ProtegeManiac
Headphoneus Supremus
Swan HiVi D1080MkII 08 Product Page
Given a lot of interest around here in better quality 2.0 audio on a computer using speakers, particularly those larger than traditional "multimedia" active speakers, I decided to write a short review on this pair from Swan HiVi. The distributor in my country brought them in last month but dealers didn't have them in stock, and when one did, somebody else picked up the pair - certainly the distribution network and quantity lags far behind Audioengine. Almost didn't come back for them after some emergency medical expenses, but I thought I'd dip into the rest of my 'emergency' fund instead of smaller speakers to ward off the upgraditis as well as make long, mostly casual, listening sessions while working at home easier since headphone cables tend to get me entangled and block out all sounds from all my phones.
I also considered getting regular Hi-Fi standmounts used, like the Wharfedale Pacific 10's I had before, however I remember how much they sucked nearfield despite the swivel mount tweeter. I gambled on these doing a lot better given the nearfield-specific design, such as those flares on the front baffle, and possibly the manufacturer's crossover settings and driver choices.
Packaging : I didn't take any unboxing photos (lazy me), nor any other photos, but I'll describe these briefly. It came double-boxed, both plain cardboard (the S3W has a much better looking retail box than this), but they do the job well enough. Speakers were wrapped in a white linen(?) pouch, which while generally a nice gesture from Swan, can scratch up the Master speaker since it barely fit over the heatsinks of the amplifier mounted at the rear (more on these later). It came with a brochure, and no instruction manual, but I suppose if you're into audio everything will be self-explanatory. It comes with a power cable, a speaker cable for the slave speaker, and 3.5mm photo to RCA stereo cable for the input.
Build and Setting up : These come as a speaker pair with the right channel a "Master" speaker, where the amplifier is mounted, and a passive left channel. A two prong IEC jack for power, RCA inputs, and a 4-conductor jack are on the plate amp next to the heat shield; the slave has only the 4-conductor jack. The speakers are bi-amped, meaning the signal is split for each driver and then amplified, which requires four conductors from each amp channel to each speaker. The included speaker cable feels beefy and well-made, much like what you'd expect of pro-grade cables, and they only go in one way to guarantee proper polarity. Also, this is a huge improvement over the clips on the previous version, which also doesn't have the same front baffle nor rounded cabinet edges, as reviewed in detail here. The other two bundled cables look pretty much like what comes with practically any other kind of gear.
For convenience's sake as I'm using a temporary table where a toe-in doesn't feel safe, I mounted the right Master speaker on the left and just reversed the RCA jacks to maintain proper Left and Right channel orientation. Literature on the net classifies the 5" drivers as midrange, not midwoofers, so on paper it might have a bass disadvantage.
The cabinets are just about fair for the "knock test" at the price point. The finish doesn't look as seamless and spotless as Audioengine speakers, as the vinyl seams are just too obvious (and give away that the panels are only 1/2" MDF), but I wasn't expecting it to compete on that category given the price. The front baffle however is very attractive in the lacquered(?) black finish, with flares around the drivers, which on paper helps disperse the soundwaves wider for nearfield listening.
Set-up/other gear : FLAC and MediaMonkey > Acer AS5560-8480 AMD A8 15.6" notebook > Ibasso D-Zero > D1080MkII 08
Test tracks :
Nightwish - 10th Man Down , Nightquest
Norah Jones - Deceptively Yours, Things you don't have to do, One Flight Down
Epica : Ombra Mai Fu, Stabat Mater Dolorosa
From Focal JMLab CDs : Mighty Mo Rogers - The Boy Who Stole the Blues ; Michael Ruff - Wishing Well ; Feist - One Evening ; B&W test CD : Sara K - Would you Break My Heart?
From Various audiophile CDs : Allison Krauss - When You Say Nothing At All ; Stacey Kent - What the World Needs Now is Love ; Susan Wong - Do that to me one more time
Listening and Sound Quality : I had the D1080MkII 08's for a few days and just used it straight out of my laptop, but I was able to borrow a D-Zero from my cousin today and decided to try it with this just for kicks (since it didn't work with my Android, but I suspect the OTG cable).
Frequency Response - Generally, with the D-Zero the midrange (particularly at the lower range) is a touch too rich, but with good treble extension and LF impact. Electric guitars sound like they should but some acoustic recordings have too much reverb on the guitars. Drums have sufficient impact, including the bass drum. Bass guitar is audible and not muddy. Vocals depending on the recording (mostly with audiophile CDs) can be very forward. With just the laptop, the bass is "barely there" at any setting other then full volume on the laptop, at which point there is just a lot of distortion that will be audible to any audio geek but probably not to anyone who just likes cranking up the volume and not much else.
Dynamic Range - With the D-Zero, while this may have helped the bass response, I find it a little odd that the dynamic range in some tracks can be overemphasized; on some audiophile recordings, the softer sections can be too quiet and then when the vocals go louder it's almost like with a rock or metal song's transition from a quiet (almost whispered) section and then explodes into all instruments playing at full blast. The lack of dynamic range on just the laptop may sound too flat, but the D-Zero sounds a bit exagerrated by comparison. I've had other good quality sources and this is the first time I've encountered this.
Detail and Texture - With the D-Zero, very good for the price, although nearfield being what it is, this should be just about on par with speakers in the same class - breaths on the microphone are very audible but on some recordings can be grating at high volume; layered instruments and vocals are reasonably sorted out and easy enough to discern individually. With just the laptop, most of this is there, it all just sounds flat for the most part; bass guitar and double pedals can be too weak and muddy.
Soundstage - Good - it's about as wide as it can get until my library/office gets a new table (damn termites), but so far it's not as deep (might benefit from more toe-in). Bass is louder with the D-Zero but moved further up front too. Not much difference over the laptop apart from that and since more of the notes are stronger, they get somewhat easier to locate.
Genre bias - So far as my tastes are concerned it's a good enough all-rounder - think HD600 (with some peaks here and there using the D-Zero, or a 4g iPod Touch without it), but then again I'm not much for a specific coloration that works with only a narrow range of musical styles.
Conclusion : Very good for the price, however if you have the cash and the space, you might want to just get the Audioengine A5 (which I've listened to) or maybe the Swan M200MkII or MkIII (haven't listened to so I can't be sure). On my end though I'm very happy with my purchase, but I'll hunt down a DAC that can work with my Android on top of my laptop as I have to return the D-Zero this weekend, and I need to sort out the weird quirks with the D-Zero.
Given a lot of interest around here in better quality 2.0 audio on a computer using speakers, particularly those larger than traditional "multimedia" active speakers, I decided to write a short review on this pair from Swan HiVi. The distributor in my country brought them in last month but dealers didn't have them in stock, and when one did, somebody else picked up the pair - certainly the distribution network and quantity lags far behind Audioengine. Almost didn't come back for them after some emergency medical expenses, but I thought I'd dip into the rest of my 'emergency' fund instead of smaller speakers to ward off the upgraditis as well as make long, mostly casual, listening sessions while working at home easier since headphone cables tend to get me entangled and block out all sounds from all my phones.
I also considered getting regular Hi-Fi standmounts used, like the Wharfedale Pacific 10's I had before, however I remember how much they sucked nearfield despite the swivel mount tweeter. I gambled on these doing a lot better given the nearfield-specific design, such as those flares on the front baffle, and possibly the manufacturer's crossover settings and driver choices.
Packaging : I didn't take any unboxing photos (lazy me), nor any other photos, but I'll describe these briefly. It came double-boxed, both plain cardboard (the S3W has a much better looking retail box than this), but they do the job well enough. Speakers were wrapped in a white linen(?) pouch, which while generally a nice gesture from Swan, can scratch up the Master speaker since it barely fit over the heatsinks of the amplifier mounted at the rear (more on these later). It came with a brochure, and no instruction manual, but I suppose if you're into audio everything will be self-explanatory. It comes with a power cable, a speaker cable for the slave speaker, and 3.5mm photo to RCA stereo cable for the input.
Build and Setting up : These come as a speaker pair with the right channel a "Master" speaker, where the amplifier is mounted, and a passive left channel. A two prong IEC jack for power, RCA inputs, and a 4-conductor jack are on the plate amp next to the heat shield; the slave has only the 4-conductor jack. The speakers are bi-amped, meaning the signal is split for each driver and then amplified, which requires four conductors from each amp channel to each speaker. The included speaker cable feels beefy and well-made, much like what you'd expect of pro-grade cables, and they only go in one way to guarantee proper polarity. Also, this is a huge improvement over the clips on the previous version, which also doesn't have the same front baffle nor rounded cabinet edges, as reviewed in detail here. The other two bundled cables look pretty much like what comes with practically any other kind of gear.
For convenience's sake as I'm using a temporary table where a toe-in doesn't feel safe, I mounted the right Master speaker on the left and just reversed the RCA jacks to maintain proper Left and Right channel orientation. Literature on the net classifies the 5" drivers as midrange, not midwoofers, so on paper it might have a bass disadvantage.
The cabinets are just about fair for the "knock test" at the price point. The finish doesn't look as seamless and spotless as Audioengine speakers, as the vinyl seams are just too obvious (and give away that the panels are only 1/2" MDF), but I wasn't expecting it to compete on that category given the price. The front baffle however is very attractive in the lacquered(?) black finish, with flares around the drivers, which on paper helps disperse the soundwaves wider for nearfield listening.
Set-up/other gear : FLAC and MediaMonkey > Acer AS5560-8480 AMD A8 15.6" notebook > Ibasso D-Zero > D1080MkII 08
Test tracks :
Nightwish - 10th Man Down , Nightquest
Norah Jones - Deceptively Yours, Things you don't have to do, One Flight Down
Epica : Ombra Mai Fu, Stabat Mater Dolorosa
From Focal JMLab CDs : Mighty Mo Rogers - The Boy Who Stole the Blues ; Michael Ruff - Wishing Well ; Feist - One Evening ; B&W test CD : Sara K - Would you Break My Heart?
From Various audiophile CDs : Allison Krauss - When You Say Nothing At All ; Stacey Kent - What the World Needs Now is Love ; Susan Wong - Do that to me one more time
Listening and Sound Quality : I had the D1080MkII 08's for a few days and just used it straight out of my laptop, but I was able to borrow a D-Zero from my cousin today and decided to try it with this just for kicks (since it didn't work with my Android, but I suspect the OTG cable).
Frequency Response - Generally, with the D-Zero the midrange (particularly at the lower range) is a touch too rich, but with good treble extension and LF impact. Electric guitars sound like they should but some acoustic recordings have too much reverb on the guitars. Drums have sufficient impact, including the bass drum. Bass guitar is audible and not muddy. Vocals depending on the recording (mostly with audiophile CDs) can be very forward. With just the laptop, the bass is "barely there" at any setting other then full volume on the laptop, at which point there is just a lot of distortion that will be audible to any audio geek but probably not to anyone who just likes cranking up the volume and not much else.
Dynamic Range - With the D-Zero, while this may have helped the bass response, I find it a little odd that the dynamic range in some tracks can be overemphasized; on some audiophile recordings, the softer sections can be too quiet and then when the vocals go louder it's almost like with a rock or metal song's transition from a quiet (almost whispered) section and then explodes into all instruments playing at full blast. The lack of dynamic range on just the laptop may sound too flat, but the D-Zero sounds a bit exagerrated by comparison. I've had other good quality sources and this is the first time I've encountered this.
Detail and Texture - With the D-Zero, very good for the price, although nearfield being what it is, this should be just about on par with speakers in the same class - breaths on the microphone are very audible but on some recordings can be grating at high volume; layered instruments and vocals are reasonably sorted out and easy enough to discern individually. With just the laptop, most of this is there, it all just sounds flat for the most part; bass guitar and double pedals can be too weak and muddy.
Soundstage - Good - it's about as wide as it can get until my library/office gets a new table (damn termites), but so far it's not as deep (might benefit from more toe-in). Bass is louder with the D-Zero but moved further up front too. Not much difference over the laptop apart from that and since more of the notes are stronger, they get somewhat easier to locate.
Genre bias - So far as my tastes are concerned it's a good enough all-rounder - think HD600 (with some peaks here and there using the D-Zero, or a 4g iPod Touch without it), but then again I'm not much for a specific coloration that works with only a narrow range of musical styles.
Conclusion : Very good for the price, however if you have the cash and the space, you might want to just get the Audioengine A5 (which I've listened to) or maybe the Swan M200MkII or MkIII (haven't listened to so I can't be sure). On my end though I'm very happy with my purchase, but I'll hunt down a DAC that can work with my Android on top of my laptop as I have to return the D-Zero this weekend, and I need to sort out the weird quirks with the D-Zero.
