Care Orchestra Divina Minor
Care Orchestra Divina Minor
Let's start for once with the price of the object we are reviewing: 6.600 euros. These two loudspeakers are smaller than a shoebox and this price might seem excessive for them. As I received these Care Orchestra I had the temptation to send them back without listening to them carefully even though I had found their sound very interesting at a first listening. I was curious and so I searched the net and found out that their components, crossover and cabinet have features that somehow justify the high price. I don't want to delve into details, each one of you can, with the information we'll give you, draw his conclusions. This is not the classical product that is made for the hi-fi sector but it has an inclination towards lifestyle and interior design. It appeals to a sophisticated audience that looks for products that are refined and Italian made and that sometimes are even custom made products. This is an organization that can please every customer request and high prices are due to this kind of production and can't be compared with mass production.
All this recalls to mind those cabinet makers of the Rolls Royce that can make an instrument board with the wood of your favorite tree or use your favorite leather for the interior of your car. These are details that may not be important for many, but are very important for the British car Company customers. For years we've been preaching that hi-fi components should cross the narrow limits of the audiophile world and now, at last, someone's trying to produce something with fine leather finish, precious lacquering and even golden leaves. Check their web site – www.careorchestra.com. There you'll find a tool to design your own loudspeaker. 
Care Orchestra Divina Minor
Care orchestra produces three different models: Divina Supreme line, Divina Minor line and Celestial Deep Breath line. In Audio-Activity we deal with audio so we will review this product with the usual parameters. These small 8 kilos cabinet have a lopsided aspect so the tweeter remains on the right side of the loudspeakers no matter how you position it. The round of the panel, on one side, seems lopsided. I must say that it took me a while to get used to it. The manufactures say that this shape is made on purpose and has an impact on the sound. We cannot prove it wrong so we assume it is true. The speakers used are very good: the woofer is a 120 mm Seas Excel with processed paper cone and the tweeter is a soft dome Scan Speak Illuminator with a neodymium magnet. We have two ways in bass reflex, with a back reflex port, whose declared frequency response is 66-40000 Hz at +/- 3dB. Sensitivity is low: 85.5 dB. The crossover is made with audiophile grade components, it's a second order design and cuts the two loudspeakers at 2100 Hz. Binding posts on the back are beautiful and accept banana plugs or bare cables up to 8 mm diameter. The cover of the woofer is made with sound transparent grilles with a round frame. This frame is covered with high quality leather and has a magnetic fixing. Magnets are positioned under the front panel of the loudspeaker and are thus invisible. The grilles does not modify too much the sound but I preferred to remove them during my most careful listenings. Care Orchestra provides for the stands upon request. If you already have your own stands please keep in mind that they should be at least 70/80 cm tall -depending on your seat- so that the tweeters are at ear height and the sound results correct. Care Orchestra have been listened in the following system: Turntable Basis 2001, Graham 2.2 tonearm, Scan Tech Lyra Helicon cartridge, phono cable: LAT International XLR, phono preamplifier: balanced Einstein "The Turntable's Choice", cable between the pre phono and pre amp: Transparent Super XLR, CD/SACD player dCS Puccini+U-Clock Puccini, loudspeaker JBL 4350B, loudspeaker cables: MIT Magnum MA, power cables: MIT Shotgun AC1, Black Noise Pearl and others hand made, net filter: Black noise 2500.
Care Orchestra Divina Minor
These loudspeakers have remained connected to my system for a long time, and this is positive of course because when something does not work and does not sound right what we feel like doing is to put it back into its packaging and send it back to the manufacturer. I listened to them with CD's and vinyl records but I listened also to the audio of movies on TV, to DVD's and also musical DVD's. And it's exactly about one of these DVD's that I want to talk about. It's the "Vespro della Beata Vergine" directed by Gardiner (Archiv). We already wrote about the CD but never about the DVD. The recording is the same but the DVD has a better resolution (48 KHz), an incredible video that goes along with music - shot in Saint Mark's Church in Venice - and the authoritative introduction made by Gardiner that tells us about the birth of this opera and about Monteverdi and his life. It's a purchase that I suggest beyond any doubt. These small Divina performed well and kept up with my usual loudspeakers. I made few measurements with the SPL meter since I heard straight away that the low range was very interesting if compared with the volume of the loudspeakers: 4 lt.
In my room, that somehow hides the low range especially between 40 and 60 Hz, I measured a small decrease around 80 Hz. I already said that I found the sound more defined without the front grilles that I removed for the critical listenings. The CD by Paolo Conte "Aguaplano" (CGD) lets you understand from the very first bars the character of these "small things". Sensitivity is probably close to that declared so the volume must be pumped up a bit to give the right pressure to the sound. The 2 small woofers, on their side, seem not to color the sound with the famous bump at 120/150 Hz. The double bass is in line and well proportioned, it maintains a good sound up to mid volumes before it gives up to the excessive range caused by the excessive need of sound pressure. The voice of the songwriter comes out well and it does not reproduce an unsuitable medium low range unlike many small loudspeakers that pretend to be bigger, but they don't have the characteristics for being big for real. These small Seas speakers amaze for their ability to produce unsuspected low frequencies and for the transparence and definition of their sound in difficult conditions. I take a break, put down my writing pad and enjoy the record until the end. The more I listen, the more I realize how fine the voice of Paolo Conte comes through these loudspeakers. I say it as an aficionado of Paolo Conte's concerts ... The singer suddenly materializes in between the notes of his piano, with the magic effect to enchant the listener. Let's talk about another voice, that of Monserrat Figueras in "Entremeses del Siglo de Oro" (SACD Alia Vox) that gets to your ears very gently and with a peculiar density so I notice nasal sounds that I have never heard before. The instruments sound with a penchant to clear sound and the final effect is very pleasant, just like a clear day after a foggy morning. Percussions are very plausible and well placed behind the singer. The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky directed by Gergiev (CD Philips) is reproduced by these two small loudspeakers very realistically and the big orchestra is very present in the listening room. If I compare all this with my big reference loudspeakers, everything sounds in a reduced scale and the soundstage is smaller but listening satisfaction is guaranteed. The instruments timbre is intact and here we notice once again the very good quality of the components used. The sound is bright, tones are a little bit high but credible and never tiring. "The Trio in Tokyo" ( Petrucciani - Gadd - Jackson, Dreyfuss Jazz) is very pleasant and touches the heart. The artistic value of this CD is beyond doubt and the reproduction of the double bass is deep and precise. Is the first octave missing? You hardly notice it. The linearity of the entire low range reproduction is really appreciable and this contributes to the sound credibility. At listening volumes as high as 70 or 80 dBs with peaks of 90 -measured in the listening point at 2.5 meters-, if there is any distortion coming from the small woofers it is hardly heard. Petrucciani's piano is excellent, Gadd's drums are full of color (and I say it with a positive implication). From the latter we won't have the same impact of the live instrument but timbre correctness and the enjoyment of the sound of the American drummer are guaranteed. The high range is soft and pleasant and has no rough edges. I'd rather say it is a bit rearward at times at advantage of the medium range that has a superior level that I hear straight away by listening to "The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen (Columbia). Here the story makes a loop and we talk once again about the price. Do these Care Orchestra have competitors on the market? Yes they do. There are mini loudspeakers, big bookshelves, tower loudspeakers, 2,3,4 ways models, nice models, bad models, made in the U.S.A, Europe or made in the Far East. The sound is really great even if its low range is not complete and has a limited dynamic performance. To buy these loudspeakers we have to find reasons that go beyond sheer audiophile rules. This is something that each one has to find out for himself. We are lucky that we can choose freely with no constraints. My sincere compliments go to care Orchestra and to the designer's ear and are independent from the retail price. Angelo Jasparro Translation: Francesca Rubino Manufactured by: Care Orchestra
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