TEST
High end - low price
XTZ is a good example that a low price doesn´t
necessarily mean ”cheap” quality
Av Lars Erik Steinick, Kenneth Pilegaard
och Michael Madsen (mätningar)
X
XTZ does what many others also do:
develop at home, manufacture in China.
”Home” in this case is in Sweden, Torup in
Halland. XTZ has reduced the no of middlemen
between producer and customer, and are
therefore able to offer low prices also for
advanced products. We have tested the top
model among floor speakers,
the XTZ 99.36.
Smooth elegans
PRODUKT : XTZ 99.36
INFORMATION : WWW.XTZ.SE
WWW.FYNDBORSEN.SE
PRIS : 8700 KR.
XTZ 99.36 is an elegant creation in high gloss
black finish. They stand on four discrete rubber
feet, and despite being rather slim they stand
solid and stable. The speakers are heavier than
they seem, 28 kg a piece, because 25 mm MDF
was used through the complete construction,
which also contains internal reinforcement bars.
With the rounded corners they look considerable
more expensive than they are.
The cabinet consists of two internal cavities. The
tweeter and midrange driver are housed in the
upper cavity, with one bass reflex port. The
bass woofer is mounted in the lower cavity
together with three ports, which can be
plugged in no less than 8 different
combinations. This allows for adjusting the
frequency response according to personal taste
and the room character.
Above the terminals you find 8 connections, 4
for treble and 4 for the bass range. A number of
jumpers come with the speakers, and these can
be connected in different ways in order to adjust
treble and bass levels 2-6 dBs.
The elements
Upon removing the front fabric, , a ribbon
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bit too boomy, but can track the fast units
higher up in frequency most of the time.
Without a doubt, you get good dynamics for
the money when cranking up the volume
with this track. The crisp harp strings and soft
trumpet notes on track 4 (ref CD No. 55) are
reproduced in a lively manner with lots of air
by the 99.36s, you can actually hear the
trumpet player breath. On the same CD, track
9, the choir is reproduced with a soft touch
and acoustics normally only experienced
with far more expensive speakers.
tweeter and two cone elements are revealed, a
ll very good looking units. The ribbon tweeter i
s a chinese unit. Having searched for a long
time, finally a tweeter that met the demands
was found, says XTZ´s vd Olle Eliasson. It can
take high powers, covers up to 40 kHz and is
also used in much more expensive
constructions. For midrange and bass XTZ
chose elements from Norwegian Seas. It took
a great deal of explanations to make the
Chinese authoroties understand that Chinese
drivers could not be used in this case.
The bass/midrange is a 6,5 ” is a Seas Excel
unit, with magnesium treated membrane and
a cooper phase plug. The woofer has a treated
paper membrane which is light but stiff. The
crossover filter is a 2.5 way Linkwitz-Riley type
with 12 dB/oct slope in the upper crossover
point and 24 dB/oct in the lower bass range
crossover point. The filter is possible to bi-wire.
We will cover the listening experience from
two different rooms, with different electronic
equipment.
Listening impressions 1 (small room)
The speakers turned out to be easily placed, and
after some experimenting we ended up with
about 0.8 m from the back wall, and 0.5 m to the
side walls. There were 1.6 m between the
speakers and a slight toe-in. This fairly small
room did benefit from angling the speakers
slightly backwards. For this test we used
electronics from Marantz, NAD, Dynavox and
GamuT. The cables used were Nordost Red
Dawn and Blue heaven.
Let´s begin with the track ”Come Together” from
reference CD No. 2: The 99.36 really comes to
live, showing their true spirit. The vivid ribbon
tweeter and the distinctive mid range brings
new life into this old number. The bass can be a
HIGHfidelity 6/08
lovely, warm tone from the tubes fits
perfectly with the 99.36. This combination
made me forget the word ”hifi” and
suddenly all I could hear was music. The
crisp and delicate ribbon tweeter together
with the glowing character from the tubes
results in a midrange and bass that is super
musical, blowing new life even into less
fortunate recordings. This invites to more
music listening. In the manual, the user is
informed that 99.36 is SACD-ready since the
tweeter covers up to 40 kHz. Of course, this
had to be tested, so all my SACD recordings
were collected from the shelf. When listening
to Opus 3, ”A selection of test records 1,2 and
3” we can establish a clear difference between
the regular CD track and the SACD track.
The sound picture becomes larger, and there
is clearly more air between the instruments.
Of course, thetrees don´t grow all the way to
heaven, and the 99.36 have its limits. The bass
can as mentioned earlier be sligthly boomy,
and some people might want a bigger sound
picture, but the bass character/level can be
adjusted by means of the reflex ports and the
Listening impressions 2 (regular
jumpers on the back of the speaker.
size living room)
After listening to different electronics together A good placement turned out to be easily
with 99.36, it came to me that it might be a good found also in this room. The speakers were
placed at 0.8 m from the backwall, with 2.5 m
idea trying them with a tube amplifier. The
between them with a slight toe-in, about 15
degrees. The listening position was 3.0 m from
the speakers. The electronics used were Ayre
CD player, and amps and cables were all from
Purist Anniversary Aqueous. What astonished
me was the airy treble and pleasant midrange.
I listen mostly to early music (instrumental and
vocal), and ”hard” instruments like barock violin
and cembalo were no problem for the 99.36.
My regular speakers are Martin Logan Vantage,
and it was surprising how close to their sound
the XTZ´s came in terms of tone and
perspective. The Finnish vocal ensemble Vox
Silentii have recorded several CD´s at Proprius.
”Videte Miraculum” (PRCD 2021), with songs of
”Heliga Birgitta”, was recorded in the monastery
church of Nådendal, and you can clearly hear
how the voices interact with the small room in
the church. The illusion is stunning, it´s very
easy to imagine sitting in the church, listening
to the choir. Another example of the true sound
picture and convincing tone is Pieter
Wispelweys recording of JS Bachs Suites for
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6/08 HIGHfidelity
cello, (Channel Classics CCS-1229). If you want
to you can hear a swarm of details, fingers
landing on the fretboard, horsehair gripping
the strings and the cellist breathing – but it´s
just as easy to simply focus on the music and
enjoy.
A very good example of the lively and vivid
response kan be heard on Reference CD No
62, track 1, ”I say time” with Vanja Santos.
The singer is very close to the listener, and her
plosives (p, b, t, d) shoot like projectiles
through the air. Very nicely reproduced, as
well as the rapid and dry bass. Moving on to
more complex music, like Stravinskys
”Rite of Spring”, Wagners operas or similar,
may reveal a more crowded sound picture.
The Martin Logan Vantage´s are better here,
there is always room for another singer or
musician – but of course the price tag is of
course another.
The area from 500 Hz to 2 kHz is slightly
enhanced over the otherwise flat response
from 2 – 10 kHz. From 10 kHz to 20 kHz
does the level increase up to 6 dB.
Generally, the freq response curve remains
about the same from measured from an 30
degree angle. The sensitivity is low, about
83 dBspl / 2,83 volts.
The ribbon tweeter has a limited vertical
radiation angle, but there are no
problems with angles not exceeding 20
degrees above/below axis.
At 10 and 20 degrees below axis, the level
falls between 2-8 kHz. The sensitivity falls
to 75 dBspl, and there is a roll-off at 20
degrees.
The many tuning possibilities gives a wide
variety of graphs, almost hard to grasp.
The ribbon tweeter has a pleasant
character with an upper limit at 30 kHz.
Generally the speaker is a tolerable task
for the amplifier. But when the tweeter
level is reduced 2 dB, the load above 10
kHz is increased.
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Conclusion
According to XTZ the following goals were
set for the 99.36: Using High End elements,
High End quality sound, high mechanical
quality at an affordable price, relatively small
cabinet, timeless design, and flexibility with
several ways to adjust the speakers. Have the
goals been met? Without a doubt, yes. XTZ
99.36 is a formidable speaker, capable of
handling almost anything with style, it never
goes ”shouty” or vulgar. Listeneres that give
priority to music will not be disappointed,
and the price is almost ridiculously low for
speakers playing like this.
Very good work!
HIGHfidelity 6/08