Swallow-M2 with Peerless 830869

Swallow-M2 with Peerless 830869

The Swallow-M has a deliberate dip at 3kHz for listeners who are sensitive to that region. This Swallow-M2 is a flat response version. The crossover remains unchanged. The only difference is the wiring of the Peerless BC25SC08-04. Now, the tweeter is wired in reverse phase.

Fig 1 – Peerless GBS-85N25PR03-04 with BC25SC08-04

Fig 1 are the plots of the GBS85N and the BC25SC08 with their networks. This is of the Swallow-M2 alone. The Peerless 830869 is disconnected. So is the electronic High Pass to the GBS85N. 

Fig 2 – Swallow-M2 Frequency Response

Fig 2 is the Summed Response of the GBS85N with the BC25SC08-04 wired in Reversed Phase. This resulted in a flat response with a small notch at about 1.7kHz.

Fig 3 – Swallow-M2 Waterfall

Fig 3 is the Waterfall of the Swallow-M2. Some artifacts are seen at 4kHz and 7kHz.

Fig 4 – Swallow-M2 Spectrogram

The Spectrogram in Fig 4 recorded some bleed at about 1.5kHz. They are very weak, about 50dB below the fundamental. By 5msec, they disappeared. 

Fig 5 – Swallow-M2 Toneburst Energy Storage

Fig 5 shows the unwanted excess energy (light blue slices). There are some excess energy from 3kHz~7kHz.

Fig 6 – Swallow-M2 Harmonic Distortion

The Harmonic Distortion of the Swallow-M2 is in Fig 6. The THD (H2-H9) is at 0.584%. 2nd Harmonic is at 0.298% whereas the 3rd Harmonic is 0.218%.

Fig 7 – Swallow-M2 Step Response

Fig 7 is the Step Response of the Swallow-M2. This is a huge improvement over the Swallow-M. This is what a proper step should look like.

Fig 8 – Swallow-M2 Phase

The Phase (Fig 8) of the Swallow-M2 is spectacular. There is only one phase inversion at 1.7kHz. This is exactly where the GBS85N and the BC25SC08 are crossing.

Sound of Swallow-M2 with Peerless 830869

The Swallow-M2 is how I like my music to sound like. Now, the vocals are more forward whereas in the Swallow-M, they were farther back in the sound-stage.

There is no “glare” in the midrange or is it shouty. That’s due to the flatness in the response. The small notch at 1.7kHz was invisible. I didn’t detect it during auditioning.

There’s no change to the Peerless 830869. It is still crossed at 200Hz with a 24dB/oct crossover. Low Pass on the 830869 and High Pass to the Swallow-M2. So, everything remains the same except the BC25SC08 is now wired in reversed phase. This is actually the correct summation. That’s why measurements are important.

Unless otherwise stated, all measurements were made in Full Space (4 pi) with the mic at 36 ins, tweeter axis. Impulse Window=5ms. No smoothing applied.