[jsalk]

[Special Audiocircle offer below]

The Story...

Back in 2007, Dennis Murphy approached us about a speaker that he, along with Paul Kittinger, had designed and encouraged us to bring it to market. That speaker became known as the SongTower.

Over the years, the SongTower has proven to be the most popular speaker we have produced.  It has earned numerous awards, including an Editor’s Choice Award from The Absolute Sound for seven years running.

This past year, we asked ourselves a question: "How would this design change if we took on a similar project today?" There was only one way to find out.

The Search was On

Naturally, the first step in any new design is the selection of drivers. Speaker driver technology continued to evolve since the original SongTower was born and we wanted to take advantage of industry advances.  For example, we have seen the widespread adoption of ribbon tweeters over the years and, more recently, ATM tweeters. 

The original Heil Air Motion Transformer (AMT) has been around for decades.  We have used it in a number of custom, one-off designs over the years.  But recent developments have drastically lowered the cost and size of this type of tweeter.

Our research unearthed an OEM ATM tweeter at a cost that made this an ideal driver for this project.  This new tweeter offered improved detail and transparency in the high treble.

Once we settled on the tweeter, it was time to look at recent woofer developments.  Over the past few years, driver manufacturers have introduced new woofer designs with many different types of cone material.  Among them are ceramic cones.

Why Ceramic?

According to engineers at SB Acoustics, "Ceramic cones offer smoothness and harmonic richness unavailable from conventional paper cone material. Ceramic materials also offer significantly higher stiffness numbers and slightly better internal losses than typical metals such as titanium or aluminum." 

The ceramic woofers we selected increase both midrange detail and bass extension.

Now that we had the drive complement nailed down, it was time to address the cabinet.

The Cabinet

In keeping with the original SongTower design, the SongTower II design utilizes a mass-loaded quarter-wave transmission line cabinet.  Paul Kittinger did his usual excellent job designing a perfect cabinet for this new design.

With the drivers and cabinet design complete, it was time for Dennis Murphy to develop an appropriate crossover.  And, as usual, Dennis did a stellar job.

Introducing the SongTower II




Special Audiocircle Member Offer



When we set out to produce prototypes of the new SongTower II design, we ordered enough parts to produce 10 pairs of speakers.  Why?  Because until you actually finish a test pair of speakers, there is no guarantee that the design will work out. And we didn't want to have excess inventory sitting around if the design failed to work out.  Now that the design has proven itself, we want to give it a good send-off.

So here's the deal...  We are offering these first 10 pairs for the price of the original SongTower - $2395.  Once they are gone, the pricing on our SongTower II web page, $2695, will be in effect.

SongTower II Special Offer pairs left:

10 9  8 7 6 5 4  3 2 1

- Jim

[nyc_paramedic]

Disregard.

The speaker is up on the site and dimensions listed.

N

[opnly bafld]

(

[Ice10]

I’m sorry, are these going to be available in the customers choice of standard veneer?

[jsalk]

I’m sorry, are these going to be available in the customers choice of standard veneer?

Yes, they are built to order.  Custom veneers are available as well at extra cost.

- Jim

[rollo]

   Nice Jim, good luck.

charles

[someguy]

I ordered a pair of ST's for my dad which arrived a couple months ago. I would totally have sprung for these if they had been available at the time. Nice work Jim

[Rocket]

Hi Jim,

Another great design from Salk Sound.

Cheers Rod

[kingcrowing]

Jim,

Is there a matching center for these?

[jsalk]

Jim,

Is there a matching center for these?

Not at this time.  But we could probably develop one if need be.

- Jim

[SmCaudata]

I'm brand new here and signed up to reply to this thread. I'm moving into a new to me home that was pre-wired with a Control4 distributed amp. I'm excited to outfit it with my own speakers. Anyway, do you still have any of the initial 10 left? What are the finish options? I'd send a PM but can't due to newness.

I also just wanted to say that everything you makes looks great and I'm happy I can support a small local business. The fact that you make these pieces that compete in price with made overseas vinyl wraps is awesome.

[jsalk]

There are a couple of the first 10 left at this point.  The special offer price is good for any standard finish.  They include curly maple, curly cherry, curly walnut, oak, straight mahogany, satin black or white automotive.  Any of the wood veneers can also be dyed as standard.  So you can have electric blue over maple or rose-red over cherry, for example.

Of course, if you want a custom veneer, you just pay for the veneer itself.  Prices for custom veneers vary widely, so we can only quote when we agree on a specific veneer batch.

I hope this answers your questions.

- Jim

[floresjc]

I'm brand new here and signed up to reply to this thread. I'm moving into a new to me home that was pre-wired with a Control4 distributed amp. I'm excited to outfit it with my own speakers. Anyway, do you still have any of the initial 10 left? What are the finish options? I'd send a PM but can't due to newness.

I also just wanted to say that everything you makes looks great and I'm happy I can support a small local business. The fact that you make these pieces that compete in price with made overseas vinyl wraps is awesome.

You are going to be very happy with Salk gear. I found Jim on the internet what seems like forever ago when his bread and butter was HT1's and HT3's. I was in college at the time and by the time I scraped up enough money in my early career he had announced transmission line designs in the original Songtower (of which I have two pairs) and the HT2-TL's (of which I have one pair).

Fantastic stuff. If I could bring myself to part with the money, I dream of owning some of the Silk's, but at this price these Songtower II's are awful tempting.

[floresjc]

[Special Audiocircle offer below]

The Story...

Back in 2007, Dennis Murphy approached us about a speaker that he, along with Paul Kittinger, had designed and encouraged us to bring it to market. That speaker became known as the SongTower.

Over the years, the SongTower has proven to be the most popular speaker we have produced.  It has earned numerous awards, including an Editor’s Choice Award from The Absolute Sound for seven years running.

- Jim

Since its unlikely I'll get to hear them both in person, what would you say the biggest differences are between your STII's and the Silk Towers? Just based on the spec sheet, the bottom end should reach 34Hz on both with more high end extension by the Silks, but I doubt I hear much above 18k anyway. Most everything you make is very flat across the spectrum with excellent detail and midrange, so I'm curious what you're impressions are about where these two stand relative to each other.

[Rocket]

Hi,

Frank Van Alstine has a pair of the new Songtower II's and spoke highly of them.  He has had a pair of HT3's, currently Philharmonic 3's and now the Songtower II's.

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=173916.msg1844968#msg1844968

If your will to pay extra I'm sure the Silk Towers would outperform the Songtower II's but if cost is a consideration then you might want to give them a go.

Cheers Rod