A pair of vintage speakers come back to life and two audio shows

Welcome to the November 2022 German Physiks newsletter.

This month we would like to talk about a pair of vintage German Physiks loudspeakers being brought back to life and the last two audio shows of the year for us.

Borderland loudspeakers brought back to life

Borderland Mk I repair - before and after

We will always do our best to provide after sales support for all our loudspeakers, no matter how old. The left hand picture shows one of a pair of Borderland Mk I loudspeakers that a customer bought used in the US. We believe that these were manufactured around 2000. As you can see from the picture, the DDD driver, which is the original and more fragile titanium diaphragm type, has been completely destroyed. The main causes of failure for this type of driver are people attempting to clean dust off the diaphragm surface and their children finding the shiny titanium irresistible. In this case the latter seems most likely.

The right hand picture shows the same loudspeaker after it had been fitted with a replacement driver. Using the loudspeaker serial number, we were able to look up the test record for this loudspeaker when it was manufactured and supply a replacement DDD driver that was a close match to the one that was originally fitted.

Replacing the DDD driver is very easy and it is the same process for all German Physiks loudspeakers that use a single DDD driver. It takes about 10 minutes and requires no soldering. First, the diffuser is removed from the top of the driver by turning it counter-clockwise about 10 turns. This loosens the bolt that secures it to the driver frame. Next, the six bolts in the base of the driver are removed and the driver lifted clear of the cabinet, so that the feed cables from the crossover can be unplugged. The driver can then be removed. To fit the new the driver, the reverse procedure is followed.

After replacing the DDD driver the customer told us:

“I’m still breaking the DDD in and experimenting with amplification and placement (for optimal bass response). However, at this point I can surely say that these throw a remarkable soundstage and sound remarkable!”

The current version of the Borderland, the Mk IV, uses a DDD driver with a carbon fibre diaphragm and this can withstand a very considerable amount of physical abuse, probably more than any other driver on the market. This version of the DDD driver is used on all German Physiks loudspeakers. The two pictures above are taken from a video we made to show just how tough this driver is. The left hand picture shows a carbon fibre DDD driver diaphragm that has been seriously deformed and the right hand picture shows that it has recovered without sustaining any damage. Follow this link to see the full torture video.

Visit the Borderland Mk IV web page

Two more audio shows

As the year draws to a close, our distributors have kept busy demonstrating our products at shows.

Earlier in the month our Polish distributor, Audio Anatomy, demonstrated our HRS-130 loudspeakers and Emperor integrated amplifier at the Audio Video Show in Warsaw, Poland. This was a very large and well attended show, with over 700 brands exhibited this year. Despite only having a comparatively small room, the folks from Audio Anatomy, with the aid of some carefully chosen room treatments, managed to get a very good sound and they received several favourable reports. Stuart Smith, from HiFi Pig, in his detailed coverage of the show commented:

“When we walked in this room was playing a little loud and over energising the room but it was brought back a notch and sounded pretty good. I’d really like to hear this system in a bigger room!”

The Emperor integrated is a very powerful amplifier (2 x 600W/4 ohms) and the HRS-130 is quite happy to be played loud. Its DDD driver maintains clarity and detail even at high levels. It looks like the folks from Audio Anatomy succumbed to the temptation of the audiophile equivalent of putting their foot down hard at least once during the show.

Last weekend our Japanese distributor, Takstock, demonstrated our HRS-130 loudspeakers at the 36th Audio Visual Show in Fukuoka City, in the south of Japan. This is a local show run by the long established high-end audio dealer, Max Audio. They have two large showrooms and they also run a music space with a restaurant and bar called Ogakukan Twlight, which regularly plays host to jazz and classical musicians. As a result, Max Audio is very well known in the area and their audio show is very popular, attracting a lot of visitors across a broad age range.

The amplification used was a Canor Audio Hyperion tube phono stage and Hyperion preamplifier and the new model 218 power amplifier from Burmester. Visitors were especially impressed by the excellent stereo image produced by the HRS-130. This was summed up by one visitor who commented:

“I've never heard speakers with this kind of wide stereo image.”

Visit the HRS-130 loudspeaker web page

Visit the Emperor integrated amplifier web page

Visit the HiFi Pig web site