The Carmel is a relatively compact, 41-inch tall, two-way, floorstanding loudspeaker whose acoustic-suspension enclosure is CNC-milled from solid slabs of 6061-T651 heat-treated aircraft aluminum. Build-quality is stupendous; indeed, the quality and precision of YG’s machining reminded me of the look and feel of internal parts found in high-quality mechanical flight instruments used in military aircraft (back in pre-CAD/CAM days, I helped pay my way through college by working as a draftsman for an aircraft instrument manufacturer—an experience that forever redefined my notion of what “precision manufacturing” really means).
The top section of the Carmel’s enclosure houses a highly modified Scan-Speak ring-radiator-type tweeter mounted in the throat of a waveguide that is milled directly into the surface of the speaker’s thick aluminum front baffle board. Eagle-eyed enthusiasts will note that the tweeter uses the bullet-shaped pole piece commonly seen in comparatively low-cost Vifa tweeters, rather than the needle-nosed pole piece use in Scan-Speak Revelators, but make no mistake; the unit is a Scan-Speak driver through and through, albeit with a fair amount of YG’s own “special sauce” thrown in for good measure.
Down below, and positioned in a separate sealed chamber, is a modified Scan-Speak 7-inch mid/bass driver. The lower section of the enclosure looks deceptively simple at first glance, but a closer look reveals that it is tapered in two axes—side-to-side and front-to-back—to help break up internal reflections. Interestingly, the main volume of the mid/bass driver enclosure uses no stuffing material at all, and according to YG none is needed. Down near the bottom of the enclosure, however, there is an internally vented, metal-walled chamber loaded with precise quantities of a proprietary damping material. YG’s larger speakers—the Anat and Kipod models—also use conceptually similar dedicated internal damping chambers, albeit ones that are implemented somewhat differently in the bigger speakers.
