Emphaser has been delighting us with a whole range of new audio products for a few months now, all of which have been made in a noble manner. Here we examine the new Monolith composite systems.

Emphaser is stepping on the gas. After the EA power amplifiers and a series of vehicle-specific speakers, the universal ECP composite systems are now also available from dealers. They are available in the most common sizes of 10, 13 and 16 centimeters, so that the vast majority of vehicles that still have standard installation slots are covered. Like the amplifiers, the loudspeakers are also visually very appealing. From the packaging to the tooling to the crossover layout, one never has the impression that anything had to be saved. Quite the opposite, the drivers feel full in the hand and are superbly finished. The mid-bass drivers have highly stable die-cast baskets, stable terminals and neatly routed lead wires make a good impression.

The pole plates are nicely flat-turned and therefore fit better than just punched out plates. Aluminum diaphragms take care of the sound radiation and beads like center spiders are not of the cheap variety. The tweeter also comes in a very noble, CNC-machined aluminum housing, it is a 25er fabric dome, as it is often and gladly taken for two-way applications.

Each set comes with four crossover housings, because the branches for tweeters and woofers are built separately and can thus be installed individually. As expected, we find good components such as thick air core coils, decent film capacitors and metal oxide resistors. The jumpers for adjusting the tweeters are also large, stable and contact-safe - just as it should be.

Measurements and sound

But even at second glance, the Emphaser chassis reveal their elaborate development. The tweeter's voice coil does not have to bathe in thick ferrofluid, but is allowed to move freely in the air gap. In the three woofers, the coils are wound on electrically non-conductive Kapton carriers, so there is no eddy current distortion. The copper caps on the pole cores also go in this direction. Naturally, no magnetic field can be conducted here without steel, but the copper caps optimally conduct the eddy currents. It is noteworthy that all three bass-midrange drivers were given an individually developed drive to ensure optimal drive parameters in each case. In inexpensive speaker series, a standard drive is often installed for all sizes for cost reasons. This is also true for the crossovers. Normal would be a unit crossover, with the Emphasers no two crossovers are identical. The ECP-M4 has its own layout, with ECP-M5 and ECP-M6 the circuits are adapted to the systems with their own component values.

In front of the measuring microphone, the three compos make an excellent impression. The common tweeter runs as expected flawlessly as a fabric dome. Since it is only wired with 6 dB / oct. in the 10 system, its resonance is somewhat noticeable, but it can easily cope with that. The bass-midrange drivers are a stunner. Thanks to the careful circuitry, they produce a very nice frequency response, plus they are extremely low in distortion. The two larger bass-midrange drivers from M5 and M6 are also characterized by enormous level stability. It doesn't get much better than that. The Monolith compos are also convincing in terms of sound from the very first note. The combination of aluminum cone in the woofer and fabric dome tweeter results in a crisp, finely drawn sound image. The sound of all three Kompos pleases with a great transparency, so that one has no problems to follow even small details in the musical events. The midrange reproduction is honest and lively, there is no sign of fatigue or boredom. In addition, there is a great, hard-hitting bass that portrays bass drums very nicely and precisely. Overall, the Emphaser sound is quite generous, and the ears are always well taken care of.

Conclusion

What Emphaser presents here in the class up to 250 euros is close to the maximum possible. Top build quality, careful development, super measurements and a convincing sound - what more could you want?

Source: Hifitest