One would hope, for a price tag starting at 3,500 (roughly $4,150).
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On their own, none of these features are completely unique.
Let me break down why.
If so, the A500 is heretical.
Buchardt has created a variety of Master Tunings for the A500.
Some highlights, along with my brief impressions:
Phew.
But I will take flexibility over the alternative any day.
Loading profiles is a quick but inelegant process.
Thankfully the speaker only takes a few seconds to update, so its not too much of a pain.
Still, I wish there were a way to switch profiles via Buchardts app for quick A/Bing.
Not having used the technology, my expectations werent very high.
Instead, I was pleasantly surprised the wireless component of the A500 is surprisingly painless.
The hub supports basically every streaming option I care for.
Point is, theres surprisingly little compromise to using the wireless system.
Simple and effective room correction.
Different rooms and placement options can alter your speakers sound, especially at low frequencies.
Buchardts system focuses exclusively on lower frequencies where you room has a massive audible impact.
If youve ever tried TruePlay on Sonos, the process is fairly similar.
you might then transfer that correction onto the hub.
The improvement was obvious every time I tried it more balanced, tighter bass.
As an automated system, the A500 performs admirably.
This is in part due to the use of smaller-than-usual 3/4-inch tweeters.
Overall the A500s spatial presentation is hard to fault.
Its also worth noting that though different tunings are clearly noticeable, the overarching sound is neutral.
Compared to normal bookshelf speakers, the A500 is in a completely different league.
It can legitimately play down to about 22 Hz-in room and you will feel every bit of it.
Another very welcome and rather unique detail is the A500s built-in loudness compensation.
One negative point: the speakers do have a small amount of hiss when idling.
The data
This is going to be long.
If you dont care about measurements, feel free to skip this section.
But if youre looking into this speaker, you probably care at least alittleabout science-based speaker design.
My job, then, is not so much to reveal the A500s performance as it is toconfirmit.
Using a quasi-anechoictechniquethat allows me to hide room reflections from my measurements I can approximate the speakers true sound.
Yes, that is as tedious as it sounds.
This single graph is usually enough to separate the good speakers from the bad ones.
In either spin, what we see is mostly top-notch.
This means for the most part, the A500 will not color your music.
Second, note the remarkable bass extension; down to 25Hz, as Buchardt claims.
Overall, this excellent performance in the frequency response domain typically reserved for some of the best studio monitors.
Speaking of, you could definitely use the A500 as a studio monitor if you wanted to.
It is almost entirely within +/- 1dB from 24 Hz to 15 kHz.
Here, the upper bass off-axis response is closer in level to the direct sound.
I found this resulted in a fuller sound to the speaker.
Depending on your room, you may prefer this rendition; youll have to experiment and see.
Good horizontal directivity control is crucial for a good spatial presentation, especially in an untreated room.
We can visualize this in several ways.
Another way I like to display directivity is to separate the horizontal components of the early reflections curve.
In each of these, the A500 performs admirably.
Of particular note once again is the bass directivity in the stock tuning.
More importantly, at least the A500 gives you the choice.
Notably, the A500 has a very narrow listening window.
The 2.5-way nearfield tuning performs similarly in this regard.
However, it is possible the 3-way tuning with the 1.8 kHz crossover mitigates this issue.
Unfortunately, I did not have time to test this.
Below we have amoving microphone averageof the in-room performance from my listening position with both speakers firing.
In red is no EQ, in blue is with EQ.
By default, my room has too much sub-bass and not enough higher bass.
The EQ has an immediate impact on the clarity and snappiness of bass notes when turned on.
Can I achieve better results with manual EQ?
That said, I do wish Buchardt allowed you to perform some manual EQ from its app.
This is still just nitpicking though.
If you already know what youre doing, feel free to apply your own EQ or tweak Buchardts results.
So lastly, here is a look at how the speakers bass response changes with SPL level.
The future of hi-fi (I hope)
Phew, got all that?
Let me be clear.
But all that is missing the point.
You could also spend this kind of money or far more for a system that sounds much worse.
Whats special about the A500 is that it does something so few other hi-fi companies dare to do.
They like to exhibit their variegated components to show how audio isserious business.
Thats great, but not practical or desirable for everyone.
I enjoy traditional hi-fi setups, but Im also ready for hi-fi to move on from its dogmas.
If its not clear by now, Buchardts A500 gets my highest recommendation.
I just hope other hi-fi companies copy its transparency and willingness to break the mold.
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