AudioSmile Little British Monitor (LBM) Loudspeaker Review

[shadyJ]

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When Gene DellaSala brought a loudspeaker brand called ‘AudioSmile’ to my attention, I had to confess never having heard of them. I went over their website to see what they had, and I was impressed by the detailed and no-nonsense white paper on their Little British Monitor product page. It looked like a lot of thought was put into the design of this small powered standmount speaker, and I was intrigued. AudioSmile is a small business owned and operated by Simon Ashton in England. I inquired about the possibility of a review which brings us to today’s review of the Little British Monitor (LBM). On paper, the LBM looked like a solid loudspeaker for situations that demand a small but high-quality speaker such as a desktop monitor or a speaker for a small room or something that can easily be carried around. But I decided to check that out for myself; does the LBM deliver on the promises of all the technology involved in its design? Read our in-depth review to find out…

READ: AudioSmile Little British Monitor LBM Desktop Loudspeaker Review

 

[TLS Guy]

View attachment 71094​

When Gene DellaSala brought a loudspeaker brand called ‘AudioSmile’ to my attention, I had to confess never having heard of them. I went over their website to see what they had, and I was impressed by the detailed and no-nonsense white paper on their Little British Monitor product page. It looked like a lot of thought was put into the design of this small powered standmount speaker, and I was intrigued. AudioSmile is a small business owned and operated by Simon Ashton in England. I inquired about the possibility of a review which brings us to today’s review of the Little British Monitor (LBM). On paper, the LBM looked like a solid loudspeaker for situations that demand a small but high-quality speaker such as a desktop monitor or a speaker for a small room or something that can easily be carried around. But I decided to check that out for myself; does the LBM deliver on the promises of all the technology involved in its design? Read our in-depth review to find out…

READ: AudioSmile Little British Monitor LBM Desktop Loudspeaker Review

Shady, I think that is a sentinel design. Clearly this offers unparalled performance for a speaker of that size, and clearly out performs a lot, if not most, larger ones in many aspects.

I hope this sells well, and leads to them applying this to larger speakers.

The way forward is active speakers, with electronic crossovers and DSP to get the timing right. Putting the bass management in the speaker is exactly the right place to do it. Having speakers with a dispersion pattern like that will put an end to this "room correction" nonsense. I suspect that you know as well as I do this room correction is really defective speaker correction. That is only marginally effective at best. So this really paves the way for simpler front ends and an end to this receiver nightmare that I keep harping on. Members don't like it, but I know I am right on target.

Approaches like this will lead to speakers with performance above the current crop we can barely imagine.

This speaker is already there to be able to make a full range integrated three way. It just needs an LFE port and a sub designed for the speaker

That tweeter being able to perform down to 1.5KHz is the most surprising and novel aspect of that speaker to me. Crossovers right in the middle of the speech discrimination band have always been highly problematic because the ear is so critical to phase and polar response aberrations in that region. Active speakers with DSP can solve the problem that can not be solved any other way that I know of.

So you could make a really good active three way with DSP. Making a driver that is a sub driver but with good performance out to the 350 400 Hz range is possible now. The venerable KEF B139 goes down well into sub range and lower than some. I was playing my rear TLs the other day with two KEF B139s, and you would have sworn there was a sub. The 32' pipes still shook the floor. So this speaker means a design with a sub designed specifically for an optimal match to a driver that can cross to a tweeter at 1.5KHz would really be an advance. You could use two mids for increased power and better dispersion pattern. Three way active crossovers with DSP for perfect time and phase alignment, would no doubt be the best speaker in the world currently. That is now certainly possible as indicated by this audacious design.

All this has the promise of simpler set up and an end to big boxes, so we can get back to good audio in most homes and make them able to be driven by electronics most have.

I would bet many would settle from a reasonable priced and sized front end, and may be one that could be driven from TVs directly would get us out of our current doldrums. I have it on good authority that unsold AVRs a stacking up like prison walls. I was just talking on Saturday to the owner of Hi-Fi Sound in minneapolis, and he confirmed my suspicion that consumer resistance to the current state of affairs is massive and on the increase.

If someone buys Sound United, and I hope they do, then they need to rethink from square one and not business as usual. This organization is well positioned to really shake the status quo. They have experience in the electronics and B & W still have their facilities in Worthing UK. Probably the UK is the place to start pulling this together.
The UK has a tradition of producing the finest speakers over decades. This novel design just builds on a long tradition.

 

[ryanosaur]

Again, shady, great write up! Thank you for bringing this to our attention, very cool!

 

[shadyJ]

Shady, I think that is a sentinel design. Clearly this offers unparalled performance for a speaker of that size, and clearly out performs a lot, if not most, larger ones in many aspects.

I hope this sells well, and leads to them applying this to larger speakers.

The way forward is active speakers, with electronic crossovers and DSP to get the timing right. Putting the bass management in the speaker is exactly the right place to do it. Having speakers with a dispersion pattern like that will put an end to this "room correction" nonsense. I suspect that you know as well as I do this room correction is really defective speaker correction. That is only marginally effective at best. So this really paves the way for simpler front ends and an end to this receiver nightmare that I keep harping on. Members don't like it, but I know I am right on target.

Approaches like this will lead to speakers with performance above the current crop we can barely imagine.

This speaker is already there to be able to make a full range integrated three way. It just needs an LFE port and a sub designed for the speaker

That tweeter being able to perform down to 1.5KHz is the most surprising and novel aspect of that speaker to me. Crossovers right in the middle of the speech discrimination band have always been highly problematic because the ear is so critical to phase and polar response aberrations in that region. Active speakers with DSP can solve the problem that can not be solved any other way that I know of.

So you could make a really good active three way with DSP. Making a driver that is a sub driver but with good performance out to the 350 400 Hz range is possible now. The venerable KEF B139 goes down well into sub range and lower than some. I was playing my rear TLs the other day with two KEF B139s, and you would have sworn there was a sub. The 32' pipes still shook the floor. So this speaker means a design with a sub designed specifically for an optimal match to a driver that can cross to a tweeter at 1.5KHz would really be an advance. You could use two mids for increased power and better dispersion pattern. Three way active crossovers with DSP for perfect time and phase alignment, would no doubt be the best speaker in the world currently. That is now certainly possible as indicated by this audacious design.

All this has the promise of simpler set up and an end to big boxes, so we can get back to good audio in most homes and make them able to be driven by electronics most have.

I would bet many would settle from a reasonable priced and sized front end, and may be one that could be driven from TVs directly would get us out of our current doldrums. I have it on good authority that unsold AVRs a stacking up like prison walls. I was just talking on Saturday to the owner of Hi-Fi Sound in minneapolis, and he confirmed my suspicion that consumer resistance to the current state of affairs is massive and on the increase.

If someone buys Sound United, and I hope they do, then they need to rethink from square one and not business as usual. This organization is well positioned to really shake the status quo. They have experience in the electronics and B & W still have their facilities in Worthing UK. Probably the UK is the place to start pulling this together.
The UK has a tradition of producing the finest speakers over decades. This novel design just builds on a long tradition.

Agreed that room correction is mostly just a subpar bandaid, except for low frequencies. Above the room's transition frequency, there isn't much room correction equalization can do for a good loudspeaker. For most situations, it should be limited to 500Hz and below.

 

[TLS Guy]

Again, shady, great write up! Thank you for bringing this to our attention, very cool!

Great write up is faint praise indeed!

Shady gave an excellent in depth report on what is a truly advanced game changing product. This is not just a report on an office/desktop speaker, but a totally game changing approach to speaker design. This is exactly how our systems need to move and at speed. Despite what our illustrious leader says, they were excellent drivers forty and fifty years ago the equal of what we have now. The problem is that analog crossovers have serious limitations that can not be overcome. A total rethink of how speakers are designed and built is required to make any significant improvement. These desk top speakers are a starting gun to a new approach to how speakers are designed and built.

 

[Bobby Bass]

James thanks for another great review. I wish I had space for these on my desk because they look and I’m sure sound excellent. I went on their website and the cute as a button speakers stands are included in the price if you buy by February.

 

[its phillip]

James thanks for another great review. I wish I had space for these on my desk because they look and I’m sure sound excellent. I went on their website and the cute as a button speakers stands are included in the price if you buy by February.

Looks like you need a bigger desk!

 

[MrBoat]

I can always tell you put a lot of work in your reviews. The fact that you interact here along with them adds a more believable quality to it, as well. You obviously enjoy what you are doing.

I like this type of practical design that does not put unnecessary expense into the form over the function and without looking/being cheap doing so. I think the stands are clever as well. Some brands, when they try to enact function over form, their cabinets end up looking/feeling like Sauder furniture.

Some speakers are so overpriced that it doesn't necessarily reflect higher performance to me. As someone who is in manufacturing, it instead makes me question their manufacturing efficiency and professionalism, or lack thereof. While I got over the exposed lam look almost as soon as it became fashionable, years ago, I can appreciate it here since it is not overdone. Certainly better than some plastic faux wood alternative. To me it says: "Yeah but, we at least used quality materials and didn't have to hide it."

The performance doesn't surprise me. It helps to qualify/compliment the aesthetic choices. Like someone who is able to pull off wearing Levi's to a formal event, or something.

 

[ski2xblack]

This looks really good, in performance, features, and looks.

I noticed it's also available in kit /assemble-it-yourself form at even lower cost (approx 35% lower specifically), which is quite a bargain.

Only problem is that it's still a micro speaker. I want MOAR! SCALE IT UP, Smileaudio! (They do have a slightly larger desktop monitor, but it's passive and only a tiny step up in terms of displacement.)

 

[shadyJ]

This looks really good, in performance, features, and looks.

I noticed it's also available in kit /assemble-it-yourself form at even lower cost (approx 35% lower specifically), which is quite a bargain.

Only problem is that it's still a micro speaker. I want MOAR! SCALE IT UP, Smileaudio! (They do have a slightly larger desktop monitor, but it's but a tiny step up.)

I would love to see the same design philosophy scaled up to a larger speaker also, but it would probably have to be a pretty pricey speaker.

 

[TLS Guy]

I would love to see the same design philosophy scaled up to a larger speaker also, but it would probably have to be a pretty pricey speaker.

I think this speaker is mch more in the line of a proof of concept design. It seems from your assessment that they have proved the concept. The fact that these speakers measured and sounded good does not surprise me. As you know it is this general design concept I have been advocating for sometime on this forum. Just look at how that crossover performed at 1.5KHz right in the middle of the speech discrimination band! Speakers crossing in that range are far more often, if not always a disaster. I don't think there is another speaker on the planet that can post such a remarkable crossover at that frequency.

The question though becomes is how scalable that tweeter design is for application in higher powered speakers. It is quite remarkable that a 3/4" tweeter can handle that much power and have such a low Fs. 3/4" tweeters have almost disappeared as a breed. I think the Hiquphon is almost the "last one standing". I have 3/4" Dynaudio D21 AFs in my rear speakers crossed at 5KHz, and use the Eaton knock off in my in wall center crossed at 4 KHz. Both of those are NLA now. My point is that a 3/4 inch dome starts beaming and loosing off axis response at a significantly high frequency than a 1" dome.

A more powerful speaker will cost more but overall may well be competitive over all. Not everyone wants large AV units. A speaker like that with could easily be made a truly full range speaker. I proved to my satisfaction the an integrated full range speakers have significant advantage. My mains and center are active except for the tweeter crossovers. The other crossover are all first order and phase coherent. I am convinced this produces superior results. I am 100% certain of that. Eventually everyone will come to realize Ted Jordan was right. The only truly phase coherent speaker is the Quad ESL. That is the only speaker that has produced an accurate square wave which is absolute proof of time alignment and therefore phase coherency. Listening to Quad ESLs is a unique experience notwithstanding it does not produce ear shattering spl.

I suspect a speaker designed along the lines Audio Smile could very well produce a decent square wave. If you get a chance Shady could you see if those speakers could reproduce a facsimile of a square wave at 1000 to 2000 Hz range.

Lastly the reason people dismiss the importance of phase coherence is because they have never heard it. If an amp produced a square even remotely like any current speakers, Quad ESL excepted, they would not sell a single unit.

All this is a big change from current practice so howls of protest will continue from some quarters. However it is time to start to consign passive speaker crossovers to the ashbin of history.