Castle – Windsor Earl & Windsor Duke – Latest Speakers

The Duke

All Image Credit: Castle

Castle (formerly known as Castle Acoustics) is a British Loudspeaker brand first established in 1973 and takes its name and logo from the 11th century historic Skipton Castle, in the North Yorkshire market town of Skipton, which was Castle’s home since its foundation to 2006. After moving their manufacturing to East Asia in order to stay competitive, they were rescued from bankruptcy in 2007 by the International Audio Group (IAG) adding the brand to it’s portfolio of globally renowned Hi-Fi brands which includes; Wharfedale, QUAD, Audiolab, Mission, Leak and Luxman.

IAG have a base in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, UK that incorporates; R&D, key manufacturing, assembly and finishing processes and now a new anechoic chamber. Last year IAG launched a new “Made in the UK” initiative and just like their newly re-engineered sister speaker brands of the Mission 770 and Wharfedale Dovedale the Castle speakers are also to be officially “Made in the UK”.

The all-new stand-mounted Windsor Duke (47 x 28 x 31cm) and slightly smaller Windsor Earl (43 x 24 x 26cm) have been designed by Karl-Heinz Fink, the designer of the Castle Richmond 3i in the early 2000’s, and more recently the Wharfedale Diamond 12 Series.

The Earl

The Earl

The Duke and Earl bass reflex speakers (rear ported), both use the same design of bass/mid-range driver made from a woven polypropylene-based material with a 16.5cm driver in the Earl and a 20cm driver in the Duke. The unique cone material manufacturing process is said to create a material with different properties of rigidity at different directions throughout the cone. The voice coils are made from glass fibre, bonded with high-temperature resin that produces a stiffness and rigidity similar to aluminum but unable to generate eddy currents. While the cones outer edge is attached to a low-hysteresis rubber surround which will not deteriorate over time. Completing this new design the magnet system includes an aluminum compensation ring, which is said to help minimize impedance variations, resulting in reduced values of harmonic and intermodulation distortion.

Both Windsor’s use a 28mm tweeter with a polyester textile dome, backed by a “pressure-equalized” ferrite magnet system that contains no ferrofluid. Its copper cap on the pole piece of the magnet is said to reduce distortion and intermodulation products improving HF response. This new design claiming to provide superior dynamic range and a lower sub-800Hz resonant frequency.

The Duke and Earl both use a 4th order Linkwitz-Riley crossover to create the optimal integration of the purpose-designed drive units. All critical inductors are air cored, thus preventing hysteresis and distortion. According to Castle; “The main inductor resistance is compensated in the mid/bass driver’s magnet system, so there is no disadvantage from the slightly higher resistance of this air coil.” The final filter design being a combination of computer modeling and listening tests that create a flat frequency response, low distortion and an easy load for amplifiers.

The Windsors cabinet design is based upon the long standing principles of low colouration cabinets. In order to achieve this the drivers and crossover are housed in a cabinet made from dual-layer MDF that are separated by a thin layer of acoustic glue that was developed to dampen unwanted midrange resonances. Internal bracing rounds out the cabinet design with the walnut or mahogany veneers that are book-matched and hand-waxed to a mirrored finish.

Specifications:

MSRP (Earl/Duke):

• US: $5,250.00/$6,250.00
• UK: £3,850.00/£4,500.00
• Stand option (UK only): £400.00/£500.00

For more details visit the UK Castle web site

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