Alpine SPR-69C

This speaker looks a Plain Jane next to some we had in yet is quietly better engineered than many of the others. For one, it has seriously big passive components in what must be a 12dB per Octave passive array, which means that the Ferrite core inductor will be less likely to saturate and sound compressed. You can see the labels on these components. The capacitor is from the famous audio brand, Bennic (a 3.9µF) one) and the coil is labelled 0.3mH. The steel and plastic frame grilles have mesh panels over only the central part of the main woofer cone and these have a peek a boo hole like a rude bra to allow the tweeters to show through. When you fit the grilles with the DLS 269s we also tried, you have two layers of metal mesh over their tweeters as they have small protective grilles of their own like the Alpines. However, allowing them to peek through the main covering has to be better as it avoids an extra layer of occlusion over the bit that we are most sensitive to. The fancy grilles do of course add some cost versus a simple pressed mesh type, though.
The woofer magnet is described as Strontium job. This is one of the so-called Rare Earth elements, that when blended with Ferrite, makes the magnet much stronger. Neodymium is king and even speaker grilles on HiFi are increasingly held in place with snide hidden tiny magnets these days but it is far too costly for woofer magnets. Alnico is even pricier but I have heard of Samarium-Cobalt for headphones use and here, Strontium for woofers. It all adds up to more ‘shove’ on the cone or more of what a speaker is made to do.
The tweeter is a slightly exotic variety for this the ‘Type R’ range of Alpine speakers, or the posh ones. It has a rear resonance absorbing chamber. The cone angle does not look steep nor the magnet particularly major but it proved to be well made as you will see.
– Heavy gauge pressed Steel chassis
– Varnished multi layer bass cone with edge wound square wire voice coil and Strontium magnet
– Swivel tweeter with resonance absorber and copper clad Aluminium coil with shorting cap
– Power handling 100w RMS, 300w peak
– Sensitivity 87dB (2.83V, 1m)
– Frequency Response: 65Hz to 27kHz
– Impedance 4 Ohms
– Mounting depth 64mm
– Lug connection terminals for spade-end speaker connectors
– Fixings included
– Steel mesh and plastic frame injection moulded grilles
Review by Adam Rayner
The SPR-69C looked a tad under engineered but it was like an early pressed steel JL Audio woofer. Looks boring engineering-wise but it has sexy insides you can�t see that make it perform with great wonderfulness! The clues are there. The costly passive components are literally twice the physical size of those used in say, the Vibe QB69 off board passives and like willies, boys like to own bigger ones. The sound has an effortlessly open feel to it that is largely down to the lack of any saturation in the components. You can hear these lovely fat sausages and Ferrite cored inductors!
The other bit of course is the cone design and coil. The woofer cone looks fairly shallow angled and not too robust, as if it mightn�t move much air or be too good at bass but these speakers are awesome! With real speed and fabulous detail, a new level of HiFi accuracy was experienced. A bit like that incremental improvement you get with more expensive Chord brand cables, there was a difference.
Very nearly as good as the ridiculously brilliant Morel Pulse 6×9 and from a company that makes all sorts of fine electronics, not just speakers. The Diamond Audio D393i may be USA style audiophillia with some big meaty bass and the Morels may just be the little brothers of some fabulous speakers made by specialist speaker geniuses but the Alpine Type R SPR-69C is deliciously close on their tails at the very top bracket of Sound Quality in this market.
The bass is pretty good from such shallow cones. Accurate, if not vast and as woofery-replacement flavoured as others but they really seemed to enjoy the ‘proink-doink’ of that odd high rise-time drum beat on the SQ track I used. Flat out, they raised an undistorted 114.2dB which proves they go darn loud for the superior quality, too.
With the grilles fitted they have some bling appeal but while not as flash looking as some, they still hold the Alpine brand aloft with great credit, and well ‘ard VFM, as well.
Impressed.
Overall 8.6
Sound Quality 10
Build Quality 9
Power Handling 7
Efficiency 7
Value For Money 9