AXPONA 2014 Coverage Part Three: Loudspeakers

For this final part of our AXPONA coverage, we will turn our attention to loudspeakers. Speakers are where the ‘rubber meets the road’ in audio. It’s the end of the signal chain, and so it’s only proper that they should end our coverage. More than any other component in an audio system, the speakers will determine the quality of sound. What’s more, it also determine the appearance of the system more than any other component and also how that system will fit into the life of the user. Some people build their entire rooms around the speakers, while others don’t want the speakers to be visible. Luckily for everyone, there are so many different ways of converting an electrical signal into an acoustic signal that there is a speaker for everyone.

Acoustic Zen Crescendo

You don’t see too many attempts at transmission line cabinets these days for the simple reason that they are difficult to design, complicated to build, and therefore expensive. However, when your speakers have a base cost of $16,000, you can afford to use a bit more time and care in their construction than normal. Acoustic Zen has done this, and the result is their superb Crescendo. The Crescendos are a three-way speaker using a MTM driver orientation (mid/woofer-tweeter-mid/woofer) using a 2” horn-loaded tweeter and two 5” mid/woofers for the top half of the cabinet, while the lower half features a transmission line design using dual 8” drivers for bass. A transmission line design is where the speaker cabinet is built as a resonant pipe specially tuned to the driver’s resonant frequency. As mentioned, TL’s are difficult to design, particularly when they need to be stuffed into a small enclosure, as in the Crescendo’s case.  However, Acoustic Zen has managed to pull it off; the resulting sound was terrific, and the Crescendos filled the room with clean and potent sound.

Aerial Acoustics 5B

The Aerial Acoustic room just plain old sounded good. Many of the large speakers at AXPONA were constrained by the small rooms, but the 5B bookshelf speakers were in their element and sounded great. I would say this makes them a bit more practical than some of the monsters seen at the show, as loudspeakers find themselves placed in small rooms more often than not. For a full sound, you will want to use a subwoofer, though the 5B can deliver a respectable amount of bass in its own right on account of a 7.1” woofer which helps achieve a frequency response of 60Hz to 22kHz ±2dB. A pair of the 5Bs can be had for $2,200.

Audio Physic Avantera

The Audio Physic Avanteras are a somewhat unusual three-and-a-half way design. Four 7” bass drivers are used up to 150Hz, and the two 5.9” mid/woofers take over from 150 Hz to 500 Hz, with the upper mid/woofer extending up to 2.8kHz. A 1.75” cone tweeter takes over above 2.8kHz. The four bass drivers are side-firing, but mounted facing alternating left and right so their individual vibrations cancel out their cabinet resonance. All drivers are ceramic-coated aluminum cone designs; even the tweeter uses cone geometry. The tweeter, midranges, and woofers are sealed off from each other within the heavily-built cabinet. The speakers weigh 88 pounds apiece and are priced at $28,000. The Avantera room sounded terrific, with punchy bass one would expect from a subwoofer, not a medium sized tower speaker. These speakers sounded much larger than their physical dimensions would indicate.   

Benchmark SMS-1

The soon-to-be-released Benchmark SMS-1 speakers made an appearance at AXPONA. A distinction of the SMS-1 is the acoustic suspension design, which uses the spring action of the trapped air within the cabinet as a restoring force more than the driver’s own suspension. The claimed advantage of this approach is more linear woofer travel, and a crisper sound since the driver’s suspension doesn’t have to be as stiff. Benchmark claims its acoustic suspension approach produces a more accurate sound than the popular bass reflex design seen on many of today’s speakers. While that claim is certainly arguable, the sound of the SMS-1 was very good, and I did not sense any weaknesses about them in my brief stay in Benchmark’s room.

Cabasse Baltic speakers and Santorin subwoofer 

The most striking thing about the Cabasse Baltic speakers, after their eyeball-esque appearance, is just how normal they sound in spite of their appearance. These $18,000 speakers sounded exceptionally good, but somehow I expected them to sound as bizarre as their looks. The Baltic is a triaxial design, a three-way where the 1” tweeter is mounted in the 5” mid/woofer, and the mid/woofer is mounted in the 8” bass driver.

There are several advantages to the unique design which French speaker maker Cabasse has chosen to use in the Baltics. First, by having all the drivers nested in each other, all sound comes from a single point which improves time alignment and helps to deal with phase issues. The compact spherical enclosure avoids diffraction from the flat baffle of conventional speaker cabinets and also reduces destructive standing waves within the cabinet. The drawback of the compact cabinet is diminished bass extension, and the frequency response is rated for 80Hz - 25kHz (one publication measured the -3 dB point at 84Hz), so a subwoofer is definitely needed. The subwoofer provided was a Cabasse Santorin.

The Santorin is a 500 watt RMS subwoofer using a 11.8” driver in a sealed enclosure, and is priced at $5,000. Like other high-end sub companies such as Velodyne, Paradigm, and JL Audio, the Santorin ships with its own room compensation equalization kit, and has onboard analysis software to correct the response. To my ears, the bass coming from the Santorin nicely reinforced the Baltics with a punchy, crisp foundation. Given the odd design of the whole Cabasse setup, I found myself listening for something ‘off’ to reinforce my preconceived notions about speaker design, but, to be honest, I heard absolutely nothing to complain about. It just sounded good.

Classic Audio Loudspeakers T-1.4 and Hartsfield

Classic Audio Louspeakers had an impressive room; unlike many other speaker exhibitors at AXPONA, they were fortunate enough to get a room that befitted their sizable speakers. The outer pair are the Hartsfields and the inner pair are the T-1.4s. Older audiophiles will recognize the Hartsfields as reproductions of the classic JBL Hartsfield speakers from the 1950’s, using the same cabinet design. Large speakers are typically quite a bit more sensitive than small ones, meaning they will get much louder for less wattage, and Classic Audio Loudspeaker models are no different. The Hartsfield has a sensitivity rating of 104dB, meaning it can produce a 104dB sound for a single watt; needless to say, that’s quite a lot of sound for relatively little power. The T-1.4 has a sensitivity of 98.5dB. The advantage of such efficiency isn’t just the ability to get really loud; it also corresponds with lower distortion, less compression, the ability to be driven by any amplifier, and excellent dynamic range overall.

Of course size alone does not get you that kind of efficiency; you need to have some very capable drivers. The Hartsfield uses a 15” bass driver coupled with an exponential horn, while the T-1.4 uses a pair of 15” drivers, one a front-firing mid bass driver and the other a hidden down-firing deep bass driver. Both speakers use a 2” horn-loaded beryllium compression driver for the midrange, and supertweeters for the high treble. One interesting upgrade that can be arranged is the use of “field coil” drivers of the type that were more common in the days of the original Hartsfield. Field coil drivers use a charged coil winding called a field coil in the place of the permanent magnet, and so they need a stream of DC current to generate their magnetic field. The advantage of this type of driver is the magnetic field of field coils are more steady and are less affected by irregularities than permanent magnets and so offer more linear performance. These field coil drivers are quite a bit more expensive than normal drivers, hence why they are rarely seen in speakers these days. If these speakers interest you, both models are priced at $36,500 a pair, and you will also need a plan for shipping and installation, as both models are over 400 pounds for each individual speaker. As these were one of my favorites from the show, I would say the cost and size may well be worth it.

Dali Epicon 6

These attractive floorstanders are the Dali Epicon 6, which use some interesting innovations that set them apart from the crowd. One of these innovations is the material used in the drivers as a superior substitute for iron, called SMC (Soft Metal Composites), which reduce magnetic eddy currents and hysteresis. The result is dramatically reduced odd-ordered harmonic distortion (subjectively the worst type). Another innovation is the unusual crossover structure. The Epicon 6 divides the treble playback between two tweeters: a 1.14” soft dome which covers 2,550Hz to 15kHz, and a 2.1” ribbon tweeter which goes from 15kHz to 30kHz. As for the bass drivers, one 6.5” bass driver is used for sub 600 Hz playback and the other 6.5” bass driver cover that same range but also stretches up to 2,550 Hz. Dali calls it a 2 ½  + ½  way speaker, but it looks a lot more like a 3 ½ way to me, with an unusually high crossover point.

The cabinet is very heavily braced, with a 1.3” thick MDF front baffle for low resonance, and curvature for reduced standing waves. The Epicon 6 is divided into two chambers of equal volume between the woofers, with each woofer compartment getting its own port. All of these features added up to a great sound in the system I heard them in, and these speakers sounded as good as they looked. I wish I could have spent more time with them. The price of the Epicon 6 is $13,500 to $14,000, depending on the finish.

Dynaudio Confidence C4 Platinum

The Dynaudio C4 Platinum’s driver layout would seem to contain an identical reflection below the top tweeter, but there are some important differences between the lower three drivers and upper three. The differences are described by Dynaudio’s DDC technology, wherein the upper tweeter driver is rolled off earlier than the lower tweeter, with care taken to control the phase differences in an effort to avoid lobing. The front baffle is meticulously thought out for optimal geometry to assist the DDC layout and is also needed to help house the bass drivers, as they are a bit wider than the cabinet itself. The result of these efforts is a far more tightly controlled dispersion, so the sound that you end up hearing is more the sound of the speaker instead of room acoustics. Vertical energy dispersion is said to be reduced by 75%.

Another advantage of the C4 Platinum is the narrow cabinet, which not only helps it fit into more spaces and situations, but also goes a long way to eliminating baffle diffraction which further improves its off-axis response. Supposedly the base is very stable, which is a must for a 120 pound speaker with a high center of gravity. The bass response of the C4 is very good, as you would expect from such large speakers, and the claimed response of 27Hz at ± 3dB has been verified in independent testing. While the music I heard in my visit to the Dynaudio room was not from the highest fidelity recording, the C4 Platinums sounded terrific and, without a doubt, fulfilled the potential of that recording. The Dynaudio C4 Platinum speakers have a base price of $20,000 which can go up to $22,000 depending on your desired finish.

Page 3: The Loudspeakers of AXPONA 2014 Continued & Summary

Salk SoundScape 8 and Exotica 3

SalkSound is a highly regarded manufacture-direct brand of loudspeakers. The leftmost pair of speakers pictured above is the SoundScape 8s, and the right pair is the brand new Exotica 3s (no product page as of this writing). During my time there, we listened to the Exotica 3s, which sounded fabulous, and lived up to Salk’s reputation for outstanding sound performance. The Exotica 3s are built around the SEAS high-sensitivity Exotic line of woofers and tweeter, with an 8” mid woofer and 35mm tweeter. The bass drivers are from Rythmik Audio’s new DS800 8” driver line. The Exotica 3’s look was as pristine as its sound. This speaker is very easy to listen to. Base price is $12,000 per pair, and must be ordered from Salk directly.

Scaena Iso-Linear Line Array

Scaena’s Iso-Linear Line Array Model 3.2/12 was the only line array I saw at AXPONA, but they put up a great exhibit. The Model 3.2/12 uses twelve 3” mid/woofers, nine planar tweeters, and two 12” subwoofers. The line array theory: when you place enough identical drivers in a row with a certain distance between them, they will project more coherent sound forward along a horizontal axis and much less along a vertical axis. To put it more simply, more energy is directed at the listener and less at the floor and ceiling. What’s more, when you have a whole bunch of drivers doing the task that ordinarily one driver would do, the collective drivers need to work a lot less to achieve that result, and, consequently, distortion is dramatically reduced.

Theory is nice and all, but how did the Iso-Linear Array sound? It sounded terrific. The clarity was razor sharp, and the bass was tight, punchy, and clean. The sound was great everywhere, and there wasn’t a bad seat in the room. I could easily live with this setup, but sadly I didn’t have the $40,000 on hand needed to purchase this model. One thing which was neat, but not easy to get a picture of in the dim room, was the subtle marble finish of the enclosure. This speaker was a lot better looking in person.    

SeatonSound Catalyst and Submersive subwoofers

Pictured here is the Seaton Catalyst 12C powered loudspeaker and behind it is the Submersive F2+ and F2 slave subwoofer stack. The Catalyst is self-powered with a 2kW amplifier, which uses two 12” bass drivers and a coaxial 8” mid/woofer with an inner 1” compression tweeter. As you might imagine, the Catalyst packs a punch. Dynamic range is nearly limitless with the Catalyst, and the Seaton room was fortunate in that they were seemingly exempt from the 85dB limit in place in other parts of AXPONA where the rooms were much closer together. Filling in the low end were several Submersive subwoofers. The Submersive is based around two 15” drivers and comes in a handful of different configurations. The Submersive F2+, as seen above, mounts both drivers in a front-firing form factor. The amplifier in the ‘+’ models can also be used to drive a passive Submersive, which is stacked on top in this photo.

The Seaton Sound room was one of the few at AXPONA with a surround sound setup. Bass heavy movie demos drew in crowds and made the Seaton room tremendously popular. I could hear the deep bass from the Submersives even when I was two rooms away. In the Seaton room, three Catalyst 12Cs comprised the front stage, two Catalyst 8Cs served as surround speakers, and four active and two passive Submersives provided the low end. The Seaton Catalyst 8C, as seen above, is simply a scaled down version of the 12c, using 8” bass drivers instead of 12”s, and a 1 kW amplifier instead of a 2 kW amp. In any other room, the 8C would be a beast, but in the Seaton room it was the little guy. The base cost of the Catalyst 12C is $3,800 and the 8C is $2,800. The base cost of the Submersive is $2,700, but as shown in the F2 model, $2,900. The passive ‘slave’ sub base cost is $1,200 but for the pictured F2 version, $1,400. Shipping and finer finishes are added charges. None of the models have a dedicated product page as Seaton’s website is still under construction, but more information can be seen on this product information page. Seaton is an internet direct manufacturer, and orders can only be placed by contacting Seaton Sound directly.

Sonist Audio speakers

Going from left to right, the speakers pictured above are the Sonist Audio Recital 3 tower speaker ($2,400/pair), Sonist’s flagship Concerto 4 tower ($5,900/pair), and the brand new Recital 2 bookshelf speaker ($1,900/pair). During my visit, we listened to the Recital 2 which was a pleasure to hear. Sonist Audio concentrates on higher-than-average sensitivity speakers, but not ones so large you need a forklift to move them. The front baffle is made from 1.75” thick poplar wood, with waveguides carved into it. The advantage of poplar is it’s less resonant than most other hardwoods, and it also does not have a specific resonant frequency, so its resonant modes are distributed evenly throughout the audio bandwidth. A further effort was made to reduce resonance by tapering the inner sidewalls. Bass drivers all use treated paper cones which are time-aligned with ribbon tweeters that extend up to 40kHz. The Recital 2 sounded terrific from my seat, and projected a very well defined soundstage on the Samba-esque music we listened to. Bass was surprisingly strong for a bookshelf speaker, to the extent that I was looking for a subwoofer. The Recital 2 does not have a product page yet, but Sonist does have a simple website. 

Soundfield Audio

Unlike many of the other exhibitors, the Soundfield Audio room had little in the way of acoustic panels or treatments of any kind, yet system still sounded great. This is a point of pride for Soundfield Audio, which designs their speaker’s sound to accommodate the room, as opposed to speakers which require an acoustically friendly room to sound good. The speakers seen above are the brand new Variable Soundfield Tower 3 (the VSFT-3) on the outside, and the Monitor 2 bookshelf speakers on the inside. The VSFT-3s were jamming during my visit, with a sound of crystal clarity and a superb soundstage.

The VSFT-3 is a four-way speaker with a somewhat complex driver arrangement. The bottom 12” open-baffle Peerless subwoofer and sealed Dayton Ultimax 10” sub driver above it are both powered by their own individual 300 watt amplifiers, and a rear-firing planar tweeter on the upper back of the speaker is also active, powered by a 60 watt amplifier. The 6.5” mid/woofer, 9.5”x6” horn-loaded planar mid tweeter, and 0.5” slot-firing super-tweeter are all passive. The crossover for such a spread of drivers must have been considerable, with points at 250Hz, 1.2kHz, and 16kHz. Sensitivity is rated at 92dB, and a nominal impedance of 8 ohms, so any amplifier can drive this speaker with no problem. You might expect the sound from such a spread of different drivers to be a tad jumbled, but the sound was singular; the VSFT-3 presented as cohesive of a soundstage as you could have wanted. The VSFT-3 is a terrific speaker which is priced at $8,500 and only available directly from Soundfield Audio.

Sound Lab Majestic 845PX

Queue “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, and approach these great black pillars in wonder and bewilderment. Although the Sound Lab Majestic 845s aren’t the doorways to other dimensions as they appear, they do have a transportive effect by bringing the listener to the concert hall, studio, or whatever setting the recording was made in. The soundstage was tangible and just as big as the speakers. The Majestics are electrostatic speakers; unlike traditional cone woofers creating pressure waves of air (sound), electrostatic speakers use a large, magnetic membrane to vibrate the air.

There are several advantages to electrostats. The membrane is very light and low mass, so it is much more responsive than a cone. In addition, the entire membrane moves simultaneously, unlike a cone which is pushed from the center. A cone’s centered thrust can cause a lag or a bend in the outer edges of the cone which spoils the sound; this is called ‘break up’. Traditional cone speakers also are usually placed in cabinets, and the sound generated by the cone can cause resonances in the cabinet which also ruins the sound quality. Electrostatic speakers avoid this problem by having no cabinet. The disadvantage of electrostatic speakers is they must be very large to produce a full, loud, sound, like these nearly 8’ tall 198 pound Majestic speakers. They will turn your room into their room, but the sound is spectacular. The Sound Lab Majestic 845PXs are priced at $35,840 a pair.

TAD Compact One Reference

TAD had their vaunted Compact Reference speakers on exhibition, seen here driven by their mighty, 200 pound TAD M600 monoblock amplifiers. The Compact Reference Ones use a coaxial driver configuration for their tweeter and 6.5” mid/woofer, and the tweeter is seen here resting inside of the mid/woofer, using the cone as a waveguide. The tweeter and mid/woofer cone are made of beryllium. The 8” bass driver takes frequencies below 250Hz, and the tweeter takes over above 2kHz, leaving the mid/woofer with everything between. In an effort to reduce resonance, the Compact Reference One has a very heavily built cabinet which uses a 1” thick aluminum base, and altogether weighs 101 pounds. That is very heavy for ‘compact’ speakers, and you can imagine that so much mass in such a small space should be very effective in lessening resonance through massive bracing and thick paneling. The sound was excellent, even in the less-than-ideal listening position I ended up with in the crowded and very popular TAD room. List price: $37,000 for a pair.

Tyler Acoustics Highland H4 and Insight loudspeakers

Tyler Acoustics showcased their brand new Insight tower speaker at AXPONA, shown here in a ‘Green Tiger Maple’ finish. Between the Insights were the Highland H4s, which I did not have an opportunity to hear. The Insights are a high-efficiency, full-range speaker with a 95dB sensitivity rating, and is perfect for lower wattage tube amps. Two 12” bass drivers are given their own sizable enclosure, which allows the Insights plenty of punch. A custom 8” mid/woofer and an AMT tweeter are utilized to keep up with the dynamic range of the bass drivers. The result is a speaker that can do everything well, but, with that kind of muscle, yearns for something dramatic. We didn’t have it cranked up during my time there, but what I did hear was an all-around great sound. The Insight speakers would be just as much at home with a piano sonata as they would with an action movie. Tyler Acoustics can make these in almost any finish you would want. The Highland H4s are priced at $3,800 and the Insights are $5,500.

Volti Audio Alura

Another entry in the huge and high sensitivity category, the Volti Alura speakers resemble sonic weapons more than high fidelity loudspeakers, though they sound very much like the latter. Still, being in a small hotel room with these things, it felt almost like being stuck in a cage with a couple lions. As much as I wanted to crank these things up, I had to remember that high sensitivity and huge dynamic range isn’t just about getting loud, it’s about extremely low distortion and zero compression at more modest volume levels, and it’s about accessibility for lower wattage amplifiers, like the 40 watt Quicksilver tube amps seen above.

The Alura uses a 1” compression driver for the tweeter in the elliptical top horn, and a massive compression driver with a 3.5” voice coil and 2” throat for the mid horn- that large, gaping maw. The bass is taken care of by a high-sensitivity 15” woofer in a large, vented cabinet. This all adds up to a 98dB sensitive powerhouse of a speaker. Robust cabinet construction, a carefully thought-out and extensively tested crossover, and precisely planned horn geometry make it just as suitable for critical listening as it is for headbanging. The Alura is a manufacture direct speaker and sells for $15,900.

Summary

That wraps up our coverage of AXPONA. Keep in mind that in this report we only covered a sampling of the speakers there, and there were many more great speakers on display. We just don’t have the time or space to cover them all, worthy though they may be. AXPONA was a lot of fun, even though it is also the cause of a great deal of envy. I would love to have taken home almost any of the systems I saw there, and I am sure I wasn’t alone in that respect. Overall, the show was a great opportunity to talk to many industry experts, and learn more about audio straight from the masters. If you get the chance to go to AXPONA, I highly recommend it.

Page 2: The Loudspeakers of AXPONA 2014 Continued

Focal Stella Utopia

At $90,000 a pair, Focal's Stella Utopia would not seem to present a terrific value. However, when you consider its similarity with Focal’s $180,000 flagship Utopia EM, it becomes much more attractive for those shopping for an ultra-high end system. After all, $90,000 seems like a lot for the addition of an 11” driver and a few Hz of extension offered by the Utopia EM. Although I didn’t dare do the knock test on a Focal Utopia, cabinet construction is doubtlessly extremely solid, as the speakers weigh 363 pounds each. In the Stella, each driver is given its own individual compartment, with generously sized enclosure for the 13” bass driver, allowing it to deliver a rated response down to 22 Hz ± 3dB. The beryllium tweeter has an extraordinarily wide band, taking over from the two 6.6” mids at 2,200Hz with a stated response going up to 40kHz. The Stella Utopia’s higher than average sensitivity of 94dB and nominal impedance of 8 ohms means that just about any amplifier can be used to power them, although if you can afford the Stellas, you can probably afford a comparably lavish amplifier. The sound system seen here being used with a pair of Aesthetix Atlas monoblock amplifiers lived up to the reputation of the Utopia speaker series; in a word, fantastic.

German Physiks Emperor mkII

The massive German Physiks Emperor mkIIs, priced at $284,250 a pair, was by far the most expensive speaker at AXPONA. The most remarkable aspect of the Emperor speaker, aside from the enormous size and cost, is the DDD array, which is that cylindrical tube component held out of the cabinet. The DDD array contains four DDDs (Dick Dipole Drivers, named after inventor Peter Dick), which are omnidirectional, extreme wide-band drivers which supposedly can handle a range of 7 Hz to over 20kHz. Used with the Emperor bass cabinet, they take the range of 180Hz up, and, in the titanium version used in the pictured setup, go up to 24kHz. The bass cabinets themselves use two 12” drivers for frequencies from 18 to 70Hz and cross over to four 6” drivers which handle the range up to 180Hz.

An advantage of the DDD’s extreme wide operating band is no crossovers are used throughout the whole of the mid or high frequencies, and the sound is seamless. Pushing that seamlessness further is the omnidirectional nature of the DDDs which makes the axial response uniform all around the DDD array. To reduce reflections off of the bass cabinet, the DDD array can be extended out by 20cm from the bass cabinet on a metal boom with linear actuators. The immensely heavy 990 pound cabinet cannot be easy to move, but 15 ball castors built into the bottom gives a huge assist in positioning the Emperor speakers. Minimum power requirements are 300 watts for each speaker, with a 4 ohm load. Bi-amping minimum power requirements are 200 watts for the DDD section and 250 watts for the bass section. The Emperor system was used to demo some very high resolution, uncompressed, Dolby TrueHD recordings from AIX Records, and the sound was amazing. This system was tremendous in every sense of the word.

JTR Noesis 215HT

Standing right in front of the JTR Noesis 215 feels like looking down the barrel of a loaded shotgun; you know you could get blown away at any moment. While the two 15” bass drivers certainly contribute to that feeling, it’s really the gaping mouth-like horn that causes the most apprehension. The 60x60 degree horn is actually integral to the cabinet; at its throat is a coaxial driver, which uses a midrange driver crossed over into a nested tweeter at 6.3kHz. The bass drivers take over below 350 Hz with a very believable lower ± 3dB point of 18 Hz, so no subwoofers are needed at all. These speakers are 95dB sensitive and need very little amplification to reach blazing loud levels. The sound was very good, although doubtlessly these speakers could have benefited from a larger room. Base cost is $3,500 with a $1,000 upgrade to automotive grade finishes. The 215s might not rate high in wife-approval-factor, but in performance for the dollar, these are likely one of the best at AXPONA.

KEF Blades and KEF THX Ci in-wall speaker

Going to an audio show without stopping by the KEF Blade room would have been an unforgivable mistake. I am a believer in KEF’s point source philosophy, and everything I heard in their room strengthened my conviction that KEF is onto something. The Blade is KEF’s ‘sub-flagship’ speaker, which is to say the practical high-end of their lines, as opposed to KEF’s $200,000 solid aluminum Muon speakers which are not practical in the slightest. The Blades are ‘only’ $30,000; expensive, yes, but not completely out of reach for a middle class audiophile determined to own one.

KEF has taken the point source idea a step further with the Blade. In their arrangement, the four side-firing woofers and Uni-Q coaxial driver are all placed according to a geometric location in space equidistant between them, and the cabinet is designed such that the sound acts like it’s coming from that single point. The chief advantage of this concept is that the optimal dispersion of sound gives you a great soundstage even in acoustically difficult rooms.  Among other innovations in the Blade, the side-firing 9” bass drivers are used in a directly opposed configuration to cancel out vibration and resonance, and, in fact, the opposing driver pair is constructed as a single fixed piece. Each fixed driver pair occupies its own sealed chamber with its respective port within the Blade. I am assured that the Blade rests on a stable platform, as having one of the 120 pound speakers tip over would be disastrous.

Also demoed in the KEF room was their soon-to-be-released Ci THX in-walls which Audioholics previewed last fall, the Ci5160RL-THX, the Ci3160RL-THX, and the Ci3160RLB. The RL in-wall speakers both have THX Ultra 2 certification which is a big deal, because it means they can potentially be capable of THX Reference levels at a 12 foot listening distance in a 3,000 cubic foot room. The speakers use KEF’s Uni-Q driver and aluminum 6” bass drivers, and both have a 90dB sensitivity rating. While the RLB in-wall subwoofer is not THX certified, it will add some nice bass reinforcement for those situations which cannot accommodate a floor-standing subwoofer. While I don’t usually expect much from in-wall speakers given the compromises that they typically must make, I can say without reservation the KEF Ci speakers sounded great. If I needed in-wall speakers, they would be among the top choices for me. Their high performance given their form factor doesn’t come cheaply though: $2,500 for each Ci5160RL, $1,500 for each Ci3160RL, and $1,000 per Ci3160RLB which should be used with the $1,000 KASA500 amplifier.

Kharma Elegance S7

The exquisite Kharma Elegance S7s rate extremely high on the ‘wife approval factor’. In fact, they are so graceful in appearance that the wife may be less bothered by their $35,000 price tag then the husband. This two-way speaker uses a 7” woofer which is made from “ultra high-tech rocket science/formula 1 based fibres” in a cone shape optimized by finite method analysis. Beryllium is widely regarded as one of the best performing materials for tweeters, and the S7 uses a 1” pure beryllium tweeter for the highest resolution sound. In my short listening session with them they sounded excellent. They are a great way to get a great sound without compromising even the most upscale decor. A variety of finishes are available, but I found the gloss white finish of the pictured models an enchanting color for them.

Lawrence Audio Cello

The resemblance of the Lawrence Audio Cello to its namesake music instrument is no accident. Lawrence claims the advantages of a simulated Cello shape is the lack of parallel surfaces helps reduce standing waves within the cabinet which lowers resonant distortion; in addition, the smaller front baffle reduces diffraction which improves off-axis response performance. Finally, the non-equilateral cabinet shape provides for a more rigid construction. The Cello is a 3 ½ way design using five drivers: two 8” bass drivers, a 120mm AMT mid tweeter, another 120mm AMT tweeter for upper treble, and a 60mm tweeter on the upper backside of the speaker to create a wider and deeper soundstage. The crossover structure is a bit complicated, as you would imagine. The sound, on the other hand, was excellent.  The Cello is another superb merging of form and function; they sport a unique and attractive look, and they produce a rich and clear sound which was a pleasure to hear during my visit to the Lawrence Audio room. The Cellos are priced at $18,000 a pair.

Legacy Aeris

Something about these Legacy Aeris speakers gives the impression that they are poised to attack. Sadly, due to an 85dB limit during the show, they were not permitted to be unleashed, and instead they presented a delicate and precise sound within the confines of a small hotel room. While their resolution and coherence were admirable on the classic rock pieces I heard during my visit, I knew these 170 pound monoliths were capable of so much more. They resemble futuristic weapons rather than ordinary loudspeakers, and looking at them made me want brace for an assault, not chill out with some golden oldies.

Chief among the Legacy’s array of firepower is the two 12” long-throw woofers for which the speaker contains built-in amplification in the form of a 1,000 watt amplifier. That takes a load off the external amplifier, as the rest of the speaker is passive, and it helps to contribute to the 94dB in-room sensitivity. Moving up the speaker, we have a 10” mid/woofer, a 4” AMT tweeter, a 1” AMT super tweeter, and on the top is an 8” midrange driver. The top half is actually an open baffle system, although it may not look it due to some fabric covers. The crossover points of this 4 ½ way speaker are 70Hz, 2.8kHz, and 8kHz. The base cost is $17,750, but the model shown here with a gorgeous ‘black pearl’ finish is $20,750. What greatly increases the Aeris value is the inclusion of a 24 bit DSP module which dials the bass in with both the room and the passive upper section. This is a valuable feature because bass is prone to wild response fluctuations in the acoustics of ordinary rooms.

Mancave Metal speakers

If the Legacy Aeris were an intimidating sight, the Mancave Metal Raptors are positively menacing. Their link to the Legacy speakers goes a bit deeper than simply sharing a daunting aesthetic. The Mancave Metal speakers actually use Legacy’s proprietary drivers, and furthermore, Bill Dudleston, founder and chief designer of Legacy’s speakers, designed the crossovers for Mancave’s speakers. That pedigree makes Mancave Metal speakers more than just a curiosity; it is a part of what makes them full-fledged audiophile loudspeakers, albeit with a headbanger’s style.

Mancave Metal’s premiere product is the Raptor tower speaker. This 230 pound beast uses an active 15” carbon-fiber subwoofer powered by an onboard 500 watt amplifier. The midrange is provided by 7” and 5 ¼” carbon fiber drivers, and the tweeter, seen here held by the robot hand, uses a compression driver. The Raptor can be ordered as partially passive, where you can provide amplification for the mid and tweeter, or it can be upgraded to fully powered. As with the other exhibits, we couldn’t crank these as loud as we wanted, but the sound which was heard from them was sensational: punchy bass, clear midrange, crisp treble. Awesome!

Down Mancave’s lineup, we have the Eye-Conic Red speaker, on the left, which is a lot like a bookshelf speaker, except for the fact that it’s terrifying to behold. It utilizes a 5 ¼” and 1” dome tweeter. The Eye-Conic Red’s ‘enclosure’ is a thick steel cylinder which is backlit in red, and is held up by what resembles a Terminator Model T-800 hand. One acoustic virtue of this construction is cabinet resonance should be nil, but a disadvantage is it will give your children nightmares. In the middle of the setup is the Pipe Dreams, sporting an 8” woofer and 1” tweeter in that cylinder held above the woofer. On the right side is the Hostile Takeover, which is the standalone hand from the Raptor and Eye-Conic Red. The crankshaft bookshelf speaker stand can also be ordered from Mancave Metal. Pricing is $25,000 for the Raptor, $7,500 for a pair of Pipe Dreams, and $5,500 for the Eye-Conic Red. A Hostile Takeover hand is $1,850. Frankly, these speakers are sweet. This was one of the best exhibits of the show, and a hugely refreshing change of spirit from the stuffiness which can sometimes plague hi-fi audio.

Martin Logan Balanced Force 212

Hiding in the corner of the Martin Logan room was one of their new Balanced Force subwoofers, the 212, which uses a sealed, dual opposed woofer configuration which seems to be gaining popularity among commercial sub offerings. By having two drivers firing 180 degrees opposed from one another, back-to-back, their opposing motion cancels out cabinet vibrations. The ML rep demonstrated the cabinet’s inert quality by cranking some bass heavy rock music and balancing a coin by its edge on top of the subwoofer; the coin didn’t move. Martin Logan isn’t new to the idea of using drivers to cancel out vibrations, as they have employed this configuration on their previous Depth and Descent subwoofers, although in those they used a triangular configuration. The Balanced Force 212 uses two 12” drivers powered by two 850 watt amplifiers, and claims a response of 18–120 Hz ±3dB. It is compatible with Martin Logan’s Perfect Bass Kit to correct for room compensation equalization. It is list priced at $4,000.

Sadurni Acoustics Staccato horn system

Many people prefer loudspeaker systems to be discrete and visually unobtrusive, to simply serve their function and not be a presence otherwise. The Sadurni Staccato speakers are not intended for these people. The Staccato is a four way horn system which uses an active crossover to achieve perfect time alignment. The largest horn is really a lower midrange which loads a cone driver, and the upper midrange and tweeter use compression drivers. Those black tubes behind the horn setup are actually the bass drivers of this system; they are tapped horn subwoofers which come with the Staccato. The stack of two subwoofers per speaker is enough for this smallish room, but they ordinarily come in stacks of four. The sensitivity of this system is rated at a staggering 110dB.

The sound was world class. The crossover really did its job; the sound had no disparity at all, even at the relatively close distance at which I was seated. While the size and aesthetic of this system isn’t for everyone, the sound is superb enough that anyone can enjoy it. The Staccato is a stunning sight which creates a stunning sound. It is priced at $40,000.