributed. You can imagine how well that went down with me! The previous owner had also included a package supposedly containing two additional new tweeters. After searching in vain for the original tweeters and also the recommended replacement ones, both discontinued many years ago, I opened the tweeter package to find four in there! So I was able to get all 12 tweeters to be newer, although still two slightly different versions, and I did make sure the tweeter placements were mirror imaged. Then I cleaned up the grills and completely refinished the cabinets. I have to say the whole system does what it was supposed to. Although since the Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference is actually in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Lecson AC1 and AP1 are in the equivalent in London, it wasn't too difficult. But it was a bit of work choosing and restoring the pieces.

I was told by an associate that the Sonab speakers were in part designed by Stig Carlsson to sound good when listened to from the floor, as he liked to drop acid and listen to music from there, and most speakers didn't work with that listening position! When I had the system up and running in the store I listened to it and found it reasonably good but a touch bright. Then I sat on the floor and found everything nicely balanced! Maybe there is something to that story.

Re: Larsen speakers

Posted: 2019-10-15 21:44
by Matteo
Nice story Thomas

M

Re: Larsen speakers

Posted: 2019-10-16 08:57
by maffe
@ThomasOK: That’s the reason we have a pair of oa116 in our living room:) They still need some more work, woofer have been replaced at some point in their 45 year life to something that’s not correct. Little hard to find the original parts since they have suffered from the edge foam not standing time, hence replaced with incorrect parts.
Image

Re: Larsen speakers

Posted: 2019-10-16 10:42
by Matteo

Re: Larsen speakers

Posted: 2019-10-16 13:05
by Matteo
The Italian importer of the Larsen speakers is not too far from me

I'm going to schedule an appointment to listen to the 4's in the next few weeks.

M.