Castle Windsor Duke, $6000 Per Pair Including Stands

{18.5h, 11.02w, 13.62d, 90dB, 8 ohms, Rosenut & Walnut}

Price includes stands. Height is 44.09 on stands

The new Castle Windsor Duke is an uber tough and sophisticated 8” 2-way, built in England- not China. I will link you to the nuts and bolts here.

The rest of this discussion will be about the sound and appearance.

First of all, Karl Heinz Fink is an esteemed speaker designer- industry wide. He’s been designing since the 70’s and these Castles are his new baby!

The goal with Castle is to create speakers that are in equal measure, high performers with stunning aesthetics. Since you’re likely to keep your speakers a couple of decades or more, KHF says let’s make them gorgeous visually and sonically. The Castle finish makes most speakers look as though they have a sloppy finish.

Windsor Dukes swing a heavy hammer. They have prodigious bass that you won’t expect from the size of the cabinet. KHF is a huge proponent of sophisticated two ways. He can achieve the bass, power and BLEND that he’s after, better with a 2-way than a 3-way.

Windsor Duke has such powerful bass that you won’t say, geeze, I need a tower. KHF puts the Duke on a stand to keep it tighter than a tower. Most towers have a proclivity to boom.

Duke has an open, airy, yet not bright sound. For those of us who love the acoustic piano, cello and violin, Duke is going to be very tough to beat. Duke’s image is huge- going well beyond the confines of its enclosures.

Further, Duke has the weight to deliver rock and roll or urban music as well. When you hit Duke hard with Rihanna or Beyonce, it’s no problem. The grit and ability to move the floor boards in your room is fun to hear.

At 90dB Duke doesn’t need a crazy expensive amplifier. Any of the Atoll integrateds will do the job. They’re all class AB, high current design. Atoll’s IN100 ($2100, 100×2) uses dual transformers so I think it is the first in the family to be truly worthy of a great speaker like the Duke.

Duke will reveal the quality of your source, as any great speaker does. I want a great CD player like an Atoll for my source. Streaming is fun due to the accessibility of music, but it just doesn’t sound as good as a well done CD on an Atoll CD player. With an Atoll CD player you’ll achieve superior detail and transparency compared to streaming. Vinyl is excellent when all the stars align and you’re up for THE WORK of the medium.