Going large from a relatively small cabinet (and the Peaks DO go large) often demands a lot of back up from the partnering equipment. Big amps and lots of them is all too often the order of the day. Well, the El Diablos do like a big amp – there really is nothing quite like headroom when it comes to the convincing portrayal of orchestral tuttis – but there’s more to it than that. The speaker’s impedance characteristics are benign, a flat 5Ω load, the result of impedance compensation in the crossover. Combine the 5Ω load with the bandwidth and that’s plenty of power available, right across the range, without nasty dips or peaks to traverse, or the breathlessness or sudden lack of substance that goes with them. It’s not just that the El Diablo does bandwidth, it’s designed characteristics means that it encourages amplifiers to deliver a lot of power and to do it evenly, irrespective of frequency. No wonder that music swells so convincingly and peaks (no pun intended) so emphatically.
There’s the option to order the El Diablos with bi-wirable crossovers and you should definitely take advantage of the facility. It offers clear musical advantages in terms of clarity, resolution and separation. It also means that they can be bi-amped and there’s definite advantages to doing that too, mainly in terms of helping the scale of the soundstage match the impressive dynamic range and musical density that goes with it. But the advantages of bi-amping are not as significant as they are on the Stenheim, where it’s almost de rigeur to extract the best from the speaker. The one place it really comes into its own is if you are wed to a low-ish powered amp, where you haver the option to add a second one. The Trilogy 955R mono-blocs are a case in point, where their 50Watt Class A output will certainly drive the El Diablos, but is completely eclipsed by using four of them. The CH Precision A1.5 and M1.1 is another case in point. As good as the A1.5 sounds with the Peak Speakers, the M1.1 is a whole lot better.
Unfailingly musical, the Peak Consult El Diablos will allow you to start relatively modestly when it comes to partnering equipment. They like a reasonable amount of power, but they make that power go a long way. They’ll also grow with your system and your musical ambitions. Just don’t try and run them with an amp that’s too small: it might work, but you’ll be short changing yourself and the speakers.
The Göbel Divin Comtesse and Rachel Podger’s Vivaldi La Cetra
Technologically speaking, the Divin series seems to be about as far removed from Göbel’s original speakers as it’s possible to be. Yet the distinctive Epoch Aeon designs, built around a flat-panel, wide-bandwidth, bending-wave driver hold more than a clue to the sonic signature of the Comtesse. The two series might look totally different but they share many of the same concerns – and much of the same technology, just differently applied. If the raison d’être of a single full-range driver is continuity and coherence, close your eyes when listening to the Divin Comtesse and it’s quickly apparent that the same is true of Göbel’s smallest, three-way design. In fact, given that the bending-wave speakers still need to augment their bottom-end with multiple conventional drivers, it could be argued that the Comtesse simply extends that thinking while bringing dynamic range and speed to the mix, the perennial challenges facing any bending-wave design.
