Today’s HiFi industry offers a wide variety of speaker systems, from conventional box cabinet designs to electrostatic to exotic horn loaded speakers. Yet a lot of these designs don’t necessarily fit into the lifestyles of many people and those that do fit, more often than not, don’t provide the quality of sound many discerning consumers are looking for.
But thankfully this predicament has an excellent solution. Swedish loudspeaker manufacturer Larsen offers a range of speakers that not only fit the modern lifestyle but offer excellent sound through their innovative design.
Larsen’s history dates back to the 1990s, when John Larsen, the company’s chief designer, was working with the late Swedish speaker designer Stig Carlsson. Carlsson had created and patented many loudspeaker designs based on surface reflection principles since the 1960s. Larsen worked with Carlsson for 16 years, and helped develop Stig’s best speaker, the famous OA52 model. After Carlsson passed away, Larsen took over the plant and continued to further develop the loudspeaker designs. Today, all Larsen speakers continue to employ the principles invented by Carlsson, and distinguish the brand from others in the high-end audio market.
Product design and description
Currently Larsen offers four loudspeaker models – simply named the SC, 4, 6, 8 and 9. The 6.2 model, under review here, is one step up from their entry level 4 model. It retails for $4,295 US and is distributed in North America by Audio Skies out of Los Angeles. All Larsen speakers are made in Skillingaryd, Sweden, with the help of local suppliers. The electro acoustic part of the 6.2 model was handled by loudspeaker designer Anders Eriksson, while John Larsen created the external design.
The first thing people notice about Larsen speakers is their unusual look and small footprint. Specifically, in the case of the 6.2 model the cabinets are square with a slanted opening at the top, which houses the driver and tweeter set an angle. This opening is covered by a removable cloth screen, mounted to a metal frame.
Unlike conventional speakers, the Larsen 6.2 speakers do not require a user to fiddle around with precise speaker placement. They are designed to be placed flush against the wall, using the wall as a reflection to create deep and full-bodied bass that goes all the way down to 26 Hz. Such placement in combination with the unique positioning and angle of the drivers, flanked by absorption material, results in the wall behind the speakers practically disappearing acoustically speaking. This eliminates early reflections from interference with the initial direct sound coming from the speakers.
The Larsen 6.2 cabinets are made out of high-quality wood and available in a choice of five finishes: Black, Mahogany, Cherry, Maple and White Lacquer. My review samples sported the beautiful Maple finish. Both the driver and the tweeter are manufactured by a well-known Danish manufacturer ScanSpeak. Four speaker terminals on the back panel, positioned close to the top, are designed for a bi-wire connection.
The Larsen 6.2 speakers are not the most efficient speakers on the market with a sensitivity of 88 dB and an impedance of 8 Ohms, but all integrated amplifiers I used had no trouble driving them at all. Their frequency response is rated at 26 Hz – 20,000 Hz. The diameter of the main driver is 177 cm and the overall speaker dimensions are 230 mm / 9″ (W) x 750 mm / 30″ (H) x 260 mm / 10″ (D). Weight of each speaker is 12.5 kg or 28 lbs.
