Home Review Kudos Cardea Super 10A – Active pacifist

Review Kudos Cardea Super 10A – Active pacifist

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Pros

  • Insightful
  • Stereo image
  • Open midrange
  • High quality components

Cons

  • Sober appearance
  • Pricey stands
  • Touch of freshness

Price: € 5750

Build quality
Controlability
Sound
Price

Intro

Kudos Audio from Britain has been making loudspeakers since 1991 and has been distributed by Latham Audio for several years now. So that we too, across the channel, can enjoy all the beauty this company has to offer. Alpha Audio has now tested the Titan 606 and Cardea Super 20A. Today it’s the turn of the Kudos Cardea Super 10A. A two-way monitor with a few special features. Let’s check it out!

The Kudos Cardea Super 10A is a two-way bass reflex monitor. It is 35 cm high, 20 cm wide and 27 cm deep. Nothing special at first sight and also the beam-shaped cabinet is very austere with no sloping sides or rounded corners anywhere. However, the cabinet is completely inert which becomes clear by a – very scientific – tap with the knuckles.

Each speaker weighs a hefty 10.5 kg and you notice this if, like us, you have to move them often. You can get this speaker in four different versions. We have the light oak version but there is also dark oak, walnut or matte white. So there is something for everyone.

Designer Derek Gilligan always makes sure that the construction of his speakers is not too complex. He does this by simply using top quality components, for the tweeter and mid-driver but also for the crossover and cabling.

The use of HDF instead of MDF is a small example of this. In addition, the crossover is not simply built via a circuit board but ‘hardwired’ as it should be with Mundorf resistors and air coils and with ClarityCap transistors. If you open these speakers you will not find any cheap parts

Keep it simple stupid!

A first order filter is used for the 18cm coated, paper mid-driver (SEAS) and a second order filter for the 29mm silk dome tweeter (SEAS). We see this more often but here the units are particularly well matched resulting in great coherence. These components are custom made to strict specifications for Kudos and consist of a reworked SEAS Crescendo tweeter and mid-driver.

No skimping on the cabling either. Kudos uses their own developed cabling throughout all their speakers. This is to have complete control over the process. Another example of the almost obsessive attention to quality. You can also purchase their KS1 speaker cable yourself so that the connection to your amplifier is done via the same cabling. 

Main specifications are a sensitivity of 87db and a frequency range of 40 Hz to 30 kHz. The Super 10A is an 8 Ohm speaker that dips to a minimum of 7 Ohm and is therefore not difficult to drive. It is noteworthy that the Super A speakers can be driven both passively and actively. This can be done with systems from Naim, Exposure, Linn or Devialet.

As colleague Jaap already pointed out in the review of the Super 20A the whole filter is skipped. At the back we see the speaker connections, banana plugs only, and above that the connections to go active. At the very top another bass port that we did not hear during testing.

Type test
Single Test
Speaker class
Monitor - bookshelf
Speaker type
Dynamic
Speaker system
Bass reflex
Signal control
Passive
Frequency range
40 - 30000 Hz
Crossover
2-way
Efficiency
87 dB
Impedance
8 Ohm
Dimensions
  • Width: 20 cm
  • Depth: 27 cm
  • Height: 35 cm
Weight speaker
10 Kg

Winkels met Kudos

Steenstraat 54
6828 CM Arnhem, Gelderland, NL