First Look: The Shakuto Audio A811b-12 speakers
If you’ve ever been horn curious but budget conscious – consider a pair of Shatuto Audio A811b-12s.
While I heard some good sound at this year’s T.H.E. Show, I personally love high-sensitivity horn speakers, because a 97db/1-watt speaker makes it so easy to get into the audio game. You can build a decent 2A3 or 300B amp from scratch. Rebuild a Dynaco Stereo 70. It’s tough to find a bad sounding SET. Or, you can grab a low powered Japanese receiver, or maybe even a Naim Nait 50 if you can find one around anywhere. (We’ll be following up on all of that soon.)
The Shakuto A811b-12s really turned my head around, from the minute I walked in their room.
These compact, 12” 2-way speakers, featuring a port loaded 12” woofer and a compression tweeter mounted to a genuine vintage Altec Lansing 811B horn. Shakuto uses Danish Audience SB drivers here. Even out in my garage with a vintage Luxman integrated from the 90s, the sound is glorious. They clean up the vintage horns and have them powder coated to look better than new. Sexy.
Build quality is phenomenal – these speakers are beautiful to behold. Even out of the crate (very well packaged btw) the sound is room filling and luscious. Spoiler alert – I’m keeping the review pair, so that should tell you something. Moving into my studio with the Shakutos about 12 feet apart, slightly angled in, powered by the Canor Virtus I2 integrated is where serious listening begins. What makes this amplifier such a perfect match for the Shakutos is its ability to be used in triode mode, delivering 20 watts per channel through it’s KT88 tubes.
The sound is smooth, big, and glorious. Bass extension is excellent, and the compression driver Shakuto uses is silky smooth. Spinning a few jazz favorites, makes me feel like I’m in a listening bar in Tokyo!
We have a lot more to investigate. A wider range of musical styles, different amplifiers, and different cables. A full review is underway, but I’m so excited about these (and I’ve had a number of readers messaging me already) I wanted to put some initial thoughts out immediately. At $7,900 a pair, they are an exceptional value, but at the introductory price of $5,900 a pair, they are the best high sensitivity speaker bargain going. If you’ve got a low powered tube amp, want to build one, or have a First Watt amp (yeah – they work GREAT with First Watt) but haven’t found the nirvana speaker, the Shakuto A811b-12 is my suggestion.
We’ll have a lot more info for you in a couple weeks, and you can expect to see these pop up in a number of low powered amplifier reviews going forward, as these are now my reference.
The A811-b12
Intro price: $5,900/pair
shakutoaudio.com