Does he explain the idea behind the rear-firing tweeter?
That’s the thing with the Boenicke designs I really can’t get my head around. Impossible to time-align that way, and it should increase reflections where mostly those are seen as unwanted. (Just look through any article, or threads on this forum, on room treatment.)
No-one else seems to do it either.
Thanks for the headsup! That was indeed the listening room where I heard them on Saturday.
Well no-one asked that on Saturday. But what did strike me is that every single element and detail is thoroughly thought through. He also has a different approach to speaker design in general than most, leaning towards smaller enclosures (that he did go into).
Based on the interview I would say it’s more a matter of listening to how it presents music rather than having a mathematical explanation to it. He seems like more of a trial and error developer than make a mathematical model of what good sound is. I’ve seen other manufacturers like Neat that have tweeters in other directions. I have no opinion on how they sound though since I unforntunatly haven’t heard them 
Also just watched the interview. And personally I can relate more to the trial and error kind of developer (when they know how to detect the error haha).
My W5SE+ also have the rear firing tweeter. It is hard to make any kind of finding about it if one is unable to move the tweeter on that design to hear what the difference would be so I accept that it is there for a reason.
All I know is, even in my set, the sum of all parts creates a sound field unlike anything I have ever heard from speakers of that size, even outperforming speakers that are quite a bit larger so it must be doing something right.
One thing he mentioned this weekend that I never would have guessed is that the smaller the speaker the easier it is to make it disappear in the generated sound field. And the larger they get the more needs to be done to combat resonances in the enclosure material so it becomes easier to detect the presence of the speaker box. Even the W22, if one were to look at the ratio of drivers to enclosure volume, it follows the same architecture direction.
Just watched the video/interview linked above. This guy seems to really understand what humans perceive as real sounding music, and comes across as quite brilliant. Battery powered electronics is quite unique as well as their speaker designs. I was not previously aware that the company also makes electronics.
He discussed the battery operation quite a bit at the demo. I was rather amazed how long the units can run on a single charge.
The batteries are also carefully selected to not pollute the sound. He also uses lithium iron phosphate batteries as they are considered safer than lithium ion.
I did not really grasp what he was talking about with that 432 Hz time delay thing, did you understand it?
I have never heard Boenicke speakers, but have been aware of them for years. Being a machinist myself, I can appreciate the work/cost involved in making those cabinets.
I believe it’s about lowering the pitch of music just like say a turntable can have higher or lower rpm than the target 33.33 rpm. I’ve never heard of it before but I got the impression if you listen to classic music you are aware of that some recordings by purpose was bit higher in pitch so you with this feature could lower it. Seems like a very niche feature indeed.
No that one also took my by surprise.
My journey with them started when I walked into my trusted hifi dealer and said, you know my house and setup, where should I upgrade my speakers to.
When he pointed out the W5 I thought it was a joke as they are so tiny. Then i listened to them. What struck me immediately was how the speakers just disappeared and how three dimensional the sound was. This seems to be the core ability they all share. All the competitors sounded flat by comparison to my ears.
Boenicke W5, 8 and 11s are some of the prettiest speakers I think I’ve ever seen. These, on the other hand, are absolutely ugly. I’m sure they sound magnificent though.
I don’t disagree. However, in real life they have a certain attraction. But when the sound is switched on the looks are forgotten. It seems that all choices were made based on what sounds good and not looks. There is a lot done to eliminate vibrations in the housing, so the type of wood is also selected for that, you cannot get this model in various kinds of wood like the others. So maybe if one puts sound first at the expense of everything else, this is the type of look one gets?
432 Hz is one of the ways to tune musical instruments, and is also known as the Tuning Note “A” and A = 432. Music tuned to 432 Hz sounds better than contemporary music which is tuned at A = 440. The famous Stradivarius for example was tuned to 432 Hz according to the Verdi tuning
During historical periods when instrumental music rose in prominence (relative to the voice), there was a continuous tendency for pitch levels to rise, also known as the pitch inflation. A higher pitch such as our current A = 440 standard sounds sharper, louder and more “fresh”, but also more aggressive, which is not a quality audiophiles are looking for.
Ah that explains why Rega made their turntables go bit to fast.
I’m organist. Instruments also got a higher pitch since higher tuning implied that the pipes could be created smaller so less metal needed. This especially happened during wars …
Thank you for taking the time to explain this. Finally understand what this is about now.
I find it interesting that for a solid wood speaker there’s options. These two woods* don’t have the same density, so do they sound different? At least they won’t weigh the same.
It’s a shame I only heard about this event after. It would have been really interesting to ask the designer about these things.
I found it interesting also in the video where he talks about the different materials he tried for the voice coil and the driver itself. Settling on paper, which he had to source from China😳.
I remember back in the late 70s and into the eighties most speaker drivers used paper for the drivers, and I never remember hearing any harshness.
When smaller diameter woofers became the norm, different materials were generally used for them.
Harshness/brightness seemed to arrive on the scene at the same time.
Maybe my younger ears could handle it better, but I never remember playing with speaker positions or cable dressing,box isolation to make it sound good back then, it just did.
Yeah I should have shared it here but its one of the 2000 things I have not gotten to in the last few weeks. Buying a new house and starting on a new project next year. Sowwy 
I have heard a smaller model Boenicke at a demo. They sound very nice, full and detailed.
Sorry to ask once more . You heard the W22 in exactly this room, where the interview took place? Does the dealer use the in the video present NC line to drive them as well?