ScanSpeak Discovery-4, built by Ivan

Copyright 2020 © Troels Gravesen

Hi Troels, I have a quick piece for the builder section of your website.
 
I want to share my experience with the discovery 4 "lockdown edition".
 
I decided to build this particular speaker as I was intrigued by the reflex/closed box concept and the perceived high quality/cost ratio.
 
The speakers took around 2 months to build mainly at evenings and weekends. They are not easy cabinets to build but at the same time I feel that they are not the most challenging either, I have only used DIY grade tools. During this process, your help and consultation has been very valuable.
 
I had the speakers professionally painted in anthracite grey (automotive paint) just because the majority of the speakers I own are black so I was ready for a "slight" change..
 
Set-up wise I have been recently confined to a small, square room due to family related reasons. I was somewhat worried. Alter all as someone once said... the elephant in the room...is the room.
 
Following positioning and a much needed initial burn-in of around 50 hours I started listening to a few of my favourite tracks. The sound was very good (this calmed down my initial fears regarding the room by the way). The sound analyser confirmed no big problem areas, aside from a very small cancellation dip @ around 60hz; can't win them all I guess! Still some reverberation to be addressed with some room treatment but overall I am very impressed.
 
As you mentioned several times it is difficult to describe sound and there is a great deal of subjectivity involved. 
 
What I can tell confidently is that they sound well and they are very engaging and dynamic speakers but at the same time refined and revealing. Stereo imaging is also exceptionally good.
 
I also built a pair of Ektagrande (over 11 years ago) and the sound signature of those speakers is very different. The Ektagrande in my view are very sweet and sometimes a little too smooth or polite. In my opinion the DISC-4 have a more realistic, convincing and dynamic sound. The midrange of the DISC-4 surprised me, who would have thought that an 18 cm mid-woofer would have sounded so revealing and fast. As you mentioned the mid/tweeter integration is very good, later on I plan to upgrade at least some midrange capacitance to super caps. 
 
These speakers provided the closest that I have ever been to listening to a live performance. In fact, when listening to the "poem on chinese drum" (Hok-man Yim) I genuinely thought that the drums were in front of me!
 
I have found that the speakers respond very well to valve pre-amplification and/or class A/B amplification however lately I prefer to connect my custom made x86 streamer to the RME DAC/preamp and then directly to my class D final amplifier ( ICE based amplifier) as I feel that this combination gives me a very neutral and dynamic sound signature that allows me to hear the recordings for what they are, we are however now discussing preferences.
 
The bass is powerful but well controlled and not boomy. Mind that I paid careful attention to positioning and left over a meter from the back wall to the front baffle.
 
I have attached a few pictures of the finished speakers omitting the build ones as they look pretty much the same as in your build post, just a messier workshop (by the way I am not sure how you manage to keep your workshop so spotless!). Note that the pictures were taken on a smartphone with limited lighting and unfortunately do not make full justice to the final speaker and level of finish.
 
Thanks once again for this amazing speaker design :) I am a happy customer.