Electrocompaniet Nordic Tone Model 1

It was only when the pallet came off the truck that I realised what I had let myself in for. The Nordic Tone Model I speaker itself weighs a respectable 75kg, but add in the weight of the flight case and you have a lump that few could attempt to drag into the listening room without some serious cursing taking place.

What makes them so dense? They’re just over a metre tall and they look like they could be made of GRP, but in fact their shells are sand cast aluminium. This material is rarely seen in loudspeakers; weight obviously, but also a tendency to ring bell like at certain frequencies. Electrocompaniet has combatted this with damping materials and tensioning rods.

The Nordic Tone is a statement of Electrocompaniet’s ambitions and abilities. It could have made a sensible speaker, instead it did it the fun way, the expenisve way and have delivered a (virtually) cost no object loudspeaker. Such extreme engineering from a company best known for its electronics might seem radical, but the Nordic Tone’s origins lie outside the company. It started with a government funded research project that spent four years developing the speaker, but had not managed to get it to final production. Electrocompaniet bought Nordic Tone the company and took on some of its expertise so that the speaker could be finished and brought to market.

The use of cast aluminium came about as a result of a search for a light, stiff material; the holy grail of loudspeaker cabinet design, since Celestion used in Aerolam back in the eighties. The theory is that lighter materials resonate at higher frequencies, and these are easier to damp. Electrocompaniet cites the construction of jet aircraft where a thin, light fuselage keeps the noise of jet engines at a tolerable level. This speaker is built in much the same way. The reason why the Nordic Tone isn’t a light speaker is that its outer skin is 7mm thick and the cabinet is pre-stressed with tension rods, which presumably increase the resonant frequency. Internal absorbent panels are wedge shaped in order to minimize the amount of energy that reflects back to the rear of the cones.

Usually foregoing a port has a negative effect on sensitivity but the specs of this Infinite Baffle design quote 90dB with a six Ohm nominal impedance, which is not too taxing for most amplifiers. It doesn’t, of course, indicate the full challenge that might be lurking within but that doesn’t appear to be worse than a 2.4 Ohm impedance minimum in the bass.

The drivers are from respected Scandinavian brands ScanSpeak and SEAS who provided the magnesium alloy bass cones, paper midrange and soft dome ring radiatior tweeter. The mid and treble inhabit a separate enclosure to the bass drivers, but this is bonded to the bass cabinet so doesn’t help with installation.

It does however look good in the context of the sculpted design with a ‘waist’ between the two housings.

In my system, these mighty speakers worked well with the relatively modest 50 watt output of Valvet solid state, class A power amps; they look like they could handle more but that sensitivity figure is clearly accurate. I was initially somewhat underwhelmed by the Nordic Tone, as it is not a demonstrative loudspeaker that reaches out a grabs the listener. In some respects, the harder a product is to install the higher ones expectations, but like most components this speaker took a while to settle in. And sure enough, in so doing, it turned out to be a calm and assured speaker that slowly revealed its capabilities with extended listening.

One reason that it doesn’t make an instant impact I suspect is that it’s unusually neutral. There is no apparent emphasis on certain parts of the audio band, so it doesn’t elevate certain details – which is often how speakers give the impression of being revealing. This approach keeps everything under control and lets the source and amplifier dictate the result. If they are worth their salt they will let this speaker deliver a high resolution, powerful and spacious result that reveals an enormous amount of detail in a confident manner. Everything is in fact laid bare and delivered in a coherent manner, what’s more it’s clear that the cabinets are remarkably inert. This brings the noise floor down so that all the quieter sounds are easy to appreciate. This in turn makes for a more complete musical picture; with Rickie Lee Jones’ Flying Cowboys album there is often a film of polish between listener and music but here you only hear the immaculate musicianship, charming voice and slick but involving production values.

The cabinet design clearly plays a part in the Nordic Tone’s imaging abilities because these are of a very high standard. Samuel Yirga’s ‘Abet Abet’ filled out the soundstage well beyond the cabinets, the brass section coming through in full effect at the same time, indicating strong dynamics and no shortage of energy. With this and many of the pieces played, it was very easy to hear what each musician was contributing; the lack of colouration from the speaker means that it can resolve far more detail and bring out the character of each note without having to try. It is not in the slightest bit romantic, but if you play music with that inclination that is the result you will get, and in the context of solid, palpable imaging.

The bass was always going to be a strong point on the Nordic Tone; a rock solid cabinet, decent metal cones and a sealed box will always deliver on that front, and I was not disappointed. James Blake’s ‘Limit to Your Love’ can be an uncomfortable listen with many speakers. It has very low and powerful notes which can shake the average wooden box well out of shape, here it remained clear and controlled so that just my diaphragm and the sofa were shaking – who needs a massage chair? Being very revealing it makes the quality of recording blindingly obvious, a double edged sword of course but one that rewards great recordings to a massive degree. And not just audiophile ones either, Forever’s La Cancion de Sophia is a trio performance where the Stanley Clarke gets to show off his chops on the double bass in a live show. The Nordic Tone gives you the full depth of timbre in the instrument, the body of the cymbals at start and finish and the vibrant atmosphere of the event. It’s proper sonic transportation no doubt about it.

I tried these speakers with Electrocompaniet AW180 monoblocks to see how they would respond to home grown power, the result was increased resolution and improved timing. They also added weight and speed to the bottom end, which was fun especially when I put on ‘Angel’ by Massive Attack that displayed an intensity and grip that is rare. Once again, I was forced to remark on the fact that serious bass energy did nothing to undermine the speaker’s unflappable demeanour.

The Nordic Tone Model 1 is a tour de force of engineering technology. It’s not hard to see why it took so long to get right nor difficult to hear that the effort was worthwhile. Totally at the mercy of source and amp, it’s the sort of speaker that takes a while to get sounding the way you like… but once you do so it’s hard to put down. All in all, it’s a pretty stunning result for any brand, let alone one that specialises in electronics.

Technical Specifications

Three-way infinite baffle loading

Frequency response: 28 – 35000 Hz ±2dB

Sensitivity: 90 dB, re 2.83V @ 1m

Nominal impedance: 6 Ohm

Bass drivers: 2x 8inch magnesium

Midrange: 5.25inch slashed paper

Tweeter: 1inch soft dome ring radiator

Dimensions WxDxH: 36x52x108cm

Weight: 75 kg

Price: £22,500 per pair

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