NOVEMBER 2017
WYNDHAM AUDIO BR3 REVIEW / WYNDHAM AUDIO / BR3 LOUDSPEAKERS
WYNDHAM AUDIO
BR3 LOUDSPEAKERS $7,600 (high-gloss paint) $7,990 (timber veneers)
“The rest of the world has discovered and loves Aussie speakers” On the world stage, there’s one area in audio
They were a pair of Duntech Crown Princes
manufacturing that home-grown Aussie brands
and I’ll never forget that in somewhat naïve
have done particularly well at – loudspeakers.
disbelief, once denuded of cardboard and
I recall cutting my hi-fi teeth at a prestigious German retailer – Werner Pawlak. A shop
packaging, anything sounding that good could have possibly originated in Australia.
adorned with the crème de la crème of
That was thirty-odd years ago when Aussie
high-end hi-fi at the time and still does so to
hi-fi and loudspeaker manufacturers here
this day.
were very few and far between. These
There was one installation I distinctly remember. We had a particularly nice system to install in a swanky apartment, and the lift
days, it’s a different story with antipodean speakers now selling like hotcakes in many international markets.
was the only option for getting all the gear
The rest of the world has discovered and
up there.
loves Aussie speakers and the past three
The loudspeaker boxes were huge; Australian speakers I’d never heard of and in their packaging boxes, they only just fit in the said lift.
decades has also seen the domestic market grow and with it, has come a plethora of manufacturers and local brands.
Introducing ... One such recent addition is Wyndham Audio. Originally hailing from Wyndham Vale in Melbourne’s south-west, the company is has relocated and now operates from Forster on the NSW midnorth coast. The company has been in business since early 2014 and as well their loudspeakers, you also can put a complete system together from Wyndham Audio. There’s a bunch of quality brands represented, such as Primare, Luxman, Gold Note turntables, Benz Micro cartridges and other such audio lovelies. Keith O’Neil, the man behind Wyndham Audio, offers two speakers ranges, the CH with two models, and the BRs with three. Topping off the latter are these, the BR3s. BR stands for bass reflex and these are three-way in driver design. A large, front-ported cabinet contains twin 20cm bass drivers, a 15cm midrange driver, and 30mm soft dome tweeter, all of which are sourced from quality driver manufacturer, Wavecor. The cabinets are manufactured locally and are offered in a variety of different timber and piano gloss veneers. The build quality and finish are both superb, and these are substantial boxes, to put it mildly. Each BR3 weighs in at a hernia-inducing 42kg and stands just over a metre tall, 400mm deep and 250mm wide. They’re pretty big enclosures and designed to fill a medium to large listening room. That weight comes from some serious internal bracing and cabinet construction. Four independent baffles are used, with the tweeter and midrange driver sitting in their own internal enclosures, I’m told. The internal cabinet walls are all fully insulated and lined with acoustic dampening material. Round the back, four large binding posts offer bi-wiring to an internal fourth order crossover, designed and built by Wyndham Audio. The cabinets sit on a low, fixed plinth, giving a bigger footprint. Four, decent sized carpetpiercing floor spikes screw into the plinth and provide stability. Crunching the BR3’s specs, they make for reasonably amplifier-friendly pairing. Impedance is nominally rated at 4 ohms with sensitivity measured at 88dB. OK, so you’re going to need an amplifier that delivers a bit of current to drive these loudspeakers, plus they’re not the sort of load you’d want to put on the end of a low-powered valve amplifier, but any capable amplification will drive them.
Performance In my case, I use a heavily
tracks such as Know Your Enemy
Keen to hear something big and
modified Musical Fidelity power
are an assault on the aural
orchestral, the BR3s can also
amplification stage running
senses but in an exhilarating,
reproduce scale and project a
Class A to around 20 watts. This
adrenalin-fuelled way.
soundstage, without any hint of
provides plenty of immediate ‘grunt’ plus that signature MF ‘ballsy’ current delivery, albeit
The BR3s can definitely motor with such music, keeping a tight
compression or inability to handle big, dynamic swings.
grip on the pounding bass while
Perfect classical fodder for
driving the increscent rhythm
these floorstanders are the likes
I bi-wired the BR3s using
with deft control, but never
of Nielsen, Shostakovich,
Nordost Flatline Silver cables and
constrained or holding the music
Mahler and a certain Brahms
had ample time with the BR3s on
back, in any way.
requiem. The composer’s Ein
on steroids.
the end of my system. Thankfully, the review pair was also already well run-in.
Concerned for the neighbours, I switched to something a bit more sedate and delicate. Everything
Deutsches Requiem is a massive performance and places all sorts of demands on audio hardware to reproduce it with the sheer
The BR3s appreciate a bit of
Everything’s latest A Fever
space around them. My room
Dream showcases the best of
is fairly typical, open plan, and
lead singer Jonathan Higg’s rare
There’s all sorts going on –
measures some 8 x 5 metres.
falsetto vocal. The band’s music
massed choir, full orchestral
Away from rear walls and
is complex and dense at the best
dynamics, including the
corners, I discovered the BR3s
of times, yet wonderfully opened
mighty organ; this masterpiece
prefer space in which to breathe.
up and laid bare by the BR3s.
crescendos with massive
In my room, a good half metre (at very least) from the wall and toed-in slightly towards the listening position, proved best. Initial impressions were of a big,
The Wyndham Audio BR3s present such music with an equal measure of insight and clarity, with a very smooth and
magnificence of the piece.
timpani percussion, then tranquillity pervades in certain movements with both baritone and soprano vocals.
even tonal balance. Vocals are
I loved the way the big BR3s
particularly pleasantly handled,
handled the piece, taking the big
and the melodic track Put Me
dynamic shifts in their stride with
If it’s bass extension you’re after
Together oozes with presence
great timing and tonal accuracy.
and the ability to drive a system
and subtle details.
They painted a huge sonic
wholesome sound. Rich and full, but articulated too.
as hard as you like, then look no further. Without further ado and launching in at the deep end, I popped on some Rage Against
The BR3s exhibit low colouration in the midband which results in the human voice being
soundstage. I wished I had more room to let them expand things further, which they’d easily do.
reproduced with great fidelity.
Bass was rich and full, while
Just to confirm this, an old
the open midrange and sweet
favourite, Patricia Barber’s
top end seamlessly integrated
sublimely live recording,
throughout. It’s a deeply
Companion, took things to the
moving piece of music, and the
next level of transparency with a
BR3s stirred those emotions,
Still one of the best albums of its
noteworthy natural vocal timbre
genuinely drawing you into the
genre (IMHO) Rage’s self-titled
and an overwhelming sense of
performance.
first album lets rip and classic
genuine intimate venue presence.
The Machine and cranked it. Whoa. Full blown, guitar-driven grunge rock is something you’ll never forget at serious volume on these speakers.
“the BR3s stirred those emotions, genuinely drawing into the performance”
Conclusion Wyndham Audio’s BR3s are a home-grown floor-standing loudspeaker capable of reproducing massive musical scale, with all manner of music. They do so with authority, and plenty of nuance and delicacy as the music dictates. Connect them on the end of equally capable electronics, and they’ll provide a rock solid and supremely satisfying end to the audio system chain.
WORDS: Nic Tatham