Loudspeakers

The combination of the Cairn's small, sealed box alignment, 150mm 'BilletCore' bass/mid driver and relatively easy load all suggest low sensitivity. YG specifies 86dB, but 83.0dB/1kHz is closer to the mark, or 82.5dB (500kHz-8kHz) with the 2kHz lift as the treble dome takes over [Graph 1] taken into account. Its impedance phase shows +30/–63° swings across an uneventful resistive load that drops to 3.7ohm/192Hz but presents a mildly taxing EPDR of 1.5ohm/53Hz. In practice, amplifier pairing is of greater 'interest' at lower frequencies still where the Cairn's impedance rises from 4.1ohm/62Hz to 16ohm/20Hz and 35ohm/5Hz – potentially 'boosting' the low bass from those (tube) amps with a high source impedance. The achievable low frequency extension is also limited by enclosure/driver size, etc, the 'BilletCore' unit offering a 55Hz-1.4kHz (–6dB) bandwidth before crossing over to the tweeter at 1.9kHz. The Cairn's bass peaks at 74Hz prior to a combined electrical/acoustical 4th-order roll-off that delivers an extension of 54Hz (–6dB re. 200Hz).

Otherwise the forward response is flat to within ±1.8dB and ±2.0dB limits, and pair matching is a fine 0.8dB (all 200Hz-15kHz), even though this widens to ±3.9dB/±4.0dB and 2.3dB, respectively, thanks to an early treble dome resonance at 19.8kHz. Beyond this the HF response extends to 48.3kHz and 45.1kHz (–6dB re. 10kHz), respectively. There's a cap on the Cairn's power handling, and a limit to the size of room it will fill, but even at our reference 90dB/1m SPL, midrange distortion still held to a very impressive sub-1%. In-band cabinet/driver resonances are also held at bay [see Graph 2, below]. PM