Celestion Impact 10 Speaker System Review

Celestion's Impact series of loudspeakers consists of seven models ranging in price from $199 to $850 a pair and in size from 12 to 39 inches tall. The smallest and least expensive of the group is the Impact 10, a compact two-way system whose 5-inch woofer operates in a vented enclosure and crosses over at 3.5 kHz to a 1-inch dome tweeter. The woofer is located near the top of the front panel, with the tweeter directly below it and the 1-1/4-inch port adjacent to both drivers.

Each driver (and the port) is surrounded by a molded plastic ring that extends about half an inch in front of the speaker panel. This feature is apparently designed to minimize diffraction as well as to provide the greatest possible degree of homogeneity for the outputs of the drivers and port.

The small wooden cabinet is finished in a black ash wood-grain vinyl on its top, bottom, and sides. The removable grille extends about an inch beyond the front panel to clear the molded structure surrounding the drivers and port. The insulated binding posts, which accept dual banana plugs or stripped wires, are recessed into the rear panel.

The Impact 10’s rated sensitivity is 88 dB sound-pressure level (SPL) at 1 meter with an input of 2.83 volts. Impedance is given as 6 ohms and maximum power-handling capability as 75 watts. The only other specific information provided on the acoustic performance of the Impact 10 is its rated bandwidth of 50 to 20 kHz. The instruction manual stresses that the speakers should not be used to reproduce live amplified music or computer-generated signals, or in PA (public-address) systems. That is good advice for any small speaker, which could easily be driven to destruction by many of today’s powerful amplifiers and receivers.

Because of the above warning, we proceeded with extra caution since most of our test procedures rely on computer-generated signals. For example, during our woofer distortion measurement, which normally spans the range from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, we avoided catastrophe by aborting the test as the signal dipped below the speaker’s specified low-frequency limit of 50 Hz.

For listening, and for some measurements, we placed the Celestion Impact 10 speakers on stands about 8 feet apart and 3 feet from the wall behind them. As usual, we placed our lab microphone about 12 feet in front of the left speaker and measured the frequency response of each speaker separately with a frequency-stepping signal from the Audio Precision test system. The two sets of data were then averaged to form a composite frequency response (after correction for room absorption effects).

Woofer response was gauged by combining separate close-miked measurements made for the cone and the port to form an equivalent anechoic bass response (fictional, but indicative of the speaker’s bass potential under ideal conditions). Combining the woofer and room-response data produced a composite response curve that was flat within +2.5 dB from 18 kHz down to well below 100 Hz (the effective lower limit in our room was somewhere in the vicinity of 50 Hz).

The minimum impedance of the system was 4 ohms, at 55 and 200 Hz, with a maximum of 35 ohms at 3.8 kHz. Impedance at the two bass-resonance peaks, 20 and 90 Hz, was 12.5 and 15 ohms, respectively. The sensitivity was 88 dB, exactly as rated.

We measured quasi-anechoic (MLS) frequency response at distances from 1 to 3 meters. The results of this test, though valid only above 300 Hz, underscored the inherent smoothes of the system. The response was flat within ±2 dB from 700 Hz to about 19 kHz except for two tweeter peaks of 3 and 5 dB at approximately 12.5 and 17 kHz, respectively.

No matter how you slice the data, the Celestion Impact 10 is clearly a very good little speaker. It came as no great surprise to find that it sounded as good as it measured. Obviously, a system with an enclosure of this size and with this driver complement is not going to deliver much deep bass (the laws of physics still apply), but its overall sound quality was so well balanced and smooth that most of the time we didn’t miss it.

I have been aware for some time of the overall improvement in sound quality that characterizes so many of today’s speakers. This largely unheralded development arises out of a variety of technological advances, but the result is that there is simply no reason to settle for mediocre sound quality in this day and age, regardless of your budget. Celestion’s little Impact 10’s are one of the best examples of this trend, offering good sound — actually, they sound better than merely good — at a bargain-basement price.

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