Royd may be a new name in monitoring but the expertise behind their designs goes back to the days of Wharfdale speakers. Paul White checks out their A7 monitors.

Royd is a loudspeaker company that build their own drive units and design their own enclosures. Their products are usually destined for the hi-fi market, but some of the models in their range have something of a dual personality, and can find themselves quite at home as studio monitors. The A7s reviewed here are relatively inexpensive bookshelf speakers but they have aroused a certain amount of interest in the role of near field monitors.

One advantage of the A7s over other near-field monitors is that they are slightly larger (about 30cm x 20cm x 20cm) and so have a more realistic bass response. Construction is conventional, being of a specially dense particle board type of material and the black grained finish is complemented by simple removable black foam grilles.

The A7s utilise a 5" paper coned woofer with active surround incorporating a novel rear-porting system and an Audax TW74A tweeter to handle the high end. The woofer is fed with the full range input signal and the crossover is mechanical rather than electrical, but the tweeter is conventionally crossed over at around 3.8kHz (18dB/Oct). Porting is realised by means of a metal tube extending from the rear of the magnet on the woofer to the rear panel of the cabinet where the port outlet is located. This tube is slotted and, though the exact design parameters are understandably being kept secret, the aim is to provide a less peaky bass response as well as to provide some heat sinking for the woofer and a degree of cabinet bracing.

"...the A7s utilise a 5" paper coned woofer with active surround incorporating a novel rear-porting system..."

Position

In order to get the best results from any speaker, it must be positioned correctly, and the A7s are designed to be used between one and six inches away from a wall (corners tend to produce unpredictable results). Used as recommended, the speakers deliver a full and detailed sound with good imaging and their higher than average efficiency at 88dB SPL for 1W at 1m made them quite loud at their recommended power input of 60W peak. This equates to a mean power of 20W or so and any attempt to increase this significantly resulted in the bass driver bottoming with consequent distortion

The bass end however, is more impressive than would normally be expected for speakers of this size although it obviously does not compete with that of full-sized monitors. Moved away from the wall, the bass end tends to fall off a bit so the traditional end of console position is less than ideal unless mounted close to a wall.

At the high frequency end, the sound is reasonably well diffused and shows little tendency to harshness.

"If you want your secondary monitoring to approximate a small domestic stereo, then these speakers do the job very well."

Summary

If you want your secondary monitoring to approximate a small domestic stereo, then these speakers do the job very well without introducing much in the way of flattering colouration. Of course they are not perfect but then secondary monitoring is not intended to be; it's supposed to approximate the sort of units that might be used out there in the real world.

For the small home studio, they may well suffice as main monitors and of course they can be used for their original purpose: bookshelf hi-fi speakers. For little more than the price of a pair of Auratones, these speakers are to my mind a lot more use.

The Royd A7s cost £99 a pair inclusive of VAT.

Further details from: Royd Loudspeaker Co. Ltd. (Contact Details).