HECO Bella Donna
Stand mount monitors
This is a great surprise and quite an ambitious project from the brand that usually focuses on lower tier customers. German Heco put a lot of effort into Bella Donna and even developed a dedicated internet presentation for it. The first sentence of it says “Because we can. And because you want it. Two ways like you've never heard before”. Not only is it self-confident but cheeky as well, so I expected something unexpected.
Funkce a forma
The Heco Bella Donna is a two-way speaker, officially positioned as a “bookshelf” speaker. Each cabinet weighs 18kg and is very deep, so if you really consider placing them on a shelf, look elsewhere.
There are two drivers, crossed over at 2,600Hz. The “silk compound” dome has larger surface than usual 1-inch domes – it is 30mm in diameter – and its surround is a part of its radiating function. The 200mm paper-with-long-fibers-combined-with-wool-threads woofer has what Heco calls “Phase Optimization Cap” to improve integration of bass and midrange frequencies as the woofer is responsible for large parts of the vocal range too. The crossover assembly uses selected parts and the bi-wireable terminals at the back are of high quality. So is the cabinet, made of 25mm thick boards that are strategically braced for superior rigidity. I can confirm that the cabinet has no sound of its own from a knuckle rap.
If you plan to look at the selection of finishes, I will disappoint you – the Bella Donna is available only in Iced Silver metallic lacquer and cherry wood side panels. I liked Heco’s attention to details, including the milled name of the speaker on the top, and easily adjustable spikes at the bottom.
Nízké frekvence
As mentioned, the communication pieces of Heco regarding the Bella Donna are very self-assured, and the paper values of the speaker look perhaps too good. No wonder that I started my auditioning them with series of technical tracks.
The correlated pink noise signal showed very good imaging stability and the phantom center was as narrow as possible. The Bella Donnas were not demanding about toe-in, the sweet spot was wide, and the scene stable, spatially and tonally. I was suspicious about Heco claiming 28Hz (-6dB) bottom end extension. Yet, if you consider the remarkable depth of the Bella Donna’s cabinet (it measures 28 x 45 x 45cm) then the internal volume of the speaker is more than 50l. Both the microphone and my ear detected audible bass from 25Hz, without a help from the room that contributed at 60Hz only. The big drum from Tacet’s test CD was not the lean and stripped version that I’m used to hear from stand-mounted speakers; it was powerful and big and shattered the windows with its bass. The acoustic double-bass from Chesky Records test disc was full and voluminous too, although I wished its transients were a bit better delineated. The depth and scale was not missing with the Bella Donna in command.
Čistota rozlišení
Like the other latest loudspeakers from the Heco’s house the Bella Donna inclines towards forgiving warmth. On top of the softer attack on the double-bass’s strings, that I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I would add another attribute – honey-like thickness of the music background that made the recorded ambience less prominent and the microdynamic peaks rounder. But wait, there are three pairs of speaker posts at the rear of the Bella Donna. By moving the jumpers to the other post one can shelve up the tweeter’s energy (from 2 600Hz) by +2dB. By doing so, the Bella Donna transformed into a highly detailed speaker. I could hear the faintest shimmer of Nils Lofgren guitar, there was plenty of air suddenly, and the transients got harder and more precise. Comparing to the ‘flat’ voicing there was less of the honey, though. The good thing here was that Heco offers the possibility to adjust the Bella Donna’s sound to your preferences or to a particular room situation.
Tonální věrnost
After hours that I spent with the Heco Bella Donna there remained only one element that I wished it had been better: the dynamics. It may be that my living with various floorstanders for a while made me missing the dynamic swing of specialized drivers in bigger cabinets. Also, I suspect the associated electronics might have been the reason for the rather disappointing dynamic performance. Once again, superb sounding hi-fi is not about money (any reasonable amount would do), rather about smart combinations to get most of the components. The Bella Donna is 91dB sensitive which will be clearly helping a lot in choosing the best partnering amplifier, for the power will not be critical.
Prostorovost
It was challenging not to try to play Joey Belladonna of Anthrax through the Bella Donna. The speakers managed Imitation of Life from their Among the Living masterpiece very well, and especially the thickness of the bottom end contributed to the enjoyable sound. Though the album is a masterpiece content-wise, its audio quality suffers, and the Bella Donna let me know it. When I cued in Then She Kissed Me (KISS, Double Platinum, Mercury), a very authentic and nicely recorded piece, the Heco let me hear the change in the sound of bass guitar at 1’30 mark and threw a big window into the recording. I liked that.
The Heco Bella Donna seems strongly inspired from Wilson Audio’s Duette speaker and tries to launch Heco as a ‘high-end specialist’. The asking price for the pair of the stand-mounted speakers is not insignificant, however, the stands are a part of the package, and they are far from ordinary. Their bottom and upper bases are connected by four flat aluminum struts, the speakers are then bolted to the upper base, and enclosed spikes are bolted to the lower one. Isn’t it what customers expect from a renowned manufacturer?
Doporučení prodejci
Horizon Trading Prague, Praha, +420 605 333 663
Web výrobce: https://www.heco-audio.de/en/speaker/belladonna/
Připojené komponenty
- Sources: xDuoo XT10T II DSD transport
- Amplifiers: Denon PMA-A110 110th Anniversary series
- Interconnects and speaker cables: InAkustik Toslink, Supra Rondo, Supra Dual, Elecaudio CS-321B OCC
- Power conditioning: Supra LoRad, Dynavox X7000
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