Audioformz HLCD's

[Chatty21VLX]

Anyone have an opinion on how these sound compared to Wet Sounds or Exile? I like the fact that they are "American made, American loud," and present a 2 ohm load instead of 4 ohm. The price is also better than the competition. Maybe that's because they're new to the HLCD market, and are trying to gain a larger share before raising the price?

[David]

Audioformz HLCDs are by no means new to the market. They've probably been around since before Exile HLCDs.

Yes, the pods are "American Made" and they are "American Assembled" but the interior speaker components and parts to make them originate from Asia.

Technically this speaker uses a compression tweeter but has no horn flare. So to be accurate you will have to drop the HL from the HLCD. The tweeter plays through a tube that exits behind an acoustically transparent dustcap. But there is no horn. And that means that the compression tweeter carries less of the bandwidth, can't play as low, and that tweeter's high compression isn't gradually transformed to the low impedance of air like a horn flare should do.  

It should be cheaper when you are buying only half of the HLCD tweeter. And you will find the sound quality commensurate with the design and construction.   

 

Edited March 12, 2016 by David

[Chatty21VLX]

Thanks for the technical information. I guess a listening comparison would be the only way to tell if the discounted price is worth the loss in audio (and overall?) quality.

As far as the made in USA goes, I understand that may mean "assembled in USA from foreign sourced components," but to me there is value in contributing to at least a part of America's blue collar economy vs buying something completely made overseas. 

[MLA]

The last pair I had apart, about 3 year old model, had parts express parts in them. The compression driver had a dust cap and not loaded into a horn flare. Kinda makes it a CD   not a lot of power handling compared to other 8" HLCD's and very "bright"' They used to make some nice fiberglass pods though. Have not looked at them lately nor run across any out in the field, so maybe they have revamped their offerings.