CASTLE Windsor Earl Manuale utente
Windsor Earl
Windsor Duke
User Manual
WARRANTY
YEAR
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Est. 1973
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Important Safety Information
Read these instructions. Keep these instructions. Heed all warnings.
Follow all instructions.
Before making any connections, switch all the units in your system off
at the mains.
Set the volume control at a minimum when you switch on your
system or change sources and turn the level up gradually.
DO NOT use your amplifier at full volume.
Ensure that all loudspeakers in the system are correctly wired.
DO NOT subject your loudspeakers to excessive cold, heat. humidity
or sunlight.
Loudspeakers should not be placed directly facing other hi-fi units, or
share the same shelf or cabinet.
DO NOT place heavy objects on top of loudspeakers.
DO NOT connect speaker terminals to the mains supply.
DO NOT dismantle the loudspeaker. There are no user-serviceable
parts inside it and you will void the warranty by doing so.
Refer all servicing to qualified service personnel. Servicing is required
when the apparatus has been damaged in any way, the apparatus has
been exposed to rain or moisture, does not operate normally, or has
been dropped.
Caution: Changes or modifications not expressly approved by the
manufacturer could void the user's authority to operate this device.
Before installing this product read all these instructions!
This symbol indicates that there are important operating
and maintenance instructions in the literature
accompanying this unit.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Designer’s Notes
Loudspeaker Installation
Warranty Coverage
Technical Data
04
05
12
14
18
A Fortified Structure that is Beholding to the Eye and Ear
Advanced loudspeaker design has a long tradition, in Great Britain, and Castle has always been one of the leading brands
when it comes to working in the tradition of classic designs and concepts, while at the same time,
using the most advanced technologies to raise the bar of performance excellence.
Castle has been a loudspeaker manufacturer in the truest possible sense, since 1973. Taking its name and logo
from the 11th century Skipton Castle; Castle was founded in Yorkshire, UK – a rare manufacturer not only making the drive units
and electronic components, but also the beautifully hand-crafted cabinets with real wood veneers,
that were used to enclose the componentry.
From the beginning, the co-founders of Castle Acoustics, John Collinson (formerly at QUAD) and William Escott (ex-Wharfedale),
determined to adhere to the traditions of craftsmanship and skilled engineering which they saw as being in decline elsewhere.
A spin-off from Wharfedale, one of the world’s most famous audio brands, Castle began with a real hi-fi pedigree,
which is a tradition that remains to this day.
Castle are proud to announce the Windsor series, signalling the return to the UK for the manufacturing of Castle loudspeakers.
Castle Windsor series comes, with craftsmanship and quality that is self-evident and marks the brand’s intention
to restore and build upon the reputation of the brand for superlative quality loudspeakers.
The epitome of engineering; nothing sits as proud as a Castle.
04
Introduction
Designer’s Notes
05
The Road to Excellence
The Castle Windsor series was designed by the world-famous Fink Team - headed up by Karl-Heinz Fink, one of the finest loudspeaker
engineers on the planet.
A long-time Castle fan, Karl-Heinz Fink and the Fink Team collaborated with
the Castle engineers to create a loudspeaker series that embodies the
philosophes of the Castle Acoustics brand pedigree; a magnificent
loudspeaker with hallmarks of craftsmanship and quality.
The flagship Windsor series comes with craftsmanship and quality that is
self-evident, clearly marking the intention to restore and build upon the
brand’s reputation for a superlative quality loudspeaker.
Three elements need to be optimised in a loudspeaker design to give the
highest level of performance. Of course, a good loudspeaker needs good drive
units. In the case of the Windsor Duke and Windsor Earl, an 8" woofer and
6.5" woofer were developed together with a 28mm textile dome tweeter to
perform in two classic bookshelf/monitor style cabinets.
KARL-HEINZ FINK
AUDIO-CONSULTING
FINK
06
Designer’s Notes
ABOVE: Woofer cone pattern 3000Hz ABOVE: Woofer cone pattern 600Hz
Let’s get started with the cone: It’s the part that defines the sound
of the drive unit and gives the overall design a fingerprint; the
critical component in the overall sound signature of any
loudspeaker.
In this case, the woofer is designed around a Polypropylene based
material. However, instead of being produced by simply forming a
foil under a vacuum, the Polypropylene is precision cut into thin
strips, woven back into a sort of fabric and bonded together again
to form a solid foil. This foil now gets pressed into the final shape
and then cut to size.
So, why this complicated process?
The reason is to create a material with different properties of rigidity,
in different directions between the voice coil and the surround.
A woven structure will always have a varied stiffness, in the direction
of the fibres and a cone. This helps to minimise resonances - the result
of which is a much-desired, flatter response curve.
Designer’s Notes
Sub-magnet
T-yoke
Main Magnet
Aluminium
Demodulation Ring
Top Plate
Mounting Ring
Heavy Die-cast Chassis
Copper Covered
Glass Fibre Voice Coil
Flexible Progressive Spider
New Geometry
Woven Polypropylene Cone
Dust Cap
Low Damping
Rubber Surround
ABOVE: Exploded technical diagram of the Windsor series woofer
07
A Royal Weave
The magnet system in the Castle Windsor series includes an
aluminium compensation ring. This ring helps minimise the variation
of the impedance during the operation of the drive unit. As a result,
the harmonic and intermodulation distortion values are reduced, for
improved openness of the midrange performance.
The surround of the Windsor series drivers is made from low
hysteresis rubber, for excellent, long-life stability. The voice coils are
made out of glass fibre, bonded with high-temperature resin. The
stiffness and overall rigidity of this material is are very close to that of
aluminum. However, this glass fibre material doesn’t generate
Eddy Current like aluminium will. Thus, it maintains the purity of
signal, by its very design.
Designer’s Notes
Windsor Highs
The tweeter follows the classical formula of a high-consistency
exposed polyester dome, with a pressure equalised Ferrite magnet
system and a stable metal front plate. No Ferrofluid is used in the
tweeter to guarantee the highest possible dynamic range. This also
keeps the resonant frequency below 800Hz, for optimum
performance.
The voice coil has a diameter of 28mm and is equipped with a copper
cap on the pole piece of the magnet. This reduces distortion,
intermodulation and it also lifts the level of very high frequencies for a
very tangible increase in the level of detail in the treble performance.
Sub-magnet T-yoke Main Magnet
Foam Support
Copper Covered
Glass Fibre Voice Coil
High-consistency
Exposed Polyester Dome
Low Damping
Rubber Surround
Front Panel
ABOVE: Exploded technical diagram of the Windsor series tweeter
08
Designer’s Notes
Built like a Castle
Such is the progress in driver development in recent times, it is
relatively easy to design really good drive units with a solid
performance. But the process of a matching cabinet design for the
said driver is a lot more complicated.
The most important research for low colouration cabinets was made
by the BBC, for their classic monitors. Cabinets are still
manufactured under these findings, to this very day.
After many hours of analysis, development and consideration of
these principles, a new methodology was chosen for the optimisation
of the Castle Windsor series cabinets.
The main cabinet structure uses dual-layer MDF panels separated by
a flexible, but thin layer of a specially engineered, acoustic glue.
This glue is purpose developed to dampen resonance in the critical
midrange of the dual-layer panels.
To achieve the optimum rigidity at lower frequencies, point-to-point
bracing was used. This joins two opposite panels without feeding the
problem of resonance and noise into other parts of the cabinet.
The result is a quiet cabinet without prominent peaks and controlled
output, simple in theory but intricate in design and engineering.
A trait of the Castle brand philosophy.
ABOVE: Laser vibrometre
measurement of a cabinet at
400Hz before optimisation
ABOVE: Laser vibrometre
measurement of a cabinet at around
730Hz/630Hz before optimisation
ABOVE: Laser vibrometre measurement
of a cabinet at around 730Hz/630Hz
after optimisation
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ABOVE: Laser vibrometre measurement
of a cabinet at 400Hz after optimisation
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09
Designer’s Notes
The Final Crossover
Following driver design and cabinet engineering, the crossover is the
third, final, but no lesser stage of speaker design.
The basic topology of both models is a 4th order LKR (Linkwitz-Riley)
crossover that allows the best integration of the purpose-designed drive
units.
The aim was to get a flat response with an easy load for amplifiers and
a low distortion measurement.
Therefore, all critical inductors within the crossover design are ‘air core’
inductors. This means that there are no metal cores present in the circuit
and therefore prevents hysteresis or distortion through the network.
The main inductor resistance is compensated in the woofer magnet
system, and so, there is no disadvantage from the slightly higher
resistance of this air coil.
The result is a speaker series that embodies everything that Castle
stands for – a fortified structure that is beholding to the eye and ear.
ABOVE: Graph indicates the measurement of the harmonic
distortion, before and after optimisation for Windsor Earl
ABOVE: Graph indicates the measurement of the
impedance for the Windsor Earl
ABOVE: Graph indicates the measurement of the
Sound Pressure Level (SPL) for Windsor Earl
100
90
80
70
60
40
50
20 50 100 200 500 1K 2K 5K 10K 20K
Frequency (Hz)
EARL spl 2. 83V
(dB) Level, Sound pressure
Frequency (Hz)
35
30
25
20
15
10
10 20 50 100 200 500 1K 2K 5K 10K 20K
5
EARL imp
(ohm) Amplitude, Impedance
EARL HD 2. 83V
(W) Power
2
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
1
100 200 500 1K 2K 5K 10K 20K
Frequency (Hz)
10
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