At first glance, there is nothing special in the appearance of Naim Allae – well, maybe only woofer is installed above the tweeter, not vice versa. However, you will find in them many distinctive and sometimes puzzling design solutions. Allae are two-way composite systems with an external crossover (it is placed on the back wall of the lower section). Why are there such difficulties? First, the signal can be sent to speakers bypassing filters, thus releasing bi-amping with active separation. Second, a 20-cm woofer has very soft suspension and requires a special acoustic design. Therefore, the body is made craftily. The gap between upper and lower section is a bass-reflex. A 19-mm tweeter is installed on a spring-loaded plate. Weights of matching mass are glued through elastic polymer to its chamber as well as to the woofer’s magnetic system. They absorb vibrations, which otherwise would go to the body’s walls.
These speaker systems are radically different by sound too. Their signature forever sinks into the mind – I’m sure that even after years the “voice” of Naim Alle will not be confused with any other.
The specifics of unusually by design British speaker systems is that having not very ideal musical balance they are able to play the whole band up to HF with striking clarity. Yes, these speakers put accents in other way that is especially noticeable at the listening to expressive music that requires good bass support. Few competitors can compare with Allae by informative content and naturalness of playing of live music. They exude an emotional content of vocals brilliant. Even big group of different acoustic instruments – no matter what volume it is- will be shown by Allae with maximal fairness: in relief and in microscopic details.
Harmonic resolution of these speaker systems is at an incredibly high level! However, spatial separation is worth of praise. Sometimes the problems with transfer of remote sources appear only at the edges of stereo base.
But there are upsetting moments. When the movement amplitude of the woofer’s diffuser reaches extreme values, sharp and unpleasant by ear distortions may appear in the sound. I won’t refer this to serious disadvantages – this happens only at very low basses, which are typical for very exotic drums and (much more rarely) theatrical effects. Coloring of the upper part of the middle range is more noticeable: you should get used to a “holiday” lightened character of sound