Creating a brand new speaker installation brand in a highly competitive market is not an easy challenge. The result of several years of careful planning - the company was launched in 2009 - every speaker from Architettura Sonora is the result of the work of a creative team of acousticians, engineers, architects and landscape designers, "sharing the same enthusiastic vision to redesign the reality of space and landscape through an immersive sound experience."
Thanks to the direct connection with pro-audio Italian manufacturer B&C Speakers, Architettura Sonora designs every transducer used in each of its products specifically for the needs of its respective sound module, achieving an excellent sound quality, able to bring high-fidelity experiences to any application scenario, including all-weather installations.
Architettura Sonora is also able to design and manufacture an entire product in-house to exacting standards of performance as well as fit and finishes, exploring completely new materials, from marble and ceramics all the way to carbon-fiber and innovative composite materials. Its surprising catalog, introduced at ISE 2017 show, in Amsterdam, is able to excite with unique concepts and carefully conceived designs, entering a completely new territory for indoor and outdoor sound installations.
The company's presentation at the Amsterdam show allowed visitors to discover some of the elegantly simple Italian designs, already with a variety of models that we have no doubt will quickly be recognised worldwide. As the Architettura Sonora exquisite catalog demonstrates, these are truly "environmental loudspeakers". As they claim, shapping technology "to create the most beautiful and seductive forms of environmental loudspeakers that we like to consider real 'spatial instruments'."
Each one of its sound diffusers is the result of a meticulous “dialogue” between form and function, physics of sound and design aesthetics. Architettura Sonora's speakers explore a combination of desired reflection and sound projection with an aim to optimize the acoustic experience through a perfect marriage of shape and sound, inspired by Nature. This includes "eliminating any feature unnecessary to the speakers," as they explain.
Each AS speaker, individually and meticulously produced by skilled craftsmen, is truly a unique piece of art highly distinguished by sound quality, design innovation, and tactile features rarely associated with speaker design. Architettura Sonora’s approach to technology and design, explores shapes and materials that "make the sound modules disappear and blur into the landscape."
Examples of the company's products include the Cylinder in concrete, marble, Tuscan terracotta or classic travertine limestone and painted aluminum base or stainless steel, available in different sizes and both as a full-range environmental speaker and subwoofer. Another truly surprising design - and probably one of the most exciting options in the AS catalog is the Sphere, available in floor and suspended versions, combining also a wide range of materials and finishes and also available as a full-range speaker or subwoofer. This an omnidirectional loudspeaker, characterized by a full and warm tonal balance, extremely powerful compared to standard architectural speakers. Placed outdoors, the Sphere_360 in black Marquina marble and painted steel base is simply a stunning proposition (see picture below).
The Spherina family of spherical omnidirectional speakers was one of Architettura Sonora’s first designs, available in concrete, used for the body and deflector. The Spherina can be placed floor-standing or hanging from the ceiling, providing a clear 360 degrees surround sound. It is available in three concrete finishes: Gray (raw and porous), Black (polished and waxed) and White (smooth and silky).
Another omnidirectional loudspeaker, the Cube represents the top of the AS range, available in both full-range and sub versions, ideal for environments requiring superior sound quality and elegant design. As in other designs, the company makes the Cube available in different types of marble and natural stones, with a brushed stainless steel or oxidized brass base. Essentially, all the speakers can combine a wide variety of materials, creating truly unique pieces of the highest quality.
All the mentioned speakers explore a simple but sophisticated electroacoustic design. Inside each of the shapes we find a purposely designed B&C 6” dual-concentric coaxial speaker (8Ω), using a choice of materials and treatments to allow long-term outdoor exposure. The coaxial drivers feature a horn loaded Mylar diaphragm compression driver with sophisticated phasing plug, and a long-excursion woofer with a triple-point suspension
for maximum linearity and durability.
The coaxial transducer is placed well-inside the heavy structure, radiating downwards towards a deflector that generates the specific omnidirectional dispersion or carefully targeted directional coverage. The full range speakers have a two-way crossover on board and cover a frequency range from 50-20.000 Hz (-6dB). The subwoofer configurations have a similar design, using a single 6” woofer, covering 42 to 150 Hz (-6dB). Architettura Sonora also recommends the use of its own range of multichannel amplifiers (using ICEPower Class D modules with DSP), optimized for its designs, and averaging 200W per channel.
We highly recommend exploring Architettura Sonora's catalog of products, featuring already new generation designs using composite materials, of which the company was also showing prototypes at ISE 2017. Products such as the Pergola collection of line-array and point-source solutions, designed to be suspended or floor-standing, the Drop highly directional suspended sound diffuser, or the Helmet satellite suspended
loudspeaker with its surprising organic form, complemented with the Shark suspended subwoofer. All solutions conceived to generate sound experiences indoor and outdoor.
architetturasonora.com
