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Awaiting Buchardt S400 Mk3 off pre-order

S

SpyderTracks

Super Member
Hiya all

I currently have some B Grade Buchardt S300 Mk2s that I bought direct from Buchardt 5 years ago. I've really loved them, they're incredibly FUN, and that's what I love in music.

An opportunity came up and just so happened to coincide with Buchardt having sold out of their entire stocks of the S400 Mk2s

So after looking things up for a day I jumped on the pre-order of the new S400 MK3. These are an entire redesign, not simply an upgrade of the existing design.

I've seen some people online saying that the new component choices are "cost saving" methods. I don't personally see it that way. The driver is not just 1.5" larger in diameter, more importantly it has a much larger excursion space. I get that the S400 originally was specifically made smaller by including the passive radiator, and the move to a rear port opens up different complexities like port chuffing, but my S300 Mk2's have the same rear port, and I don't have them far from the back wall, and have had zero issues with any chuffing. People have said this will mean they won't work close to a wall boundary but Buchardt have stated the minimum required is 5cm which I'm sure is achievable for 90% of people.

The simpler crossover, I don't really understand crossover's enough to understand the impact of that. I have seen some saying that the crossover point at 2400Hz is an issue and that a 1st order crossover is a step down over the previous designs 4th order? Not sure what all that means

Buchardt for me have not gone down the "accepted" route on a lot of their design, their whole ethos is a little different, and I have full trust that no matter how measurements / equations factor out, how these are going to sound will be a noticeable improvement over the Mk2.

I expect the bass to be more impactful still than the Mk2s and with this new tweeter, I imagine we'll get a lot more transparency and tingliness in the upper registers and they should be quite substantially easier to drive on my PrimaLuna Evo 100 Integrated which is only 40wpc, so hopefully it will open up more detail and dynamics at lower volumes. For me it's going to be a HUGE step up and I can't wait!

Delivery is set to sometime in August, normally this would mean nearer the end of the month, but we'll see.
 
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So can post images again.
The S400 MK3 are a complete redesign.

These are the main differences:

1/. Cabinet size is 18% larger. On the S400 MK2, it was the depth of the cabinet that was expanded. I haven't actually looked into

S400 MK3 - 392(H) x 198(W) x 280(D) mm
S400 MK2 - 365 x 180 x 240 mm
My S300 MK2 - 370 x 190 x 330 mm

2/. Passive radiator has been changed to bass reflex port but Buchardt say the minimum distance from wall boundary only needs to be 5cm. My experience with the S300 MK2 which has the same port design would make me trust them (have been using them nearfield very close to wall boundary for 5 years) and Buchardt have always been extremely good at honest transparency. They even say a potential drawback is port chuffing in limited scenarios.

3/. Brand new bass driver, 7.5" SBAcoustics Satori Egyptian Papyrus, 65.5% greater displacement headroom, 1.5" larger diameter than the MK2 driver, and more importantly, the excursion depth is far greater. This is an off the shelf premium driver most commonly known in the DIY community, what people don't realise is that a LOT of premium brands actually use this driver in far more expensive speakers but rebrand it under their own name.

Apparently manufacturers and lines that use this driver include:

Tekton
Fritz
Kaiser Acoustics Furioso
Audio Solutions Vantage B
Jeff Bagby Adelphos and Kairos lines

4/. Brand new tweeter, 1" custom aluminium dome. This is an area that scares me on paper because I've always found aluminium domes fairly bright. BUT, a guy in Denmark was invited to the Buchardt offices for a demo of the MK3, he was so taken back by the performance vs the Halo tier E50 that he pre-ordered them on the spot. He's not a reviewer, just a well known forum member on another forum. And again, my experience with Buchardt is that they're not governed my measurements over listening experience, and they would not have gone for a bright sound, they will have tuned it to fit their profile.

5/. Sensitivity is a little higher at 88dB vs 87dB, but with the new driver and tweeter, the speaker is far easier to drive. My S300 MK2 are right on the edge of compatiblity with my Tube amp, they sound amazing at high volume, but they don't fare so well at low volumes. The S400 MK2 and my S300 MK2 suggested a minimum amp power of 40wpc (which is what my tube amp produces), whereas the new MK3 is now down to 30wpc. This is one of the highlights for me as I'd love better performance at low volumes.

6/. Simplified cross-over design from the MK2. Cross-over point has changed from 1800Hz up to 2200Hz. I don't understand the implications of this, people are saying it's a cost saving exercise, but I'm trusting Buchardt's history in cutting costs without sacrificing performance.

It's August tomorrow, they're supposed to be shipped sometime this month, I know logically this always always means nearer the end of the month, but I find myself daily popping on the Buchardt site to see if there's any notification of shipping drawing near!!!

I'm so used to getting everything next day, both these and my new headphone amp I've had to wait over a month for delivery! Good exercise in patience!

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Mads Buchardt actually jumped on an AudioScienceReview forum thread on these and included frequency charts compared to the MK2, worth a read for anyone interested:

www.audiosciencereview.com

New Buchardt S400 MKIII

I wonder if 1st order crossover can include a notch filter. Would need to be a broad one looking at the Satori frequency response. The e50 supposedly used 1st order on the woofer right? It will need baffle step correction and possibly other response shaping components.
www.audiosciencereview.com www.audiosciencereview.com

And this is the guy who was invited to demo them at Buchardt, he heard them alongside the E50 and says they're not that far behind. Given the E50 uses the HUGELY regarded Purifi driver (and costs almost double, allbeit the solid wood handmade cabinetry is a large portion of that increase), that's saying a LOT.

www.audiosciencereview.com

New Buchardt S400 MKIII

An upgrade, which is really a new speaker with the same name, from Buchardt. The new S400 seems very tempting. I’d be very interested to hear how it performs compared to their E50. Especially for those of us who will always use subs and don’t need the extension of the E50s Purifi drivers...
www.audiosciencereview.com www.audiosciencereview.com

There have been no actual reviews as yet, not sure if that's due to NDAs or what, but that's not unusual for Buchardt, only people hyping the press release. I imagine reviewer units will be heading out within the next few weeks so expect some YouTube videos to follow shortly. The above firsthand experience at the factory is the only source I've seen of real world performance. But you get 45 days to return if needed after testing, and Buchardt cover return costs and courier comes to your house, so it's really not much hassle if they're not right for me.

But I trust Mads Buchardt implicitly. My S300 MK3 I knew out of the gate were very cheaply made with no bracing, the reflex port is literally a cardboard tube from a roll of kitchen paper. Doesn't bother me in the slightest because they sound fantastic!
 
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So unfortunately got an email through from Mads at Buchardt a couple of days ago.

Original expected delivery date was sometime in August.

Due to new regulations on Chinese export of Neodymium magnets, they've only just been able to secure a supply, and the speakers are now at the finishing stage, but then it takes a good 6 weeks or so to get them shipped to Denmark, so delivery isn't going to be until late October / November time. This is the first speaker they've designed that uses Neodymium, it's just really unfortunate timing with how crazy the world is right now.

BUT, on the plus side, the pre-order already gave 200 Euros off the final sale price, and they've offered a further 200 Euros off a purchase of anything, so I'll be getting some of their speaker stands as well.
 
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