Snell Type J Speaker System Review

The Snell Type J is a compact 8-ohm, two-way speaker system intended to bring the essential qualities of larger (and costlier) Snell speakers to a more popular price range. Although its size and proportions suggest a bookshelf speaker—and it can be shelf-mounted, either vertically or horizontally—the Type J gives its best tonal balance when it is mounted vertically on floor stands (suitable 10-inch stands are available from Snell) about 1 to 3 feet out from a wall.

The Type J speaker measures 23 inches high, 13 inches wide, and 10 inches deep, and it weighs 38 pounds. The cabinet is veneered in genuine oak or walnut and has a dark-brown cloth grille retained by plastic snap fasteners. There are no external level-adjustment controls, and the two five-way binding posts (on 3/4-inch centers) are recessed into the rear of the cabinet.

The Snell Type .1 has an 8-inch long-throw woofer, with a polymer-treated cone, crossing over to a 1-inch soft-dome tweeter at 2,300 Hz. The enclosure is ported through a 1-1/2-inch opening that is vertically aligned with both drivers. The crossover network of each speaker system is individually adjusted to match its woofer and tweeter characteristics. Snell rates the Type J’s frequency response at 50 to 22,000 Hz ±2 dB under home listening conditions (no measurement details are supplied). The nominal system impedance is 8 ohms, and its sensitivity is rated as a 90-db sound-pres-sure level at 1 meter with 2.8 volts of pink noise. The sensitivity of all production units is said to fall within a 0.5-dB spread. Recommended amplifier power range is 15 to 150 watts.

Price: $549 per pair for oak finish, $585 for walnut finish. The optional floor stands (finished in black) are $50 per pair.

Laboratory Measurements

The middle-and high-frequency room-response curve of the Snell Type J, averaged for the left and right speakers, was very flat over the entire operating range of the tweeter and much of the woofer’s range, varying only about ±2.5 dB from 250 to 20,000 Hz.

The woofer response was measured with close microphone spacing to eliminate room effects and simulate anechoic conditions. It was measured separately at the woofer cone and port, and the two curves were spliced— after correction for their relative radiating areas—to form a composite woofer-response curve. Although this measurement is valid only up to about 300 Hz, the shape of the curve was well defined, and it could be spliced to the room-response curve with a minimum of ambiguity. From a maximum between 80 and 100 Hz, the woofer response sloped downward with increasing frequency to —10 dB at 1,000 Hz. The crossover to the port output took place at about 35 or 40 Hz, and the combined bass output fell off below 70 Hz at about 12 dB per octave.

The spliced composite response curve showed a smooth but broadly emphasized bass output, peaking at 100 Hz, joined to a very smooth and flat midrange and treble curve. Although the Type J’s maximum bass output was about 6 dB higher than its average output above 500 Hz, the low-frequency output of any speaker into a room is strongly influenced by the room’s characteristics and the speaker’s placement in it. Snell’s recommendation that the Type J be mounted on a stand away from the wall conforms to our findings, since this placement minimizes the bass emphasis imparted by the room boundaries.

The Type J’s woofer distortion with a 1-watt input (based on a 8-ohm impedance) ranged between 1 and 2.5 per cent from 100 Hz down to 50 Hz, increasing rapidly at lower frequencies to 10 per cent at 35 Hz. At 10 watts input, the distortion rose to between 2.5 and 8 per cent from 100 to 50 Hz and increased further at lower frequencies. The sound from the woofer indicated that it was being overdriven at this high level.

The speaker’s impedance reached a minimum of 4.5 ohms between 30 and 40 Hz and at about 130 Hz, with maxima of 20 ohms at 63 Hz and 28 ohms at 1,600 Hz. Although the impedance was greater than 8 ohms over most of the audio range, it fell well below that value at some frequencies, so parallel hookup of pairs of these speakers should probably be avoided unless the amplifier used is designed to drive low load impedances. The measured sensitivity of the Snell Type J was slightly better than rated: 89 dB sound-pressure level at 1 meter with 2.83 volts input (1 watt into 8 ohms).

The quasi-anechoic frequency response was measured with our IQS FFT analyzer, mostly at a distance of 1 meter. In general, the resulting curves closely matched our room-response measurements. The extended range and very smooth response of the dome tweeter were evident in these measurements, which showed virtually flat response up to 17,000 Hz and a smooth rolloff above that, to —15 dB at 25,000 Hz. The IQS system can plot the difference between two different sets of data, and when we did this with the responses measured on axis and 45 degrees off axis, it showed that the tweeter’s polar response was excellent up to 12,000 Hz; the directivity reached its maximum at about 17,000 Hz. The phase response of the Type J was very good, as illustrated by its group delay of 0.2 millisecond, varying between 0 and 0.4 millisecond from 5,000 to 23,000 Hz. Although there were cyclic variations in group delay at lower frequencies, they never exceeded ±0.35 millisecond over the audio range.

Comment

The recommended speaker placement produced the most pleasing results from the Type J speakers in our listening room. With them placed on the floor, the bass was a bit heavy; we did not try shelf mounting. From the first hearing, we felt that these speakers produced a very attractive and balanced sound.

Comparison with our much more expensive reference speaker systems revealed a distinctly different spatial perspective as well as spectral differences. The Type J produced a more forward sound and tended to sound brighter and crisper than the other speakers. On the other hand, there was surprisingly little difference in the bass; apparently both speakers exhibit a similar mid-bass emphasis in our room. Such a comparison cannot positively identify a speaker system’s particular merits or faults, but it did show us that the Snell Type J was able to hold its own very well against a very highly regarded system that is both larger and rather more expensive.

We also appreciated the natural-oak veneer on our sample of the Snell Type J, which set it apart from the great mass of walnut-grain vinyl-covered speaker systems. These speakers should make a handsome addition to any listening room. The only measurement in which the Type J fell short of our expectations was its bass harmonic distortion at 10 watts input, a very loud listening level. This is obviously not the speaker of choice for generating lease-breaking sound levels of, say, pipe-organ music, at least if clean sound at that level is desired. But for delivering pleasant, balanced, and natural-sounding reproduced music at normal listening levels, we would have to give the Snell Type J a very high mark.

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