Kraken 3way Speaker - 18" Woofer

The Kraken marks Justin’s first scratch built design in more than 10 years. It represents the deployment of the best drivers to be sourced. For more than 18 years, Justin of ampspandsound has been designing, refining and building horn-loaded speaker systems. The Kraken is Justin’s dream of power, scale, tonality and intimacy.

The Kraken is a partial horn-loaded three-way loudspeaker system. Utilizing a direct radiating 18” woofer for low frequencies, and modern high-efficiency compression drivers mated to state-of-the-art horns which cover the all important midrange and highest frequencies, these big horn, small form loudspeakers offer the bass response, efficiency, dynamic capabilities, low distortion, and scale of much larger designs in a much smaller enclosure.

The Kraken began life as an attempted to bring greater depth and scale to the already proven horn and crossover designs. The Kraken Creates a true full-range speaker system operating from 30hz – 20khz in a single enclosure at high SPLs and low distortion.

The loudspeaker features a sophisticated, hand-wired crossover network, which utilizes high-order filters, and large air-core inductors for low signal loss. If the heart of the Hudson is its horns and midrange, the crossover represents its cerebral cortex. ampsandsound spent countless hours on the crossover, to create a state-of-the-art design that minimizes frequency overlap, and achieves phase coherence and perfect time alignment. Our crossovers are hand-made and built to the same rigorous standards as our amplifiers and loudspeakers, utilizing Hyper-litz inductors and low Q capacitors.

Through countless iterations, one singular virtue of our crossovers has become clear; their ability to be adjustable makes system match not just possible but an expectation.

The Kraken’s bass section utilizes a 18″ woofer in a direct-radiating configuration that is front-ported to minimize interaction with front walls. Through the use of FFT analysis, ampsandsound has carefully built an inert cabinet that features strategic bracing and dampening. As a result, the Hudson is capable of high output with minimal excursion and greatly reduced levels of distortion over conventional designs.

The heart of the Kraken is its large CNC-cut midrange horn, which utilizes a hybrid elliptical tractrix flare, providing controlled horizontal dispersion and limiting vertical dispersion to reduce room interactions. The midrange horn is mated to a 2″ large-format midrange compression driver with a 3″ voice coil. The combination of a large, precision-made wood horn with a large throat and large midrange compression driver has resulted in a midrange that is tonally accurate, yet rich with detail. The midrange is smooth, fast-sounding, and easy to listen to for hours. Surprising to most, the Kraken’s mid range is a paper diaphragm lending to this non fatiguing sound it produces.

The tweeter combines a 1″ compression driver coupled to an elliptical tractrix horn providing exceptional polar responses without dips and peaks associated with other horn designs. The Hudson’s tweeter offers both great extension, detail, and a true sense of airiness; which allows the loudspeaker to create a large and deep soundstage even when placed close to the wall behind it.

Specs:

Cabinet: 25W" X 17D" 39H"  

Quoted Frequency Response: 29Hz – 20Khz -3db

Sensitivity: 99db 1W/1m, 600 watts/maximum power handling