RCF Ayra Pro 5 Speaker Review (and Why Phase Matters)

While I have no intention of posting product reviews on this blog, when the Ayra Pro 5 monitors came across my radar, I had to get my hands on a pair and would like to share some of my findings for the sake of the educational value. The majority of this review will be a comparison with the JBL LSR305 as they are in a similar price range (and I own a pair of the LSR305). The JBL are well regarded for their price and I feel are representative of a speaker that has no major flaws. They aren’t offensive as many speakers are.

Why would I order these fairly obscure speakers which you rarely see in North America (I had to order from Germany)? It all comes down to their use of FIR filtering for phase correction. This is something I’ve been researching for many months now and is only found in speakers costing at least 5x as much. I was very surprised to find a $150 speaker offering this. This is the same technology that you find in systems from DEQX, Trinnov, and Dirac which I’ve discussed in other posts.

What is phase and why does it matter? The simplest explanation as it relates to speakers is that the phase response indicates the timing relationship of the frequencies being played out of the speaker. Excess phase refers to the component of the phase response that isn’t related to the frequency response. Ideally there should be no excess phase in a speaker. This would mean that all frequencies are projected from the speakers at the same time (not factoring in minimum phase shift caused by deviations from the frequency response). In actuality, most speakers have high levels of excess phase so a lower frequency may be significantly delayed compared to a higher frequency.

There have been numerous studies “proving” that phase shift isn’t audible but there is so much confusion in the terminology used to describe phase shift that I have yet to find any studies which accurately tested the audibility of phase shift. I’ve set up filtering to correct the excess phase response of many different speakers in different studios and there’s never been any doubt about whether the effects are audible. Correcting the excess phase response leads to an increase in detail and clarity. This makes perfect sense considering that without the correction, the sound you’re hearing is smeared in time.

Because it’s winter, I’m not able to measure speakers outside so the measurements shown below are limited in showcasing the anechoic behavior of the speakers but I think they’re more than adequate for showing how the Ayra compare to the JBL. Starting with frequency response, it can be seen that the JBL extend lower while the RCF have a more pronounced midrange in the 600Hz area and the top end is about 3dB hotter than the JBL. These measurement were taken in a small untreated room and are not windowed so the overall response is not at all indicative of the response in better acoustic conditions.

The following graphs show the excess phase response in gray for the RCF and JBL. The reduced phase shift in the RCF can be clearly seen. These measurements are windowed and so represent the anechoic response of the speakers. The only thing that should be disregarded are the dips below 1kHz which are a result of the windowing.

Below are the distortion measurements for the two speakers. Second harmonic is in red and third harmonic is in orange. Aside from in the 1kHz - 2kHz range, the RCF generally shows lower levels of distortion. These measurements are 85dBSPL at 1m.

Lastly are the impulse and step responses. The effects of the phase correction can be clearly seen here. Both speakers have a 5” nominal woofer (the RCF is around 0.5” smaller than the JBL) and a silk tweeter in a waveguide of similar proportions so I feel that this should be a fair test.

There’s no doubt that the RCF has a tighter step response. The JBL is a mess in comparison.

So how do they sound? Well each speaker has its pros and cons. There’s no doubt that the imaging and detail is better on the RCF. The JBL is fuzzy in comparison. Unfortunately the RCF has some unpleasant qualities which can be seen in the frequency response. The peak in the midrange is somewhat annoying but the biggest problem by far is the top end. While the JBL has a nice downward tilt towards the top (ignoring the bump at 16kHz), the RCF dips down at 1.7kHz but then comes back up with a vengeance and is ruler flat up to 20lHz. I’m a believer that a ruler flat response is not ideal and overly bright. The nature of being an inexpensive tweeter (in both the JBL and RCF) makes this even worse.

While the JBL are inoffensive, the top end on the RCF is unfortunately offensive and a bad case of tweeteritis. If I had to pick between the two I would go with the JBL despite the unquestionably better resolution of the RCF. With some additional EQ I think the RCF would beat out the JBL but that’s beyond the scope of this review. For anyone interested in hearing the benefits of phase correction, the RCF are a great way to experience it as long as you keep in mind they have other problems of their own. If you have the ability to EQ in your rig, I think the Ayra series could be an incredible value.

It’s worth noting that the RCF have a very impressive build quality. The plastic baffle on the JBL make them feel much cheaper and can often start buzzing. Everything on the RCF is much more solid and very impressive for a $150 speaker. For anyone interested, the DSP in the RCF is based around an ADAU1701 chip.