[KevinW]

Please ask me questions about the Solar 1.0 speaker...



This speakers uses a Jordan JX92S full-range 4" driver in a transmission line enclosure.  The JX92S is widely regarded as one of the best midrange drivers ever produced, and it has phenomenal capability to create the full-range of the audio spectrum.  It plays down to 60Hz in my highly tweaked transmission line cabinet, and can handle up to 20kHz. And even though the very top end is a little ragged, it is not very noticeable.

The goal of the speaker is to have no-crossover in the primary musical frequency band of 80 Hz to 8 kHz. There's no way around the deleterious effect that crossovers have on the music.  The one other speaker manufacturer that I know goes to great lengths to avoid the XO in this region is VMPS, and look at the benefits they reap.  The ear is just too finely sensitive to XO's in the musical band, and even though it's effects are subtle, it is always present. To understand just how present, you need to actually hear a speaker without the effects of an XO. It just sounds more clean, natural, airy and NATURAL. Like real music and performers.

The Solar 1.0 has a particular advantage. It has NO crossover at all. Without the XO, the microdynamics and fine detail of the music rises to a higher level, and is breathtaking to say the least. Nuances of music, such as fine metal brushwork, and harmonic overtones of strings, bass, and brass are astoundingly apparent.  Pianos sound like you can hear the wooden box resonating along with the strings.  It really is a unique experience.  It also helps that the Jordan driver is truly excellent at the reproduction of midrange, easily one of the best in the world.

The transmission line design is also special, in that it has the tightest and most natural sounding bass.  To make this design, I tapped into the huge store of arcane knowledge of Jennifer Whitewolf-Crock of Jena Labs.  She has built transmission line designs for 20 years, and knows all the little tricks. I am lucky to have her help, and it certainly shows in the results.

Of course, this speaker has a few drawbacks.  It's only a single 4" driver, so thundering bass isn't going to happen.  But the transmission line design rolls off in the bass more smooth than any other cabinet design, and this makes it very easy to match with a subwoofer.  In fact, the $399 Adire Rava is a beautiful, seamless match.  This allows the Solar 1.0 to excel at bass-heavy music, such as rock, electronica, reggae, etc...

And also, the high frequencies above about 12kHz are a little ragged, because a 4" driver is just too large to do them really clean.  That's while I'll be selling an add-on ribbon tweeter upgrade.  The main cabinet will have a clever hidden attachment mechanism, so that you can mount the tweeter module securely. Just connect the jumpers, and away you go with much improved sound in the highs.  However, there may be times when no XO will be advantageous, so the tweeter can easily be disconnected to get a "different" sound out of one speaker.

I have made special effort to make this speaker affordable.  $949 is an excellent value for the resulting sound quality. Unfortunately, the cost of bamboo is very high ($200 for a single 4x8' sheet), and a fniished speaker using this material is $1149.  But the bamboo looks gorgeous, and has better resonance control and thus sounds better.  I think this is still a great value.

[Sa-dono]

So any chance these speakers, or preferably maybe some future monitors, will make their way through the AC audition chain?

[jackman]

One note of advice.  If you do wind up testing any single driver crossoverless speakers (like the really nice looking T-lines offered by Solar), please make sure you use a good SET amp or at least a tube powered amp.  I love the sound of single ended amps and crossoverless speakers of this nature.  IMO, they are not a good match for a solid state amp.  The "magic", particularly in the midrange region, is not there on SS.  On set, even low powered like the Decware Zen, they are a totally different animal.  

Just a suggestion.

J

[KevinW]

Jackman is correct.  There is definitely magic in the combination of SET and these speakers.  I currently use an ASL Tulip, which is a 2A3 SET amp with 3.5 watts of power.  The sound is positively delicious.  Also, since the bass rolls off at 60Hz, the amps can drive the speakers to quite loud levels without a problem.  

I've also paired the speakers with Soundguy3's Acoustic Reality Ear digital amp, and they sounded fantastic.  I have high hopes for the digital amp I am developing with Jena Labs.

I would not go so far as to state that they are a bad match for solid state amps, as the sound is quite refined.  There is still magic in the midrange, however they are revealing of system faults. That's the one frequent drawback of ultra-revealing speakers.  

[KevinW]

So any chance these speakers, or preferably maybe some future monitors, will make their way through the AC audition chain?

I could do that, if there is interest, and if people do not mind paying the higher shipping costs.  These are not monitors, but rather very small footprint floor standers.  They weigh about 40lbs each.

[jackman]

I would suggest getting a large group of people together and having the group split the shipping cost.  If you get four or five guys, it will make it much easier.  Plus, you may need help Also, Kevin, do you agree with the suggestion on the SET amp?  I love the sound of these types of speakers (never herd yours) with SET but don't think SS is a good match.

What are your thoughts?

J

[KevinW]

Hey, well the first group is going to happen pretty soon at Solar Hifi World Headquarters (my listening room).  I live in Portland, Oregon.  So if you're local and have interest, send me a PM.  This will probably happen in mid-september. Pre-VSAC.  And I should have the digital amp and hopefully the MTM floorstander ready.  I WILL be at VSAC, sharing my room with Jena Labs, so that will be another opportunity to hear them.

I'll make sure there is a demo pair ready for shipping to a group of people willing to split costs.

Regarding SET's. YES YES YES YES, they sound fantastic with these speakers.  The harmonics and micro-dynamics are reproduced like no other speaker I have ever heard for anywhere close to the price.  These speakers are designed to be a mid-level starting point for an SET love affair. For less money, with slightly lower performance, I also sell the Adire HE10.1 series.

In my opinion, one of the main benefits of SET's is the emphasis on 2nd order harmonics, which the ear loves to hear.  It's like putting seasoning on food... it makes a good thing taste even better.  So even though one could argue that SET's add something to the music which wasn't in the recording, it is adding something that is a natural component of music, so everything sounds perfectly natural and normal... and usually better.  Just like adding a little melted butter on grilled wild salmon.

The Solar 1.0 has no XO, which always robs some energy out of the musical signal.  The micro-micro-dynamic details of music is what is lost first.  With the Solar 1.0, this doesn't occur.  So practically speaking, there is a more intimate connection with the music, and a greater sense of space to the whole soundscape.  You can hear details of the recording venue, etc...

In fact, I should just say outright, that one of the impetus for designing these speakers was to pair them with SET's.  I have loved the sound of SET's for a long time, and these speakers are designed to maximize the unique qualities of SET's.  One thing that really suprised however, was that the manufacturer's spec efficiency is only average, but in real life, my 3.5 watt Tulip has no problems driving them to loud levels without distortion. I think this is because of the very smooth rolloff of the bass, thanks to the transmission line design.

[nathanm]

Who builds the cabinets?  Got a picture of what the inside looks like?

[KevinW]

Who builds the cabinets?  Got a picture of what the inside looks like?

I can't show a picture of the insides, because that would divulge the secret transmission line design.  There's a system that Jena Labs has developed which involves varying the cross-sectional area of the line in a particular way to increase bass response while dampening unwanted resonance.  Buy I can say that the line is folded four times, and has natural wool and wool felt stuffing and dampening.  Wool has by far the best resonance control properties of any stuffing.  The comparisons I did were quite apparent.  The best part about wool is that it's also a sustainable resource... no fossil fuels were harmed to produce it.  

The cabinets are built by Ron Deschayne. Ron is a young, talented carpenter who primarily builds custom cabinetry for very expensive homes.  He is extremely meticulous and does a fantastic job.  We should have a bamboo finished speaker ready very soon.  I think people will be very impressed with the craftsmanship quality.

[WerTicus]

Yeah i have a question - is this the best gawd damn full range driver you can possibly get?  cause i know know much about full ranges but i wouldnt want to experience anything but the best of the concept...

whatever it costs.

so if you next model can be the best then ill want to know about it - or if you think this ones the best already (but that would probably be premature to say).

-N

[KevinW]

Yeah i have a question - is this the best gawd damn full range driver you can possibly get?  cause i know know much about full ranges but i wouldnt want to experience anything but the best of the concept...

-N

Hey that's a great question.  Is this the best full-range speaker money can buy?  Maybe it is!  But it really depends on what you call "best".  The simple fact of the matter, is that no single driver on earth can produce 20 Hz to 20 kHz perfectly. A compromise must be made to approach the full spectrum of sound reproduction.  I think the compromise my speaker makes is better than others out there (e.g. Lowther).

When it comes to defining best, I choose excellent sound quality over bass extension.  A larger driver (e.g. 6" or more) would have better bass, but then it would suffer from resonance and breakup modes in the crucial region where most music resides: 80Hz to 8kHz.  Check out the frequency response of the Jordan (from www.ejjordan.co.uk)




See how it doesn't start to break up before 8kHz?  When the frequency response starts to look jagged, that's a breakup mode.  This means that the cone is "ringing" at the freqeuncy, and thus not reproducing smooth music. The ear is actually quite sensitive to this in the region of 80Hz to 8kHz.  Outside of this range, the ear is a lot less able to hear subtle nuances and thus the breakup above 8kHz is not as glaringly obvious. It is still sometimes audible, but it's easy to overlook when the rest of the music sounds so good.  That's also why I'm developing the add-on tweeter to allow a mix and match of listening preference.

If a larger driver was used, then the breakup would occur sooner, and thus in my opinion would not be as good.  I really think that a 4" full-range drivers are the way to go, and the Jordan is the best of those.  Although of course, then the compromise to get deep bass of kick drums, electronic music, etc requires a subwoofer.  But my transmission line allows for very smooth rolloff of the bass, and thus easy, seamless integration with a musical subwoofer.

So did I answer your question?  

[WerTicus]

Yes you have actually - i did some research of my own and it would seem the driver your using was the open class winner in atlanta in 2001.  So i take it its not bad

you could have a pretty small sort of tweeter with this sort of speaker - cause the tweeter would really only be doing a small amount of the top end output...

perhaps a super tweeters in order make sure you get all those harmonics that we cant even hear in there for the 'ultra real' sound.

but then you have ruined it its not full range anymore...

hrmmm  I am really interested in full ranges - but i cant imagine i would like their sound, as i am used to hearing the whole spectrum of sound from 20hz to 35khz. (yeah i know i cant hear that high but its being played with my super tweeters).

I would like more 'pure' sound though - so maybe something like this ... in a small bedroom would be good where you can use the room to make up for some of the bass lacking - and then some super tweeters in SERIES baby.

anyways just thinkin....
-N

[nathanm]

Maybe someone should make a dual concentric driver with an 8KHz or higher XO point instead of around 1-2KHz like most are that I know of.  That way you could extend the frequency response past the breakup point but still keep the sound firing from the same point in space.  Kinda like that speaker JohnR made with the "full range" Fostex supplemented with a tweeter except that the tweeter would be on axis with the "full range".

[KevinW]

Yes you have actually - i did some research of my own and it would seem the driver your using was the open class winner in atlanta in 2001.  So i take it its not bad

Yeah, it's a really fantastic driver. Best midrange I have heard, but it does pretty okay for bass and treble too. And it's so free of resonance. A very nice piece of engineering.

you could have a pretty small sort of tweeter with this sort of speaker - cause the tweeter would really only be doing a small amount of the top end output...

Yeah, exactly what I'm thinking.  Most ribbon tweets play down to 2-3kHz, so 8 kHz is no problem, and well within the linear range of frequency response.  I can use the cheaper ribbons, and eschew the mega-bucks ribbons designed to play into the 500Hz range. Saves money, and doesn't hurt sound quality at all.

perhaps a super tweeters in order make sure you get all those harmonics that we cant even hear in there for the 'ultra real' sound.

but then you have ruined it its not full range.

The tweeter I'm using plays up to 40kHz, so even your pets will be impressed

hrmmm I am really interested in full ranges - but i cant imagine i would like their sound, as i am used to hearing the whole spectrum of sound from 20hz to 35khz. (yeah i know i cant hear that high but its being played with my super tweeters).

Like I said before, there's no such thing as a single driver, full range speaker that plays from 20Hz to 20kHz. So you have to make a compromise somewhere.  I have done my best to make the compromise as sonically transparent as possible, incorporating many special design features into one package.  The TL design integrates very well with a sealed, musical subwoofer to play down deep. The add-on tweeter, which is essentially a super tweeter, smooths out the highs.  

I suppose now's a good time to mention the 30 day audition period.

[KevinW]

Maybe someone should make a dual concentric driver with an 8KHz or higher XO point instead of around 1-2KHz like most are that I know of.  That way you could extend the frequency response past the breakup point but still keep the sound firing from the same point in space.  Kinda like that speaker JohnR made with the "full range" Fostex supplemented with a tweeter except that the tweeter would be on axis with the "full range".

Cool idea! You're always thinking creatively...  However my gut feeling is that this wouldn't be too practical. Because you wouldn't be able to use anything larger than a 4" woofer, or else you would have cone breakup before 8kHz.  In fact, I think that Jordan's linear behavior up to 8k is actually quite a nice bit of clever engineering.  A 4" driver doesn't leave a lot of room for a concentric tweeter, and you would still need a big woofer for the deep bass.

[sica]

Kevin, how about a line array with like four Jordan's/channel?    That way you still have the benefits of not having a crossover and better bass and impact due to increased driver area?   May be add a ribbon tweeter for treble?

[WerTicus]

yeah thats what i was thinking sica...

but you still dont get 'lower bass' you only really get louder at the mid bass .... simulating 'more' frequency range

but sounding boomy to anyone thats heard true range.

[KevinW]

Sica,
Werticus has the right idea.  The Jordan Driver has a Fs (resonany frequency) of about 60Hz.  This means that it can't really play any lower than that.  So adding more drivers doesn't get the bass any lower.  Above 80 Hz, a single 4" driver is adequate for very loud passages. It moves plenty of air.  The absolute best way to deal with the lower amount of bass is by adding a musical sub with a variable XO's at about 60 Hz. This adds a little extra bass to blend with the Jordan below 80Hz, and takes over completely below 80Hz.  The transmission line allows a very smooth rolloff into the bass, which makes the blending seamless.  And the variable XO on the sub is tuned by ear to make a good match with how the Jordan TL tower excites the bass in the room.  I think this can result in a near-optimal solution to the conundrum of 20Hz to 20kHz sound from a single full range driver. What do you think?

With the Rava sub at $399, I don't see any reason to buy anything else.  It's an awesome musical subwoofer, regardless of the price.  Well, unless you want to shake the walls below 30Hz, in which case the new Daeva with a 15" Tempest driver is the solution. I've got one of those in shipment... $599

There's one other problem with the idea that Sica proposed.  It has to do with comb filtering at higher frequencies.  A line array only works if all frequencies are emitted in a true line, otherwise you get lobing and weird concelation effects from multiple distinct sources. (e.g. comb filtering)  

The problem with using cones for a line array is that high frequencies have too small of a wavelength to make a "virtual" line from several cones.  a 20 kHz wave has length of .68 inches, so a line array should have emitters spaced no more than .68 inches apart.  You can't get this by stacking 4" drivers.  It's physically impossible.  So the treble from four stacked drivers would be a mess of comb filtering.  The only way to do a good line array for treble is using a long ribbon.

[nathanm]

Not trying to rain on Kevin's parade, but I am not so sure I'd call this speaker a "good value".  For nearly a thousand bucks the thing is fizzling out at 60Hz requiring even more money to go towards sub\bass bin augmentation, unless of course you only listen to flute solos.  I can think of a number of vendors offering similar designs with better bass extension and for less money.  I can't comment on how its 80-8K range sounds, but man, that's a lot of dough for such a limited bandwidth.  The Solar seems to need lots of outside help.  I would think it would be a better value if an additional woofer was incorporated so it could properly play the bottom octaves by itself. You're going to need a crossover of SOME kind no matter what with this setup. Hmmm.

[KevinW]

Fair enough criticism Nathan, and I'm glad you brought it up.  You have to hear the speakers to decide on value.  They sound really really good, and I'm definitely willing to stack them up against other speakers that make a different set of compromises (e.g. XO to get better bass).  As far as listening to music goes however, I think mine are a lot more "musical", have far better microdynamics and detail, image better, and have zero phase distortion.  These are the qualities of music reproduction that make us all stay up late at night listening, and I have tried to maximize these qualities above all else.  This results in a slightly different set of compromises, which I have tried to explain.

Of course, not being a marketing whizz kid, I have a hard time understanding how people interpret my explanations with regard to actually buying something. Any ideas there?