Castle is an iconic UK brand of speakers, founded 1973. Veteran Castle designer Karl-Heinz Fink (KHF) is at the helm and has created two new stunning stand mount models in its top Windsor Range, which is of course, built in the UK.

These new Windsor models are British to the core, which I say with admiration.

Castle speakers have a gorgeous finish to LUST for. The elite furniture grade cabinetry takes these to elegance. You won’t find a more lovely cabinet.

The options are Mahogany and Walnut. Growing up in the 70s when we had a lot of rosewood-ish looking speakers, I’m a sucker for quality Mahogany with red-ish tint. The Castle finish on these new Windsors makes the old boys look sloppy.

Castle slices its wood from real trees for unique cabinet graining on every pair. Each pair of Windors is hand finished, sealed and waxed, in mirrored, book matched veneers. This exacting process takes several days for each pair they make.

Most companies use reconstituted mush instead of real tree slices, to try to make something that looks like the Real McCoy, but is not. They slosh some stain on the cabinet and figure, they’re just speakers, that’s good enough. This isn’t the case with Castle. The elegant, burnished finish and unique wood personality are as important to Castle as their sound.

There’s much to discuss with Castle, but let’s start with their painstakingly curated cabinetry.

Windsor Cabinets

KHF constructs his cabinets with two layers. It’s essentially a cabinet within a cabinet configuration. The layers are separated and DAMPENED, by specially engineered acoustic glue. KHF assures this creates a more QUIET cabinet than just using thick MDF. It works.

Where this pays off is in their exceptional ability to distinguish voices (or instruments) within a group.

A specific example is “The Sweetest Gift” by The Judds & Emmy Lou Harris. You can lock on to any of the vocals while also appreciating the group. It’s really quite extraordinary how the Windsors reveal this trio individually and as a whole.

Likewise, I love Brahms and am smitten with DG’s new CD of Piano Quartets #2 & 3. It features Krystian Zimerman on piano, along with violin, viola & cello. You’ll be astonished at how the Castles allow you to savor the explicit voices of the various strings.

There is internal cabinet bracing to attain maximum rigidity, which propagates deep, taut bass. This regal looking, fortified structure is vented to generate rich low end response, which has always been a hallmark of Castle speakers.

The cabinets are lined with absorbing insulation which is primarily helpful at providing clear midrange information.

Finishes

Castles are available in two flavors.

Mahogany is characterized by an uber rich, redish/black hue. WOW! I positive love this finish!

Walnut with a lighter than darker cast, is the more traditional, quite lovely option.

Tweeters

Castle tweeters are 28mm textile domes. They’re mounted on a strong steel plate for high rigidity. They’re controlled by a pressure equalized, ferrite magnet system. The resonant frequency goes below 800Hz to avoid ringing. Since the crossover runs at 2.1k, Castle tweeters run well within their comfort zone.

Bass/Mids

Castle bass/mid drivers are CAST FRAME with heavy magnets. The cones are comprised of polypropylene, cut into thin strips and woven back into a fabric to form a solid FOIL. The foil gets pressed into its final shape. This construction minimizes unwanted resonances and has a flatter response curve than a standard sheet of poly cut to size.

Crossover

KHF runs a 4^th order Linkwitz-Riley network that provides the desired integration of the purpose designed drive units. Voice coils are made of glass fiber, bonded with high temperature resin. The stiffness is on a par with aluminum but doesn’t have the worry of varying hysteresis. Castles use air core inductors, not metal cores (which sound more congested).

Castle Sound

It is British warm/smooth on the top end. This differs dramatically from the Euro named brands that are made in China, which are invariably bright. Again, Castle Windsors are made in the UK.

Not only is the top end smooth, the bass is conspicuously stronger & heavier than what you would expect from UK speakers of this size. The bass will happily surprise you. These aren’t tiny cabinets. Yet they sound much bigger and DEEPER than you’d ever guess from looking at them.

Castle has made some very sage decisions here. Number one, the speakers are absolutely gorgeous to have in your room. Number two, the top end is palatable, not bright. And lastly, both Duke & Earl go deeper and GRITTIER than the other Brits that are shooting for this market.

And yes, Earl goes low and powerful too. I was especially surprised by Earl’s power. We’ve come to expect a certain level of performance from a 6.5 and Earl demolishes your modest expectations.

Duke swings a deeper, heavier hammer- which we would expect given its use of an 8 in a larger cabinet. Nonetheless, Duke’s power is surprisingly colossal.

Both of these models have inspiring bass impact with taut control. You won’t believe the weight these stand mounts throw your way.

The midrange flavor is warm and you can hear that the cabinets are quiet. They have outstanding imaging characteristics. They create a strong center and broad soundstage. These are uber sophisticated Britishers. Duke, of course, casts a broader image.

Models

Both Windsor models are stand mounts. Castle wants controlled- rather than boomy bass.

Both come with attractive STEEL speaker stands. The speakers sit on the stands. They don’t bolt into place. The vast majority of customers do use stands, so Castle prices include them. Castle subsequently knows how many stands to make and can keep manufacturing efficient and affordable.

Companies who sell stands a la carte are always struggling with- how many do you make? Consequently they guess light and end up overpricing the stands. Often production gets off kilter and you’ll find many UK built stands run a $1000-1500 per pair.

So yes, the price includes stands and you cannot purchase the speakers without them. But the good news is, that while these stands are attractive and sonically beneficial, they’re not unduly HEAVY. These are stylish, but not crazy/expensive. My perception is that you’re not paying more than $300 of the purchase price for stands. This is a good choice by Castle. You’d be hard pressed to actually HEAR any improvement with heavy steel tubes that can be filled with buckshot for a thousand bucks or more.

Windsor Duke, $6000 Per Pair With Stands

Duke specs: 18.5h, 11.02w, 13.62d, 90dB SPL, 8 ohms

Height on stands is 44.09”

Windsor Duke is an 8” 2-way. The woofer is an 8” Poly described above. The tweeter is a 1.1” textile dome, described above. 26L cabinet.

Windsor Earl, $5000 Per Pair With Stands

Earl specs: 16.93h, 9.45w, 11.65d, 89dB SPL, 8 ohms

Height on stands is 38.58”

Windsor Earl is a 6.5” 2-way. The woofer is a 6.5” Poly described above. The tweeter is a 1.1” textile dome, described above. 15.8L cabinet.

Windsor Speaker Stands

The Duke & Earl each have their own stands. Manufactured in the UK with high-carbon British steel, the stands are meticulously weighted and internally damped for ultimate resonance control.

Each stand is anchored by 4 large stainless steel spikes to insure stability. Premium quality floor protectors and spike seat options are also provided as standard. The stands are stylish additions but not ridiculously over built- which could be a legit concern as the Brits can obsess about details that hardly matter.