Davis Acoustics Krypton 6

The French factory has been in the business for more than 30 years, concentrating on attractive designs, proprietary drivers, and clever acoustic solutions. But, what's important for many people, production is carried out in a factory in Troyes. The company, founded by Michel Visan, was one of the first to use Kevlar, carbon, and fiberglass in their speakers. Kevlar diaphragms have become the French company's trademark, so its logo incorporates a yellow circle, symbolizing such a driver. Unlike many French manufacturers, Davis Acoustics is not fond of horn tweeters, opting for classic soft domes. The flagship MV One Master uses a 21cm wideband driver. My attention, however, was drawn to a design of a completely different caliber - the Krypton 6. It's a compact floorstander equipped with three drivers - a 28-mm silk dome, a 13-cm midrange driver with a Kevlar diaphragm, and a paper woofer of the same diameter. Low frequencies are boosted by a rectangular laminar port at the front panel. The company claims that this configuration will be ideal for rooms of 15 to 30 m². What more could you want?

Design and functionality

I must admit that I got excited about these speakers as soon as I saw them. Of course, it's not because such a thing wasn't available on the market, but for some hard-to-explain reason, the Krypton 6s seem cooler than most of their competitors. It could be because there's a specific practical and technical idea about their construction. Clearly, this model wasn't designed to fill a gap in the catalog. The designers used three completely different proprietary drivers, each of which looks promising. They even designed nice grilles and wedge-shaped pedestals so that the front panel is tilted back, but the enclosures' design is simple enough, which helped keep the price reasonable. The bass-reflex ports were placed at the front because, in many apartments, every square meter is at a premium, and users can afford to move the speakers away from the rear wall of the listening room for a maximum of 30-40 cm.

I shouldn't praise it, but I see a gap that has formed between the ideal listening rooms from Instagram and the conditions in which hi-fi equipment often works in real life. It reminds me of conversations with my father-in-law, who has two tons of screwdrivers, wrenches, ratchets and sockets, various lubricants, eight jacks, four welders, and two compressors in his garage, and thinks that I should, for example, once every few months, loosen the wheel nuts on my car, gently grease and tighten them with a torque wrench, because otherwise, I'll have to replace the bearings, brake calipers, drive shafts, shock absorbers, stabilizers, and then the transmission, engine and, well, the whole car. That may be true, but I don't have a garage and half a ton of tools. For the car's maintenance, I have some washer fluid, a bottle of wax, which I've used once, and rim cleaning spray, which I've never used yet. The Krypton 6s are speakers for people who approach audio equipment the way I approach a car - they want something that looks good and allows them to enjoy high-quality sound. Still, they won't make a big overhaul in the living room or spend all their money on silver cables.

According to Davis Acoustics, the modern design with rounded edges makes the cabinet appear even more elegant and filigree. The French claim that the front-mounted vent will allow the speakers to be easily positioned without having to move them far away from the rear and side walls. The Krypton 6 is available in three finishes - Classik (American Walnut), Technik (Black Ash), and Nordik (Light Oak). The Technik version is equipped with a midrange driver with a yellow diaphragm and black phase corrector, while in the other two finishes, this driver has a diaphragm with a silver "bullet" in the middle. The Krypton 6s efficiency is relatively high (91 dB), which is excellent news for tube amplifier enthusiasts. At the same time, Davis' new floorstanders are pretty compact. The cabinet dimensions are 89 x 16 x 26 cm, and the weight of a single set is 16 kg.

While in the black version, only the yellow midrange drivers catch the eye, and the Nordik variety seems extremely modern and safe in terms of color scheme, the Klassik variant is distinguished not only by its darker veneer but also by its dark blue fronts. Looking at the manufacturer's photos, I thought it was some misrepresentation that the front panels are dark gray, but no - they actually look like that. A quirk on par with the bold color versions of Focal's Kanta series speakers. To make things even more interesting, the fabric grilles are gray but appear slightly greenish in direct sunlight. The company logo is gold, and the plinths are black. It looks a bit scorching, but guess what? After just one day, I concluded that they were cool. At least they don't look boring.

When unpacking the speakers, you can feel appreciated. The boxes are protected by thick pieces of foam and fabric pouches, the stabilizing plinths are in separate packages, and in a nice bag with an instruction manual, you will find four screws and two black spikes. The speakers must first be placed upside down to mount the plinths. These have been equipped with rubber feet, so the Krypton 6s are practically ready for use on hard floors. On soft carpet, it would be necessary to use the spikes, and for this, you need to take off the front feet - underneath, there are bushings in which the spikes fit perfectly. Davis Acoustics reports that screwing in the spikes should be of interest to lovers of thick carpets and users who have not mastered all the problems of listening room acoustics. The additional support at the front means that the speakers will be tilted more strongly backward, and this, according to French engineers, should help produce an even, natural sound. The nice thing about the included plinths is that they protrude backward. Even more interesting is that the bottom panels of the French floorstanders are lined with a thin foam, so none of the screwed-on components will get scratched, and besides (though I couldn't find anything about this in the manufacturer's materials), the layer of soft material may help dampen vibrations transferring from the floor to the speakers or vice versa.

At the back, we can see an aluminum plate with single gold-plated sockets embedded in clear plastic. The manufacturer didn't have to leave room for a bass-reflex or a passive radiator, so the terminals are located just above the floor. In addition to the model name and the French flag on the nameplate, we find the basic parameters of the speakers, including the information that this is a three-way design. It's interesting that the designers decided to emphasize this fact. They may have recognized that most compact floorstanders with a tweeter and two larger drivers are 2.5-way systems, so it's worth boasting something that makes the Krypton 6 unique. Downsides? Actually, I only noticed one. The stabilizing plinths should not only be deeper but also wider than the speaker cabinets. The grilles, on the other hand, are incredibly effective. They are magnetically mounted, and flat silicone bumpers are glued to the inside. The magnets are powerful, but there's no risk of scratching the surface of the cabinet. Children, dogs, cats, and other wild creatures don't stand a chance with such grilles. Good work.

Sound performance

If I had to sum up the sound of the French floorstanderss in one word, I would say it's sleek. In this one term, you can fit virtually everything that makes the sound of the Krypton 6 distinctive - the clarity of the bass, the consistency across the whole bandwidth, quickness, tangibility of the mid-high range, and even precise stereo imaging. Above all, however, what I imagined when looking at the speakers was confirmed - the combination of a compact enclosure with a three-way system, in which the woofer is completely different from the midrange driver, and is further aided by a clever ventilation port, resulted in a sound that is both deep and dynamic. Sometimes I felt like I was listening to some really good monitors assisted by a small subwoofer in a closed enclosure.

The lively character of the Krypton 6s translates not only into clarity but also gives us more options in terms of placement. Here my speculations were confirmed once again - these speakers can be put very close to the rear wall in an extreme situation, and with any luck, only the soundstage won't be as good as it could be. Low frequencies become more and more powerful, so we move the speakers further and further back, waiting for the warning signal in the form of an unpleasant booming, and here nothing, and nothing, still nothing... Eventually, we will reach this point, but don't be surprised if it happens when the rear edges of the stabilizing plinths are 10 cm from the wall. I don't want to say that the Krypton 6s are floorstanders for special tasks because every room is different, but everything went smoothly, and I think it's not a coincidence. In a smaller space, I would certainly prefer to work with such floorstanders than with large monitors with rear-mounted bass-reflex ports.

French speakers generally get along well with tube amplifiers, which was also the case here. I don't know whether this is a benefit of the high efficiency or perhaps Krypton 6s' natural tendency to reproduce sound in an energetic, clear, and direct manner. Probably both. What impressed me even more was that the designers avoided emphasizing the treble, eliminating the downside associated with some French speakers like Triangle, Cabasse, BC Acoustique, Apertura, Jean-Marie Reynaud, and, according to some audiophiles, even Focal. All these brands are known for their uncompromising approach to the reproduction of high frequencies. BC Acoustique currently makes amplifiers, so there's nothing to talk about. Jean-Marie Reynaud goes for consistency and musicality. So does Focal, although its speakers are usually presented with Naim electronics. It's not a bad combination because it's hard to take two excellent ingredients and completely botch the job, but sometimes I have a feeling that it's more a question of business than tuning, if you know what I mean. Triangle has also been turning down the treble lately, although this is more of an evolution than a revolution. Davis handled it differently. It simply never entered this risky territory, which French designers now have to struggle with. The Krypton 6s don't use a horn or a ribbon tweeter. This, in turn, makes the treble as normal as possible. Adequately clean, accurate, and resolving - yes, but unpleasant and difficult to bear in the long run - absolutely not. But during the listening test, I was more engaged by the midrange. Natural, fast, and at times a bit harsh, but extremely clear and present. I suspect, by the way, that - as with many speakers with Kevlar diaphragms - this slight roughness would be gone after a few weeks of intense warm-up.

It is generally easier for small, narrow speakers to produce a realistic, three-dimensional soundstage, and on this front, the French floorstanders once again behaved as I imagined. You don't have to work hard to make sources start to appear in places unrelated to the actual location of the speakers. If we start paying attention to details, such as screwing the included spikes into the stabilizing plinths or positioning the speakers in the room with great accuracy, the effect can be as convincing as in some of the best monitors at a similar price. The same can be said about the bass. For a floorstander of such compact size, it's, of course, very, very good, but you can still squeeze even more out of it, for example, through a skillful selection of electronics and cabling.

This was perfectly demonstrated by switching from a system working in a smaller room (Auralic Aries G1, Unison Research Triode 25, Tellurium Q Ultra Blue) to my reference set (Auralic Vega G1, Hegel H20, Cardas Clear Reflection). Here, the French speakers had to work in a much larger room, but it wasn't much of a problem, and they repaid me beautifully for connecting them to a system worth many times more than they were. Of course, this was just an experiment, but now I can share some tips with the owners of the Krypton 6s. The first - it's not worth over-saving on electronics. A streamer for €3599 and a power amplifier for €5395 is, of course, a gross exaggeration, but if you are wondering whether to bet on the Rotel A11 Tribute or rather something like the Atoll IN200 Signature - definitely the latter (I'm only talking about the quality level). The second - due to their dynamic, fast character, for the Krypton 6s, I would look for electronics with a slightly warm, deep sound. And preferably one that will not kill their soundstage. In my opinion, it should be a system that sounds pleasantly and musically but in no way sluggish or flat. It seems that this will not be an easy mission, but rest assured - just start with a good amplifier, and everything will surely start to take shape. Of reasonable suggestions, Leak Stereo 130, NuPrime IDA-8, Unison Research Unico Primo, and Musical Fidelity M2si come to mind. You could also check out a real tube, such as the Quad VA-One+. However, this is just my opinion. If you like bold, distinctive, uncompromising sound, you can combine the Krypton 6s with Lyngdorf, Naim, or Devialet. If you get it right with the room size, the effect will be hard to spoil.

Build quality and technical parameters

Davis Acoustics Krypton 6 is a three-way, free-standing loudspeaker with a front-mounted rectangular laminar bass-reflex port. The manufacturer asserts that the design is ideal for rooms of 15 to 30 m². The French claim that the front-mounted vent will allow easy positioning of the speakers without having to move them significantly away from the rear and side walls. It's worth mentioning that all the drivers are unique and have been made by Davis Acoustics. A 13-cm reinforced cellulose speaker with a large spherical dust cap handles the bass. The midrange is the domain of a driver of the same diameter, with a diaphragm made of aramid fibers and a fixed, silver phase plug in the middle. A 28mm textile dome handles the high frequencies. All units are equipped with soft foam rings, which is most noticeable in the case of the tweeter. The material was most likely glued to the baskets, so I didn't unscrew the drivers, trying to examine the internal structure through a metal nameplate with sockets. On the other side, we will find a crossover built with decent-quality components. The enclosures are made of MDF and reinforced with a couple of additional struts. Most of the available space is taken up by the woofer compartment, which is damped in the upper part with synthetic wool. The crossover frequencies are set at 400 and 4000 Hz. The manufacturer's stated frequency response starts at 45 Hz and ends at 24 kHz. As befits the brand's loudspeakers, the Krypton 6s are characterized by relatively high efficiency (91 dB).

System configuration

Audiovector QR5, Equilibrium Nano, Unison Research Triode 25, Hegel H20, Auralic Aries G1, Auralic Vega G1, Marantz HD-DAC1, Clearaudio Concept, Cambridge Audio CP2, Cardas Clear Reflection, Tellurium Q Ultra Blue II, Albedo Geo, KBL Sound Red Corona, Enerr One 6S DCB, Enerr Tablette 6S, Enerr Transcenda Ultimate, Fidata HFU2, Melodika Purple Rain, Sennheiser HD 600, Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO, Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO, Meze 99 Classics, Bowers & Wilkins PX5, Pro-Ject Wallmount It 1, Custom Design RS 202, Silent Angel N8, Vicoustic VicWallpaper VMT, Vicoustic ViCloud VMT.

Verdict

I can't help but think that the Krypton 6 is the product that many, many music lovers need right now. These are speakers that have been built with a specific purpose from the very beginning. They are elegant, thoughtful, and cleverly designed. They are tailored for a typical listening room, but they offer really great sound thanks to their original drivers. You don't need to move them a meter and a half away from the walls, still enjoying great soundstage and well-extended bandwidth. Even the price is right on target, in my opinion. I know that some of you would probably be even happier if they were even less expensive, but I'm convinced that then the Krypton 6s just wouldn't be so lovely on many levels, and the French flag placed on the aluminum panel with sockets would have to be accompanied by the inscription "Fabriqué en Chine". €1499 is not a lot for speakers as nice as these turned out to be. And anyway, I feel that we will soon miss such prices very, very much. Let's hope I'm wrong.

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The grilles are magnetically mounted, and thanks to soft pads, they don't scratch the speakers.

1 / 10

Technical data

Speakers type: Floorstanding, dynamic, ported
Sensitivity: 91 dB
Impedance: 4-8 Ω
Frequency response: 45 Hz - 24 kHz
Crossover frequencies: 400 Hz, 4 kHz
Dimensions (H/W/D): 89/16/26 cm
Weight: 16 kg/piece
Price: €1499
Manufacturer: Davis Acoustics

Sound performance

Editor's rating

8.4Overall8Sound8Functionality9Design9Quality8Price