Displaying items by tag: design - StereoLife Magazine

I wonder how long the hunger for headphones will last? Looking at the rapid development of this segment of the audio market from a consumer's perspective we can only enjoy it. Competition is increasing and manufacturers have to to really try if they want to get the attention of a potential customer. We must admit that headphones are a convenient solution for people who want to enjoy music at the highest level, but don't have the conditions for a classic home set. Or they demand mobility, which is very likely due to the parallel development of portable DAP players. Price is yet another factor. Headphones and dedicated amplifier costs a few thousand euros, but it can give better sound performance than a set of speakers and classic amplifier at the same price.

Among the speakers we can distinguish some types made for specific applications, such as center channels, wireless active speakers or subwoofers. Each has its place in a stereo or home theater, but their makers rarely focus on a particular type of speaker. Manufacturers try to satisfy every customer and offer everything, including these very specific products. There are several specialized factories among which subwoofer specialists tend to be the strongest group. REL was founded in 1990 by Richard Edmund Lord.

Audiovector is one of the most recognizable Scandinavian loudspeaker manufacturers with a true legacy and dozens of awards. They participate in all major events, and now intensively develop active wireless speakers. The company has over 22,000 fans on Facebook and keeps up with various technological innovations. If you truly want to discover the philosophy of the company, you have to meet its founder - Ole Klifoth. This friendly man has been running the company for 37 years with the help from his son, Mads. In addition to the audio equipment, he's also interested in Scandinavian and American literature, and in his spare time he listens to jazz, rock and blues in a wooden house, deep in the woods.

In the times of rampant digitization and the pursuit of better sound recording formats, it's important to remind ourselves of solutions that effectively resist being relegated to the past. Sometimes we get the impression that all the modern solutions create an ever greater need to escape to a world in which one can appreciate things such as turntables, vintage hi-fi and of course - tube amplifiers. There are few music lovers who have tried tubes and emerged from this experience without any emotion. This technology offers a unique sound, but on the other hand it is difficult to deny that there is something magical in these devices. Most of them are eye-catching and look beautiful, and if we add the Italian sense of style to this puzzle, we get exactly what Unison Research has been offering for years.

Nic Poulson is a telecommunications engineer who studied and worked at the BBC in the eighties as a sound engineer. After leaving the BBC in the early nineties and further developing his passion for audio equipment, Nic has become a well-known designer of electronic circuits with Trilogy Audio Systems company. He also designed and implemented runway lighting systems at various airports. For us the most important thing is that he was one of the first people to notice the problem of power supply systems. That's why he founded IsoTek - in order to deal with this in an appropriate manner.

Hi-end world may seem mysterious and bizarre, but when you understand some mechanisms and taste the close contact with the music, it is not hard to get involved in this hobby. Even cables and power conditioners are of major importance for the owners of hi-end audio systems. However the speakers are the most important element. To climb higher naturally we look for the ones which are more professional and refined. It's hard not to notice that the majority of speakers available on the market look roughly the same. Many manufacturers offer big, three-way speakers with four classic drivers, high gloss finish and leather, metal or glass accents. Woofers can be placed on the front, on the sides or on the bottom of the enclosure. Treble can come from a dome, ribbon or other stuff and so on, but the problem is that most speakers apply ventilated enclosures, which is too boring and obvious for many audiophiles. Instead, you can choose the electrostatics and magnetostatics, but it requires a lot of courage to make sacrifices in interior design. It may turn out that the best place for them is right in the center of the listening room. Additionally there is a need to purchase an amplifier with a very high output power.

Many manufacturers of audiophile devices occupy a specific area of the market and introduce new constructions, designed to catch the attention of people listening to silver cables. However, there are some companies able to make their way in the world not only for audio freaks, but for other people as well. Sonus Faber is certainly one of them. This brand needs no introduction for audiophiles, but people interested in design, art and even motoring may also know it, because it is responsible for the Pagani Huayra car audio system. Its speakers can be seen not only in stores with amplifiers, but also in museums and art galleries. It is not surprising because the Italian designers treat their sets as works of art. Uncompromising approach to design coupled with a respect for tradition and modern technical solutions is particularly visible in the most expensive loudspeakers. That is why the set of Olympica III arrived to our office. This is the top model from the series named after the Olympic Theater located in the city of Vicenza.

Some audiophiles claim that one of the fundamental principles when selecting hi-fi equipment is simple - if you are going to buy a speaker, amplifiers or cable, check out how big is the factory where it's built - the bigger it is, the better the equipment. I honestly don't know where this comes from, because Bentley has a much smaller plant than Toyota or Nissan, but I would rather drive a Continental GT instead of an Auris or Juke. Smaller, highly specialized factories are able to chase or even outrun big corporations. Some say this may happen with speakers or tube amplifiers - stuff that doesn't need innovative thinking, but when it comes to streamers or digital amplifiers, large manufacturers will always be ahead. But is that necessarily the case?

Sonus Faber is one of the most recognizable brands in high-end speaker market. The company was founded by charismatic Franco Serblin and it has built its reputation mostly on audiophile monitors. Massive boxes finished in real wood and leather have earned favor with music lovers around the world in a relatively short period of time, turning a small factory into the rank of a place where real works of art are born. One doesn't even need to know about technical matters to see the artistry of Italian designers and craftsmen. A few years ago the catalog has been fairly stable and divided into three main lines. Top models rarely changed, while slightly larger movement prevailed in the lower series.

Focal is one of the most powerful companies in the loudspeaker market, making mainly domestic hi-fi speakers and car audio components. Everything is produced in France under one roof, or rather several to be more precise. The scale of production has forced the company to build a large complex of factories and laboratories and take over the cabinet factory where most expensive enclosures are manufactured. After the launch of Aria and Easya models, Focal decided to expand its line of headphones. The first Spirit One model was very successful, so engineers decided to continue this winning streak and create a whole series of headphones based on the same design. New models had to be targeted at different customer groups. Because the basic construction remained the same, functions and applications of new headphones had to be different.