KUDOS CARDEA SUPER 10A LOUDSPEAKER REVIEW

Ian Ringstead takes delivery of the Kudos Cardea Super 10A standmount speakers and tells us what he thought.

A good looking loudspeaker here finished in Black Oak

Earlier this year I reviewed the excellent Kudos Cardea 20 floor standers, so when I was asked if I would like to try out the new Kudos Cardea Super 10A I jumped at the chance. Kudos do a Cardea 10 that is the stand mount equivalent of the 20 so what is the difference in this new model. As the name might suggest, it has been souped up and can be made active.

Like the Titan series, Kudos’s ‘Super’ Cardea models are configured to allow simple by-passing of the internal crossover for active operation with amplifiers such as Exposure, Linn Exact, Devialet Expert and Naim SNAXO. Upgrading to active operation enables a variety of performance and personalisation capabilities. The customer doesn’t have to decide at the point of purchase if they wish to go active as if they wish to go down the active route later the active modification is simply done – this is a great selling point and a very good upgrade path for those that choose it. I used to sell and install active systems in the 1980s and from a purist’s viewpoint, they are superior due to the close matching and added amplification whether internal or external. Active systems can be very complex and expensive or kept reasonably simple to lower costs. The only drawback is they’re dedicated so swapping out is not an option – you have to own the idea and run with it. The Cardea Super 10A is connected to an electronic crossover with two stereo amps, the amps either drive the treble units left and right or the bass units left and right. It’s a considerable cost option. As I wasn’t trying the active configuration that’s all academic and down to a dedicated dealer to advise and demonstrate.

The build as with all Kudos is exemplary and I had the black oak again. The cabinet has very clean and hard lines and is beautifully crafted, looking very simple on the outside, but underneath the skin it’s a different matter of complexity and controlled execution. The cabinet measures 35 cm (h) x 20 cm (w) x 27 cm (d) and aren’t light at 10.5 kg.

They will handle 25W to 200W, are an 8-ohm load and have an average in-room frequency response of 40Hz to 30 kHz, Sensitivity is 87dB @1W 1 metre and did prove to be an easy load to drive.

The Cardea Super 10 A features a Crescendo K2 fabric dome tweeter, a development of SEAS’ superb (and justifiably costly) Crescendo unit re-engineered exclusively for Kudos. The mid/bass drivers are unique to this model. They are 180 mm units with cast chassis and a coated paper cone with a 39mm voice coil. The drivers are precisely matched and seamlessly aligned to work together as one, delivering an effortless ‘just right’ sound which I can fully concur with.

The crossover sports superior quality components that Kudos specify to exacting tolerances from the manufacturers they use including Mundorf MResist Supreme resistors and air-core inductors, along with Clarity Caps special Copper Connect technology capacitors. For those in the know, both of these brands are superb and are used the world over by specialist high-end companies. No penny pinching here, quality and more quality. The crossover isn’t mounted on the usual printed circuit board, instead, the components are hard-wired to one another and glued onto a high-density fibreboard board that is then bolted to the speaker’s back panel. The speaker terminals are high-quality 4mm sockets rather than binding posts, so 4mm terminations on your cables only, no spades allowed here.

The attention to detail is all about controlling vibration but allowing explosive dynamics to emerge and thrill the listener. I placed mine on a pair of Atacama sand-filled 20” stands with additional ballast on the base plates. This allowed the stands to be the right height for my listening position about 12’ away. The Kudos aren’t very fussy about positioning and worked fine where they were placed either side of my system racks 8’ apart and roughly 45cm from the back wall to allow the rear-facing port to breathe and use the room boundary effectively as intended.

Around the back of the Cardea 10A

SOUND QUALITY

The pair I received were brand new out of the box so they had several weeks of running in before I seriously got down to critical listening. (Kudos recommend 300 hours before full run-in time). The Cardea 20 was very good as you’ll read in my last review but I have to say the Super10 A suited my room even more so. Kudos deliberately wanted to make a compact stand mount to fit in our more modest-sized homes. That doesn’t mean to say they have sacrificed the sound, though. Clever design and high-quality components have combined to work symbiotically together in perfect harmony. If a product is well designed to begin with then it has a fighting chance of working in less-than-ideal conditions. Kudos have a knack for achieving this every time I have heard them either at shows or in my home.

As always, I tried a wide variety of musical genres and having recently acquired some new albums thought I’d give them a spin. Porcupine Tree are relatively new to my library of CD’s so ‘Lightbulb Sun’ was put in my Gato CD player and boy did it impress. Musically Steven Wilson and his band can be hard work if you aren’t a prog-rock fan where the melodic is mixed with thrashy guitar. I liked it and it was my cup of tea. The Super 10A’s revelled in extracting the complexities of this album where one minute the music is moving along nicely and suddenly some really deep bass comes out of nowhere. All the instruments were really clear and the sound very tight as a good band should be, everything was beautifully delineated with the underlying bass line interspersed, with the at times explosive percussion and cymbals floating in space showing how good the treble unit and the crossover design are.

An older band by far is Yes. If you grew up in the 60’s and 70’s then they were prominent – and as a schoolboy one of my favourites. I even wagged school in the sixth form with a mate to get tickets at the City Hall in Sheffield when they did their ‘Tales from Topographic Oceans ‘album tour. I recently invested in Steven Wilsons re-mixed collection of their first five albums so the Kudos 10A Super certainly brought this set to life. The re-mixes have been painstakingly crafted to fully bring out what the artist and record engineer hoped for but were hampered by the technology back in the 70’s. Putting tastes to one side on relistening to all the albums the benefits were evidently clear to my ears. ‘Close To The Edge’ has a twenty-minute side one opener that has masses of detail which the remix and through the Kudos Super 10A brilliantly showcased. Chris Squires’ thunderous bass and complex chords were easily picked out and you really appreciate the mastery of the musician. Rick Wakeman’s keyboards are also very complex and on the original ’70s pressing seemed cluttered and distorted even on a very good turntable and system. A system that can truly take you there is a gift not to be overlooked. Just because a piece of music is complex doesn’t mean it has to be incomprehensible to your ear. The Kudos Super 10 A acts like a microscope magnifying the detail and filling you with wonder. The sound is not super analytical bombarding your senses with immediate amazement followed by long-term fatigue. The thrill of detail remains to keep on bringing you back for more. Communication is vital in life and without it, we perish, Music is the same and if the artist can’t master that then they don’t last.

In contrast, an album I know well was Livingston Taylor’s ‘Ink’ is based firmly in the American folk style, (Livingston is the brother of James Taylor) and here the music is far gentler. This album was recorded by Chesky who is famous for the superb artists they promote and excellent recording quality. All the songs are covers, well-known and reinterpreted by Livingston. The Super 10A’s excelled with the detailing and spaciousness of the recording picking out every nuance from the backing singers to all the tone and timbre of Livingston’s guitar style and skill. It’s the sort of album you can sit back and close your eyes to just drink in the magical sound. If a system and a pair of speakers can achieve this then I’m happy. Vocals are probably the hardest sound for a speaker to reproduce accurately, especially spoken voice because the human ear is fantastic at spotting colouration. Livingston’s voice came over supremely well and I know it sounds cliched but he really did sound as if he was in the room. Some recordings don’t sound natural but Chesky goes that extra mile to achieve authenticity.

And from the side on their stands

The ‘Messiah’ by the Dunedin Consort in Dublin is a superb classical recording of a favourite choral piece I and my wife adore. I’ve heard it many times and my wife loves to sing it as often as possible. Knowing it so well and being able to reference the music from the many live concerts I’ve attended (not just on CD or record), to hear it faithfully reproduced in all its glory is heavenly. The orchestra use authentic instruments from the period when it was written and performed by Handel and the Super 10A’s lapped it up, portraying the space around all the instruments and singers – the next best thing to being at a live concert. This recording highlights the concert venue’s acoustics so well and the orchestra uses the original authentic instruments, a real plus point.

I must add I am not a classical fanatic and I am very fussy about what I listen to, but when I get moved by this genre it can be sublime.

A final highlight musically was George Benson’s album ‘Absolute Benson’. He is such a masterful musician who has been on my musical radar since my teens and I have many of his albums, but this one, in particular, gets played more often than any other. Not only is the playing of Benson’s guitar so supreme but the way the album is crafted by Tommy Lipuma genuinely excites me every time I listen to it. The Super 10 A’s express the Latin/jazz feel so well and when the beat gets complex and moves up a notch in pace nothing is missed and the infectious rhythm at the heart of Latin music pours out.

The Super 10A’s like power and I drove them to good levels, not roof-raising, but enough to let them rip – a bit similar to putting your foot down in a car on a good flat straight of road to test its performance. They went loud with no distortion or hint of strain and handled deepish bass with aplomb. As I said earlier, the floor-standing version theoretically should go deeper but if the room isn’t suited it’s wasted. The Super 10A’s hit that sweet spot for me. No bass boom at all which is a big no-no in my book if things get out of control.

CONCLUSION

I enjoyed my time with the Super 10A immensely. They aren’t perfect and not everyone will agree with my findings, but twice now Kudos have made me smile and look forward to listening to my system every time I switch it on.

They are compact, which is essential for most homes now but are real pocket-sized rockets on the sound stakes side of things. Larger floor standers have their place in the right rooms but for most of us, reality kicks in and space is at a premium. I used to have much larger floor standers and they truly were brilliant but, in the end, they had to go. The Kudos Super 10A will, I confidently feel, achieve the same results for many new listeners out there as long as their budget is realistic.

Quality doesn’t come cheap. 

AT A GLANCE

Build Quality:

They are conventional-looking but expertly put together.

Beautifully finished, but for the asking price they should be. I particularly liked the bright metal phase plug with the Kudos logo stamped into it in the mid/bass drivers centre, a nice touch and very eye catching if you leave the magnetic grilles off which I always do anyway.

Sound Quality:

So right and easy on the ear being very natural.

Dynamic and articulate

Wide and deep soundstage that wasn’t exaggerated

They are easy to drive but like a bit of power up them

Being rear-ported didn’t pose any problems in positioning in my room

Value For Money:

£4000 isn’t pocket money but the build and sound quality address that issue easily in my book

We Loved:

As Kudos state in their promotional material, the Cardea Super 10A’s just sound right. In other words, you just plonk them down on good stands and with a good system they’ll sing all day long

Positioning was not an issue

Very natural sounding and always a pleasure to my ears

Fast and articulate bass and surprisingly deep for their size

Very open mid-range and excellent treble that was light and airy

Coped admirably with complex rock or other styles.

We Didn’t Love So Much

Passive version isn’t cheap but if you do go down the active route then the price shoots up with the added electronics and cabling. Kudos are old hands with active designs so they obviously feel very confident about this latest addition to their portfolio. If you do want to experiment, find a good dealer who can demonstrate the full potential these babies can offer in active mode.

Price: £4000

Elevator Pitch Review: Kudos have a rich pedigree of great designs and are vastly experienced producing models to suit all pockets and desires. Their active Titan models really impress at the shows I’ve been to especially in a large space. For the more budget-conscious the Cardea Super 10 A’s fit the bill very nicely.

SUPPLIED BY KUDOS 

Ian Ringstead

Equipment used.

Gato DIA – 250S NPM Integrated amplifier, DAC and Network player, Gato CDD-1 CD player and DAC, Michell Gyrodec Orbe platter upgrade with Audiomods 6 arm and Acoustic Signature MX3 cartridge. Tellurium Q Ultra Black speaker cables, Ultra Black 2 XLR to XLR, Atacama stands and equipment rack.

Specifications:

Type: bass reflex two-way stand mount loudspeaker, active ready
Crossover frequency: not specified
Drive units:
Mid/bass – Kudos 180mm with paper cone with 39mm voice coil
Tweeter – Kudos K2 29mm fabric dome
Nominal frequency response: 40 – 30,000 Hz (average in-room response)
Nominal impedance: 8 Ohms
Connectors: 4mm sockets
Sensitivity: 87dB 1w/1m
Dimensions HxWxD: 350 x 200 x 270mm
Weight: 10.5kg
Finishes: walnut, natural oak, black oak, satin white
Warranty: 5 years if warranty registered