Review: Lahave Audio Khara Speaker
Category: Speakers
I purchased these Lahave Khara speakers used here on AudiogoN. I had not heard of the company before, but the speaker design caught my interest. I have always been attracted to smaller audio companies making outstanding gear with passion and care.
I spoke with Jim the owner and decided to buy them unheard.....ya took a risk for sure. I am open to risk however!
The speaker is about 44 inches tall and weights 125 pounds. It is a two way speaker using an OEM Raal tweeter that is outstanding! The 8 inch mid woofer is the excellent Seas Excel Magnesium model. This is a very high quality mid woofer. 90db efficient and 8 ohm.
The crossover has no resistors and very high quality. I would describe it as follows. First order high pass on the tweeter. The Raal ribbon tweeter is transformer coupled, thus the inductance of the transformer may make it second order.
The woofer network is a first order low pass but with a very deep trap in parallel, which makes it act like a much higher order filter.
The speaker cabinet is an absolute work of art and unequalled in my experience. No right angles, 2 inches thick in many places, and not a hint of cabinet resonance to be heard or felt folks. Stunning build quality that easily places it as the finest speaker I have owned over the years.
I did upgrade the crossover parts to Jupiter caps and North Creek 10 gauge inductors. This brought with it some real and enjoyable improvements. Lahave will use SOTA parts on a new build, simply ask for parts such as Duelund, Jupiter etc....
This speaker sings with one voice and is utterly seamless top to bottom. This combined with the complete absence of cabinet resonance makes for a very musical and live experience. This speaker sounds nothing like many of today's Hifi sounding speakers. The best way I can say it is this. Please hear what I am saying now as it is the difference maker. It is as if I don't own speakers. I hear individual instruments performing in precise locations before me and all within their own space. Sure, I have thought past speakers disappeared, but this my audio friends is a completely new and awakening experience.
Oh my, you should hear a piano on these. What a revelation to my ears. The resolution is stunning in it's impact and the tone striking. I hear the same energy, fast strike impact, and natural resonance of a live performance.
This is the same for all instruments. It is so much fun to hear all my music over again. Most times it's as if I really never heard the recording or instruments before. Over and over I am taken back on how darn real and un-stereo like my music has become. These speakers play music....music....not a facsimile of it.
The bass is very deep and powerful making this a true full range speaker. They have a side firing port which I have not seen before. My previous speaker had 4 - 10 inch woofers per cabinet and the bass on the
Khara is deeper, tighter, and far more articulate. The bass goes down to 30 htz in my room.
I am not familiar with the other models in the Lahave line as I have not heard them. These retail for some $15,000 or so I understand.
I could not be more pleased with a speaker. These will stay for a long while as they just do it for me in a way no other speaker has. I loved my Soundlab speakers, but prefer these in the end. They just sound more like the real instrument. It is an uncanny listening experience.
What speakers? Lahave should trademark that line!
Take care
Associated gear
TRL Dude tube preamp
Aesthetix Romulus dac/CD player
TRL Samson amps
Dennis Had Inspire KT 150 SET amp
Sistrum racks under the speakers and Aesthetix
Amadi Silver cables throughout
Acoustic treated listening space
Similar products
Coincident Total Victory III
Soundlab M1
Dali Grand
Silverline Bolero
Merlin VSM - several iterations
