Starke Sound takes on the mid-priced high-end speaker community with its $4398 per pair IC-H2 floor standing speakers.

Starke IC-H2 Floorstanding Loudspeaker

Speakers in the $3500-$5000 range represent one of the most competitive arenas for manufacturers. We expect less compromise, yet there are still budget constraints on the builders. Starke Sound has bravely entered this market with a high-end floor stander that is more accurately called a monitor speaker with a built-in stand. The IC-H2 speakers feature a one-inch dome tweeter, four-inch midrange, and 5.25-inch long-throw woofer in a cabinet about 38 inches tall. Starke’s decision to make this a floor-standing speaker instead of a monitor speaker that requires a stand is an intelligent one, as the additional internal volume allows for extended bass response and efficiency across the lower frequencies. Let’s explore how successful Starke has been in attacking such a challenging market.

Highlights

Starke Sound IC-H2 Loudspeakers

  • LMF® Technology
  • Aluminum Face Plate
  • NeoPower™ N50H magnet driver
  • Starke Sound LMF®
  • Nomex Driver Material®
  • Narrow baffle
  • High sensitivity
  • Elegant appearance
  • 6th order crossover from woofer to midrange
  • 8th order crossover from midrange to tweeter
Introduction

It is 1982, and you are in the market for a new performance car. You look at the Porsche 911, Nissan 280Z, and Mazda RX-7. None of these cars does everything you need. The Corvette is still years away from losing its image as a mid-life crisis car, so that’s out, too. Then you hear about this new car from Audi called the Quattro. It is quick. It is fast. It handles. It is all-wheel drive. It is stylish. It has EVERYTHING you want in a performance car with one exception: no one knows what it is! You decide that you don’t care, as you are a form follows function type of buyer, and you take the plunge. Forty years later, you are recognized as a pioneer who helped put Audi on the map as a performance car company. This is where Starke Sound is with its IC-H2. The question is: will the audio community embrace this wonderful speaker?

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In the IC-H2, Starke has made a speaker which, much like the Quattro, is versatile. It is compact in size and elegant in appearance. My review sample is piano black with a matte black aluminum baffle and would look right at home in a Manhattan high-rise apartment. It can be placed within two inches of a wall with a minimal loss in the sound stage; and from this position, it delivers bass below 30Hz without a subwoofer. If you are an audiophile who has décor issues with pulling a speaker two or more feet out from a wall for it to image, Starke Sound has you covered.

If you are looking for an immense sound stage, and have the room to place a speaker out in the room, the IC-H2 will deliver with aplomb. To top things off, Starke Sound makes a product called the Sub-35. It is a compact subwoofer that matches the IC-H2’s looks and can bring the thunder into your room by extending bass down to 20Hz.

STARKE SOUND IC-H2 SPECIFICATIONS
Max output @ 1 meter:

113dB

Frequency Response:

28-20kHz (+/- 2dB)

Recommended power:

40-250 W

Nominal Impedance:

4 Ohms

Sensitivity (2.83V @ 1m):

90.5dB

Dimensions (inches):

38.8 H x 8.7 W x 11.0 D / With Grill and Stand

Tweeter:

1-inch custom made soft dome tweeter and LMF® technology inside

Midrange:

4-inch Starke Carbon sandwich cone with Nomex® and NeoPower™ and LMF® technology inside

Woofer:

5.25-inch Starke Carbon cone with Nomex®and LMF® technology inside

Crossover:

300Hz / 2,900Hz

Finish:

Aluminum and Piano Lacquer

Color options:

Piano black / Piano white / Piano red

Weight:

33.7lbs (15.3kg) / each

M.S.R.P.:

$4,398 per pair

Warranty:

10 years (from original purchase date)

Company:

Starke Sound

SECRETS Tags:

starke sound, ic-h2, floor-standing speaker, tower speaker, full-range speaker, Speaker Review 2021

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Design

Starke IC-H2 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Front Rear

The Starke Sound IC-H2 loudspeakers are a three-way loudspeaker design with a 5.25-inch long-throw woofer, a 4-inch midrange, and a 1-inch soft-dome tweeter. All three drivers are built in-house by Starke Sound. The fact that Starke Sound’s lead engineer, Dan Wiggins, is involved in the design and manufacture of each woofer, midrange, and tweeter in the IC-H2 loudspeakers is the start of what makes them so special. Wiggins has been designing speakers for decades, and while he may not be a household name, he is one of the finest designers in the industry.

Starke IC-H2 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Drivers

Wiggins has taken materials and technology, added measurements and listening tests, and designed a speaker with as few compromises as possible. This is THE single most compelling aspect of the IC-H2s. In addition to the custom-designed, built-in-house drivers are the equally well-thought-out cabinets and crossover design. The cabinet is exceptionally inert. When trying the knuckle test, it feels almost as if one is striking granite. There is also the aluminum baffle upon which the drivers are mounted, which further adds an element of the type of solid cabinet one might find in much more expensive speakers.

The crossover is effectively a 6th order between the 5.25-inch woofer and 4-inch midrange. This 6th order specification means a 36dB per octave roll-off between the drivers above and below the 300Hz crossover point. Let’s explore why this crossover is so important, along with why Wiggin’s design choices make this speaker special.

At the 300Hz crossover point between the woofer and midrange, the length of the sine wave is about 45 inches. The centers of the woofer and midrange are 6 inches apart. By definition, at the crossover point, both drivers are delivering “half” of what we are hearing. Our ears will hear these two drivers as a “point source,” as the wavelength is seven times longer than the distance between the two driver’s centers. The steep roll-off furthers this point source experience between the woofer and mid-range. A similar experience is had between the midrange and tweeter but with an even steeper 8th order (effective) crossover.

When one takes all these parts and then puts them into a narrow baffle (8.7 inches), the resulting loudspeaker will create what audiophiles refer to as a large soundstage with excellent imaging. We’ll explore this in the listening tests. For now, suffice it to say that Dan Wiggins and his team have designed for us a remarkably elegant loudspeaker that makes beautiful music.

Setup

Starke IC-H2 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Back

The Starke Sound IC-H2 loudspeakers are tremendously versatile and will work well in a variety of room placements. With a weight of only 34 pounds, and being under 40 inches tall, finding the right location in the room is not as back-straining as are most high-end towers. As we have the space to do so, these small towers were placed 40 inches from the back wall and 29 inches from each sidewall in our favorite listening room (and the same room in which all speakers are tested). The rest of the system consists of a Cambridge Audio Edge NQ preamplifier with built-in streaming, the matching Edge W power amplifier, and a Yamaha CDS-2100 SACD/CD Player. Speaker cables and XLR interconnects are the top-of-the-line Blue Truth models from Better Cables. After some experimentation, it was decided to not engage any toe-in with these speakers. Their design with wide dispersion drivers on a narrow baffle made placing the speakers facing forward the best option. No subwoofer, room correction, or eq of any kind was employed during the listening tests. The IC-H2 pair was so easy to properly place that this description seems almost boring. In this case, that is a virtue. By acting as a point source across the bandwidth, these small Starke Sound towers take the drama out of the setup.

In Use

Dan Wiggins, the chief designer of all Starke Sound speakers, has a saying: “Woofers should not midrange, midranges should not woof, or tweet and tweeters should not midrange.” He believes that the three drivers should work perfectly as individual units in a linear fashion. He accomplished this with thousands of hours of measuring, listening, designing, and finally manufacturing. The 4-inch midrange is the anchor of the system, operating from 300 to 2,900Hz. The ultra-steep crossover network means that the 30-300Hz bandwidth will be exclusively the work of the 5.25-inch woofer, the 300-2,900Hz area goes to the 4-inch mid with 2,900Hz and up being the job of the tweeter. The science behind this is sound. The length of the sound wave for every frequency produced by each driver is at least 50 percent longer than the effective diameter of each driver. On paper, this all makes for a speaker with wide dispersion ability. My job is to do some serious listening to hear if Mr. Wiggins has managed to turn his design goals into executed reality.

Starke IC-H2 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Jazz at the Pawnshop

This 1976 all-analog recording from The Jazz Pawnshop in Stockholm, Sweden has been a standard-bearer for testing stereo systems for decades, and with good reason. It features Arne Domnerus on alto sax and clarinet, Bengt Hallburg on piano, Lars Estrand on vibes, Georg Riedel on bass, and Egil Johansen on drums. All five are accomplished musicians known as the Domnerus Group, and this disc is almost 70 minutes of audio bliss.

We open with Limehouse Blues, featuring Arne on the clarinet. The lead-in to this first track is about 40 seconds of the band taking their positions on stage, and one is already into the performance with the IC-H2’s. We hear an audience member cough. We hear people moving chairs to get ready for the performance.

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Then we hear music. Arne is front and center with his clarinet. George is to his left and back a bit on bass, and what wonderful bass it is. When one hears an upright bass live, it’s never bloated. Done properly, it makes one want more, and this is exactly what the Starke towers do. The bass is all there, tight and tuneful, keeping pace with Arne’s clarinet and Egil’s equally satisfying percussion work. The vibes and piano trade-off with compelling tracks within Limehouse Blues. The IC-H2’s do a first-rate job of putting one into the performance.

The lead-in to the third track, High Life, is a testament to timing and dynamics by this talented group of performers. It’s light percussion work and piano that makes you lean into the stage, then we are treated to sax and vibes and even audience participation with the listeners clapping along.

The individual performances on this disc are some of the best ever. The IC-H2s throw back the curtain and treat us to exceptional detail at every level. What is truly special, though, is the entirety of the performance. After I did the “reviewer thing” with critical listening, I found there was an urge to play the disc again and just relax. It was then that the reality hit that these small towers can bring one into the performance of a jazz ensemble. The IC-H2’s gave me an opportunity to take off the reviewer hat, pour a drink, and go to a concert.

Starke IC-H2 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Led Zeppelin II

Led Zeppelin II is an album that was almost made on the run. The band was limited in the amount of studio time they had, but they made the most of it. Whole Lotta Love is a whole lotta fun on the IC-H2s. When the song is cascading back in forth between the two speakers, something special happens: it extends well outside them. The articulation combines with a width of soundstage that one’s jaw may drop when hearing it for the first time. Robert Plant’s background/foreground singing towards the end of the track is brought totally to life by the Starke towers.

What Is and What Should Never Be will dispel any notion that these relatively small towers cannot rock. When Jimmy Page lets loose on the guitar, it is in your face in an intensely musical way. If you are an air guitarist, you have to experience The Lemon Song on the IC-H2s. We are talking hard-driving, parent annoying, old-fashioned rock n’ roll! This really can’t be a 5.25-inch woofer with a 4-inch midrange, can it? Oh … and the bass line … bring on the BLUES!

Thank You is delivered in all its delicacy and grandeur, from Plant’s soft vocals that open this underrated song to the harmonizing of the band, where the IC-H2s let me clearly hear each band member’s distinct voice. It’s a touching love song, and the Starkes bring out the emotional dedication of this track with aplomb.

The drum solo on Moby Dick along with the power of Ramble On do nothing but cement that the Starke Sound IC-H2s are far more than a jazz and classical music speaker. They are a speaker that you can use to impress your friends with a WOW factor all while delivering a wall of music with credible clarity.

Starke IC-H2 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Spyro Gyra

Good to Go-Go is a well-engineered disc of modern fusion-style jazz that places more demands on a speaker than one might think at first listen. Track 5 (Funkyard Dog) opens with some very quick percussion with a bass riff that many speakers present well, but not with a lot of accuracy. The Starke towers handled this micro-dynamic track easily, with clearly discernible, individual drum hits to go along with inspirational bass lines from Scott Ambush. In “Along for the Ride,” Bonny B demonstrates some serious percussion talents with lightning-fast, soft strikes on the skin of the snare. It requires a speaker with accurate articulation to present this section properly; the IC-H2 pair does just that. These are a speaker pair with the kind of midrange one rarely finds in any loudspeaker, let alone one selling for less than $5000 for the pair. The title song (Good to Go-Go) has a rapid, asymmetrical feel to it that has the percussion and bass sometimes working with the saxophone, and sometimes in the opposite direction. The IC-H2s make all this sound quite natural, whereas lesser speakers just tend to make a bit of a blur out of it. The attention to detail with the 4-inch midrange and crossover network is on display with this challenging track. The Starke IC-H2 pair is so accurate that one might not appreciate the design at first. This is what accurate speakers do: they just let the music out.

Starke IC-H2 Floorstanding Loudspeaker

Before moving to Minneapolis in 1994, Eiji Oue was conductor of the Erie Philharmonic. It was a sad day for us when he moved on. Our little city sold out our largest arena in tribute to Mr. Oue. Even though Erie is not a bastion of culture, Mr. Oue gave us his very best during his time here and is still not forgotten. Bolero was an easy decision regarding adding it to the mix for testing out the Starke Sound IC-H2 loudspeakers. The Overture brings to life the power these modest speakers can deliver. The large kettle drum hits with authority that makes one wonder how a 5.25-inch woofer can deliver it so competently.

Flight of the Bumblebee is rendered with a softness that draws one into the concert hall and sets the stage (pun intended) for an evening of greatness without the need to don a tuxedo. Les Preludes is renowned for telling the story of a young man growing into maturity. Liszt referred to it as a symphonic poem. It is a highly emotional composition, taking one through the peaks and valleys we all must relish yet also endure. Several critics took Liszt to task for this style of musical poetry. In their view, music was music, and to put it in modern terms, it was not something with which one should tamper.

The IC-H2s are nothing short of a masterpiece on this track, delivering all the grandeur Liszt intended. Mr. Oue and his orchestra bring this incredible piece of orchestra history to life, and the IC-H2s bring it home.

Measurements

Starke Sound specifies that the IC-H2 will measure +2 dB from 28 to 28,000Hz in an anechoic setting. A linear frequency response is considered one of the hallmark performance areas for any loudspeaker, along with measured distortion. Of course, we don’t listen in anechoic chambers. We listen in real rooms with reflective surfaces and room nodes. There is a general tendency that speakers with exceptionally good point source characteristics tend to measure well in real rooms. They do so because of the broad dispersion across the bandwidth.

Starke IC-H2 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Sweep

The IC-H2s measured VERY well in our room. The response curve at the listening position measured at +4dB from 63 to over 12,000Hz. Below 63Hz, the room gain in our high-end listening area gives an additional 5-7dB boost. As the graph shows, the effective bass response is to a point below 30Hz, which is remarkable for a small tower with a 5.25-inch woofer.

Starke IC-H2 Floorstanding Loudspeaker THD

The Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) sweep was conducted (at 95dB adjusted for the 3-meter distance from my listening position to one meter) using a 6-second sine wave sweep. Even at this relatively high level of SPL, the peak THD was 2.08 percent at 614Hz and averaged 1.11 percent from 50 to 8,000Hz. This is also excellent performance, especially considering the size of the IC-H2s. Measuring THD in a long sine wave sweep in room makes for a more difficult test than, say, a 1-foot measurement at a steady frequency. As I catalog more speakers using this methodology, we will get more useful data regarding comparisons against other speakers.

The measurements reinforce the promise from Starke Sound on these speakers. That promise is a full-range speaker for an affordable price that will fit in a lot of rooms and decors that other, larger speakers might be out of place.

Conclusions

Starke IC-H2 Floorstanding Loudspeaker

The STARKE SOUND IC-H2 FLOOR-STANDING SPEAKERS deliver tremendous performance for their size and amazing sonics for the money. Their design suggests a much more expensive speaker.

Likes
  • Wide and deep sound stage
  • Beautiful Piano Finish
  • Articulate Bass Lines
  • Accurate Vocals
  • World-Class Micro Dynamics
  • Room Friendly Size
  • Performs Well With Any Music
Would Like To See
  • A floor stander between the IC-H2 and the IC-H5

I entered into the review process of the Starke Sound IC-H2s with a healthy dose of wondering about the manufacturer’s claims. I was skeptical that this small tower could hit the 28Hz bass response as promised. I had a hard time thinking that a 5.25-inch woofer, a 4-inch midrange, and a 1-inch dome tweeter could deliver a full-range sound. Our Co-Editor, Carlo Lo Raso, had tested the big brothers to the IC-H2, the IC-H5. The 5 version has multiple 8-inch woofers and a 12-inch passive radiator. Carlo was really impressed with the $15,000 big brothers. It was his review that led me to want to try the IC-H2s.

It turns out that these small towers have hit every performance parameter the company said they would. My original plan was to push these speakers to their limits, then add one of Starke Sound’s subwoofers (the Sub35) to the mix to make this into a full-range speaker. The listening tests combined with the measurements ultimately left me to finish the review of just these towers alone. They are very close to a full-range speaker, with articulate bass extending to below 30Hz. They have a HUGE soundstage. The right disc (we can only put so many discs into the review text) will deliver a stage that extends well outside the speakers in all directions. The three drivers, along with the crossover network, make for an almost point source loudspeaker. I had many evenings of fun with the IC-H2s during which I would play a disc for a guest with the lights off, and ask the guest to estimate how large these speakers must be. Each was astonished to find a 38-inch cabinet that was both elegant and décor friendly, rather than some huge tower speaker.

The IC-H2s love classical music, jazz, rock, and country. If you want to spend an evening with Johnny Cash, you will do it with all the authority his voice commands and without a hint of boom when he sings the deep stuff. There are a lot of wonderful speakers in the $3,500 to $5,000 range, and the Starke Sound IC-H2s are definitely in the ranks of a wonderful speaker for the money. If you get a chance to audition them, I can recommend them highly. If you can’t find a dealer, Starke Sound has a dedicated staff that will assist you in every way possible, including an in-home trial. They are definitely worth a listen!