It's been a few months since I simply wanted to build my girlfriend a pair of loudspeakers - and make a good impression at the same time. Of course you have to say quite clearly - men are demanding when it comes to loudspeakers, but girls first ... Everything has to fit right, otherwise you'll get the speakers back very quickly on the grounds that there's simply no room in the room for them.

So I thought carefully: What do I need for such a loudspeaker? A pretty, compact design, a small bass-midrange driver that really plays bass in a manageable volume, and a tweeter that plays fine and silky.

A compact design dispenses with a lot of volume, a discreet appearance dispenses with a large number of loudspeaker chassis. This quickly results in a two-way loudspeaker in a bass reflex cabinet, whereby the bass reflex port must point to the rear for optical reasons alone. The bass reflex port to the rear is particularly advantageous for the low bass yield in rooms that are not so large when set up close to a wall (the bass level is slightly raised by the additional reflection from the wall). As driver I used the Satori 13 cm bass-midrange driver. A driver that stands out due to its unbelievable level stability and at the same time its lively and low-distortion playing style. It plays high room volume without ifs and buts and of course without hardness. The bass performance is more than remarkable in relation to the diaphragm size. A further quality is the playing ability in the midrange, where it can play more detailed and authentic than many larger 16 cm woofers (as they are abundantly represented on the market) and is therefore the ideal playing partner for this small project. Only a very powerful tweeter, which continues the qualities of this small driver in the tweeter range, fits to this. In my opinion, the ring dome with neodymium drive, which I used in silver, is perfectly suited for this, so that the optical proportions of the two drivers harmonize a little better."

So this was the sensible model for the Petit. The Petit was ultimately created at the customer's request, a miniature version within the Satorique line with a maximum of playing ability in the design of the large Satorique speakers. The Petit has become a fine spirit, indeed in the bass with the smallest driver of the Satorique series, but not everyone hears Rammstein on such a loudspeaker at full volume. Well, that wouldn't be the target group either. But otherwise the little one plays almost everything at a high room volume. In large rooms the bass gets a bit slimmer, but in rooms of 15 to 20 m2 there is definitely nothing missing.

The technology for the Petit hasn't changed since the loudspeaker for the aforementioned girlfriend. The crossover is a super flat filtered first order, which lets the bass-midrange driver play almost like a full range driver. In tweeter, the Ringdom plays in phase so that the loudspeaker has an unbelievable homogeneity in the sound image and an uncanny precision. Depending on the room and the setup, the speaker can provide an impressive acoustic stage, as we rightly expect from our Satorique series.

With this particularly small loudspeaker, the cabinet must be designed with precision and good sound insulation, as there is a hell of a noise level inside the small volume. Therefore, the entire cabinet was lined with Bitumex on the inside.

Actually one can say that the Petit is an almost cute little loudspeaker with a rather simple crossover, but when it goes off, one or the other listener looks for the subwoofer or possibly also playing floorstanding speakers.

The loudspeaker has what it takes to become a favourite loudspeaker for every friend, whose acoustic and visual beauty many listeners have already come to appreciate. In this sense, the power dwarf living inside the compact exterior provides a not to be despised quality that qualifies the Petit as an all-round loudspeaker.

A side remark is allowed to me: If people only knew what something comparable would cost outside, perhaps many more people would build such a small "harmless" loudspeaker. Think of your part ... Everything has been said about the sound, just a tip: "Laurent Aknin - Le choix du Coeur - L'Etudiante et Monsieur Henri".

This is a film and not a piece of music. I had watched it in the evening and found it great, especially as far as the music was concerned. When I searched for the music on the net the next day and then heard it with the Petit, it was clear to me that I had to watch the film again: There was still some information that I hadn't noticed at the first listening and looking, because actually the music makes the picture or the mood here. I'm still looking for the subwoofer today: how little you can cope with is amazing!

Housing as small 6 litre shelf version:

For all who have the tools and the desire to work with wood, here is the technical drawing. Combine MDF with birch or veneer yourself. The all-in-one package with mitre cuts, dowels or a 3D baffle makes building easier in just a few steps and forms the basis for a professional result in loudspeaker construction. A 3D baffle can also be ordered individually, please contact us at noetzel at intertechnik de.

So I say thank you to the team for once again a great speaker. This whets my appetite for more and more and develops into an addiction that started with the Satorique line and is now called Petit. I hope you find a great place for the little one, she deserves it.

Marcus Nötzel and the Intertechnik Team