YG Acoustics Carmel 3

"These speakers thump out low notes with real venom and a scarcely believable amount of muscle"

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On paper, the Carmel 3 from Colorado-based speaker specialist YG Acoustics has a credibility problem. They cost a huge amount of money but are small, rather plain-looking two-way floorstanders. They certainly don’t grab the limelight in an area of the market where most rivals are significantly bigger and complexity is generally seen as a good thing. Yet, if there is one thing we have learned over the years, it is that things should never be judged ‘on paper’

We tested the previous generation Carmel back in 2017 and it proved a hugely impressive performer. The headline differences between that and this latest generation are a change of tweeter and a completely revised crossover network. The new 26mm tweeter is cleverly engineered using a bonded alloy airframe to reinforce its fabric dome, adding rigidity without the penalty of too much mass. The aluminium-alloy piece starts as an 80g billet and is machined into a lattice structure that weighs just 0.03g. All the machining is done in-house and to a precision that is claimed to be finer than 0.001mm. This hybrid design is claimed to deliver reduced distortion and improve dispersion to give a larger listening sweet spot.

The revised crossover design has been implemented using sophisticated simulation software and is claimed to optimise the amplitude response, phase and phase slopes between the two drive units. These numbers are impressive at +/- 5 degrees of relative phase between the drivers from 700Hz-3.3kHz. The crossover point is set at a relatively low 1750Hz, which suggests that the tweeter has good reach at the lower end of its operating range. The advantages claimed for this complex crossover design are low levels of distortion along with excellent transient response and linearity.