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 After
the Rondo project
A23 had a break in speaker development.
It was not resulting in a lack of further
ideas, rather the contrary is true. A two-way
project was planned and the ideas were transposed
into prototypes. We learned that we are
getting more this and that in different
aspects, but it resulted with the loss of
the intoxicating coherent sound picture
the Rondo is able to paint. So we continued
the widerange-road and focused another project
of our hearts.
Long before music reproduction
was considered an aspect of entertainment
electronics, reproducing music involved
the use of high efficiency speakers and
low output power amplifiers. This was all
that was available at the beginning of High
fidelity, which predated stereo. Anyone
who has heard these distinctive components
from the early history of our field has
no difficulty understanding our passion
to find or develop products today that exemplify
the same, all too rare qualities of design
and sound. That is our quest: not to recreate
the past, but to find current implementations
of the spirit, insight and genius of the
original creative giants when it really
was all about the music.
 Our
commitment to these ideals and values is
now realized in the SoloVox loudspeaker.
The first in a new, and unique line of loudspeakers
under the appropriate name "Hommage" SoloVox,
as does the entire Hommage line, represents
a modern implementation of the principles
and standards that defined the greatness
of audio reproduction in the first half
of the previous century. SoloVox loudspeakers
are produced in limited numbers reflecting
a commitment to produce the very best possible
component and to highlight their uniqueness.
These are not loudspeakers intended for
everyone, and they do not represent a mass
market effort to make yet another loudspeaker.
The SoloVox is anything but just another
loudspeaker.
Though a new breakthrough
product, the SoloVox is the result of years
of design work. We at Auditorium 23 have
been engaged with the French company PHY-HP
since 1997. Until now, most our speakers
have been based on the PHY-HP model H21
LB15 driver. Judging by the success among
music lovers and the press of our various
speaker models all employing this driver
Appassionata, Provence and RA 605 - it's
certainly no overstatement to imply that
Auditorium 23 has created with its different
widerange concepts the rising popularity
of full-range drivers in dipole transducer
cabinets.
These speakers display
the technical and sonic advantages of the
open baffled design while overcoming a number
of problems normally associated with this
approach. However good these designs were,
they were not without their limitations
and distinctive problems - as any other
concepts in the trade. All of these models
were relatively large and when placed close
to the wall in smaller rooms, they sometimes
had difficulty sounding as free and airy
in their musical presentation as they are
otherwise capable of. Nor could we offer
a useful solution or recommendation to this
problem at the time. Instead of the airy,
open, relaxed sound that these speakers
were capable of in most rooms, the 21cm
driver could sound a bit caged and closed
in.
Attempts to circumvent
these problems ultimately led to the development
of the SoloVox, a loudspeaker whose unique
and legally registered rear radiation flow-pattern
creates an increasingly airy and open presentation
even when placed close to the rear wall:
previously unheard of performance in an
open baffle design.
 The
SoloVox is capable of the most extraordinary,
life-like, natural and unforced music reproduction
with the amplifiers of the most modest output
power and they can do this with an ease
of placement in moderate sized rooms that
it was only recently taken to be unthinkable
in an open baffle design. The SoloVox brings
all the distinctive virtues of the open
baffle to all listening rooms.
The uniqueness of
the SoloVox extends beyond this major
breakthrough in ease of placement in
reasonable listening rooms.
The SoloVox cabinet design unites the
advantages of acoustic baffle and closed
housings and achieves optimal utilization
of the sound energy radiated to the
rear.
Ordinarily troublesome
diffraction effects of the sound waves
radiated forward are reduced by the
shape of the acoustic baffle
The proportions of
energy radiated rearward are dispersed
by specially formed elements allowing
a positioning near the wall in smaller
rooms.
The laterally radiated
sound waves join the forward ones in
ways that literally make the enclosure
disappear. Music is played as if in
space before you and not from speakers:
the ultimate "disappearing" act.
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