Speakers rarely demand to be placed in a specific place, but many people find that positioning theirs against or very close to a rear wall is most practical in their living space. Generally speaking, that placement offers more bass than if they were stood in free space – which you might want especially with a smaller, bass-limited speaker – albeit a comparatively less convincing stereo image.
Aiming to nail rear-wall-placement performance is Lyngdorf Audio’s latest floorstanders. The new FR-2 have been designed and tuned specifically to stand (or be mounted) flush against a back wall for “visually and acoustically ideal room integration”.
If you’re thinking that the FR-2 look like giant, standing versions of typical on-wall speakers (like Lyngdorf’s own FR-1), you would be spot on. The FR-2’s tweeter and pair of woofers are indeed integrated into an unusually shallow (16cm-deep) cabinet, which, according to the Danish company’s Roland Hoffmann, “works with the room acoustics rather than against them”. It sees the two larger drive units located as close as possible to the wall behind the speaker, resulting in what Lyngdorf says is an ideal low-frequency impulse response; “a surprisingly tight and powerful bass, unheard of with most freestanding speakers.”
Those 6.5-inch woofers marry a lightweight aluminium cone with a vented die-cast basket and an “extra-strong and large” magnet to facilitate high volume and efficiency, while the soft-dome tweeter also benefits from an "extra powerful" magnet. Unsurprisingly, the bass-reflex port here is downward-facing.
Lyngdorf has seemingly gone all-out to create a discrete-looking speaker that aesthetically, as well as physically, blends into the background. It’s certainly minimalist with its simple baffle and satin matte finishes, available in various white, block and mocha configurations and crafted at Lyngdorf’s new in-house cabinet production and lacquering facility in Skive, Denmark.
“We gave the middle part of the FR-2 an extra shape”, says mechanical designer Brian Nielsen, “which also covers all screws and driver baskets. With this design element, the speaker looks much more elegant and slimmer. The fabric grill is placed instead of the baffle, so it is totally flush with the speaker front.”
The Lyngdorf Audio FR-2 is priced at £1999 per speaker, with production starting next month.
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