John
The A700 is a floorstanding active loudspeaker from Buchardt Audio that comes with several twists. The first: that Buchardt Audio sells direct to the consumer with all shipping and import duties covered by the Danish manufacturer. The upshot of this is twofold: we pay the same price no matter where we live in the world and that unified price doesn’t attract dealer and distributor margins. A 45-day money-back guarantee covers those who want to make doubly sure that they’re ready to commit to the A700 for the long haul.
We might wonder what happens if an amplifier module (located inside the speaker) fails? The good news is that there’s no need to ship the offending loudspeaker back to Denmark – a long haul for many – because Buchardt Audio has designed the A700 for the amplifier modules to be hot-swappable by the end user. All you need is a screwdriver and careful hands.
The second twist is that the A700’s streaming board – one that does Spotify Connect, Google Chromecast, Apple AirPlay 2 and Roon Ready – doesn’t sit inside the speaker next to the amplifier module but in an outboard streaming box that talks to each speaker over WISA. Your choice of Platin PTX or Primare SC15. The latter looks like the higher-end piece. It has none of the budget look/feel of the former. However, the SC15 omits the PTX’s HDMI socket and (iOS-marshaled) room correction smarts but includes analogue pre-amplifier outputs for subwoofer hook-ups.
And yet you might not want a sub once you learn that the A700 can mine as deep as 17Hz. Which begs the question: is the A700 a 3-way or a 3.5-way? Answer: yes. I sat down with Mads Buchardt to discuss these matters and quite a bit more. Listen via SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn or the embedded player below:
Further information: Buchardt Audio
