Thread: Sparkle& Snap Speaker

The best part about our Stereo Special is the wide range of products that we get to review. All of them are raring to display their might and provide us with an entertaining and an involving musical experience ¬from turntables to CD-Amp combos and mighty floors tanding speakers to tiny and diminutive bookshelf speakers. Along the same lines, this time we have the Radia Z-l - a pair of bookshelf speakers from the Bohlender-Graebener Corporation, now known as the BG Corporation.

OUT OF THE BOX
At the onset, the Z-ls might look like any other bookshelf speaker off the rack, but only when you have a closer look, will you be able to appreciate the details and high quality build of the Z-l. It is built using a solid hardwood cabinet neatly covered in a classy black ash finish. Coming to the front fascia wherein the planar ribbon tweeter swiftly blends with the baffle, the silver cone forms a complete contrast, subtly breaking the monotony. The speakers as expected are light in weight and make a tiny footprint, which will not take a lot of place in your living room.



TECHNOLOGY
What grabs your attention is the Z-l's proprietary ribbon tweeter. According to BG, a ribbon driver is the best way to reproduce mid-range and high frequencies. The mass of the tweeter diaphragm is 30-50 times less than that of a typical dome tweeter, which makes it very light. Thus, it can be energised faster and stores less energy and inertia, and as a result, it can stop vibrating faster and its decay pattern is cleaner. These factors facilitate a faster and a smoother movement of the tweeter resulting in an extended high frequency response, low noise and wide horizontal dispersion. Considering all the efforts and detailing that goes into a ribbon tweeter, we won't be surprised if some of you assume that the price of the Z-l is slightly higher