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Alma Music & Audio are based in San Diego and offer a wide range of electronics and loudspeakers from brands like MSB, Nagra, Innuos, and Boenicke. The Swiss manufacturer has offered its innovative and beautiful loudspeakers since 1999 — the Boenicke W8 on display at T.H.E. Show 2022 has been the talk of the show.
Standing only 30 inches tall, the W8 proves that one should never judge a book; or loudspeaker in this case by its size.
The Boenicke W8 starts at $8,500 USD (there are different SE versions available) and in a show filled with a lot of speakers in the $30,000 to $65,000 range — sound and feel like a bargain.
Driven by the Nagra Classic Power Amplifier and Classic Pre-amplifier, and a digital front-end from Innuos and MSB that will run you almost $85,000 USD — the Boenicke W8 are wickedly impressive.
The Skinny
Standard Version
- 6.5″ long throw bass driver, tuned to 28 Hz, running without crossover
- 4″ custom-made paper cone bass-midrange driver, 1st order low pass filter, no high pass filter, apple tree phase plug, maple wood cone mounted to magnet
- 3″ widebander, 1st order high pass filter, unique 8-cm electromechanical parallel spiral resonator installed
- Internal wiring orientation-optimised silk-wrapped high-frequency stranded litz
- WBT NextGen binding posts
- Rear ambient tweeter
The W8 have a sensitivity rating of 84 dB (4 ohms) and my experience suggests that they definitely like power.
A customer who owns a pair and runs them in a room larger than the hotel suite where they were on display told me that he uses an Audio Research VT100 Power Amplifier with them and that one should consider that the absolute minimum in terms of power.
The Nagra Classic delivers 100 watts/channel into 8 ohms; there was no information about what it outputs into 4 ohms.
The dealer set them up quite far from the front wall and at least 8 to 9 feet apart in the hotel room; which made a huge difference in both the tonality and size of the soundstage.
With a listening seat that placed me really close to the loudspeakers that were aimed at the row of chairs behind me, I was not prepared for two aspects of the sound.
Never judge a loudspeaker by its size. Ever.
The W8 deliver a soundstage that extended well beyond the room itself; listening to Leonard Cohen revealed a rather generous sensation of depth, and width — and a somewhat exaggerated sense of height.
Speed and presence are also superb through the W8; the human voice has an almost tactile feel to it that makes you want to reach out and pass the performer a drink.
Piano notes were not as organic or natural sounding as the DeVore O/baby, but I suspect very few people would take issue with the overall tonal balance. The bass is quick, detailed, and rather tight; the room was larger than my own listening space so I don’t know how it would change in a more intimate setting with more acoustic treatment.
Electronic music had tremendous pace and mid bass energy; the treble never became hard or etched driven rather hard during my 45-minute listening session which was definitely one of the best rooms at the show on Friday.
The $85,000 worth of electronics made me wince and also wonder what the Boenicke W8 sound like with far more affordable electronics.
A loudspeaker well worth seeking out.
For more information: Boenicke W8 Loudspeakers
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