Saba Freiburg WIII is the company's flagship model in 1953. In that year, only Grundig 5050 could compete with Saba Freiburg in terms of sound quality.
No other device was provided with concentric loudspeakers and, at the same time, with the 2 x EL84 (6BQ8) push-pull power amplifier.
The sound performance is very satisfying in both devices. The tweeter aligned with the woofer plays voices and solo instruments with unsuspecting brightness and presence.
With the second reinforcing woofer, the depth of the bass is inspiring and the holding power is also remarkable.
We are talking about actual 7W which, with such powerful loudspeakers, enough for large places.
The solution of concentric loudspeakers, unfortunately, was not adopted for the devices subsequently created both by Saba and Grunding, but it was later taken up by Graetz for some of its top-of-the-rang models.
Now, it is one of the most adopted solutions in Hi-End speakers.
In the radio section, three peculiarities can be underlined:
- the Muting button
By pushing this button, the FM stations search becomes very quiet. The noise and interferences that are normally heard while moving from one station to another in the research phase are quietened. The Tuning Indicator decreases its sensitivity in the interval between two stations, regaining automatically the maximum sensitivity as soon as it gets closer to the station. A pleasant and exclusive refinement.
- KW-Lupe
When listening to broadcasts in the short wave band, tuning is often difficult because of the small bandwidth. It only takes a slight movement of the knob to lose the station. In order to solve this problem, Saba drew up the tuning precision control in Short Waves (KW-Lupe). This is how it works: press button K to select the Short Wave band. Tune to a radio station through the big knob of AM bands. Finally, refine the tuning by turning the small knob of the FM band, which in this case works as precision tuning for Short Waves.
- ORT-S.
It is possible to store a radio station in Medium Waves and rename it simply by pushing the ORT-S button. The storing mechanism is very simple. Press button ORT-S. Under the radio there is a hole with a screw. By turning that screw with a screwdriver, it is possible to tune to the favourite station. From this moment, every time the button ORT-S will be pushed it will tune to the preset station. In order to listen to other broadcasts in Medium Waves, it will be necessary to just push the button M and use normally the big tuning knob.
As usual for German companies, the series name, Freiburg in this case, is maintained throughout the years, even if the models produced are very different from each other. Among the devices of the Freiburg series, the WIII model has unique features. The previous models do not have the same tone controls, the next models lack the concentric loudspeakers. They have other features, equally interesting... but not these.
freiburg w3 - cn
