Castle Compact System

King of the Castle

By Jamie Gemming

September 2004

Castle Compact sub-sat system. $3495

I used to watch this English comedy called Bottom and in one episode was a Falklands war veteran who had lost his leg. In its place the veteran had an intricately carved wooded leg which he said had been lovingly hand made by a team of naked young ladies on a distant island. For some reason, the first time I unpacked these speakers I imagined these speakers being made on that same island. The cabinets are simply beautiful - the real wood veneer radiates warmth and their finish is perfect. I’ve only had them a short while and I am dreading the look of my lounge without them.

The combo is made up of four identical satellites, a centre speaker and a subwoofer. The Castle Compact Satellite and LCR Centre use the same drivers and tweeters. The tweeter is a 19mm fabric design and has an extended frequency range up to 40kHz giving it the ability to reproduce the higher frequencies from the new formats such as SACD and DVD-A. A 110mm glass fibre driver is used for mid-bass duties of which the satellites use one and the centre two. The tweeter, woofer and their surrounds are matt black, which makes an excellent contrast against the lighter wood. At the back, the speakers wear gold plated five-way binding posts.

Shattered dreams

Although I had imagined a harem of beauties making the cabinets, unfortunately in reality it is a little different. The Castle website destroys the fantasy by showing old men in aprons and gloves as the ones who should get the praise for the stunning cabinets. Both the centre and satellites are constructed from 15mm MDF with wood veneers on the outside and the internals sprayed with bituminous damping to reduce unwanted resonance.

Each speaker is supplied with a grey grille but this is best removed and hidden somewhere out of sight. I guess Castle realized that the speakers look so good they could afford to spend the bare minimum on their grilles, knowing that they would never be used.

The subwoofer is called the Cube for obvious reasons and the extra expanse of wood veneer makes it the best looking speaker in the combo. The back of the cube houses the 150 watt amplifier which sports all usual controls and inputs. The front panel holds the matt black 250mm paper cone and underneath, the cabinet breathes through a large port.

Definition

I recently reviewed a PSB sub sat combo which I thought was the goods, but these things are on another planet. Mind you they should be for the extra $2000. The extra serving of treble definition is the first thing that makes you really appreciate these little speakers. Fast high-hats, the use of brushes on snare drums and staccato piano notes really impress. It’s as if the music suddenly contains extra notes that weren’t played before.

Whether it was the clanging of swords in Die Another Day, Gollum arguing with himself in LOTR, or the thunderous roar of Maverick’s F14 catapulting itself off the carrier deck in Top Gun - this combo excels. Every movie I watched had more detail and impact than I remembered with the PSB’s.

Going down

The integration between the sats and the sub is seamless, without the apparent gap between the two that many other sub-sat systems demonstrate. I have grown to love this kit over the past weeks and it almost pained me to find a small blemish when I experimentally swapped my B&W ASW650 sub into the system.

While the Castle sub excelled with movies and most genres of music I did find it a little light when listening to certain styles of music. I listen to a lot of dance and R&B and although I do not want, nor expect, a boy-racer type boom - when I reconnected the Cube it was obvious that there was a small amount of drive and extension missing from the mix that no amount of tweaking with the settings could replace.

The RRP of $3,495 will be outside price bracket of most sub-sat shoppers.  But if you’re looking for a small system that looks a million dollars, excels with movies, and produces wondrously detailed music, then the Castles will compel you to stretch the budget. 

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