The HRS-130 Loudspeaker

The HRS-130 loudspeaker is a higher performance version of our popular HRS-120. Not only have significant improvements been made to the sound quality, but the cabinet has been restyled to give a smoother look, enabling the HRS-130 to blend more easily in to the room. The improved look is enhanced by a new, luxurious high-polish polyester finish, which is available in black or white.

Award Winning Loudspeaker

The HRS-130 Loudspeaker uses a single carbon fibre German Physiks DDD driver mounted on top of a slim, octagonal, floor standing cabinet, with a downward firing 10-inch woofer set in its base

Exceptional Driver Integration

The crossover in the HRS-130 is developed from the one used in the Borderland Mk IV: its larger stable mate. This provides exceptional integration of the of the DDD driver and woofer, so that they work seamlessly together to create a detailed, three-dimensional stereo image that immerses you in the music. The transparency of the DDD driver opens a new window on to your music collection, by helping to reveal fine detail and ambience information that you would normally only expect to hear at a live performance.

Most important of all, the DDD driver’s exceptional transparency better allows you to experience the emotion that is the essence of a good musical performance.

Improved Resolution and Dynamics

Well Controlled and Extended Bass

The HRS-130 has a new crossover derived from the one in our best selling Borderland Mk IV. It provides improved resolution and dynamics, making it even easier to follow the various threads in a performance, even at high levels.

This makes listening a truly involving experience.

The bass driver is located at the bottom of the cabinet and works in a “sealed” enclosure. This enclosure is linked via a small opening to a smaller cavity located at the top of the cabinet. This cavity acts as a Helmholtz Resonator and is tuned to the resonant frequency of the main bass enclosure and ensures a smoother bass response.

The HRS-130 uses the same 10-inch bass driver as our much more expensive PQS-402. This provides deep and well defined bass with excellent control. The integration of the bass with the rest of the frequency range is exceptional, allowing you to immerse yourself in the music without the feeling that you are listening to several different drivers.

The heart of all German Physiks loudspeakers is the unique omnidirectional DDD driver

The German Physiks DDD driver uses a cone made of extremely thin (0.15mm) carbon fibre. This is very light, but also very rigid. Each driver is hand-built by a skilled technician in our factory in Germany. This is a painstaking process that takes 6 hours. After assembly, each driver undergoes a series of rigorous tests. It is then subject to a 96 hour pre-aging process, playing specially selected music at high level. Finally, it is retested and put together with another driver to form a matched pair.

The DDD driver has two key distinguishing features

1. It is omnidirectional, meaning that it radiates the sound evenly around it.
2. It has an exceptionally wide operating range. In the HRS-130 it covers the range from 220Hz up to 24kHz – almost 7 octaves.

This extremely wide range is achieved by the use of 3 modes of radiation

Pistonic radiation
Bending wave radiation
Modal radiation

By comparison, most loudspeakers use drivers that only use pistonic radiation. These have a much narrower operating range and as the frequency rises, they tend to concentrate their energy into a progressively narrowing beam.

The DDD driver’s omnidirectional radiation characteristic and its very wide operating range, together with several other key features give the following important advantages to all German Physiks designs and is what sets them apart

1. Exceptionally coherent and natural sound

This is due to the DDD driver’s 7 octave plus operating range. This is very difficult to achieve when such a wide range is split over two or more different types of driver, which are in different positions on the loudspeaker’s cabinet.

This wide operating range also eliminates the crossover point in the mid-range that loudspeakers using pistonic drivers must have. This is where our hearing is most sensitive, so removing anything that might cause level or phase errors from here will improve transparency.

2.Realistic stereo images more like those you experience in the concert hall

This is because the DDD driver's omnidirectional radiation characteristic creates an enveloping sound field like that in the hall, rather than beaming the sound at you as conventional drivers do. This way the HRS-130 is able to recreate a more natural rendition of the original stereo image. This has excellent depth and focus, but without the overly sharp image definition that some hi-fi loudspeakers produce and which you will rarely if ever hear at a live performance.

3. Stereo imaging enjoyable in almost all positions in the room

This is achieved whilst also maintaining an even tonal balance, much like at a live performance: again due to the DDD driver’s omnidirectional radiation pattern. This gives more flexibility in where you sit and allows several people to enjoy a good sound together. This is useful in home theatre systems.

As you are not restricted to a small “sweet-spot” in order to hear the best sound, the HRS-130 provides a more relaxed listening experience. This is especially noticeable when you listen for long periods.

4. Exceptional dynamics

The DDD driver’s very low moving mass, less than 3 grams, allows German Physiks loudspeakers to recreate both the attack of the music and resolve low level detail very accurately. This is essential in order to faithfully reproduce the delicate nuances of a performance and make it sound like music, rather than just good hi-fi. The resultant transparency is maintained even on complex high-level passages.

5. Accurate portrayal of musical instruments’ tonal characteristics

This is because the DDD driver is phase linear across its operating range. This together with the excellent dynamic response, enables the HRS-130 to reproduce percussion with startling reality. Voices have a clarity and purity that can be breath taking, with all the elements of the vocal sound correctly located in space and with no undue emphasis. The hardness you often hear with conventional tweeters is eliminated and you get a greater sense of hearing a live musician.

6. Quick and easy to set up

As they are omnidirectional, German Physiks loudspeakers are less sensitive to room position than conventional designs and there is no toe-in adjustment to worry about.

7. The DDD driver is less likely to excite cabinet vibrations

Due to its very low moving mass and the way that it is mounted, the DDD driver puts less energy into the cabinet than an equivalent conventional driver. This reduces cabinet resonances and improves transparency.

8. Physically extremely rugged

The DDD driver can withstand abuse that will destroy most other drivers. Thisis illustrated in the video below. We don’t advise our customers to try this, just in case they are having an unlucky day.

“What you get here is a world-class wide-range driver that is exceptionally well engineered and superbly integrated into a speaker that is almost perfect for a small-to-medium-sized room. In my estimation, the carbon-fiber DDD is one of the top five driver innovations of the past 40 years, delivering the coherent phase and uniform power response first envisioned by Lincoln Walsh. Given the right amplifier and room setup, the HRS-130 ticks all the important sonic boxes and clearly edges out the competition when it comes to palpable imaging. No wonder the German Physiks HRS-130 is currently my favorite speaker under $25k”

the absolute sound, december 2017 | web link

Quick and Easy to Set Up

Bi-wire or Bi-amp

The DDD driver’s omnidirectional radiation pattern and wide operating frequency range make the HRS-130 less critical of its position in the room than conventional loudspeakers, so it is very quick and easy to set up. In addition, because the HRS-130 is omnidirectional, there is no toe-in adjustment to worry about. Last but not least, with a cabinet footprint of only 325mm x 325mm (12.8” x 12.8”), the HRS-130 is easy to fit into even a modest sized room. Don’t let this deceive you though, as the HRS-130 will drive rooms up to 75 square metres (792 sq ft) in size.

The HRS-130 is fitted with two sets of high quality WBT nextgen™ loudspeaker terminals. This allows the HRS-130 to be bi-wired or bi-amped. High quality jumpers are supplied to enable the HRS-130 to be used with just one set of loudspeaker cables.

Adjustable High Frequency Output

Jumpers on the loudspeaker’s rear panel allow the high frequency output level to be adjusted in 4 steps: -2dB, flat, +2dB and +4dB, enabling the user to easily compensate for the variations in the absorption of high frequencies that can occur due to different types of furnishings and room construction.

Low Resonance Cabinet Design Enhances Transparency

Designed for a Lifetime of Listening Pleasure

Colouration caused by resonances in a loudspeaker cabinet, where the cabinet itself starts to radiate sound energy, can seriously degrade the sound quality by obscuring detail. To counter this, the HRS-130, like our more expensive Borderland MK IV, uses an octagonal cross-section cabinet. The panels on this cabinet are smaller and stiffer than those of an equivalent size square section cabinet would be. Critically placed internal bracing further increases rigidity.

As a further anti-resonance measure, a special damping material called Hawaphon® is applied to the inside of each panel. This adds mass to the panel to reduce the resonant frequency and its special internal structure very effectively converts vibration energy into heat. Hawaphon® achieves a broadband attenuation of structure-borne sound of more than 50dB: a remarkably high figure

Finally, to damp resonances of the air within the cabinet, the whole of the inside of the cabinet is lined with a thick layer of high-density felt.

As you would expect from a German product, the quality of construction and reliability are first class. We use the same quality of parts in the HRS-130 as in our reference products, where we design for a minimum life expectancy of 25 years. For this reason we have selected highly corrosion resistant V4 grade stainless steel for the DDD driver support pillars, terminal mounting plates and all the screws.

Meticulous care and attention is paid during the manufacture of the HRS-130. Prior to assembly all components and materials are subject to a rigorous inspection. We also carry out detailed inspections at each stage of the manufacturing process.We can afford to do this as we build our products by hand in small batches. After assembly, the performance of each loudspeaker is measured. Then it is burnt in for at least 12 hours and measured again. Once the burn process is complete each loudspeaker is given a final detailed physical inspection before being packed.

Product Finishes

The standard finish for the HRS-130 loudspeaker is high-polish polyester in black or white. Other finishes are available to special order. These include satin and high-polish veneers; satin and high-polish paint and carbon fibre.

Finish Options
High Polish Finish Only*
Satin Only**
Satin or High Polish***

Hand Finished For Ultimate Quality

Because the look of our products is as important as the sound, all cabinets are hand built and finished in Germany by skilled cabinet makers for the best possible furniture grade finish.

They are built in small batches, so that they can maintain a consistently high level of quality. Nothing is rushed.

Product Specifications

Impedance
4 ohms

Frequency Response
29 – 24,000Hz

Power Handling
Nominal 120W
Short term 200W

Amplification Required
Minimum 70W/4 ohm

Crossover Frequency
220Hz

Crossover Slopes
DDD section 12dB/octave electronic & 18dB/octave acoustic
Woofer section 12dB/octave electronic & 18dB/octave acoustic

High Frequency Adjustment
-2dB, flat, +2dB and +4dB centred at 8,000Hz

Sensitivity
86.9 dB for 1W at 1m

Operating Principle
2-way loudspeaker with 360° surround radiation
using the German Physiks DDD drive

Input Connectors
2 sets of WBT nextgen™ binding posts

Drivers
1 x carbon fibre DDD driver
1 x 10-inch woofer

Recommended Room Size
10 - 75 square metres
106 – 792 square feet

Finish
Standard:
High polish polyester black or white, carbon fibre
Special order:
Satin or high polish veneer / Satin or high polish paint

Dimensions
325mm W x 1,259mm H x 325mm D
12.8" W x 49.6" H x 12.8" D

Weight
34.5kg / 75.9lbs

Warranty
5 years

As part of our process of continually improving our products, we reserve the right to change specifications without notice.

“The German Physiks HRS 130 speakers are a triumph of audio engineering, offering a high level of sonic accuracy, with little distortion and the ability to generate a massive, immersive sound field that few speakers at any price can match. I highly suggest you audition a pair!”

tone audio, april 2017 | web link

Videos

HOLOGRAPHIC HIFI SOUND German Physiks HRS130 Speakers Review

German Physiks HRS 130-Omnidirectional Speakers Overview

Product Reviews

The Ear, Jason Kennedy, 2020

What this speaker does really well is resolution of detail, it offers a degree of insight into recordings that is rare even at this price and that makes for some pretty intense and enjoyable listening. Gwenifer Raymond’s latest finger picking masterpiece Eulogy for a dead French composer is awash with harmonics and the playing seems impossible for two hands on one guitar but it’s lovely to revel in the timbre of that guitar and the way she plays it with so much controlled energy. On Gregory Porter’s 1960 What you can hear the room that the voice was recorded in as plain as day, there’s a degree of definition to the reverb that you just don’t get with most speakers…. The bass is surprisingly well extended with some tracks really energising the air in the room. It’s controlled and powerful and equally revealing in its own way, there is no thickness but plenty of extension. Patricia Barber’s Post Modern Blues is a very good recording and these speakers let you know all about it, her voice is superb and you can hear every breath she takes alongside the nature of the booth it was captured in. Even the double bass solo is engaging and that doesn’t happen very often. This speaker is unusually good at what some term micro dynamics, that is the volume level of every note being played, this is something that many speakers fail to convey but here there is so much clarity and definition that this sort of nuance is very clear.

Read Review

Positive Feedback Online, Adam Goldfine, 2018

To say I love these speakers would be an understatement. Unlike the Ohm C2s of my youth, the HRS-130s not only did not disappoint, but they exceeded all expectations and surprised me with their unique and lifelike presentation of the music. Between their tonal accuracy and range, bass slam, micro and macro dynamic capability and exquisite imaging capability, the HRS-130s are a must audition if you are shopping for speakers in this price range. They are in fact my new favourite speakers in the under $25,000 range. And if you are just curious about what a new paradigm for stereo reproduction sounds like you should still check them out. The HRS-130s are different, very different. You owe it to yourself to have a listen.

Read Review

The Absolute Sound, Dick Olsher, 2017

What you get here is a world-class wide-range driver that is exceptionally well engineered and superbly integrated into a speaker that is almost perfect for a small-to-medium-sized room. In my estimation, the carbon-fibre DDD is one of the top five driver innovations of the past 40 years, delivering the coherent phase and uniform power response first envisioned by Lincoln Walsh. Given the right amplifier and room setup, the HRS-130 ticks all the important sonic boxes and clearly edges out the competition when it comes to palpable imaging. No wonder the German Physiks HRS-130 is currently my favourite speaker under $25k.

Read Review

Tone Audio, Jeff Dorgay, 2017

The German Physiks HRS 130 speakers are a triumph of audio engineering, offering a high level of sonic accuracy, with little distortion and the ability to generate a massive, immersive sound field that few speakers at any price can match. I highly suggest you audition a pair!

Read Review

Hi-Fi Choice, Chris Ward, 2016

The HRS-130 combines the speed and imaging qualities of an electrostatic panel with the coherence and communication of a full-range driver, along with the air shifting qualities of a dedicated subwoofer. Huge, wide, tall soundstages are continuous sweet spots that permeate even large listening rooms in an entirely natural and unforced way with fast transient dynamics, pure bass notes and dense complexity simply flowing as music should. Acoustic music feels live and mesmerising, while electronica is able to transport you to another world. The HRS-130 deserves high-quality and generous amplification to shine fully. £14.5k is a considerable sum, but this is a lot of high-quality engineering and hand-finished luxury for the price, and I’ve just heard £1,600 of well-chosen amplification create a performance that could challenge some well-regarded six-figure systems. Add another pair of monoblocks to bi-amp each speaker and it could well be a giant slayer

Read Review

Hi-Fi +, Alan Sircom, 2015

The HRS-130’s bass notes are deep and powerful – far more deep and powerful than the Unlimited, naturally – but are slightly more rounded and intended for ‘organic’ bass played on acoustic or amplified instruments instead of synthetically generated notes……I liked the Unlimited a lot, but I like the HRS-130 a lot more. It brings more bass and more dynamic range to the proceedings, with no significant downsides.

Read Review

Hi-Fi Pig, Janine Elliot, 2015

They are different, not for the sake of it, but because the technology mimics life more than a traditional box ever can, such that they exude the emotion of the performance rather than it being a mechanical performance…..It made a change for me not to have my head in a vice listening to music all week, and I really enjoyed listening to an immersive, uncoloured and open presentation, particularly with live music. My living room never felt so big.

Read Review

2021

Publication: StereoNET UK
Date: September 2021
Country: UK
Language: English
Product: HRS-130
view/download pdf (1.0mb)

2020

Publication: The Ear
Date: October 2020
Country: UK
Language: English
Product: HRS-130
view/download pdf (1.0mb)

2018

Publication: Positive Feedback Online
Date: December 2018
Country: USA
Language: English
Product: HRS-130
web link

2017

Publication: The Absolute Sound
Date: November 2017
Country: USA
Language: English
Product: HRS-130
web link

2017

Publication: Tone Audio
Date: April 2017
Country: USA
Language: English
Product: HRS-130
web link

2016

Publication: Hi-Fi Choice
Date: November 2016
Country: UK
Language: English
Product: HRS-130
view/download pdf (4MB)

2015

Publication: Hi-Fi+
Date: May 2015
Country: UK
Language: English
Product: HRS-130
view/download pdf (1.5MB)

2015

Publication: Hi-Fi Pig
Date: February 2015
Country: UK
Language: English
Product: HRS-130
view/download pdf (0.5MB)

2015

Publication: New HiFi
Date: 2015
Country: Taiwan
Language: Mandarin
Product: HRS-130
view/download pdf (6.7mb)