Yo! Greatness. YG Carmel Loudspeaker.

The YG Carmel in my man cave.

I had admired the YG Carmel loudspeakers since their demo, driving by all Nagra electronics during the last KLIAV show. Even during the hostile show environment, the baby YGs manages to shine, with a captivating "golden" tonality. When Mr Aw of The Audio Store told me that I am to bring these gorgeous babes home, I just couldn't refuse, challenging logistics aside.

You see, each of these all aluminium compact loudspeakers weights 40kgs or so, despite the diminutive 1 meter tall slim tower design. It needed the strength two strong men to bring them up to my first floor man cave. The Carmel looks like the sort of speaker that Darth Vader himself would buy, in it's all black anodised enclosure. From certain angles, these YGs actually does have lines similar to the Star Destroyer! In my man cave, it certainly matched the all black chunky styling styling of my Pass Aleph 0 mono blocks. This Carmel is a two way design, using a Scanspeak ring radiator tweeter and that top of the line Scanspeak Revelator paper cone mid/bass driver, popularly used in other high end speaker designs too.

Darth Vader himself would buy this YG speakers to match his Star Destroyers! The non-parallel surfaces serves to break up internal resonances and back wave.

The YG Carmel is easy to set up in my room, due to familiarity and an unfussy quality inherent in the speakers it self. I tried moving them a couple of inches up and down from the usual position that usually works. I ended up placing the Carmel 42 inches from the rear wall and 18 inches(measured from the corner of the front panel) from the side wall in my 10 x 12ft cave. Due to the speaker's strong low end response, I had to place them 2 inches further in to my room than usual. I also plug the speaker cables to the top(tweeter) terminal rather than the bottom(mid/bass), bi-wire able terminals. The YG Carmel rest on three threaded and adjustable floor pointed spikes, which I leveled out in my room.

The review pair is serial no. 85. Note the WBT style speaker cable terminals for bi-wiring or bi-amping. I used my Siltech Classic Anniversary 550L jumpers to match my resident Classic Anniversary 330L speaker cables.  

With a rated 87db sensitivity, the YG Carmel required me to turn up the volume level more than usual, compared to when using my 89db rated PMC Fact 8 loudspeakers. However, my 75W rated Pass Labs never sounded like it was struggling to power the YGs. In fact, with the YG's in my system, I heard greater bandwidth, higher linearity and more transparency. There's seemingly never ending head room built in to these speakers, because at volumes when my Fact 8 starts to sound harsh, encouraging me to back down, the Carmel just goes on and on, which is especially nice when I indulged in the heaviest rock/metal tracks, like those from Guns & Roses and Metallica. Even when at near concert like volume settings, the YG's never sounded like it's on the edge, there was never a trace harshness, or woofer bottoming out symptoms.

Tonality wise, the YG is chameleon like, which is rather true to source, as that it reflects the sonic character of the up stream components, such as amps and sources, as in true to the recordings played. Like I mentioned earlier, the YG powered by all tubed Nagra electronics during the last KLIAV gave an impression of "golden" hued tonality. I never heard any kind of "goldenness" in my system. With my all solid state Pass Labs amplification, the YG put on a more direct, and neutral tonality, if still a little on the warm side of things. I say neutral not as in the clinical kind, but more of the "get out of the way" kind, if ya know what I mean?

This is an excellent audiophile quality pop/vocal album. Maeve O'Boyle has that scotch soaked, dark, throaty vocals which makes her songs sounds that much like her life's experiences.  

Initially, the Carmel had highs that were a little sticky around the tweeter, a sign that the review pair of speakers was not fully run in. However after two weeks of continued playing had the tweeter opened up like a blooming petal. The highs had a softly, gently, cultured quality that is presents music in a slightly darker than usual back drop. The highs wasn't the kind that particularly grab one's attention, yet all the details, and subtle elements that make music so much more realistic is there for your discovery. If any thing, I rather call this YG highly coherent, from the highs to the mid bass driver.

Again, the mids were initially a little shut in, but that quality disappeared with time. I observed that the mids are probably not as beguiling or voices don't come across as attractive as my resident Fact 8, but that's a Brit thing. If I had to make a judgement call, the YG is probably the more reserved and uncoloured in it's mid range character but likely to be the more accurate sounding of the two. Please don't mistake my above judgement by implying the YG is a dull speaker. Far from it, in fact that earlier mentioned coherence factor goes a long way the tweeter hands over to the mid/bass driver that is one of the most seamless I've heard till date.

The YG earns extra brownie points in it's bass department. Though spec to deliver no lower than 35Hz, it actually sounds like it's diving lower, kicking harder and delivering healthier bass output, which makes the PMC Fact 8's spec look rather optimistic.  As a sealed box design. which usually sacrifices sensitivity for bass accuracy, I think YG made a well judged call on this matter of compromise. The bass response never overwhelmed the other reproduced frequencies higher up, or boom in my small room. It is always well controlled, even at rock concert like play back volumes.

The Scanspeak ring radiator tweeter, housed inside a shallow wave guide, and the 7 inch mid/bass Revelator driver sound seamlessly coherent. That star grille is attached by embedded magnets. 

I played all kinds of music thru the Carmel and always experience different sonic character based on the recording. If a recording is warm sounding, like Linn Record's All My Sins, performed by Maeve O'Boyle, than that's what you'd get. If it's an excellent piano recording like Black & White by Danny Wright, then the grandness of scale in the piano is portrayed vividly. Danny's piano play uses a lot of staccato techniques for an exciting effect, and the YG's delighted in it's performance. As the "worldly" Eminent Monk commented, a speaker that could deliver riveting piano performance like this, is what separates a pair of great speakers from the merely good.

Demure in size, but projection of scale is somewhat larger than life, in typical American high end fashion, reminding me the likes of Wilson Audio. This YG speaker will project an illusion of sound stage that is larger, with much depth and layering effect, if recording permits.  The YG sometimes made me feel like I am listening to the limits of my system, rather than the limits of it's own. It certainly deserves to be partnered with the best amplifiers and sources available, for best hifi experience.

Another look at the YG Carmel, also available in anodised silver.

It is always a headache when one sets up a high end system in a small room. What speakers does one choose to partner with the best CD players, and amplifiers? One can choose a small reference grade stand mount, at the expense of reproducing the lower frequencies. Or one can choose a high quality, small foot print, un-obtrusive nearly full range floor stander like this YG Carmel, priced at a whopping RM$53,600.00/pair. This is small high end speaker performance at it's finest available today, and that I do not doubt the YG Carmel one bit.

YG Acoustics is sold by The Audio Store, contact Mr Aw at 03-78872233 or 019-2682559.