Fischer and Fischer SN70 loudspeakers
I was very excited to hear that renowned German loudspeaker brand Fischer & Fischer has new UK distribution. The move was mooted when I met MD Thomas Fischer at the Dutch Audio Event last autumn and admired his small monitors with their external crossovers, which were managing to create a big sound.
The company
Fischer & Fischer was founded in 1981 by Heinz and Thomas Fischer who met at school while studying electronics engineering and happened to share the same surname. Both discovered they were very interested in building loudspeakers. In 1989 Heinz Fischer left the company and moved into car audio.
Thomas was very familiar with slate and slate products because his mother owned a slate mine and produced slate products such as school blackboards. At the time, reducing box resonances was a popular topic among speaker designers (and remains so today) and Thomas started testing various materials, including slate from his mother’s business.
Danish driver unit producer Peerless were active in this area, undertaking their research and using special slate cabinets for the purpose of measuring their drivers. Around this time, a resonance detection microphone system was developed and used by researcher Michael Mudra to test various materials that could be used to create speaker systems. His work revealed the best material for a speaker cabinet was 50mm industrial concrete, closely followed by natural slate.
Michael joined Fischer & Fischer in 1997 with a vision to create ‘perfect’ sounding loudspeakers and began a notable range of models. The collaboration continues with Thomas Fischer still the owner and managing director overseeing global expansion of his brand’s products. He can now add the UK to that growth.
Design
The SN70 may be a compact two-way bass reflex design but it’s a heavyweight, weighing around 18kg thanks to the 15-20mm solid slate cabinet. This is an intriguing choice because the material has laminar structure like wood but is as rigid as hard stone. With the price of more orthodox cabinet materials such as MDF and ply rising so much recently, other materials such as concrete and slate are almost comparable in cost. Just a few decades ago, the cabinet was the cheapest part of a loudspeaker; today it’s the most expensive, meaning that it’s become cost effective to make a cabinet from superior materials such as carbon fibre or slate.
Build quality, as might be expected from a German product, is superb and clearly technical precision is important to Fischer & Fischer. A pair-matched 145mm coated aluminium mid/woofers, boasting long-excursion, is married with a 28mm soft-dome tweeter. The cabinet is barely wider than the main driver and, with its chamfered edges, creates some diffraction issues around 3kHz, but nothing serious.
Sensitivity is quoted at a rather low 86 dB (1W/1m) with a nominal impedance of 4 Ohms, so in reality this is closer to 83dB, so amplifier choice will be important. A rough in-room plot shows a general dip in output across 1-4kHz with a gentle HF roll-off from around 12kHz and a very nice off-axis response. The twin reflex ports are on the front baffle affording closer to the rear wall positioning, while the 4mm binding posts on the back panel are of a very high-quality with no ‘wiggle’ when tightened as we find with cheaper alternatives used elsewhere.
Finish options are the rather gorgeous natural slate of the review sample or a polished version with a surface lacquer in a range of colours. Optional stands are available but were not tested. These are a sand filled aluminium tube design (height: 690mm) with a massive slate floor plate. In the absence of these, I used a pair of Custom Design FS-104s, the central column partly filled, and connected my Hegel H190 with an Auralic Aries G1 streamer, internet tuner and satellite receiver as digital sources.
Sound quality
The immediate sensation was that these are small loudspeakers which sound much larger than anticipated. Sited some distance apart, the soundstage does not spill beyond the cabinet edges that much but, goodness, the height and depth are amazing and draw the listener into the performance. Such it was with Elgar’s Cello Concerto (Yo-Yo Ma, LSO/Previn, Sony) and one of the composer’s finest, most original creations.
The timbre of the cello was captured with such realism, in a magical way such that it was almost believable that the performer was there, in the room, bow in hand. The breakneck, skittering scherzo brought a bodily tingle as I became immersed in this fine recording. Mesmerising is not to exaggerate the superb quality from this loudspeaker. While we probably should expect as much at this price point, to achieve it from such diminutive drivers in such a compact cabinet is a worthy achievement.
Switching genre to the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band’s The Intro and The Outro, a piece of 1960s’ madness it may be but most revealing of a system’s ability to reproduce detail. Wow: the SN70s are extremely capable loudspeakers and showed themselves to have not only class-leading speed but a glorious tonal quality. Their handling of dynamics was way beyond my expectations and they boast a bass response that’s really surprising. They don’t go that deep but what they do is really fast and well controlled, articulate and tuneful. The bass is simply bursting with energy and creates a thoroughly entertaining sound. Those high-mass slate cabinets really do work well, with no obvious coloration or distortion either.
To test just how good the SN70s are, I connected the Hegel H600; an amplifier three-times the price of the loudspeakers. The panel arrived and we settled down to Paul McCartney’s single Press; the one with the picture cover showing where everything should sit in the stereo image. It’s also the type of music I often find quite tiring; it can be harsh, forward and exhausting. Not with the Fisher & Fischer SN70s though. That crafted midrange dip ensures a more relaxing listen, unfatiguing and slightly laidback. Not hallmarks I would usually associate with German loudspeakers I have to confess, but proving a rather reassuring neutrality nonetheless. The performance is far from confined to the cabinets and fills the room with a song that’s not normal McCartney fodder by any means. We wound up the volume, just in case the neighbours wanted to enjoy the sound as well, to discover that these little speakers can play loud, very loud if necessary. There’s a huge sense of liveliness to the music and the solid cabinets did not vibrate, there were no nasty emissions from the drive units and, all in all, a very solid, deep and full-blooded performance.
Coming back down to earth we felt we should acknowledge the surprise reunion on stage at Glastonbury of Paul Heaton and Norman Cook with the Housemartins’ classic Happy Hour from 1986. This effortlessly catchy, soulful number, confirmed the SN70’s ability to reproduce music in an unforced and apparently effortless way. The levels of transparency are superb and the treble reproduction in the highest class. That soft dome does sterling service and blends well into the overall soundscape. There’s no analytical presentation as from a studio monitor, rather a seamless musical picture is painted to bring the performers into the listening room in a most relaxed and entertaining manner.
One of the highest accolades I can pay is that I left the SN70s in my system until it was time to return them. By contrast, there’s many a review sample that I simply can’t wait to repack as soon as the copy is written.
Conclusion
This is a well-engineered and superbly built loudspeaker which has aesthetic qualities to match its sound quality. No MDF cabinets here; slate is a welcome cabinet option and one with sonic benefits. It is also refreshing to find a slightly laid-back design rather than an aggressive, overly-forward balance which seems to be the preference for many modern loudspeakers.
Fischer & Fischer deserve to be better known and their new UK distribution will go some way towards greater recognition of its high-quality products. The SN70 needs a decent amplifier to perform at its best but, thankfully, power comes relatively cheaply nowadays so that is not a problem. A competent little speaker worthy of wider acclaim and personal audition for anyone who appreciates engineering prowess.