http://thesoundscape.net/component/content/article/1-events/120-CES-2011-Day-1-THE-Other-Show.html
There was a lot less on that floor than met they eye. Actually that's usually the rule for the show's exhibits. Many of the rooms abound with amazing looking and amazingly priced audio gear that impresses the eye more than the ear. I find that I can move pretty quickly from one demo to the next. It only takes a few seconds of auditioning to know that further attention is pointless.
But I spent a lot of time in the SoulSonic room.
The sonic presentation of SoulSonic's Impulse was, to my ears, ideally musical and natural. I strolled around the room as I listened and no matter where I stood, the sense of reality was palpable. It just didn't matter whether I was in front, behind, beside, nearer one speaker or the other. The music was there. Any differences in perspective were similar to those that one would experience while listening to live music from different locations in a salon or hall. With most loudspeaker reproduction, those perspective differences are more like discontinuities in the sound field than changes in one's point of view.
There was a lot less on that floor than met they eye. Actually that's usually the rule for the show's exhibits. Many of the rooms abound with amazing looking and amazingly priced audio gear that impresses the eye more than the ear. I find that I can move pretty quickly from one demo to the next. It only takes a few seconds of auditioning to know that further attention is pointless.
But I spent a lot of time in the SoulSonic room.
The sonic presentation of SoulSonic's Impulse was, to my ears, ideally musical and natural. I strolled around the room as I listened and no matter where I stood, the sense of reality was palpable. It just didn't matter whether I was in front, behind, beside, nearer one speaker or the other. The music was there. Any differences in perspective were similar to those that one would experience while listening to live music from different locations in a salon or hall. With most loudspeaker reproduction, those perspective differences are more like discontinuities in the sound field than changes in one's point of view.
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![SoulSonic Speakers - Las Vegas 2011 (1) [1024x768]](images/SoulSonic Speakers - Las Vegas 2011 (1) [1024x768].JPG "SoulSonic Speakers - Las Vegas 2011 (1) [1024x768]")
![SoulSonic Speakers - Las Vegas 2011 (2) [1024x768]](images/SoulSonic Speakers - Las Vegas 2011 (2) [1024x768].JPG "SoulSonic Speakers - Las Vegas 2011 (2) [1024x768]")
![SoulSonic Speakers - Las Vegas 2011 (3) [1024x768]](images/SoulSonic Speakers - Las Vegas 2011 (3) [1024x768].JPG "SoulSonic Speakers - Las Vegas 2011 (3) [1024x768]")
Click on photos to enlarge them
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=90186.msg891276#msg891276
How about some open baffle (with ribbon) speakers? Soulsonic speakers were impressive with impressive sound.
How about some open baffle (with ribbon) speakers? Soulsonic speakers were impressive with impressive sound.
http://www.stereotimes.com/CES2011Luttbeg.shtml
The SoulSonic Speakers in the Mead 1 room at THE Show were visually and sonically stunning. They are open baffle glass with a ribbon and four 12” drivers. This is the Impulse speaker . One of their lesser model, the Wave, had survived shipping and was displayed. I was surprised to see these Slovenian speakers, but the sound was outstanding. With the open baffle perhaps they did not go down as deep as some but the presentation was very real and involving. Again this was a big room.
Norm Luttbeg
The SoulSonic Speakers in the Mead 1 room at THE Show were visually and sonically stunning. They are open baffle glass with a ribbon and four 12” drivers. This is the Impulse speaker . One of their lesser model, the Wave, had survived shipping and was displayed. I was surprised to see these Slovenian speakers, but the sound was outstanding. With the open baffle perhaps they did not go down as deep as some but the presentation was very real and involving. Again this was a big room.
Norm Luttbeg
http://www.magazine-audio.com/2011/t-h-e-show-2011/
L’un des meilleurs son de mes 3 jours de show,
one of the best sounds of T.H.E show.
L’un des meilleurs son de mes 3 jours de show,
one of the best sounds of T.H.E show.
http://www.stereotimes.com/CES2011e.shtml
The Impulse is certainly an impressively built and elegant dipolar loudspeaker designed in Slovenia by Miro Krajnc.
...Upon closer inspection revealed hi-end innards such as Duelund capacitors and specially soft-tempered silver wiring through and through told me a great deal about the quality of this transducer way before any listening began. As I was musing over the the Impulse's look Boston Audio Society founder Alvin Foster walked into the room (photo above left), took a seat and pulled out some of his very personally recorded own on-site classical recordings (specially designed microphones and all). The sound was really impressive and I had no idea what they were supposed to sound like. It appeared that Alvin thought so to as he looked extremely impressed by the synergy of this setup. As soon as he got up and looked around, I jumped into the sweet spot and listened to my own jazz samplers. I was very impressed with the absolute sense of openness these loudspeakers demonstrated with what seemed like the greatest of ease. They behaved as if they were not even trying. Extremely delicate with oodles of bloom, the Impulse loudspeaker turned out to be one of a personal highlight at this year's CES and a most auspicious debut for this new company.
Clement Perry, publisher of StereoTimes
The Impulse is certainly an impressively built and elegant dipolar loudspeaker designed in Slovenia by Miro Krajnc.
...Upon closer inspection revealed hi-end innards such as Duelund capacitors and specially soft-tempered silver wiring through and through told me a great deal about the quality of this transducer way before any listening began. As I was musing over the the Impulse's look Boston Audio Society founder Alvin Foster walked into the room (photo above left), took a seat and pulled out some of his very personally recorded own on-site classical recordings (specially designed microphones and all). The sound was really impressive and I had no idea what they were supposed to sound like. It appeared that Alvin thought so to as he looked extremely impressed by the synergy of this setup. As soon as he got up and looked around, I jumped into the sweet spot and listened to my own jazz samplers. I was very impressed with the absolute sense of openness these loudspeakers demonstrated with what seemed like the greatest of ease. They behaved as if they were not even trying. Extremely delicate with oodles of bloom, the Impulse loudspeaker turned out to be one of a personal highlight at this year's CES and a most auspicious debut for this new company.
Clement Perry, publisher of StereoTimes
http://stereotimes.com/CES2011V.shtml
In his conclusion Clement Perry, publisher of StereoTimes said:
As I had mentioned in my earlier posts, this year CES had some really great sounding setups. The Soulsonic speakers really got my interest zooming since they sounded so much like the Perfect 8s.
In his conclusion Clement Perry, publisher of StereoTimes said:
As I had mentioned in my earlier posts, this year CES had some really great sounding setups. The Soulsonic speakers really got my interest zooming since they sounded so much like the Perfect 8s.
http://www.uhfmag.com/Vegas2011/day2.html
Whenever we see a glass speaker, we make easy jokes about "transparent" sound. There were in fact several glass speakers at the show, including these Soulsonics from Slovenia. There's another unusual aspect to them: the glass panels are open baffles. The woofers, with silver wiring, form a line source. The crossover networks are astonishingly large, and the result is relatively low sensitivity, in the order of 85 dB.
Designer Miro Krajnc had brought a smaller pair too, but one had been broken, apparently deliberately.
Oh, the sound? It was very good, with excellent transients and plenty of bottom end on percussion. That was despite the large and not very good room.
Whenever we see a glass speaker, we make easy jokes about "transparent" sound. There were in fact several glass speakers at the show, including these Soulsonics from Slovenia. There's another unusual aspect to them: the glass panels are open baffles. The woofers, with silver wiring, form a line source. The crossover networks are astonishingly large, and the result is relatively low sensitivity, in the order of 85 dB.
Designer Miro Krajnc had brought a smaller pair too, but one had been broken, apparently deliberately.
Oh, the sound? It was very good, with excellent transients and plenty of bottom end on percussion. That was despite the large and not very good room.
http://www.dagogo.com/View-Article.asp?bShowUnpublished=&hArticle=855&PageOfArticle=1
Soulsonic strikes me as a startup company getting its footing at the show. The system had a high degree of variance in components and this may have contributed to my sense that though the speakers sounded enormous and open, as expected, I desired some additional coherence between the array of bass drivers and ribbon driver. I think the speakers have a great degree of potential on reserve and with consistent amplification would acquit themselves better. I’ll give a break to Miro Krajnc, Designer and Director of Soulsonic, as he faced serious challenges prior to the show, among them the complete destruction of one of the Wave speakers literally hours before the show. With time and another go round this speaker system might jump substantially in terms of ‘wow factor’.
Soulsonic strikes me as a startup company getting its footing at the show. The system had a high degree of variance in components and this may have contributed to my sense that though the speakers sounded enormous and open, as expected, I desired some additional coherence between the array of bass drivers and ribbon driver. I think the speakers have a great degree of potential on reserve and with consistent amplification would acquit themselves better. I’ll give a break to Miro Krajnc, Designer and Director of Soulsonic, as he faced serious challenges prior to the show, among them the complete destruction of one of the Wave speakers literally hours before the show. With time and another go round this speaker system might jump substantially in terms of ‘wow factor’.
http://www.monoandstereo.com/2011/07/miro-kranjc-soulsonic-wave-loudspeaker.html
There are things to be refined with SoulSonic Wave's speakers, but what this design is promising jumps way ahead of almost anything heard in my past twentysomething years of audio. Magico, YG Acoustics's and a few of the contemporary companies never truly impressed me. Appearance, technology, state-of-the-art; everything checked! Musicality? Sorry.
An accapela of the Beatles's Yesterday froze the time for a brief moment. I asked Miro to turn up the volume a bit. Now this is what I call the true spirit of ultra high-end. I started singing along matching the loudness of the recording with my voice and comparing my syllables with those of the performers. Hands down these reminded me of the best renderings of live vocal recording and, which is even more important, of the event itself, although being a virtual experience (before you crucify me). I had my time with open baffles (Bastanis etc.) and a quick venture of horns, with many visits and listenings to horn based systems. They have their charms, but for example even Avantgarde Trio's is not the ultimate purity in itself. Close, but not close enough. I've yet to hear the Soulsonic Impulse, but so far even the Wave seems to manage to avoid small, but still evident colourations of the above-mentioned Trio's.
Miro Krajnc is a true artisan and, without a second thought, among the few people I respect highly; Robert Koda, Peter Brem, Tom Evans, Mr. Miyajima, Mr. Matusmoto, Kondo San etc. It's rare to see one's life long brainchild transforming into existence, but it's so much more joyful when this occurs. Shape and form might bend, but usually the wholeness of the idea stays intact. The rightness cannot be changed.
It takes years and endless hours of passion to get there. Like the famous quote about Michaelangelo`s work process: "How do you create such a wonderful statue?". Michaelangelo answered: "By simply removing the unwanted!". It is the same with the history of any ultra high-end audio designer taking a carving. Tons of defunct, media-core, dead -end products, vast funds, sleepless hours and the fight for existence while striving and believing in to one's idea and, consequently, a final product.
For those whom music and audio paths are enriched with the lucky recognition of true musical emotions in the absence of clinical (and cynical) emptiness, Miro Krajnc's SoulSpeaker Company is a stand out venture and a highly refined ultra high-end craftsmanship workshop, that few of the Slovenian audiophiles and CES visitors managed to recognise as a remarkable achievement. Miro knows music by heart! Period!
Matej Isak
Mono & Stereo, July 2011
There are things to be refined with SoulSonic Wave's speakers, but what this design is promising jumps way ahead of almost anything heard in my past twentysomething years of audio. Magico, YG Acoustics's and a few of the contemporary companies never truly impressed me. Appearance, technology, state-of-the-art; everything checked! Musicality? Sorry.
An accapela of the Beatles's Yesterday froze the time for a brief moment. I asked Miro to turn up the volume a bit. Now this is what I call the true spirit of ultra high-end. I started singing along matching the loudness of the recording with my voice and comparing my syllables with those of the performers. Hands down these reminded me of the best renderings of live vocal recording and, which is even more important, of the event itself, although being a virtual experience (before you crucify me). I had my time with open baffles (Bastanis etc.) and a quick venture of horns, with many visits and listenings to horn based systems. They have their charms, but for example even Avantgarde Trio's is not the ultimate purity in itself. Close, but not close enough. I've yet to hear the Soulsonic Impulse, but so far even the Wave seems to manage to avoid small, but still evident colourations of the above-mentioned Trio's.
Miro Krajnc is a true artisan and, without a second thought, among the few people I respect highly; Robert Koda, Peter Brem, Tom Evans, Mr. Miyajima, Mr. Matusmoto, Kondo San etc. It's rare to see one's life long brainchild transforming into existence, but it's so much more joyful when this occurs. Shape and form might bend, but usually the wholeness of the idea stays intact. The rightness cannot be changed.
It takes years and endless hours of passion to get there. Like the famous quote about Michaelangelo`s work process: "How do you create such a wonderful statue?". Michaelangelo answered: "By simply removing the unwanted!". It is the same with the history of any ultra high-end audio designer taking a carving. Tons of defunct, media-core, dead -end products, vast funds, sleepless hours and the fight for existence while striving and believing in to one's idea and, consequently, a final product.
For those whom music and audio paths are enriched with the lucky recognition of true musical emotions in the absence of clinical (and cynical) emptiness, Miro Krajnc's SoulSpeaker Company is a stand out venture and a highly refined ultra high-end craftsmanship workshop, that few of the Slovenian audiophiles and CES visitors managed to recognise as a remarkable achievement. Miro knows music by heart! Period!
Matej Isak
Mono & Stereo, July 2011