YG Acoustics Carmel 2

scouter · Nov 22, 2015

I had Carmel 1 for almost 3 years. They sounded top down (i.e. emphasis on top and midrange) with an Odyssey Khartago Extreme amp UNTIL I put a Spectral 260 amp in. The low end really came to life then. I didn' t do any measurements but I can attest that they were very well balanced and sounded great. Listened to them for many hours on end.

. Great speakers from a great company IMHO

Gregadd · Nov 22, 2015

For the most part the character of a speaker isdfetermined by the treble and the midrange. Most speakers need a sub. Futhermore, many speakers that are bass neutral are perceived as bass shy. Especially when compared to other speakers that are heavyhanded i that region. Obviosly I am a fan of the Carmel 1. My only hesitation is it tends to be "snobbish" At around $25k it was usually shown with equipment that was easily $a 100k system. I only wonder what it would do in a middle class neighbothood.IMHO

asiufy · Nov 22, 2015

Greg,

It does great in the "middle class"

It's not about price, as I said, but quality. Unfortunately, most of the amps that John tried were sub-par. As I said, we hooked up $2000 Hegel integrateds to ours when we need to break them in, and they sound lovely, with great bass and everything. We also tried with Auralic's $5000 500W Class D monoblocs, and they worked beautifully, with punchy bass, and none of the treble hash usually associated with Class D.
The only thing we put on the Carmel 2s that didn't work 100% was the entry-level Linn all-in-one, amp/DAC/streamer. It's a $3000-something piece, with (I think) about 60W. The Carmel 2s were indeed bass shy with it.

asiufy · Nov 26, 2015

And here's yet another positive review of the YG Carmel 2

http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/yg-acoustics-carmel-2-floorstanding-loudspeaker/

Bits from the conclusion:

"Such impressive performance should not be all that surprising given two factors in the Carmel 2’s design. First, the speaker’s drivers and especially its crossover network were developed with high power-handling in mind, and second Carmel 2’s usable bass response extends all the way down to 32Hz, which counts as genuinely low bass by any rational standard. Unless you like listening to subsonic blasts at near deafening levels, you should find that the Carmel 2 serves admirably as a satisfyingly full range loudspeaker—or at least it does when used in mid-sized rooms like mine.

While the Carmel 2 is a relatively compact loudspeaker, please do not be deceived by its size. This compact and exquisitely made floorstander is a legitimate ultra-high-end loudspeaker—one that offers transparency, detail, neutrality of voicing, and overall refinement comparable to YG Acoustics’ larger and significantly more expensive Hailey and Sonja loudspeakers, but in a smaller package and at a more manageable price. The Carmel 2 is without a doubt an unqualified design triumph."

flyer · Nov 26, 2015

I had the pleasure of a brief listen to the Carmel 2 at a dealer, matched with an integrated amp from Ayre. I was really impressed with how it painted the music(stage) with a real disappearing act

! I was looking for the port somewhere because the bass is effectively surprising, it turned out to be a completely closed design.
The price in Europe is not doing it a favour though

4music · Jan 30, 2016

I am driving my Carmel 2 with a Dartzeel 8550 integrated with outstanding results. Anyone has experience with Carmel 2 and Dartzeel 108B? I am wondering whether the power of Dart 108 enough to drive the Carmel 2? I am sure that on other fronts 108 is an upgrade vs the 8550.

asiufy · Jan 30, 2016

Congratulations for what must be a lovely setup!
We have tried the CTH on the Carmel 2s, and it was indeed outstanding! We don't have the 108 in, but we did try the new 200W LHC-208 integrated on the Carmel 2s, and while it did strain a little on very loud volumes (95dB+), it was fantastic otherwise!
I did try the 108 on a pair on Sonja 1.3, in an extremely large room (during a local hi-end show), and to this day, people tell me that was the best sound at a show they've ever heard

Hope to get a 108 at some point!

cheers,
alex

4music · Jan 31, 2016

Alex Thanks for the update. If you get an 108 to try let us know your impressions. The only thing keeping me from the 108 is the rumored (for 2 years now) update, which might never happen.
Tim

Stereoeditor · Feb 9, 2016

asiufy said:
There is no such resonance. YG has measurements taken at an outside facility that shows that. And of course, you can also hear that there is no such resonance.

Stereophile's review samples of the Carmel 2 were returned to YG after the review and I recently spoke with Yoav about what I heard and measured. He confirmed that these samples do have this cabinet resonance and suspects that there was something wrong internally. (He hasn't yet had time to take the speakers apart to find out what the problem is.) Yoav also confirmed that he uses a large and very expensive series capacitor in the woofer feed, correlating with the speaker's measured low-frequency performance.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Barry2013 · Feb 9, 2016

Thank you for that information John.
I was puzzled by that review and it looks as if we now have the explanation.
Assuming it is all confimed will you undertake a fresh review?

asiufy · Feb 10, 2016

Cool... Hopefully Stereophile will also join just about every other review out there of the Carmel 2s in its praise.

In the meantime, ours is available for anybody that wants to check out what they can do in terms of bass, in a reasonably large room.

Thanks,
Alex

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