Stenheim Alumine Two 2-way Bookshelf Speaker (pair) - Special Edition

Stenheim Alumine Two 2-way Bookshelf Speaker (pair) - Special EditionALUMINE TWO The Alumine Two where it all started for Stenheim. Your first listen will tell you that the Alumine Two is no ordinary compact, two way loudspeaker but your first glance wont reveal why that is. You need to look a lot deeper the same way Stenheim looked at loudspeaker design. Outwardly simple, even plain, there is much more to the Alumine Two than meets the eye. This speaker is an impressively musical product but it is also proof of

ALUMINE TWO

The Alumine Two – where it all started for Stenheim.

Your first listen will tell you that the Alumine Two is no ordinary compact, two-way loudspeaker – but your first glance won’t reveal why that is. You need to look a lot deeper – the same way Stenheim looked at loudspeaker design.

Outwardly simple, even plain, there is much more to the Alumine Two than meets the eye. This speaker is an impressively musical product – but it is also proof of concept. At Stenheim, we started out by questioning the fundamental thinking, technological choices, and materials behind conventional designs. That led us to some surprising conclusions – answers that contradicted conventional thinking and fashionable theory: Solutions that discarded the measured benefits of high-tech cone materials in favour of the musical advantages of more traditional approaches: That mandated low-loss, phase-coherent crossovers with sophisticated out-of-band roll-offs: That selected the low-storage signature of a critically damped aluminium cabinet using innovative, low-volume damping materials. And behind each decision? The drive to maintain the life and energy in the music, the essence of the original performance.

That’s all very well in theory, but we had to demonstrate it in practice. So was born the Alumine Two, a little speaker that sounds much bigger than it looks. A speaker that, despite its compact dimensions embodies all our fundamental design principles:

• A larger than expected bass-mid driver with a sophisticated, treated paper cone.

• A fabric dome tweeter, carefully horn loaded for increased efficiency.

• A high order, phase-coherent crossover to preserve the fragile but all-important temporal and spatial information in the stereo signal.

• A thin-wall aluminium cabinet built with hidden fixings and golden ratio dimensions.

• Low-volume damping materials to kill cabinet resonance and internal standing waves without killing musical dynamics.

The results exceeded our wildest expectations and continue to shock and beguile listeners to this day. The thin-wall cabinet with its inherently low resonant signature maximises the internal volume. In terms of the enclosed air, the Alumine Two is literally bigger than it seems – at least compared to thick-wall, wooden cabinets. Add to that the classical combination of a reflex-loaded, 6.5” bass-mid and 1” soft-dome tweeter and you have a system that is both more efficient and wider bandwidth than you expect. Further extend the system sensitivity with subtle horn loading and a low-loss crossover and the loudspeaker becomes more responsive to input, not just translating more of the signal into musical energy, but giving the amplifier an easier job too, removing another potential bottleneck in the signal path.

The Alumine Two will bring your recordings to life, allowing the music and the musicians to breathe. It matches the expressive and dynamic demands of their performance, its scale, presence and intimacy. It offers all the advantages of a small speaker, combined with many of the benefits that come from a larger cabinet. Its rigid, critically-damped enclosure is inherently low colouration. Its overall efficiency makes the most of the incoming signal, preserving its energy and drama. Its combination of traditional but highly developed drivers with an exactingly executed cabinet constructed using the latest technology and materials strikes the perfect musical balance.

With its classical proportions and tough yet flawless finish, the Alumine Two blends seamlessly with both traditional and modern surroundings. Expressive, engaging, bold, delicate, dramatic and astonishingly versatile, it will breathe life into your recordings and music into your home.

Special edition

In building the Alumine Two we were aware that despite its astonishing sense of musical presence and scale, it was still a small speaker. Compared to a simple wooden box the same size, the Two might look expensive and many customers still shop with their eyes. Despite its astonishing performance, it was important to make the product as affordable as possible, carefully selecting components and honing costs at every turn.

 But what about those customers who shop with their ears? Those customers who recognise the special qualities inherent in the design and want to take those performance advantages as far as possible?

 For them, we offer the Alumine Two SE. For this model we use the same cabinet and drivers but paired with a cost-no-object crossover, upgraded (or custom) internal wiring and upgraded binding posts. The Alumine Two is a passive loudspeaker design and passive crossovers are referred to as “subtractive” for a reason. We have developed the lightest-touch, lowest loss crossover topology possible, but even so, improving the components has a profound affect on performance. Exhaustive listening tests have led us to develop our own internal wiring and select the very best parts from Mundorf and Jansen, Duelund, Myflex and Jupiter – a Who’s Who of boutique audiophile brands. The result is even greater transparency and dimensionality, even more natural separation and perspectives, micro-dynamic and harmonic resolution, a greater range of tonal colour. The result is, more music, more musician and less speaker, creating what we firmly believe to be the most musically convincing compact speaker available.

Options

Two stands are available as extras for the Alumine Two.

The Premium stand features an aluminum square-section central tube. The Basic model replaces this with a steel, round-section tube.

Press reviews

Tone Audio magazine : The Stenheim Alumine 2 Speakers

“The all-aluminum enclosure is beautiful to behold, and the level of execution is terrific. If the concept, and all the benefits that come with a high-performance two-way monitor appeal to you, Stenheim’s Alumine 2 speakers are fantastic. They offer excellent sound, meticulous execution, and a density of thought approached by very few similarly priced speakers. Highly recommended."

Tone Audio Magazine, Jeff Dorgay, July 2021

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Part time audiophile : editors choice

“In my return to the exciting world of the two-way monitor, I found that the Stenheim Alumine 2s set the bar preternaturally high. I’ve listened to a lot of speakers over the last couple of years that I could buy and enjoy for the rest of my life. But the Stenheims go deeper than that. Not only do they provide sublime sound, but they resonate with my life as an audiophile. They capture all of the qualities I’ve pursued over the last 40 years, and I highly recommend them.”

Part time audiophile, Marc Phillips, July 2020

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The audiobeat 2017 : First Sounds: Stenheim Alumine Two

" If you need a compact speaker that allows your music to breathe, that’s big on expression, big on intimacy and communication but isn’t phased by big or loud, then the Alumine 2 could be just what you’re looking for. Other brands might make more noise about (and with) their aluminium boxes, but for me, right now it’s the Stenheims that are the ones delivering the musical goods. "

The Audio Beat, Roy Gregory, March 2017

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Technical Specifications

• Passive 2 ways with front Bass Reflex Design 10 to 15 mm thick all aluminium construction

• Frequency response : 45Hz – 30kHz

• Power handling : 100W IEC, 200 W (peak)

• Recommended amplifier from 10W to 200W

• Sensivity : 93 dB SPL/2.83V/1m (measured in a semi-reverberant room)

• SPL max : 109 dB

• Nominal impedance : 8 Ohms

• Dimensions : H 330mm x W 230mm x D 275mm

  ( H 13in x W 9in x D 11in)

• Weight : 17 Kg each

• Woofer: One 16.51 cm (6.5in) High-strength cellulose fiber cone impregnated and coated on both sides with damped resins

• Tweeter : One 2.54cm (1in) Fabric dome, loaded by a small horn machined in the 15 mm aluminium front plate

• Air core inductors, Polypropylene capacitors, Metal film resistors

• Special finitions on demand : Light shiny Grey, Dark shiny grey, Full Black, Wood veneer or Leather veneer

• Special Edition SE with ultimate components (crossover, internal wiring and connectors)

• Warranty : 5 years