The original S400 is a bit of a hyped loudspeakers. If you are a bit into audio and you follow the online communities, there’s a good chance you came across a raving review about them at some point. So did I and they immediately piqued my interest but when digging a little deeper there were reports of some caveats that, at least for me, raised some red flags on the hype train.
Fast forward to late 2021 when Mads Buchardt announced the next generation, the S400 Mark II. Both in his announcement and on the Buchardt forum he made claims about addressing some of those complaints which, in my opinion, is a bold move and a refreshing open way of communicating. Traditional companies just announce the new improved design that, off course, will pull you more into the music and do everything better. Anyways, I later watched the Zero Fidelity review and he also described them as a speaker that had many things that I was looking for: easy on placement, detailed, fairly neutral but still on the warm side and a jack of all trades. As I was in the market for new speakers and they have a nice 45 day trial period I took the jump and in the last days of 2021 I got a late Christmas present delivered from Santa’s workshop.
Its probably a speaker that piques some interest so I thought I’d put my experience in writing for you guys & girls. I just enjoy music, I don’t have golden ears, I don’t talk the talk so neutral for me may not be neutral for you, I might have a hearing disability, who knows, it is what it is. There are also limits to how I can place them, baffles max 65 cm from front wall, speakers max 310 cm from each other. I’m sitting about 280-310 cm from speaker, they are around 250-290 apart, I’m still playing with position. I should pull them further from the wall and wider but my space doesn’t allow it. Height is a bit unusual with these, since the tweeters are on the bottom and you want to get them at ear level for the best listening experience. The wife liked them until I put them on awkward stands to get them at the right level. My chain is EtherRegen 9v + LPS → SOtM Ultra Neo 9v + SPS500 → Aqua La Voce S3 → Rega Aethos → Buchardt S400 MKII and I stream via Roon (Tidal or local). I’ve also had the Schiit Bifrost 2 in the chain for quite a while and played with some cables.
Bass
I would call it a tight, well extended bass, focus on mid-bass, upper-bass is less present. Bass goes below 40Hz, no problem, even below 30Hz is still well audible. Its fast and detailed: different bass notes, some fast play on a double bass, deep textured electronic bass, it’s all there for you with plenty of detail to distinguish from one another, but only if its on the recording, nothing more. I wish there was a bit more in the upper-bass, a bit of warmth maybe. They are pretty easy on placement in terms of bass response, no boominess, you can put them close to front wall but I wouldn’t recommend for soundstage.
Midrange
This is difficult for me, I’m not very good at picking things out here (or describing them), its only when someone points them out I’m like ah, yes. So be warned. The star of the show is no doubt female vocals, also higher notes for instruments like piano, violin, guitar can be a bit forward. Male vocals are less upfront, during break-in they were really recessed but that was ironed out after about 200 hours. Tonality and timbre are ok for me, it can probably be more organic and refined but there is not much that disturbs me actually. Its not inorganic or metallic if that makes sense.
Treble
The treble is sweet and non-fatiguing, there is plenty of detail to enjoy but I feel there is some sparkle missing on top. I did a primitive frequency sweep and they feel as if there is a roll of between 10-16 Khz. Now, ASR has published some measurements and there I’m not really seeing any roll-off, more a bump even, so I might be wrong (or getting deaf deaf) there. Anyways, the treble is the least impressive area of this speaker in my opinion. It could use a bit more openness and refinement. In the end I think it’s the slight dark tuning of the speaker that is doing this, it will prevent the best recordings to sparkle but it will make a lot more recordings enjoyable.
Living with the speaker
I have more than 300-400 hours of playing time so they should be mostly broken in by now. When I first got them they sounded bright, harsh and no bass. Some break in tracks for a few hours already improved things a lot and after about 100 hours I started some actual listening as I has the impression they were mostly broken in. Still, when I was listening the edges around instruments sounded harsh sometimes, bass was inconsistent, male vocals were too recessed, female vocals too forward. I thought, these are going back for sure. But would you know, after a good 200 hours, everything I had on my list was pretty much straightened out, bass came to life, vocals were more balanced, harsh edges were gone, I couldn’t really find any ‘defects’. In the end, it’s a W shaped sound. When I was a kid, the first thing I would do on equalizers was to set that ‘W’ so let’s say I can appreciate that W.
They also really need to be on stands on proper height, they really open up then. Soundstage, space between instruments, a bit of depth going on, it’s a different speaker then. In case you want to share the love your speaker is spreading, the sweet spot is pretty wide, there is not much degradation for the people on left and right. Imaging is pretty good, I have a left wall missing but sill I’m able to get a good center image and placement in general. When switching from BF2 to La Voce S3 the image was very sharp and clear so they responded well to that change, with BF2 is was there but a bit more blurry. I had them ‘disappear’ on me, but that could have been my state of mind. In general I still find it pretty easy to spot the speakers. Instruments are well separated, there is plenty of air between them and only rarely it gets messy when lows and highs mingle in busy parts. There is a certain clarity to the upper-mids and highs, probably the tweeter design, which is basically a horn. Don’t put them too close together because they can sound a little boxy then. I’ve also changed a few things in my setup like cables, streamers and DAC’s and the speakers were transparent enough to show me subtle differences from those changes.
So are there any caveats?
There will always be some. In my opinion its a clean, proper hi-fi speaker and I can understand why they also try to market it as a studio monitor. You need to be able to appreciate that sound. Its not and organic speaker that will warm your soul. I find it a neutral speaker, yes slightly dark, but not warm.
Its also not the biggest sounding speaker, its only a small box, there are limits to what they can do. If you put them in a 20m² room, I guess they will probably be able to create some pressure but in a 50m² definitely not. Its fine in my listening spot, I have multi-room in the house, I mostly do late night listening (45-50 db, little loss in dynamics & bass maybe but still very enjoyable), I get some chest feel, I don’t need to be able to pressurize the room anymore (says my common sense but still, deep down I want to be able to do so, damned)
Also, if you are sensitive to that, maybe transients can come off strange. It’s a fast speaker, I think because of that transients don’t linger like they do on some speakers. Transients could also use a little bit of refinement, they are more smooth and airy on other speakers.
So is this a killer speaker?
No, in my opinion it is not, it performs according to its price range and whether it is ‘the best’ will depend on your situation and preferences. I do think it has a rare profile because it combines a few attributes that are usually tradeoffs. It is neutral and pretty transparent but there is a certain smoothness that makes it sounding forgiving and warmer than it is. This ‘dark sweet sauce’ makes it possible to enjoy all your music again and not only your best recorded music. I’ve been cycling through tracks that I haven’t listened to in years and enjoying them a lot without wanting to skip them and rest my ears with some quality music. It’s not only the dark sauce but also the full range sound and speed of the speaker that make it really a very capable speaker on a technical level to present all types of music as they should.
Now, there is a price that you pay, while most songs sound good/better, some will lose a bit of magic. The best recordings that will shine on traditional open and transparent speakers, will not have that last sparkle. They will still sound fantastic but its that last %, at least, that is my experience. It is a moderns, technical speaker, not a romantic speaker. It will perform excellent with modern music but for jazz and classical rock for example, it will still perform technically unflawed, but I sometimes miss something and that something is emotion. Its not like its not there but they don’t pull me in immediately. What IS there is PRAT, these speakers have me toe-tapping and shaking my head in no time. In those same jazz songs where I miss the pull I’m now toe tapping on buzzy parts that were sometimes just a bit too busy on my previous speakers.
If you’re looking for a neutral, full range, jack of all trades, easy on placement and clean sounding speaker that will have you toe tapping in no time, these might be worth a look.
