Helsinki HifiExpo 2011, Finns
One of the major curiosities of the Helsinki HifiExpo is Finnish loudspeakers, either new models by the old manufacturers or like this time, new loudspeakers by unforeseen firms such as the Tabulum. It offered binaural auditive pleasures from an innovative active digital speaker system, called Tabulum Qlara.
The system comprises of two digitally controlled 4-way speakers whose acoustic properties are heavily influenced by psychoacoustics. The midrange and the treble are reproduced with two identical widebandwidth drivers - one firing forwards, and the other, firing backwards. The latter is digitally attenuated in order to create a cardioid radiation pattern. The two 10 inch woofers are so controlled that together with the midrange/tweeter unit the speaker becomes a point source radiator, directivity being independent of the frequency or the direction of the sound.
The digital system has 4 digital audio inputs, digitally remote controlled preamplifier, a parametric room adjustment system, a digital DSP-based crossover, which comes before the DAC, not after. The 2x4 channel amplifier has 1600 watts total power.
The Qlara is a stereo loudspeaker but if the manufacturer is to be believed, by far the best results are achieved when binaural reproduction is utilized, meaning that both channels (their time differences) are kept distinct up to both ears, the left ear receiving the left channel signal only, and vice versa. The rationale is that when recursive cross-talk is cancelled - digitally in this case - human brain interpretes the direction of the sound exactly as when it was recorded. Tabulum's t’Ambio technique is an advanced version of the classic Ambiophonics system. When the speakers are positioned close to each other, the shadings of the head at higher frequencies do not become a problem. At a hotel room it was hard to tell how realistic the spatial image of the sound was but different it was. Definitely worth further investigation.
For more than 20 years Harri Isoniemi from Harrin Kaiutin has named his loudspeakers by bird species. However, his new speaker series takes its inspiration from fire in all conditions. The first model is called Loimu (Blaze), a 2,5-way design with a waveguide. The photo does not do justice to the shiny and lively surface of the curcly birch. The speaker was carefully adjusted to the room resulting in a true and believable bass and lower midrange, and respectable definition overall. The rack is tailor-made for the ASR Emitter amplifiers and their battery PS.
You may think what you like about the outlooks of these speakers but Verdeaudio's Cat Verde active dipole loudspeaker system, designed by an audio engineer Mika Rintala (better known for his products for pro-sound systems), is a serious attempt to address many of the problems that hamper obtaining a truly musical sound. The subwoofers (Peerless woofers) have their own Class-AB transistor power amps placed close to the drivers.
The midwoofer and the ribbon tweeter - the cat on the top of the subwoofer - are powered by 2x10W Class-A tube amp (EL84) with a separate power supply. No overdrive distortion, no negative feedback. The crossover comes before the power amp section. The front panel of the amplifier is of spectrolite, and the side panels of massive Finnish birch. A sound with an inner wisdom.
Yet another new Finnish loudspeaker manufacturer, Existence Loudspeakers, specializes in loudspeakers using multiple widebandwidth drivers but no crossover. Seen in the picture is Existence Reality, a bipolar line array design (closed box) with 10 four inch widebandwidth drivers in front, two in rear. The frequency response 28Hz to 19kHz. Goes quite deep down even without a sub but the way in which the low bass is produced is not conventional. I've heard these speaker after the Show, and the results were very promising.
Amphion demoed its relatively recent Argon 1 loudspeaker on the stand. The DAC is PS Audio.
Of the rest, Gradient was at DigiExpo (I missed completely), and Aurelia had joint forces with the Naxos Finland, the major CD distributor in Finland.
Finally, the Club of Finnish Hifi Hobbyists had two rooms, of which the other was devoted to a mono system with Garrard 401 & SME tonearms, EAR 88PB phonostage, Altec Lansing 9842 (Model 14) loudspeaker, and RCA New Orthophonic Power Amplifier LMI-32216A and RCA New Orthophonic Pre-Amplifier LMI-32215A.The system belongs to one member.
