AudioKinesis has never really done a “statement” speaker system before, but with a little luck 2020 will be the year, and What's Best Forum will be the front-row seat.
We won't be shooting for "absolute best speaker for a big room", nothing against big rooms, but where we have the most to offer is in small to medium rooms.
Nor will we be shooting for "absolute best" anything, as that sort of claim would call for a much higher-paid marketing department than ours. Instead, we will be shooting for something like "a unique and enjoyable combination of attributes, without any disqualifying colorations." Some of what we'll be doing will be refinements of things we've done before, and some of it will be new territory for us.
By way of overview, we aspire to combine the liveliness, palpable sense of presence, and tube-amp-friendliness of a first-rate horn system; the immersion and utter lack of listening fatigue of a first-rate dipole system; and the disappearing act and low-end solidity of a first-rate conventional system. We expect to do so in a way that is unusually adaptable to less-than-ideal rooms. We will be making some trade-offs along the way, so we'll mention those too.
First up in the "new territory" category is a proprietary horn which combines the directivity control and freedom from coloration of Earl Geddes' Oblate Spheroid geometry with a large-format compression driver. Heretofore, to the best of our knowledge, Oblate Spheroids (and their derivatives) have been confined to small-format compression drivers. For what we are trying to accomplish, we think this particular horn will outperform anything else we are aware of.
But there will be a tradeoff relative to some high-end horns: Because the Oblate Spheroid profile is constant-directivity, the highs are spread over a wider area than would be the case with a tractrix, exponential, spherical, or hyperbolic horn. Our on-axis efficiency in the high treble is a little under 100 dB, which becomes the limiting factor. This isn't bad efficiency, but it does fall short of many high-end horn systems. (Just to be clear, our horn puts out as much high frequency energy as these other types, but it is not concentrated into a narrow on-axis angle).
Why not add a high efficiency supertweeter? Because we have found that time-domain coherence of the upper harmonics is worth preserving, and that cannot be done in the analog domain with a supertweeter. So we will be using large-format compression drivers which have sufficient top-end extension.
New territory for us will include (estimated) 100 dB efficient, 16-ohm main speakers. This translates to a 97 dB/2.83 volt sensitivity, and compatibility with a wide range of specialty tube amps, including the Atma-Sphere M-60 OTL amp. We are designing with the M-60 specifically in mind, and it may well prove to be the ideal amplifier for these speakers despite its relative affordability. Solid state amps can of course also be used, and most will deliver half their 8-ohm rated power into these speakers (hence the 97 dB/2.83 volt sensitivity), but typically with lower distortion. In practice a solid state amp's reduced wattage output into the 16-ohm nominal load is unlikely to be a limiting factor because of their high efficiency.
Familiar territory will include an upwards-and-backwards firing "Space Generator" section, whose purpose is to add some spectrally-correct, relatively late-onset reverberant energy. This results in a more effective presentation of the spatial cues on the recording. So on a good recording we can achieve that "you are there" sense of envelopment which relies on the recording's spatial cues dominating over the playback room's acoustic signature, and which is normally out of reach without a very good large room (and a suitably capable system). The Space Generator section we will be using is more advanced than what we have heretofore displayed at audio shows. The Space Generator is our secret weapon; it is what will distinguish what we do from other high-efficiency systems.
We will also be returning to familiar territory by using the Swarm subwoofer system for the bottom couple of octaves, as we think it combines the pitch definition of good dipoles with the bottom end extension and impact of a monopoles. Can it "keep up with" horns? We have customers using the Swarm with 107 dB efficient fully-horn-loaded systems (well, "fully horn loaded" except for the Swarm), including one who replaced his horn subwoofer with a Swarm. For those intimidated by the thought of having to find places for four subwoofers in a small to medium room, their footprint is only one square foot, and their placement is very flexible. In situations where extension well below 20 Hz is required, options will include a 10-Hz Swarm (which will have a larger footprint).
The combination of very good radiation pattern control, independently adjustable reverberant sound (via the Space Generator sections), adjustable top-end "tilt" and midbass tuning, plus the highly adaptable bottom end of the Swarm, combine to make our approach exceptionally real-world room-friendly. Not that there wouldn't be further improvement in a well-treated dedicated listening room, but in general we offer less sonic compromise in ordinary or problematic rooms than most other approaches. And if the services of an acoustician are engaged he or she will not need to "fix" the speaker's off-axis response, but rather can concentrate on improving the room's acoustics.
To the best of our knowledge, nobody else is doing a 100 dB ballpark system that can convey the sense of envelopment of a good dipole system in a modest room. Unless someone beats us to it, we'll be the first.
So at this point (about 11PM on January 1st, 2020) the custom tooling we need is being fabricated by a machine shop. We have some custom parts on order, and will be ordering other custom parts in the near future. We are working with a master woodworker who is a longtime industry veteran on the cabinet design. And as you can probably tell, we are highly optimistic. Which shouldn't be surprising - I think the only ones left in this industry are the optimists!
