There is no opponent within 50,000 yuan! HP Photo 8 MKII Signature Edition flagship speaker

Original New Audiophile New Audiophile 2022-02-18 16:50

What the? This pair of the latest version of HP Photo No. 8 MKII signature edition flagship speaker only sells for thirty-nine thousand eight?

incredible! A bit of a puzzle, obviously can sell double the price, even if it is a domestic brand, to its workmanship its speaker unit configuration, selling double price is not expensive, and if it is replaced by an imported brand, selling double is conscience, three times the price is cheap! Taking a step back, HP photo MKII signature version is only a wooden box, if you let a treasure some imitation box wood factory to make, to achieve the same box workmanship and skin, baking paint process quality of the same photo No. 8 MKII signature version, there is no ten thousand yuan is not impossible to take down and not necessarily do it! I don't believe that everyone themselves on a treasure of those box wood factory to see what the quality of six or seven thousand pieces of the box is, I have also seen DIY enthusiasts spend thousands of yuan from a treasure customized 10-inch three-way frequency empty box, the level of the process can only oh oh, far from a level, not to mention whether there is the ability to tailor according to the parameters of the horn unit, the volume of the box, the length of the aperture of the catheter and so on...

I will not be like THE DIY enthusiast to calculate the cost of this box, the cost of the horn, the cost of the divider and forget to take the time and energy spent into account, I am not a student of finance or business, can make a very accurate estimate of the cost, but see this hp photo eight MKII signature version, I can still roughly estimate if from a DIY enthusiast's point of view I calculate if you do this pair of speakers how much cost you have to spend? Six ScanSpeak advanced speaker unit retail price of almost ten thousand, the box let a random wooden factory production without ten thousand can not take down, plus the crossover terminal post and so on according to twenty thousand yuan to calculate it, from the beginning of planning to the completion and the size of the fine adjustment of half a year, according to 200 hours to calculate, 50 yuan per hour "sound engineer" salary cost, then you spend more than thirty thousand to make a pair of "emulation" HP photo No. 8 MKII signature version, But how many percent of the final sound can reach the original box? unknown!

Is the beginning of the article to introduce some DIY enthusiasts into the debate? No, that's not my intention, I'm just being realistic about illustrating a very real problem. Some self-proclaimed video V on the Network often calculate the so-called cost, there is a video, a self-proclaimed big V celebrity said that the price of more than eight thousand custom speakers only the cost of materials is seven thousand, only earn more than a thousand, and many brands (also named) sell more than eight thousand products The cost of materials is only more than two thousand at most, but his seven thousand material costs never include the time cost consumed, if you count it, is it to paste three thousand? This kind of flawed lie can only fool prospective enthusiasts who know a little about audio and want to get started and have not yet started, in order to sell their own earthen cannon products, they will not hesitate to suppress brand-name products! However, he is right about one point, an audio company to be able to survive, such as the cost of manufacturing audio materials can only be controlled within 20% of the actual sale, plus labor costs, management fees, various taxes, freight, advertising costs promotion fees, middleman profits Retailer profits, etc., but he did not think, even if the material cost is controlled within 20%, there is no production capacity as a loss! And why can HP be cheap and big? At that time, when I sent this pair of box photos to the circle of friends and said the above questions, an industry insider replied to me: The stacking material is still sold so cheaply, which is the sadness of the audio industry, do manufacturers like to break their fingers like this to calculate the cost of parts? This is also debatable, at least a million audio did not use the way to calculate the price of wood, speakers to calculate the cost...

Is it really sad? My WeChat circle of friends to share HP audio when Xie Zong also saw, he is just nearby, about me to drink tea to talk in detail, we also on why HP can sell flagship quality boxes at such a flat price, Xie said that HP manufactured finished speakers before it is professional manufacturing speaker boxes, to many of the world's well-known brands OEM boxes, their wood factory scale is very large, plus large production capacity so the cost of the box can be controlled, The cost of the speaker unit can be controlled down is also a long-term cooperation with ScanSpeak and other world-famous speaker factories, the horn unit and crossover components are purchased in large quantities to control the cost, and DIY enthusiasts are one or two pairs of retail price procurement, which is naturally to the horn retailer component retailers to earn a lot of difference. And on the issue of the flat price of the photo eight MKII signature version, I also communicated with Mr. Xie, he said that this is also the actual problem of many domestic speaker brands, selling high prices can be anyone, such as the photo eight MKII signature version even if the price of eighty thousand in today's domestic and foreign grade speaker products is also very competitive, but he also said that HP will not do the kind of rely on one or two models to deliberately sell high prices to enhance the so-called brand grade, Since the establishment of HP Audio, the purpose is to manufacture cost-effective HIFI speakers, manufacture genuine domestic products, give more working people more choices at a flat price, and reduce costs by production capacity, so the pair of HP flagship speakers we see today only sell a lot of imported brands of the same level at 30% of the price!

Domestic audio equipment originated in the early nineties of the last century, the vast majority of domestic brands that are now growing in scale or are still active in the front line were established at this time, such as Spark, Shanling, Sonya, Voice of Beauty, Bada and other brands, the birthplace is the birthplace of domestic audio in Guangdong Province, and HP, which was established in 1993, is about to enter the year of establishment, but witness the rise and fall of the domestic audio market, many brands established at the same time have long disappeared, to "HP small whirlwind" Well-known domestic audio circle of HP audio is steady and steady, in addition to paying attention to quality control, in the sound design concept has a forward-looking vision, has long established cooperation with the world's famous speaker factory, long-term cooperation with internationally renowned acoustic designers, so on the basis of OEM for many international senior brands to expand their own brand speaker product line, with other speaker manufacturers can not compare the cost control advantages of the box and speaker unit, HP audio so that it can continue to highlight the performance of the fierce competition and even the domestic speaker brand, This is also the reason why their flagship product can survive only forty thousand. HP Photo No. 8 MKII signature version of the latest second-generation flagship speaker at the end of May last year in guangzhou Oriental Hotel international audio exhibition has been exposed, then it was only a sample box, even if it is so with a full set of domestic front-end system to serve me a big surprise, I remember that the front end used at that time is such a combination: the sound source is the Oriental Sound CD-E8, the front level is sonya CV-1, the rear stage is the PSD-350T pure class A stereo amplifier just released by sonya, the full front-end system plus speakers should be within 100,000, Even if the exhibition is still a new product for the pot has not yet played its best state has made people feel very valuable, but what is shown to us is much higher than the price of the sound performance. We look back at the reputation of its predecessor product Photo No. 8 Signature Edition to know how powerful it is, at the 2019 Guangzhou International Audio Record Exhibition, HP Photo No. 8 Signature Edition won the favor of professional judges, and finally won the "Best Speaker" award below 50,000 yuan, while only the Photo No. 8 Signature Edition in the domestic speaker won the award.

Photo No. 8 MKII Signature Edition Tweeter

Photo No. 8 MKII Signature Edition 5 inch midrange unit

Photo No. 8 MKII Signature Edition 10-inch woofer

MKII

Product specifications: three-way three-unit inverted phase

Withstand power: 100W-500W

Frequency response: 30Hz-30000Hz rated impedance: 8 ohms

Sensitivity: 86dB

Product size: 450mm deep× 330mm wide× 1040mm high

Product weight: 41KG/pc

Let's look at the specifications and indicators of the photo eight MKII signature version, as hp's flagship model according to the volume and weight is only a pair of medium-sized floor boxes, three-way three-unit, 10-inch woofer, decent, but the net weight of a speaker 41 kg is still very weighty, it is not light, the box of the photo eight MKII signature version Although there is no obvious difference in appearance from the previous generation, the same is the "diamond" type angle bevel design, the box shape design is very exquisite, high-pitched, The midrange and the woofer are arranged downward in order, the narrower the front panel to the position of the tweeter, the more narrow the sound wave can be avoided as much as possible to improve the accuracy of sound positioning, and the front panel is slightly tilted upwards, and the tilt angle is also precisely designed, in addition to controlling the vertical diffusion angle of the sound waves, effectively reducing the sound waves projected onto the ceiling and the floor, and also ensuring the consistency of the time phase of the high, medium and low tones reaching the listening ear. And the natural pear log veneer, more golden yellow piano baking lacquer box color is the difference between its appearance and the previous generation of products, the previous generation of products is "mahogany color", while the "small whirlwind" shape of the gold HP LOGO is a fine inlaid solid wood bark, the hand touch on the LOGO surface is and the paint surface is on a plane, so delicate and chic workmanship is probably not able to be completed by few manufacturers. The appearance can also be seen that there is an improvement with the previous generation of products is the binding post behind the box, upgraded to the three-wire split line output form, and the six golden large CMC pure copper gold-plated binding posts on the back of the box are very rare in the same level of speakers!

The configuration of the horn unit I believe many material parties will drool when they see it, the treble is the Danish ScanSpeak's Illuminator Bright Series D3004/662000 flagship tweeter, which has a wide folding ring and a fabric dome diaphragm to ensure a flat frequency response above 30KHz and has excellent off-axis response. To know that many speakers with more than 100,000 speakers can not use the Gentleman's Treasure Hi-End flagship tweeter or other brand of the same level of unit configuration, can use this unit of imported brand speakers are not rich or expensive! The midrange unit is also a famous Levelator series pure midrange unit 15M/4531K00, commonly known as watermelon peel, second only to the old flagship series of the Guangming series, but compared to the old material diaphragm or magnetic circuit has been improved. The woofer is ScanSpeak's 25W8565, this 10-inch woofer uses ScanSpeak's patented SD-1 magnetic circuit, which can reduce the inductive change generated when the voice coil moves, because the voice coil will produce back EMF and eddy current when moving within the magnetic field, resulting in a change in the voice coil inductance, which will increase harmonic distortion at low volumes, and large volumes will lead to cracking distortion. The shape of the diaphragm is an integrated inner basin with a large effective vibration area that emits a higher Bass sound pressure level. The diaphragm material is a high hardness paper basin, the surface of the viscous carbon fiber coating is reinforced, the thickness of the coating is gradually thinned from the center to the outer edge, which is of great benefit to reduce the standing wave of the diaphragm surface. Photo No. 8 MKII signature version of the divider material is very feverish, such as the French SOLEN polypropylene metallized inductive capacitor, the use of high-quality metal film resistance, the factory control to the inductor value accurate and self-produced thick line oxygen-free copper core coil, all components of the divider more using point-to-point shed welding, the use of high-quality silver solder, and fixed with copper screws. Coupled with a specially customized audiophile horn cable, it is more conducive to improving the analytical power of each frequency band.

Although the excellent speaker unit and excellent cabinet design are the key to the beautiful sound of a pair of speakers, more importantly, how to combine them organically and artistically, the speaker unit is like the stroke base in calligraphy, and the speaker unit, the crossover and the box design are the basic structure of a word, only this painting and structure, then the beautiful word can only be called writing, and can not be called a calligraphy work. The acoustic tuning level of the speaker is equivalent to turning a beautiful word into a calligraphic work of art through the layout of the chapter, the black and white of the pen and ink, the rapid weight of the pen and the rhythmic rhythm of the pen. HP audio and internationally renowned acoustic designers long-term cooperation, in the product design has long reached a tacit understanding, in the development of high-end speakers have long been handy, just like the master of calligraphy and painting shot, laymen to see the lively, but insiders from the first stroke of the master of calligraphy and painting can roughly see the level of high and low, after three or five strokes can basically determine what the master's achievements reached. The aesthetics of calligraphy and painting have something in common with the aesthetics of audio, so judging the quality of audio products with three or five commonly listened music auditions can already determine the level of a set of audio levels!

If the value of calligraphy and painting works is not as good as the price of fame, although the art world is inevitably a bit of a fish-eyed, but most of them are still exquisite, otherwise how can they withstand the evaluation of history? The level of famous artists of the same level will not be too different, but the styles are different, although Su Dongpo, Mi Fu, Huang Tingjian, and Cai Xiang of the Song Four Families cannot compare their fame and status with Wang Xizhi and Yan Zhenqing, but as the four of them, will the level of the four of them be far behind? If hp photo no. 8 MKII signature edition is simply the feeling of buying the works of famous calligraphers and painters in the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it is called picking up leaks in the art circle! This is just a metaphor, audio products as commercial products can certainly not be directly compared with antiques and works of art, I am only a more intuitive expression of this metaphor.

Recently audition photo No. 8 MKII signature version is in the small listening room of the HP store on the first floor of Guangzhou Haiyin Plaza, the power amplifier is still a domestically discontinued electron tube merging machine, because it has been discontinued, it no longer mentions the brand model, this is the second time I listen to this box, compared to the display box heard at last year's Guangzhou exhibition, it is more transparent, and we still use a thousand-plus Bluetooth receiver to play the sound source of the mobile phone streaming platform, although the listening environment is small, HP new flagship is slightly too big here, It still shows a wide and deep sound field, and the sense of leaving the box is very good, easily making the speaker "blind". Its sound characteristics have the level of a high-grade monitor, grasping the sound thickness just right, low frequency rich but not fat, rich layering elasticity and toughness, no kind of fist to flesh stimulation, medium and high frequency details? Excuse me, but is this level of horn unit still used to describe sound details? All kinds of music genres are difficult to defeat it, in addition to the small point of the environment, some types of music loudly pressed down a little bass standing wave, other performances are quite good, and the timbre is very flattering, but I believe that whether at the Guangzhou Audio Exhibition or in the small room of the HP specialty store on the first floor of Haiyin Square, this pair of HP Photo No. 8 MKII has not yet played its due level, at most only play 60% or 70% of the sound quality, but even so, HP Photo No. 8 MKII signature version has surprised me a lot, Is it more than the level of the invincible hand within fifty thousand yuan written in my title? If the front-end system is a little better and the environment is a little better, it should be able to fight with many hundreds of thousands of speakers!

Note: Hp Photo 8 MKII Signature Flagship Speaker Detailed Review content was published in the February 2022 issue of New Audio Magazine.

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