Dear All,
As some of you might have seen from other recent threads, I recently acquired a pair of Bert’s incredible BD Swing MKIIs.
I had followed the Swings from many years back in their very first iteration using the Oris horn up top coupled with a full ranger (modded Lowther in those days). The MKII evolved by eschewing the Oris / full ranger for the Orphean and compression driver up top. The bass in both iterations was supplied by an actively driven, front loaded, high sensitivity 15” woofer (or 2 in early version in isobaric config).
The system works by taking a high level amplifier input and supplying that signal to the active bass amp whilst in parallel driving the upper horn passively. This topology resonated with me as the upper horn is enormously sensitive at 118dB (moddded BMS coaxial compression driver in I believe a tractrix flare) and can be driven extremely loud with milliwatts never mind a watt. Bert reminded me last night in email exchanges that I would generate 115dB using 0.5 watts. Therefore 112dB at 250 milliwatts and so forth.
Anyway back to the story. The Swing had largely fallen off my radar until I met the General and began my education on horns. General had owned the first version of the Swing and found them to be exceptional - I sensed a real soft spot that he had for these. So I kept a look out for them since they are no longer produced. Bert has newer horns in his range including the Orelio - all custom designs.
By chance a pair came up for sale recently in the UK from a private seller and of course I jumped on them on day 1.
They were delivered earlier this week. The cabinets are a work of art - see YouTube for an introduction to the complex internal cabinet design all CNC’d with an enormous number of parts. My understanding is that the cabinet function was to maximise rigidity / minimise cabinet colouration. The name Swing was selected as it has this mad flexibility to adjust the angle of the upper horn in relation to the lower on on its axis. You can go from vertical all the way through to 45 degrees. The advantage of this is tailoring the sound to the room. I think many folks have the upper horn swung to the exterior but I like the focus using the opposite way around. The horns weigh in over 100kg so take a bit of shifting about. Cleverly there are 2 weighted cylinders that insert into the bottom of the cabinet for stability - these can be removed for transport.
Obviously early days and I will know more about the Swings sonics over the coming weeks but as a first stab:
>> They sound like the fastest and most dynamic stat you will have heard with incredible drive.
>> They are very revealing of any change in the system and / or recording.
>> They produce very realistic timbral fidelity and manage to avoid cupped colouration.
>> They produce a very focussed central image and good depth.
>> If you turn them up loud they can scare you a bit lol.
As some of you might have seen from other recent threads, I recently acquired a pair of Bert’s incredible BD Swing MKIIs.
I had followed the Swings from many years back in their very first iteration using the Oris horn up top coupled with a full ranger (modded Lowther in those days). The MKII evolved by eschewing the Oris / full ranger for the Orphean and compression driver up top. The bass in both iterations was supplied by an actively driven, front loaded, high sensitivity 15” woofer (or 2 in early version in isobaric config).
The system works by taking a high level amplifier input and supplying that signal to the active bass amp whilst in parallel driving the upper horn passively. This topology resonated with me as the upper horn is enormously sensitive at 118dB (moddded BMS coaxial compression driver in I believe a tractrix flare) and can be driven extremely loud with milliwatts never mind a watt. Bert reminded me last night in email exchanges that I would generate 115dB using 0.5 watts. Therefore 112dB at 250 milliwatts and so forth.
Anyway back to the story. The Swing had largely fallen off my radar until I met the General and began my education on horns. General had owned the first version of the Swing and found them to be exceptional - I sensed a real soft spot that he had for these. So I kept a look out for them since they are no longer produced. Bert has newer horns in his range including the Orelio - all custom designs.
By chance a pair came up for sale recently in the UK from a private seller and of course I jumped on them on day 1.
They were delivered earlier this week. The cabinets are a work of art - see YouTube for an introduction to the complex internal cabinet design all CNC’d with an enormous number of parts. My understanding is that the cabinet function was to maximise rigidity / minimise cabinet colouration. The name Swing was selected as it has this mad flexibility to adjust the angle of the upper horn in relation to the lower on on its axis. You can go from vertical all the way through to 45 degrees. The advantage of this is tailoring the sound to the room. I think many folks have the upper horn swung to the exterior but I like the focus using the opposite way around. The horns weigh in over 100kg so take a bit of shifting about. Cleverly there are 2 weighted cylinders that insert into the bottom of the cabinet for stability - these can be removed for transport.
Obviously early days and I will know more about the Swings sonics over the coming weeks but as a first stab:
>> They sound like the fastest and most dynamic stat you will have heard with incredible drive.
>> They are very revealing of any change in the system and / or recording.
>> They produce very realistic timbral fidelity and manage to avoid cupped colouration.
>> They produce a very focussed central image and good depth.
>> If you turn them up loud they can scare you a bit lol.