Numbers wise, the Haydn is also noteworthy. A nominal 4Ω load that draws twice the juice from a driving amp, that’s a sensible decision given the lowish overall sensitivity of 88.5dB. You know there’s an issue when every 0.5 counts! But look at the bandwidth and the reason for the sensitivity figure soon becomes clear. A -3dB point at 40Hz is seriously impressive for a speaker this size and offers the first clue as to why the Haydn’s special and what makes it that way.
Diet and exercise…
The lowish sensitivity and wide bandwidth add up to a speaker that does like power, although this is more about a healthy output than a massively load capable amplifier. 80 to 100 decent Watts will easily suffice, bringing the Haydn well within the grasp of any number of mainstream integrated amps. The likes of Moon, Neodio or Arcam should prove willing partners, while the pairing with the Levinson 585 proved spectacularly successful, the extra beef delivering even greater ease and musical enthusiasm from the pint-pot speakers. Sparking the best out of the little VA cabinet is more a case of urge than control. The drivers are so well behaved, the amplifier simply needs to kick them into life – which is why the 4Ω load makes so much sense. It also helps explain the happy match with the 4Ω output tap of the Icon Audio ST60 integrated amp, with its push-pull KT-88 output stage.
The rear porting and surprising bass extension mean that you need to allow the Haydn some room to breathe. This is a definitely a stand-mount, not a ‘bookshelf’ speaker, not least because acoustic space is one of the things it does so well. I ran the Haydns on a pair of the excellent Track Audio 600mm/24” stands. With the speakers’ even spectral balance and inherent extension, it’s almost a case of the more vertical space you can give them, the better they like it. The average 24” stand also comes with a narrow enough top-plate not to overhang the slim VA enclosure. What might surprise you is how much width they like. Too close together and the soundstage condenses and foreshortens. Move them apart and you’ll hear the acoustic expand and the stage open out. Distance between the speakers is much more important than distance to the side walls, no doubt helped by the degree of toe-in. Once spaced, I ended up with the speakers laterally upright, tilted slightly back and toed in to point directly at my ears, crossing very slightly behind my head. I also took the time to tighten all of the driver mounting bolts. Use a torque wrench to ensure that they are all adjusted to the same tension, avoiding any distortion of the driver baskets and don’t forget the bolts that secure the port and the crossover panel on the rear of the cabinet. Although tweaking up the driver bolts made a clearly audible difference, sharpening the dynamics and quietening the background, it was the bolts securing the large crossover panel that made the biggest difference, bringing a real lift in terms of clarity, focus and micro-dynamic jump.
The accidental tourist…
I started this story with audio’s digression into the musical cul-de-sac of trying to extract huge sound from tiny speakers using massive amplifiers. Who’d have thought that a speaker as outwardly prosaic (and clumsily named) as the Vienna Acoustics Haydn SE Signature would expose not just the folly inherent in that approach, but the virtue in achieving more by attempting less. You don’t need all the bass: you just need enough to musically convince and make sense. The deeper the bass you produce, the more problems you generate along with it. The Haydn is an object lesson in balancing what’s possible with what actually works. It generates enough bass from a cabinet that’s small enough to accommodate and easy enough to drive, thus ticking all the boxes. Push a design too far in any one direction and you end up dragging one of the other key parameters out of balance. Yes, you could generate more and deeper bass – but only by dint of reducing the sensitivity and load characteristics to ruinous levels, or increasing the cabinet size, with all the mechanical, cost and aesthetic implications that introduces. More sensitivity? Fine: bigger box or less bass. And so it goes. Speaker design is a juggling act irrespective of the product’s price level or size. The smaller the speaker and the tighter the budget, the more balls you are trying to keep in the air all at once.
