Are these REALLY worth the hype? Buchardt S400 Mk II Review

The three stooges return with a review of the Buchardt S400 Mk II Bookshelf Speakers. Find out what they think about these highly regarded speakers!

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Audio Excellence Inc. is a high end audio/video store in Markham, Ontario, Canada, a suburb of Toronto. We've been in business since 1991.

Check out our interviews with designers and audio luminaries like Daryl Wilson of Wilson Audio, Paul McGowan of PS Audio, Paolo Tezzon of Sonus faber, Wendell Diller of Magnepan, John Atkinson of Stereophile, Dan D'Agostino of D'Agostino Master Audio Systems, Nelson Pass of Pass Labs and others.

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[NemoPropaganda]

Small time reviewer gonna chime-in here. And it's no secret I love these speakers. For reference I do also own Dynaudio Special 40, Focal Kanta No1, and Aria 906 along with many others. Ya'll donate all your earnings so you view lack of financial motive as honesty then be happy to know my channel operates at a loss to the tune of $10, 000 a year or more so rest assured I have absolutely zero profit motive. It seems to me you guys do not have the reference points of this price category, let me explain: The esteemed gentleman on the far left (not being sarcastic, I respect my elders) says they're too dark sounding, it's not uncommon for older gentleman to prefer a sharper sound due to some minor hearing loss that is natural with age. He also states that Lumina III's which are substantially larger and cost literally double are better... A bit of an unfair comparison, I'm not expecting $4000 performance from a $2000 speaker. Older gentleman finishes it off by saying the Dynaudio Special 40 ($1400 more expensive) is better. Are we expecting a Camry to drive like a Lexus? Guy in the middle is being a little more reasonable but again what are we comparing these speakers to? Ya'll all have a ton of complaints but I'm not hearing any comparison at the same price point. It is okay if you simply don't like it, nothing wrong with that but if you're saying it's not worth the money (which you certainly did elude to) then I feel like there should be at least 5 or more $2000 speakers you can easily list off that are better.

[Jayiyagi]

Great Video guys. Even though my impressions of these speakers were highly different than yours, I don't doubt that this is what you heard.
I respect your opinions as experts and perhaps that is why I find the things said here even more confusing and puzzling.

Can't come to any other conclusion than something
being terribly wrong with the pair you have in-store. Perhaps sending back to the the manufacturer may solve some mystery here.

as Adrian continuously mentioned; many reviewers including myself have given these speakers high marks and the highest mark in my case.
Given that at one time; I listened and loved the same gear as you guys did in-store, this is highly odd is it not?
Not only that, measurements and the nature of these speaker's technical design suggest almost impossible of what you are hearing.

Also many owners are very happy with these speakers and Buchardt is confident enough to allow in-home demos. But not one but ALL of you hate it? jheez... they'd be out of business !
I don't believe YouTube reviews alone can convince people of a mediocre speaker and write positive reviews of their own, causing a ripple effect as many
great products do.

I'm just as confused as you guys are !

anyways,
I'm sorry that you guys didn't like these speakers and seeing Adrian's face in disbelief made me giggle a little as I know that expression all too well. I bet he wanted to say
"what the hell are these guys hearing? Are they deaf? Jay????" haha

[cactusbylin]

They are second hand trade-ins. Could it be possible that they were damaged by the previous owner? Maybe you should try another pair of S400 speakers just to make sure.

[madsbuchardt]

Don't know why my comment was lost, but I do really mean that I would be happy to arrange shipping back to check the pair, there is clearly something wrong with it :)

Best regards Mads Buchardt :)

[kirkaparty]

They could be defects or Not broken in. Mine needed about 100 hours and then sounded excellent. Its more natural and not as warm as Sonus Faber

[turbo]

I don't believe a word these guys said, a total of five people in the video all stated they didn't like the speaker, while almost 'the rest of the the world" love it ??!!
The British audiophile is much more trustworthy.

[Sam_CL]

I find this review very interesting. I had purchased a pair of the S400 MKII to replace my Wharfedale Linton 85th Anniversary Edition speakers based on all of the positive reviews on YouTube. I have been wanting to try different speakers so I could get the best sound from my small room. For comparison purposes I bought a speaker switch box so I could actively switch between speaker pairs.

Before I hooked up the switch box I listened to the MKIIs for several hours to see how I liked them. Although I thought the speakers sounded good, I didn't think they were great. I felt something was missing.

I then hooked up the switch box figuring that anything introduced from it would affect both pair of the speakers the same so I would have a reasonably good idea between the two. I was really surprised at the difference between the two sets of speakers.

I definitely preferred the Wharfedale Linton's. Forgive my ignorance of terminology but I thought the Buchardt's had a muffled tone to them and lacked body. I thought the soundstage was wider on the MKII but the midrange wasn't there. Overall I much preferred the Linton's.

I am thankful Buchardt had a respectable trial period and I was able to return them for reasonable fee.

I ended up doing the same experiment with the Linton's and the KEF LS50 Meta. I'm keeping the Linton's

In the end it's all what the listener prefers. It's easy to get on this crazy train and chase the sound. Quite frankly, I'm tired of it.
If it sounds good. Just enjoy it.

Side note

I don't know if the switch box I purchased added or subtracted from the speakers or not but it was really nice for comparison purposes.
For me it's hard to remember the differences when comparing after switching back and forth.
It's like walking into a store with a wall full of TVs. Alone they all look good if not great but when placed side by side you'll know what you prefer immediately.

Forgot to mention I was driving the speakers with a Hegel H95.

[kirkgibson]

I was concerned with my MK2s but kept on pushing on, after around 100 hours they really opened up and came to life. Paired with a Hegel H360.

[GIBro-rmof]

Perhaps invite Jay to have a listen? He should be able to determine if there is something faulty with the speakers, compared to his pair.

[paulbentley]

I own these.... I sent the bluesound back straight away I just get the impression that you guys had a bad set up. How can audiophiles rate these so highly? Something not right with this review....

[tnyxgq]

Great discussion and I value your honest opinions. Looking forward to the Denafrips Ares II review.

[guillaumeSONY]

I mean it's not a surprise that an audio store not selling Buchardt (and probably selling less speakers because of them) is not liking the speaker 😂.
Of course they will say that the Sonus Faber they sell are way better...

[TJ-gzij]

Thankyou Thomas and Stereo for the in-depth review. I didn't know Thomas was part of Audio excellence though....

[avamae]

I’m really surprised, guys. I’m auditioning a pair of S400 mkII’s on Hegel amplification and they sound great even out of the box. Yes, they’re not the brightest speaker around, but tonally they’re fantastic. I’d say they’re a touch on the warm side of neutral.

They’ve also been shown to measure very well at audio science review.

[aloy]

Its perfectly okay for you guys or anyone else to not like certain sound characteristics / attributes of a speaker system as much. What baffles me is how come some of these popular and respected reviewers like Sean, Thomas, Steve, Tarun, Nima and a few others hardly had anything negative to say about them. Not trying to say there's something wrong with you guys or all the other reviewers - its just so unbelievable that some of your and their observations are almost be on opposite ends. Its like they all said wow its amazing, its great, very good bass, very good mid range, etc. and then you folks come along and say almost the opposite. Maybe you should consider inviting Sean, Thomas and Tarun for a discussion so it helps all of us understand how and why all of you view these so differently. Might help since your review has woken up a lot of souls already.

I own a pair of Buchardt s400 MKIIs and i also have the special 40s and KEF R300s. I find the s400s quite good comparatively. The highs are not so airy and can sound recessed. However the highs do present themselves well when the highs are prominent in the track. I can obviously easily pick up on Hi hat and cymbal sounds when they're more prominent in some of the tracks. I dont see anything wrong with mids nor the bass. They can tend to sound less dynamic with some music and less refined than the s40s. In your case I see 3 possibilites - one is you folks are exposed to hi end gear for years and maybe decades. This may have elevated your expectations for sound quality that is probably much higher than what most speakers in this price category can deliver. Your reference gear might be more expensive & much better sounding.

An analogy could be you've been owning, selling and driving Lamborghini's, Aston Martins, Bentleys, Rolls-Royce, etc. for years. If you're given a Hyundai or a Toyota for review, you may find it just okay, boring, not so great, etc. But the average person who's never laid their hands on a Aston Martin or a Lambo may find Toyota's to be quite good and rave about them.

Other possiblity is there's something off with that pair. Hopefully once you get to listen to another pair like from Jay or anybody else we'll know. Try them in a different room with other amps as well just to see if it is actually sounding different or better. I won't be surprised if your observations remain more or less the same. Sometimes weird things happen - like all 5 of you not liking something cause you're able to pick up something most of us are not able to or something bout it is not just to your taste or for the reasons i mentioned above. It probably makes all of you look like pros with very good taste and high expectations of what good speakers should sound like. Lastly, maybe the product is actually not as good and we're not just able to put a finger on it or we dont know what good sound is or are okay to live with its flaws. I dont personally find the MKIIS superb - they just sound good to me. I use a Hegel H80 with them which seems to have better synergy with them than my Primare i35. I will be trying these with my 3rd Amp which is a exposure 3510.

This sure is puzzling like hell - 1 or 2 or 3 not liking may have seemed normal but all 5 in the room not liking it is super abnormal and super weird to me.

Please dont misunderstand- its not like im pissed off as a s400 MKII owner cause you folks didn't like it as much. Not every piece of gear will be to everyone's liking and thats a given. Some folks praise Hegel while ive seen people say Hegel is overhyped, dull and boring etc. Im just a lil dumbfounded cause none of the 5 of you found the speakers good for what its worth.

[anthonyjriz]

I’m grateful for you guys making these videos, I bought the ares ii based off of all the amazing reviews and based off what people said it sounds like, when I listened to it it couldn’t be any further. I personally believe all these people are instructed maybe even coordinated on what to say about a product.

[mitchy]

I upgraded from the p300 to the s400mk ii. Watching this video scared me because I thought these were superior to the p300. Now after reading all the comments, my stress levels went down drastically. Very little agree with what they were saying. I loved the p300, so I'm sure I'll love these even more. I am very confused why they believed the speakers had no weight in the bass region, but were also dark at the same time? Possibly due to their room having 20ft ceilings?

[markhusbands]

Adrian, the Buchardt direct sales model has worldwide shipping and duties included in those advertised prices You can verify this as you said the opposite in the video.

[imosolar]

I've owned the buchard S400 speakers for years with class A tube power amplifier and it was awesome.
It's the mismatch of the amplifier. And you got 30 day Trial

[frostycanada]

Hello guys, I’m really enjoying this mini series of product reviews of components not normally sold through your store. Very insightful.

I checked the specs of the S400mk2 and they do seem to measure really well (nice and flat) with good in room response.

I personally have a pair of Buchardt S300mk2 for movie watching and I find them to be great. The S300 throw a huge amount of sound energy into the room but listening to music can be a mix bag.

I tend to prefer a speaker with a more narrow dispersion, brighter top end and a touch more forwards in presentation.

Many thanks to the Audio Excellence team for putting this together.

Brian