Audiovector R5 Arreté

With nearly five decades of heritage in crafting state-of-the-art loudspeakers, Audiovector continues to refine what is possible within real-world living spaces. The R 5 Arreté distils essential technological DNA from the flagship R 10 Arreté into a more compact, elegant and room-friendly format. Built to bridge the gap between the R 3 and R 6 Arreté speakers, it is designed to meet the sweet spot for many of our listeners. Designed, engineered and hand-built in Denmark, the Audiovector R 5 Arreté delivers openness, speed and musical realism that challenge expectations of what a traditional 3.5-way loudspeaker can achieve, combining handcrafted Danish design with technologies inherited directly from our flagship R 10 Arreté.

The R 5 Arreté is built around a true 3.5-way architecture with bottom-mounted bass reflex loading. Two bass drivers operate in carefully differentiated roles: the primary woofer covers the full bass range including the critical mid-bass region, while a dedicated second woofer operates solely in the deepest frequencies, adding weight and extension without intruding on the midrange. Each driver works within its optimal bandwidth. Dynamic headroom increases. Intermodulation falls. The midrange remains completely uncompromised.

At the heart of the R 5 Arreté is the latest evolution of Audiovector’s Air Motion Transformer tweeter, inspired by Dr Oscar Heil’s original 1970 principle. An ultra-light pleated diaphragm driven by a powerful neodymium motor system delivers exceptional acceleration, openness and micro-dynamic precision from 2,800 Hz to 53,000 Hz. The open-back construction through the rear baffle enables controlled rear radiation — the foundation of Audiovector’s Soundstage Enhancement Concept (SEC). Rather than trapping rear energy inside the cabinet, it is released in a phase-coherent and carefully damped manner, enhancing depth perception, lateral width, image stability and ambient retrieval.

The Accelerated Force Concept (AFC) replaces the conventional heavy half-roll surround with a lightweight concertina suspension formed from a carefully developed rubber compound, allowing immediate response to micro-signals. Combined with the Low Compression Concept (LCC), internal air pressure build-up behind the diaphragm is minimised, reducing distortion and improving transient behaviour. The membrane comprises a carbon-fibre and natural resin sandwich engineered for maximum stiffness, lightness and damping. Titanium voice coils and distortion-optimised motor geometry ensure stability under all dynamic conditions.

The R 5 Arreté incorporates a unique three-position damping adjustment, allowing precise matching to any amplifier: transistor, high-power transistor or valve. Second-generation Freedom Grounding® removes movement-induced currents from the driver chassis before they introduce distortion — 50% more efficient than the original system, operating deep into the MHz frequency range.

The proprietary Arreté crossover is built in-house using double cryogenically treated capacitors, polypropylene dielectrics with tin-flashed copper foil, distortion-optimised copper coils in a Dynamic Feed Forward (DFF) configuration, and Audiovector x Duelund bypass capacitors. Precision film resistors replace reactive wire-wound resistors throughout. Every R 5 Arreté is packed in a high-security flight case.

Specifications:

• Design: 3.5-way, bottom-mounted bass reflex
• Frequency response: 23 Hz – 53 kHz
• Average impedance: 8 Ohms
• Minimum impedance: 6.5 Ohms
• Sensitivity: 90 dB
• Crossover frequencies: 200 Hz, 600 Hz, 2.8 kHz
• Bass drivers: 6.5″ AFC carbon sandwich (x2)
• Midrange driver: 6.5″ AFC carbon sandwich
• Tweeter: 3800 AMT N 51
• Terminals: High current gold-plated copper/brass binding posts for 4mm plugs or spades
• Dimensions (H x W x D): 111 x 22 x 41 cm (plinth: 26 x 48 cm)
• Weight: 32.1 kg per unit
• Finishes: Black Piano, White Silk, African Mahogany Piano, Italian Walnut. Custom paint finishes available on request.