ProAc K1 Speakers Review
I have been listening to ProAc speakers for the best part of 30 years, and in that time, I have owned and reviewed quite a fair few pairs, from the excellent D15s to the stunning D25 & D28's paired with Naim Audio and Cyrus Audio which I loved, to the incredible K6's. It is the stunning sound of their speakers that always pulls me in. Musically, they are among the most natural-sounding and impressive speakers I have listened to over the years, and they always seem to find their way back to me; I have only ever heard good-sounding ProAc speakers. The Response range has been a firm favourite of mine for many years now, and the ProAc D2R speakers have been my resident speakers for the last 5 years here at The Speaker Shack, which I have used to review many different products, from amplifiers to DACs and turntables.
ProAc demos have always excelled at the annual Bristol HiFi Show, consistently putting on impressive shows. Over the years, they have featured the Response and K series of speakers, from the K1 and K6 to the flagship K10 speakers, which were paired with Accuphase electronics and sounded so impressive. I have also heard them at one of the Audio Venue dealerships in Ealing, partnered with Dan D'Agostino electronics, and I loved the sound from this system. When I owned a pair of K6 speakers, they were driven by the 300-watt MA8000 McIntosh amplifier, which sounded so good that I really wanted to get a pair of K1 speakers in to demo and review here at The Speaker Shack. Thanks to Zoe Tyler and David Johnson for making it happen.
ProAc has a rich history in the speaker industry, dating back to the 1970s, when it was known as Celef Audio and was based in Borehamwood, north-west London. Stewart Tyler started the business with one shop, and with the success of his early speaker designs, it soon grew to include the RT1 and Domestic models he was producing. It has always been a strong family business, with all family members involved in the Celef Audio brand. It was not until 1979 that the Celef Audio name was officially changed to ProAc, which is short for Professional Acoustics. The ProAc family business moved to its current HQ in Brackley in the early 90s, and it has stayed there ever since. They continue to design and innovate, with new speaker designs currently in production and with the latest, unveiled at this year's Bristol HiFi show. The new DB1R speakers take the already impressive DB1 speaker but now feature ProAc's stunning Ribbon tweeter.
Build Quality and Features
ProAc speakers' build quality has always been of the highest quality, with all of their speakers hand-built here in the UK at their Bracknell HQ. The K1s are no exception, and they look stunning in the Silk White finish I have here for review. They arrived on a shipping pallet containing 4 boxes, including the dedicated K1 stands designed to optimise the K1 speakers' performance. Considering these are standmount speakers, they are fairly large compared to my current D2R speakers, with added height and depth to the cabinet's design. They feature a downward-firing port that directs airflow into a plinth on the speaker's base. I find that with this design, the bass hits much harder, and it also helps with positioning, as they are not as fussy as, say, a rear-firing port. The cabinets are fashioned in various wood finishes and use High Density Fibreboard (HDF) panels of varying thicknesses, which help control resonances within the speaker cabinet. Inside the cabinets, ProAc uses bitumen to further reduce internal resonances, and the cabinets are extremely rigid and solidly built. They also produce premium finishes that push the price up over standard finishes, but they do look gorgeous, and I love the new Liquid Amber finish, which has just been released. The finest components have been used for the K1 crossover, with dual-layer circuit boards and ProAc's own multistrand oxygen-free copper cables for all internal wiring. The internal wiring is split for Bi wiring or Bi amplification, and on the rear of the cabinets, you will find four speaker binding posts. The dedicated stands need to be assembled; they come with clear instructions and do not take long to put together. They are designed to allow the K1 speakers to perform optimally. Still, they look stunning, with a clean, high-quality finish that features the aluminium pole at the centre flowing downward and twin poles on the rear for sturdy support. High-quality aluminium spikes are provided, which are adjustable for stability. The naming of the K series is thanks to the Kevlar drivers that they use in all of the K series range, and the K1 features a 6.5" Kevlar Mid/Bass driver. Then you have the ProAc ribbon tweeter, which is one of the finest I have heard, allowing the top end to extend to 30 kHz, while the bass driver extends down to 28Hz thanks to K1's larger cabinet design and tuning with the downward-firing port. The K1 speaker's sensitivity is measured at 90 dB with an impedance of 8 ohms, which means they are relatively easy to drive, and the recommended amplifier rating from ProAc is 10-150 watts. ProAc is now producing their speakers with magnetic grills, which look fantastic because they give the speakers' front baffle such a clean look compared to the older grills on my D2R speakers, and they're so much easier to take on and off.
On the ProAc website, they have some wonderful quotes from Stewart Tyler, and he really did build his speakers with a passion and love for music, and most importantly, a talent for knowing when something sounded right. There are so many that I love reading, and they really do ring true. Sometimes, people get too hung up on measurements and statistics rather than listening to what sounds right to them, and this quote is just one of them.
“The beauty of music and the joy and emotion it brings is so much more important than designs based on scientific measurements and statistics. Designing loudspeakers is an art, a gift of knowing when something is right – when the soundstage is portrayed, the speakers disappear, and you thrill to the music." Stewart Tyler
Setting up the speakers is straightforward, and I position the K1 speakers in the same place as my D2R speakers, with a slight toe-in to dial in the sweet spot and best position for imaging. Thanks to the down-firing port, they are quite flexible for positioning. However, my speakers are usually placed about a metre away from the rear wall. I am using Montaudio Chatham SH-1 speaker cables, which connect my Cyrus Audio 82 DAC integrated amplifier and PSX-R to power the K1s. For source equipment, I am using my Cyrus CD8SE2 CD player and a Denon DP400 turntable with a DL A110 MC cartridge for vinyl playback. Streaming is handled by the brilliant Bluesound Node Nano streamer, which is connected to my Chord Electronics Mojo2 as my DAC. I am using a combination of Montaudio and Chord cables to connect everything up.
Sound Quality and Performance
The first album I am listening to has been a firm favourite of mine, and I have owned it on CD for many years now. It features various female artists with such beautiful vocals and music. I used to love listening to it with the ProAc K6 speakers, as they delivered a wonderful performance with so many layers of texture in both the midrange and bass. The bass delves deep on some of the tracks, and the Kevlar drivers deliver stunning dynamics and shifts in pace, creating a captivating performance, so I could not wait to hear this album through the ProAc K1 speakers.
The first track on CD1 is aptly titled "Angel". It features the sublime vocals of one of my favourite female artists, Sarah McLachlan whos voice sounds so soothing, and from the very start, you notice that the scale of the sound stage produced from the K1's is larger than the D2R speakers that I own, the lower piano notes and bass is felt with every strike and Sarah McLachlans vocals are placed centre stage with excellent depth as her vocals are projected out into my room. You could easily say the performance of the K1 speakers is more akin to that of a floorstander, given the scale and dynamics of the music presented in front of me; both the ribbon tweeter and the Kevlar driver blend seamlessly. The solid build, cabinet design, and crossover tuning of the K1's allow for a stunning presentation of the music, with excellent speed, dynamics, and timing. Those Kevlar mid/bass drivers start and stop on a dime, with an excellent transient response, enabling lightning-fast, musically proficient shifts in tone with beautiful textures.
Listening to this CD and the wonderful music it features makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, such is the emotion it evokes from the ProAc K1 speakers' performance. Track 4 by Fac 15 - Stay With
Me Till Dawn, featuring vocals from Cathy Ogden, has some incredible bass
performance, and the ProAc K1 speakers do not disappoint, showing how low they can
extend, as they energise my room with low frequencies that you can really feel. It's not just the low end that impresses, though; the higher frequencies from the ribbon tweeter are just magical, producing an airy, spacious image with real sparkle that I love, as with the ringing chimes in this track that move from left to right far beyond the confines of the speakers. The speakers themselves simply disappear from the soundstage, and you are left with an image that extends well into my room, with good height, width, and depth, delivering stunning scale to the music and producing sound more like a full-size floor-standing speaker than a standmount speaker. The detail and clarity the K1's produce are of reference quality, and the vocals sound perfectly natural and have a beautiful tonal balance. You can see why this speaker took many years to develop, or should I say hear, as the driver integration and crossover is seamless. I love a good 2-way design, and ProAc has mastered it for a long time now.
My next album is from a concert held back in 2005 by the legendary and first supergroup, Cream, featuring one of my all-time favourite guitarists, Eric Clapton, on guitar, Jack Bruce on bass, and Ginger Baker on drums. This is a live recording taken from their concerts at the iconic venue The Royal Albert Hall. The acoustics of this venue are probably the best for such a concert. I have been there a few times, and the power of the music is incredible, resonating through your body. The drums have real visceral impact and power, and the bass guitar sounds amazing too; you can feel every chord plucked. It's just an amazing experience, and I urge anyone to attend. I own this concert on double CD, and it sounds utterly brilliant, replicating the acoustics of the live venue with all the power and thrills of the concert. I have loved listening to it with my ProAc D2R speakers, and with the K1's in situ, they are proving to be quite a step up, with massive scale and power in the music. This is easily one of the best live concerts I have on CD, and I would have loved to be at this concert; owning it on CD is the next best thing. It is also available on 3 special-edition coloured vinyls, which I will probably purchase as they are that good.
CD 2 has some of the best Cream tracks on it, track 4, White Room, has been on constantly, and the ProAc K1 speakers deliver a stunning performance with a soundstage that fills my room with the stage from the Royal Albert Hall, Jack Bruce is playing to the left and Eric Clapton to the right. The powerful drumming from Ginger Baker takes centre stage, the ProAc K1’s presents the drums with great attack, delivering real punch and snap to the bass from the drums, which I can feel in my chest, before Jack Bruce’s vocals come in, the image has real depth and width which extends so much further than the speaker confines. You can hear the crowds all around my room filling the auditorium with great ambience; it really does pull you into the music, creating the live venue in my room. Everything about the ProAc K1 speakers' performance excels, from the glorious midrange full of texture to the stunning high notes that project into the room, filling it with sounds that just seem to hang in front of me, yet with an expansive image. Then there is the bass, which, until now, the AVID EVO 4 speakers had always set the bar for bass delivery, but the K1's certainly hit harder and lower in terms of depth and power. The ribbon tweeter is one of the finest, allowing every detail to be revealed to the listener. The performance of both drivers in this design is seamless. When Eric Clapton sings on this track, his vocals are startlingly powerful. I heard him live at the Royal Albert Hall back in 2024, and the K1s replicate his vocals perfectly.
Track 7 Sunshine of Your Love on this disc is another favourite of mine, and it brings back memories: when I was much younger, I used to own Cream's Disraeli Gears on cassette in the late 80s and drive around in the summer, listening to it at full volume. I recently purchased the reissue of Disraeli Gears on vinyl and have also been listening to it with a video, which I have included in this review, and sharing lots of videos on my social media channels. Still, this live version is certainly my favourite, and even though it was recorded in 2005, Cream sound better than ever as a group, and the ProAc K1 speakers translate that into the stunning sound produced at this concert. Even at very high volumes they never sound fatiguing and I can listen to the K1’s all day. Ginger Baker’s drumming skills on some of these tracks are simply incredible and his powerful performance on this track is undeniable, some of the best as he powers through and the K1 speakers deliver his skill with utmost clarity, the punch from the kick drum is felt and it leaves me with a huge grin on my face. And the same can be said with track 5 TOAD which has Ginger Baker doing a marathon of drumming which sounds absolutely stunning, the K1’s translate his skill and talent perfectly.
I have been listening to so much music. The above is only a snippet of what I have been listening to as I have been playing everything from Classical to Jazz to Rock. Some of my favourite electronic music, and no matter what I play, the K1 speakers never fail to impress with their natural and musically addictive sound. They can sound relaxed when you just want to listen at low volumes, allowing every detail to be revealed. Still, when you want to play loud, they step up and absolutely rock with everything you play. A pure reference monitor from this legendary speaker company, I just wish I would've had my 300 watts of McIntosh power or even a tube amplifier, as I know the rewards would've been even greater.
Conclusions and Final Thoughts
The K1 speakers represent a pure reference quality stand mount speaker from ProAc, which brings the flagship K series technology into a smaller package, the qualities that I loved in the K6 model that I owned available as a standmount speaker. The bass reproduction from this speaker is powerful and deep, but it packs a serious punch. Then there are the electrostatic-type qualities of the midrange, which is full of rich textures that are an absolute delight, coupled with the incredible performance of the ProAc ribbon tweeter, which has amazing detail and clarity. All together it makes for a highly polished reference speaker which could easily compete with a high-end floorstanding design. One of the finest standmounts available today.
The Speaker Shack awards the ProAc K1 speakers an Editors' Choice award and a stamp of approval.
Price at time of review with dedicated ProAc stands: £8,700
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