In the recent thread where I introduced myself to this forum I was asked by LL21:
"...tell us about the Tesseract please. There is not as much written about it as other SOTA, reference level speakers. In particular, it certainly seems as if Avalon has gone through great lengths above and beyond its other speaker designs...i just don’t know what those things really are.
Can you explain the key design elements/innovations of the Tesseract that Avalon are most proud of...and what they do to the sound that it can reproduce?
Thanks for any insights here."
I am very happy to oblige and share some technical insights here as a company insider as well as relate my own personal listening experiences. There is no way for me not to gush about this product…so if it seems over the top, I apologize…but I’ve heard the Tesseract and if you get that opportunity I bet you’ll have a tough time holding back when describing it as well.
Overview:
Tesseract is much more than the flagship speaker from Avalon…in my opinion and experience, it sets a new standard in not only in transducer design, but in what any audio component in the chain can contribute to music reproduction. For me, it’s so far beyond what I have heard any other component in the chain do to take things to a new level, that it’s almost like a new vocabulary needs to be developed. Since I’m a pretty simple guy, I’ll just stick to the vocabulary I have…it’s unlikely to be sufficient to do this speaker any justice but I’ll do my best. I’ll describe some of the important technical details and goals, as well as my own sonic impressions and observations. Truthfully though it’s no easier to describe Tesseract to someone than it is to describe the Grand Canyon...it simply needs to be experienced. Photos don’t do it justice and my words will not either. What I can say though, with absolute confidence is that those lucky enough to hear Tess in a properly optimized room will have a sonic experience that will stick in their memory for a lifetime.
Technical design goals:
I've spoken with Neil at length about the design process for Tess (probably barely scratching the surface). Neil had many specific goals when he embarked on the journey of developing Tesseract. First of all it’s no easy task to develop a necessarily large speaker that will convincingly play full-scale music at concert levels AND have it disappear in the listening room. This goal most certainly was accomplished and in my opinion that alone is a major breakthrough. Beyond that Neil insisted that the design would respect and preserve the humanity and emotion that is music! That charge was carried very step of the way, it was always at the core of the thinking. Beyond these weighty and noble challenges, there were also numerous technical goals like “No Phase Errors” , “No Group Delay Distortion”, “Minimal Intermodulation Distortions” , “Sharp Image Edge Definition”, Maximum Ambience Retrieval” , “Low Noise Floor”, “Maximized Dynamic Headroom”, “Maximized Transient Speed”, “Constant Q”, “Smooth And Even Polar Response”, “Purely Pistonic Motion Throughout The Pass Band”, “Symmetrical Overall Impedance Curve For Ease Of Drivability”. I think we can all agree that these were some lofty goals and now are incredible accomplishments.
Physical description:
From a technical standpoint I think its probably best to start with the basics. Tess has an upper cabinet and a lower cabinet.
The lower cabinet houses (4) 15” custom low Q, high force factor sub-woofers…two front firing from the sub cabinet, and two behind those internally in an isobaric transmission line array. The Sub cabinets also house the 3.2 Killowatt amplifiers (for each channel). These are special custom Class-A/B MOSFET designs with switch-mode supplies. The powered sub cabinets handle 100hz and below and do not affect the load given to the amplifier that is driving the upper cabinets from 100hz and above. The Sub cabinets also house some control circuitry such as photo sensing power on/off (by waving your hand over a sensor on the back) and a unique transient speed control for the lows.
The upper cabinet houses the 11” Ceramic/Honeycomb mid-bass, the 4.5” Ceramic mid-range, and the .78” Diamond tweeter. The upper cabinet also houses the crossover system.
The upper and lower cabinet designs alone would take me 5 pages to describe properly so I’ll just touch on a few particularly interesting things. With the large number of facets it wasn’t going to be reasonable or possible to do a wood veneer skin on this product. I’m pretty sure every single person involved with building/finishing cabinets at Avalon would have walked out the door if that was required ? Just not realistic, so given the fact that these were going to be painted (any color BTW), it gave an interesting opportunity…each cabinet is sprayed with a special combination of carbon fiber and fiberglass before it is sanded and then painted (a many step process itself). This technique offers some interesting benefits such as incredible cabinet damping and giving the entire cabinet an RF shield due to the conductive nature. It’s an opportunity to completely ground the cabinet. Like other Avalon cabinets the whole process of manufacturing is analog...no CNC machines...all done by the hands of some of the most talented and dedicated craftsment/wood workers I've ever met. No detail is too small...nothing is right until it's really right. No shortcuts.
Basic Specifications:
Frequency Response: 16 Hz to 50k Hz +/- 0.5dB (anechoic) or +/- 1 dB in room (typical).
Efficiency: 93.5 dB (1 watt@1 meter)
Impedance: 6 ohms nominal, 4 ohms minimum (at 80 hz).
Recommended power: 15- 500 watts (you only drive from 100 Hz on up)
Sonic description:
Tess is capable of not only playing large scale musical events with uncanny realism and staggering dynamic contrast (as you would probably expect), but just as importantly, smaller scale music is reproduced in absolutely proper scale. In the past I always felt that really large speakers not only didn’t completely disappear (not even close usually), but the scale of the music was often blown WAY out of proper proportion. Tess accomplishes realistic image sizing without frequency dependent exaggeration. For a large speaker like this to disappear completely like Tess does, is quite an engineering feat. Most really large speakers make it sound like there are two refrigerators in the room in front of you.
The best way I know how to describe what Tess does sonically is to explain the effect a listening session with Tess had on me recently. Long ago I resigned myself to the fact that I will never in my life hear Jimi Hendrix play live…nor will I hear Miles Davis play live. Some of you may be lucky enough to have had those experiences, but I did not…until I listened to Tesseract. In a recent listening session I had with Neil I put on what is probably my personal “stranded on a desert island and can have only one disc” recording … Band of Gypsys. Recorded live December 31st 1969 and January 1st 1970 at the Fillmore East. I’ve listened to this recording a lot and in a huge variety of systems over the years. Always have I felt that I got a glimpse on that recording into what it must have been like to really (pardon the pun) "experience Hendrix" at his best. Musically that disc never fails to move me with it’s cool/funky/bluesy vibe. Hendrix’ guitar playing on it is a face melter. Ok, I’ve heard it a few hundred times….but only when listening to it on Tess did I really FEEL that I was hearing the Band of Gypsys play for me….like I was at the Fillmore at that time. I was able to get such a sense of that recorded space that I sat there dumbfounded with a huge grin on my face…probably drooling, for all I know. I was hearing Hendrix live for the first time and the emotional feeling (pure joy) I had was overwhelming. It happened again with Miles Davis when we played some of that. The fact is we are so fortunate to have good recordings of so many artists (some sadly gone) that we can enjoy. The degree to which I could experience these recordings and the artists intentions/expressions was a true revelation. I’ve been involved on a daily basis in hi-end audio for 30 years now…never have I had an experience so profound.
It’s just not that useful to describe Tess in conventional audio terms. People just need to hear it and experience it for themselves to understand what has been accomplished by the vision, dedication, and hard work of Neil and the team of true craftsmen at Avalon. I know I’ve been changed by having heard it and by having some very meaningful behind the scenes views into what it took/takes to build something like that. It’s just a stunning accomplishment.
Conclusion:
If I might, I’ll finish with a strong opinion (what would the internet be without those!); it’s my belief that Tesseract is the most advanced and highest performing loudspeaker system that has been made…and I really don’t think it will be surpassed in the future. Bold statement? Sure, but the fact is that Neil Patel is without doubt one of the best speaker designers the world knows (the very best in my opinion, with 25 years of groundbreaking design experience) and he dedicated himself completely to designing and refining Tess for a period of 4 years. I just don’t believe that Neil or any other highly talented and driven speaker designer will go through such a thorough and painstaking 4 year process again on a single loudspeaker design. Of course we do have the fruits of that exhaustive labor as a production product that can actually be purchased by a lucky few, but beyond that it’s exciting to know that a lot of the thinking and technical innovation from Tess’s development will find it’s way into other Avalon transducers that will be able to be purchased by a much wider audience.
I hope this basic overview and my descriptions of what the Tesseract has accomplished on a number of levels is helpful and interesting to the Avalon fans and followers on this forum. I’m happy to answer questions if this generates more questions than it did answers ?
"...tell us about the Tesseract please. There is not as much written about it as other SOTA, reference level speakers. In particular, it certainly seems as if Avalon has gone through great lengths above and beyond its other speaker designs...i just don’t know what those things really are.
Can you explain the key design elements/innovations of the Tesseract that Avalon are most proud of...and what they do to the sound that it can reproduce?
Thanks for any insights here."
I am very happy to oblige and share some technical insights here as a company insider as well as relate my own personal listening experiences. There is no way for me not to gush about this product…so if it seems over the top, I apologize…but I’ve heard the Tesseract and if you get that opportunity I bet you’ll have a tough time holding back when describing it as well.
Overview:
Tesseract is much more than the flagship speaker from Avalon…in my opinion and experience, it sets a new standard in not only in transducer design, but in what any audio component in the chain can contribute to music reproduction. For me, it’s so far beyond what I have heard any other component in the chain do to take things to a new level, that it’s almost like a new vocabulary needs to be developed. Since I’m a pretty simple guy, I’ll just stick to the vocabulary I have…it’s unlikely to be sufficient to do this speaker any justice but I’ll do my best. I’ll describe some of the important technical details and goals, as well as my own sonic impressions and observations. Truthfully though it’s no easier to describe Tesseract to someone than it is to describe the Grand Canyon...it simply needs to be experienced. Photos don’t do it justice and my words will not either. What I can say though, with absolute confidence is that those lucky enough to hear Tess in a properly optimized room will have a sonic experience that will stick in their memory for a lifetime.
Technical design goals:
I've spoken with Neil at length about the design process for Tess (probably barely scratching the surface). Neil had many specific goals when he embarked on the journey of developing Tesseract. First of all it’s no easy task to develop a necessarily large speaker that will convincingly play full-scale music at concert levels AND have it disappear in the listening room. This goal most certainly was accomplished and in my opinion that alone is a major breakthrough. Beyond that Neil insisted that the design would respect and preserve the humanity and emotion that is music! That charge was carried very step of the way, it was always at the core of the thinking. Beyond these weighty and noble challenges, there were also numerous technical goals like “No Phase Errors” , “No Group Delay Distortion”, “Minimal Intermodulation Distortions” , “Sharp Image Edge Definition”, Maximum Ambience Retrieval” , “Low Noise Floor”, “Maximized Dynamic Headroom”, “Maximized Transient Speed”, “Constant Q”, “Smooth And Even Polar Response”, “Purely Pistonic Motion Throughout The Pass Band”, “Symmetrical Overall Impedance Curve For Ease Of Drivability”. I think we can all agree that these were some lofty goals and now are incredible accomplishments.
Physical description:
From a technical standpoint I think its probably best to start with the basics. Tess has an upper cabinet and a lower cabinet.
The lower cabinet houses (4) 15” custom low Q, high force factor sub-woofers…two front firing from the sub cabinet, and two behind those internally in an isobaric transmission line array. The Sub cabinets also house the 3.2 Killowatt amplifiers (for each channel). These are special custom Class-A/B MOSFET designs with switch-mode supplies. The powered sub cabinets handle 100hz and below and do not affect the load given to the amplifier that is driving the upper cabinets from 100hz and above. The Sub cabinets also house some control circuitry such as photo sensing power on/off (by waving your hand over a sensor on the back) and a unique transient speed control for the lows.
The upper cabinet houses the 11” Ceramic/Honeycomb mid-bass, the 4.5” Ceramic mid-range, and the .78” Diamond tweeter. The upper cabinet also houses the crossover system.
The upper and lower cabinet designs alone would take me 5 pages to describe properly so I’ll just touch on a few particularly interesting things. With the large number of facets it wasn’t going to be reasonable or possible to do a wood veneer skin on this product. I’m pretty sure every single person involved with building/finishing cabinets at Avalon would have walked out the door if that was required ? Just not realistic, so given the fact that these were going to be painted (any color BTW), it gave an interesting opportunity…each cabinet is sprayed with a special combination of carbon fiber and fiberglass before it is sanded and then painted (a many step process itself). This technique offers some interesting benefits such as incredible cabinet damping and giving the entire cabinet an RF shield due to the conductive nature. It’s an opportunity to completely ground the cabinet. Like other Avalon cabinets the whole process of manufacturing is analog...no CNC machines...all done by the hands of some of the most talented and dedicated craftsment/wood workers I've ever met. No detail is too small...nothing is right until it's really right. No shortcuts.
Basic Specifications:
Frequency Response: 16 Hz to 50k Hz +/- 0.5dB (anechoic) or +/- 1 dB in room (typical).
Efficiency: 93.5 dB (1 watt@1 meter)
Impedance: 6 ohms nominal, 4 ohms minimum (at 80 hz).
Recommended power: 15- 500 watts (you only drive from 100 Hz on up)
Sonic description:
Tess is capable of not only playing large scale musical events with uncanny realism and staggering dynamic contrast (as you would probably expect), but just as importantly, smaller scale music is reproduced in absolutely proper scale. In the past I always felt that really large speakers not only didn’t completely disappear (not even close usually), but the scale of the music was often blown WAY out of proper proportion. Tess accomplishes realistic image sizing without frequency dependent exaggeration. For a large speaker like this to disappear completely like Tess does, is quite an engineering feat. Most really large speakers make it sound like there are two refrigerators in the room in front of you.
The best way I know how to describe what Tess does sonically is to explain the effect a listening session with Tess had on me recently. Long ago I resigned myself to the fact that I will never in my life hear Jimi Hendrix play live…nor will I hear Miles Davis play live. Some of you may be lucky enough to have had those experiences, but I did not…until I listened to Tesseract. In a recent listening session I had with Neil I put on what is probably my personal “stranded on a desert island and can have only one disc” recording … Band of Gypsys. Recorded live December 31st 1969 and January 1st 1970 at the Fillmore East. I’ve listened to this recording a lot and in a huge variety of systems over the years. Always have I felt that I got a glimpse on that recording into what it must have been like to really (pardon the pun) "experience Hendrix" at his best. Musically that disc never fails to move me with it’s cool/funky/bluesy vibe. Hendrix’ guitar playing on it is a face melter. Ok, I’ve heard it a few hundred times….but only when listening to it on Tess did I really FEEL that I was hearing the Band of Gypsys play for me….like I was at the Fillmore at that time. I was able to get such a sense of that recorded space that I sat there dumbfounded with a huge grin on my face…probably drooling, for all I know. I was hearing Hendrix live for the first time and the emotional feeling (pure joy) I had was overwhelming. It happened again with Miles Davis when we played some of that. The fact is we are so fortunate to have good recordings of so many artists (some sadly gone) that we can enjoy. The degree to which I could experience these recordings and the artists intentions/expressions was a true revelation. I’ve been involved on a daily basis in hi-end audio for 30 years now…never have I had an experience so profound.
It’s just not that useful to describe Tess in conventional audio terms. People just need to hear it and experience it for themselves to understand what has been accomplished by the vision, dedication, and hard work of Neil and the team of true craftsmen at Avalon. I know I’ve been changed by having heard it and by having some very meaningful behind the scenes views into what it took/takes to build something like that. It’s just a stunning accomplishment.
Conclusion:
If I might, I’ll finish with a strong opinion (what would the internet be without those!); it’s my belief that Tesseract is the most advanced and highest performing loudspeaker system that has been made…and I really don’t think it will be surpassed in the future. Bold statement? Sure, but the fact is that Neil Patel is without doubt one of the best speaker designers the world knows (the very best in my opinion, with 25 years of groundbreaking design experience) and he dedicated himself completely to designing and refining Tess for a period of 4 years. I just don’t believe that Neil or any other highly talented and driven speaker designer will go through such a thorough and painstaking 4 year process again on a single loudspeaker design. Of course we do have the fruits of that exhaustive labor as a production product that can actually be purchased by a lucky few, but beyond that it’s exciting to know that a lot of the thinking and technical innovation from Tess’s development will find it’s way into other Avalon transducers that will be able to be purchased by a much wider audience.
I hope this basic overview and my descriptions of what the Tesseract has accomplished on a number of levels is helpful and interesting to the Avalon fans and followers on this forum. I’m happy to answer questions if this generates more questions than it did answers ?