Arylic CK30C

| Coaxial | 3″ | 60W | Waterproof |

We are reviewing the Arylic CK30C, the newest in-ceiling speakers from Arylic.

The new Arylic CK30C belong to the passive speakers from the brand and being the 3rd in-ceiling model released so far.

In the past we have plenty of DAC, amps and streamers from Arylic but this is the first speaker that we review from them.

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Arylic CK30C Review

Tests & Scores

Accessories & Packaging

We do not expect to get too many accessories included with an in-ceiling speaker; and, indeed, the Arylic CK30C come just with:

• Installation guide card
• Chandelier installation kit

^2.5_/5

Design

The Arylic CK30C are coaxial, passive speakers mainly made for in-ceiling placement (or chandelier speakers) with a fully enclosed design that includes a 16-core silk membrane tweeter combined with a main 3″ aluminum-cone dynamic driver and a dedicated passive subwoofer unit on the back of the body.

The speakers have a tubular form factor with a compact size of just 100mm x 100mm allowing them to be stealthier than other large in-ceiling speaker systems.

Thanks to its design, the speakers were extremely easy to install as an in-ceiling or chandelier speaker.

Mounting them on a hollow ceiling required pre-tracing the right diameter with the help of the installation card bundled with the speaker, pulling the fixing latches and then simply sliding the speaker in the hole.

The latches with springs, automatically go back to the securing, installation position, ensuring that the speakers remain tight in place without the need of any screws nor bolts.

On top of that, due to the feather light weight at around 400 grams per speaker, they were friendly to be mounted on less-sturdy ceilings or as a chandelier speaker without adding too much weight to the installation setup and/or ceiling.

Moreover, the grille have a magnetically attaching/detaching system and are fully paintable, so users can decide to use the speakers with our without the grille or paint it according to taste or to match the ceilings paint color.

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^4.5_/5

Construction Quality and Build

The speakers are reinforced with a sealed back cover and an overall housing built with ABS plastic to withstand a wider range of environmental conditions.

Due to its full enclosure, the CK30C benefit from a better acoustic design for bass and even achieve an IP66 waterproof rating, allowing them to be used and installed in bathrooms or outdoor rooms.

Details such as the terminals, latches, springs, grille and threads; are all made of metal.

^4.5_/5

Sound

We find important to highlight that despite being aimed as speakers designed for ambient sound, rooms, outdoors or home theaters, our Sound section is evaluating its sound performance from an audio-enthusiast/audiophile point of view and not as an average consumer or “ambient speaker”.

Nonetheless, to be fair with these speakers, if you are planning to get them as in-ceiling ambient or home-theater speakers, the Arylic CK30C are more than capable of offering a rich and fun sound and with a lot more output power that you could ever expect from a 3″ small speaker.

If we would have to rate the sound of the speaker before and after a custom-EQ, the score before EQ-retuning would be 7.75 and getting miles better with its true acoustic potential after equalizing it, with a score of 8.

Aside from weighting that these speakers are just 3 inches in diameter and with a range of 216Hz-25000Hz; bass showed a mid-upper bass that is evidently more prominent and sub-bass recessed in comparison, this was probably done to be more versatile adapting to ceiling hanging or in-ceiling installations; as an in-ceiling installation can potentially boost the deeper bass response due to the sort-of acoustic enclosure added by the ceiling itself and sealed front/body/ceiling.

Despite this, if you are intending to place the speakers in their hanging setup, you might want to play around with your EQ and pump up the deeper-bass frequencies.

Of course, due to the small drivers size and enclosure, it is acoustically impossible for the speaker to reproduce deep sub-bass notes but with custom equalization we achieved a much fuller bass response with clear improvement over the body and feel, yet not becoming bouncy.

Mids exhibit some mid-bass bleed and a shy, recessed lower midrange that can add a layer of congestion to the lower mids and deep-pitched vocals. On the other hand, on less bass-heavy tracks, lower mids might suffers less from this.

Upper mids, getting farther from bass frequencies can start to show a cleaner personality and a bit more space to showcase their performance.

Due to the less forward distribution of the midrange, the CK30C do not suffer from harshness nor overly bright tones.

The midrange can benefit from EQ re-tuning by users to remove some of the lower congestion, boost lower mids and even the upper mids.

As a matter of fact, after applying some custom equalization, the midrange of the Arylic speakers showed their full true potential, bringing to the table a well-defined lower mids without congestion and clean and sharp upper mids and female vocals.

Highs presented a similar style as seen on the midrange, with a more darkish and busy sound with just a bit of brightness.

Once again, due to the recessed tuning, there are no boosted sibilance nor fatiguing, piercing highs at any given moment.

The overall tuning of the Arylic CK30C can tend to be conservative with flavor that can have the potential of being perceived as darkish or congested.

If you intention is to get a more audiophile sound from these speakers, we highly recommend to use the Arylic CK30C with a sound system with at least a 8-band/10-band or more EQ that allows you to fine tune the out-of-the-box tuning – or at least a good EQ with decent control of bass, mids and treble.

^3.75_/5

Performance

When setting the expectations right and considering these as speakers for a home-theater or a room-filling ambient music style, the Arylic CK30C were a great companion to match indoor and outdoor rooms and making them way more fun with a fixed, in-ceiling sound system (even stereo sound if you buy and install a pair)

With a rated power of 60W and in spite of being just 3″ in diameter, the drivers of the Arylic CK30C were surprisingly loud and clear.

Moreover, even with a single speaker, the CK30C were able to widely spread its sound, covering either small or wide rooms.

As at the offices of ThePhonograph we have more speakers and amps that anybody could ever want, we decided to install the pair of Arylic CK30C as part of a 7.1 home-theater system, working as the left and right channels for the back speakers.

For this type of use, the out-of-the-box sound tuning was good enough but we still find the after-EQ sound to be far superior and much more enjoyable, so we always use these speakers with an EQ, regardless if it they are covering a music listening task, ambient sound or home-cinema and home-theater session.

^4.25_/5

Response to Equalization

As we mentioned in the Sound section, the Arylic CK30C can benefit a lot from the use of an equalizer, giving them a whole new open, clear and fuller sound.

In addition to this, the speakers responded remarkably well to custom equalization with plenty of room to boost/sedate different frequencies ranges showing excellent improvement, yet without introducing typical sound degrading issues such as boxy mids, fatiguing highs nor boomy bass.

^4.5_/5

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Scores

Arylic CK30C Scores

Arylic CK30C Technical Specifications

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Arylic CK30C

7.9

SCORE

7.9/10

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