Some time after Gayle Sanders entered “retirement,” he once again picked up his paper and pen and began tinkering with ideas. “I found myself missing our industry — the people, the excitement, the creative process of designing — it pulled me back,” Sanders said. “I still love learning about new technologies, diving into research, and exploring the possibilities of putting it all together.”
After examining several evolving digital technologies, Sanders saw an opportunity to return to the market with a new approach that would be a complete departure from his previous electrostatic loudspeaker designs. He began to explore the improvements in digital signal processing (DSP) and new amplifier technology, and opportunities to provide a complete package for discerning customers who desire a simple approach to high performance.
Once again, he began designing and building prototypes in his garage. Working through several prototypes over four years, Sanders refined their industrial design and improved their performance. The result is the Image1. Today, Gayle Sanders Eikon occupies a dedicated workshop in Norwalk, Connecticut, where the Image1 speakers are hand-built, tested, and refined.
“I’m a bit of a curator,” Sanders says. “I’m utilizing some of the new DSP technology, which has vastly improved over the last few years, and putting it together with my own engineering. It’s a perfect solution designed to work together in perfect harmony in any environment, and it wasn’t ready for prime time until recently.”
“I’ve always been obsessed with the purity of sound, and passionately explore new opportunities to create a true musical experience,” Sanders said. “I want to make this technology accessible to everyone.”
Image1 System
With the DSP-based Eikontrol serving as the command center, the Image1 system can accept any digital or analog input, and can be easily accessed and controlled with any smartphone or computer. By integrating the latest-generation amplifier technology, directly coupled to extremely low-distortion drivers, the system can achieve excellent precision and coherence without the need and expense of big stacks of gear.
The Image1 cabinet was designed using a proprietary, constrained-layer cabinet system that dramatically damps spurious chassis activity while significantly eliminating sympathetic resonances, ultimately contributing to effortless reproduction of dynamic range and dimensionality in space throughout the audioband.
Additionally, due to the capabilities of greatly improved DSP algorithms, the Eikontrol is capable of acoustic wave-shaping in the room, minimizing sidewall interactions and helping to achieve energetic bass lines as well as phase-perfect mids and highs. Customized bass performance has been perfected using advanced wavelet signal processing for room control. This process dramatically expands the Eikon system’s ability to recognize and analyze energy buildup in the amplitude and time domains. The result is a far more consistent control of destructive energy, dramatically improving uniform frequency response in-room.
At Axpona 2018, the Eikon system was demonstrated with the Böhmer Audio PerfectWave Preamplifier, using the company's DSP algorithms and software for crossover, speaker correction, room Correction and DAC. This sophisticated system is easily accessed and controlled from any smartphone, tablet, etc. (iOS/Android), and controls all of the basic preamp functions as well as multiple contour mapping settings, fine adjustments and environmental settings.
The complete Eikon system price has been confirmed to be $24,500, and includes speakers, amplifiers, and the Eikontrol. The Image1 speakers are available now in Black Piano Gloss finish, with other finishes coming later.
www.eikonaudio.com
