A speaker built for a treated room

Read the Yvette's measurements carefully and one thing stands out: its perceived low end will be dominated by the room's properties. That is not a flaw to me. It is the speaker telling you who it was built for.

It goes down to 20 Hz at 86 dB sensitivity, into a 4-ohm load that drops to 3 ohms at around 90 Hz. A speaker like that does not hide what the room does to the bottom octaves; it puts it on display. It was designed for listeners with curated, treated rooms and a well-defined seat where they can listen on axis.

So the rule follows. Without proper amplification, a treated room and a capable source chain, a speaker like this may be wasted money, because it reveals everything, the good and the bad. It might be forgiving sometimes, but sometimes only, and nobody pays over $25,000 to be forgiven.

I bought mine because I had that foundation: the McIntosh electronics, the room treatment, the sources, the cables. Even so, the kick drum on Take Five only filled the room once I moved into a better one. If you are still building, buy a speaker that is happy in the room you have.

A speaker that reveals everything will reveal your room first. Make sure the room is worth revealing.