Viking Acoustics BERLIN R

Viking Acoustics BERLIN R 

Bass-horn loudspeaker

Limited Edition SN: 08 Last Pair!

Delivery Early-May 2018.  

This listing is NOT for the Newer BERLIN R Mk-II 

Listing for BERLIN R Pair Includes matching Blade stands.

Choose Color:   The heirloom maple horns are beautiful with any color!!!!

• White "Just Off White"
• Black "Near Black"
• Audio Tekne Gray  (shown)
• Kabuki Red 
• Custom color add $200

Berlin R loudspeakers named as one of top 7 finest loudspeaker systems in the world along with Living Voice's Vox Olympian and Magico's S7 in 2015 by Audio Lifestyle Magazine.

Reference stand-mount loudspeaker with world's first innovations. 

The Berlin R plays with off-the-charts dynamics and micro dynamics, floor-to-ceiling sound stage, perfected timbre and tone with bass-slam that rivals most floor standers!! 

 Berlin R’s unique semi-active baffle comes in solid tone-woods, and you can order matching or contrasting hand-turned horns (pictured is heirloom Maple/Walnut two-tone).

 The Berlin R comes complete with acoustically inert Blade® stands in matching solid heirloom wood (plinth, blade, and screw-down base). Several upgrades are available including turned wood phasing plugs for the woofer, beeswax paper capacitors, drivers with AlNiCo motors.

SPECIFICATIONS:

• Viking Acoustics horn-loading system: (bass-horn and tweeter loading at the same time)

• Hand-turned horn vintage maple or claro walnut Horns!

• Unique internal tonewood resonator/damper

• 8-inch wide band woofer with turned wood phase plugs

• 6N solid core copper internal wire in pure cotton dialectic 

• Bandwidth: 32 Hz-25,000 Hz 

• Sensitivity: estimated 96 dB

• Impedance: 8 ohms

• Power handling: 300 watts peak program

• Curved braced Italian poplar ply cabinet

• Overall cabinet size: 21" high x 13.5" wide x 18" deep Blade stands come in low or high for a total overall height of 44.5" or 47"  

• Weight: 42 lbs each

Latest testimonials of Berlin R:

Andrew  from  New York December 2017

It is a great pleasure to share with you my ongoing experience in discovering and continuing to be evermore enthralled with these magnificent musical instruments.
Even before emanating a sound, the horns of the Berlin R’s instill confidence in the listener that only a master craftsman of instruments could have so beautifully turned the particularly deep throat, which flows organically into a logarithmically expanding mouth. 
An aggressively flaring contour rapidly arcs the horn to an outer rim that is not much wider, nor too far distant than the solid cabinet from which the throat originates.
What matters most, of course, is the trueness of musical sound blooming from the virtual stage reproduced by a stereophonic pair of loudspeakers 

In fact, the Berlin R speakers provide an extraordinarily precise sound stage from which the listener can visualize the exact placement of every instrument or voice on any given recording.
While it is reasonable to suspect that speaker placement is critical, I’ve found that the “hybrid” horn speaker design unique to the creator of the Berlin R (and its closely related brethren) provides several unexpected results that are somewhat counter intuitive to common perception:
First, the soundstage has a breadth and depth far greater than one might expect from significantly larger floor standing loudspeakers.
Second, such efficiency also applies to the unexpectedly powerful SPL’s exploding so uniformly from only two “bookshelf” sized primary speakers placed upon two inertly carved floor stands.
Third, the tonal quality of the full range of frequencies generated has a rich and impeccably accurate transparency which effortlessly extends deep into the bottom of the bass register.
How is it that two mid-sized speakers so efficiently deliver an impressive soundstage, presence and genuinely musical sound when so many “traditional” horn speakers (of even greater size) struggle to produce consistent frequency response and seem to inevitably introduce coloration so commonly associated with the “character” of horn speakers in general?
The answer, in my unqualified opinion, leads back to the initial physical description of these particular “hybrid” horns with their deep and narrow throat, which, conversely, expands logarithmically into an aggressively flared outer rim. 
As with the time tested performance of exceedingly precious, hand-carved musical instruments by master craftsmen, it is the unique and highly precise curvature of both the inner and outer dimensions that provide a truly musical sound rather than contrived and uneven amplification across intermittent portions of the entire frequency range demanded by the composer.
I’ll only briefly mention my own “unofficial” technical interpretation as to why the horns of the Berlin R’s perform so impeccably while other horns often add their own distinct “color” or “character”: 
In my view, the “art” and prerequisite “mastery” required is in the efficiency of the “transition” section of the horn’s contour. 
The logarithmically derived shape better optimized preservation of energy as the sound “transitions” from an initially “high pressure / low velocity” condition at the origination of the horn’s throat to its amplified “low pressure / high velocity” condition upon reaching the flared mouth at the far end of the horn. In the case of the Berlin R’s I suspect that the “deep, narrow” throat combined with an “aggressively accelerated” flare at the mouth delivers unprecedented efficiency and resolvedly accurate amplification not often found in many “traditional”, “megaphone-like” horns of older design.
I certainly won’t bore you with a tiresome description of my ever-expanding “menagerie of hi fidelity components” (according to my ever “patient” wife); but, I’ll simply assure you that the inherent efficiency of the “hybrid” horn in the Berlin R’s design provides a musical sound that is even genuine enough for my Juilliard and Yale trained better-half to honor these gems with an unprecedented seat at the head of our family dining room (where no other loudspeaker has ever made the first-round cut).
Lastly, I not only highly recommend that you introduce these musical instruments into your own prime listening space, but also mix and match various components with alternative speaker positioning until you too hear the rare musical qualities of the Berlin R’s. Enjoy!