W13

“You could call it sensational when a loudspeaker comes so close to a live experience! The difference being that Sven Boenicke’s unique W13 SE+ is an experience that can be repeated at any time.”

Uwe Kirbach, image hifi (English review)

“The W13 SE+ has been a revelation to me.  I use my hifi system in a professional capacity and I have home demoed over ten speakers in the past year before finding the W13, which is far and away above anything else that has been in my room, so much better as to make comparisons redundant.  And what’s more it costs considerably less than some of the speakers I have demoed. They are incredible:  the way they articulate the music with such warmth, and with a feeling of real air and space around the sound, is nothing short of extraordinary.  Yet they do this with no loss of detail or speed.  This combination of warmth, airiness, detail and tautness is simply beguiling.  The lack of any harshness at all means listening fatigue is a thing of the past too.  The depth of the sound is so strong, with a real vivid concert-hall feeling not only with small-scale Jazz and Classical ensembles but with full-blown rock music too.

And the W13s active DSP-enabled  bass driver has cured my room’s insurmountable bass boom problem which no speaker has ever managed to do.  Using frequency response data from my room Sven was able to program the speakers to have a flat bass-frequency response when installed, and the results are mighty impressive with the bass boom completely eradicated.  Having a DSP-enabled active bass seems the best of all worlds: I didn’t want to go to a fully active speaker as I so love the sound of my Vitus amp, likewise I did not want to add a DSP pre-amp to my system as again I did not want to by-pass the Vitus pre-amp, so having active bass with full dsp available is the perfect solution.  With the amp no longer on bass-duty I am getting more out of the Vitus Class A amp too.  To have this DSP solution with one of the best speakers I have ever heard seems too good to be true.

The combination of the Vitus and the Boenicke W13SE+ with a digital source makes for a very analogue almost tube-like sound, yet with the speed and tightness of bass that no tube could produce.  After an endless search for the perfect speaker I have finally found it.”

Peter Duckworth,  Music Industry Consultant, London

“…The W11 is a phenomenal speaker but the W13 beats it on every level. I have the SE now and the difference in detail, timing and musicality to the standard version (of W11) is dramatic. I didn’t think it was possible to outdo what is a stunning speaker but it does. Then there’s the bass. The W13 goes much lower and has so much power on tap that bass is effortless. It reveals texture in bass that was missing before, and has amazing scale and authority. It integrates beautifully with the mid and treble, unlike separate subs I’ve tried in the past. All things are relative though, I wasn’t unhappy with the W11, quite the opposite, and that’s why I wanted to try the W13. A significant investment yes, but a significant upgrade.”

Richard Lowe, UK

“Even when I set them up , from the opening notes I was impressed and captivated…

But today, from a personal perspective, it was only the second time that I was emotionally moved, hearing nuances from familiar tracks, that just simply blew me away.
Some small attentions to detail… and the finish was out of this world.”

Geoff Fairlamb, Stereomusicality, Cape Town

“Just to be open – I’m a fan of Boenicke speakers! I have the W5, have had the W8SE+, and now the W13SE+. What I love about their speakers is that each model sounds ‘complete’ – nothing seems missing, one wonders what more one can get. Each model has huge soundstage, proper tonal colour, huge coherence (like a single driver but plus plus), dynamics but especially micro-dynamic expressiveness, and through these characteristics an ability to bring out the emotional connection with the music. They really are music-lovers’ speakers. Having heard / borrowed / owned various other fine speakers (at least, well reviewed speakers!) – none are as complete at each price level. The closest was the Raidho D1s – even deeper tonal colour (than the W5s, slightly better than the W8s… but we’ll come to the W13s), but they always felt that they were slightly ‘sat on’, compared with the Boenickes. So, what does one get going up the model range? More of everything, as Sven says! More transparency, more micro-details (but NEVER at the expense of musicality), more ‘there’ (palpability, specificity and ‘life’ of images), bigger dynamics, deeper tonal range, even more expressiveness and emotional connection.

Now, to the W13… first, it appears easier to drive than the W*SE+ – and came on song much more quickly (the W8s took months!). Like the W8s – sorry Sven – they benefited from Townsend bases. Nonetheless, these are the most coherent, tonally rich, expressive big(ger) speakers I’ve ever heard. They bring the big speaker stuff – huge soundstage, palpability, ‘air moving’ in the bass… but also electrostatic-levels of low ‘self noise’, a hear-through sense without losing body (another well-reviewed and equally expensive speaker sounded skeletal in comparison), and small-speaker expressiveness. The bass is deep, has meaning (one understands the ‘why’ as well as the ‘what’ of the instruments), and is extremely well integrated (more so than the W8s). I have heard big Magicos, YGs, Martin-Logans, Sonus Fabers and none of them were as musically moving (while still dishing out the hi fi drugs of detail, soundstage, transparency etc.). They just sound like real musicians playing in my room.”

Damien Anciano, South Africa