So, whenever audioXpress receives notice of a new home audio loudspeaker design, no matter how weird, and there's actually a decent text and some photos to go with it (even measurements, but we opted to not include those because they are not ours), we mindfully will work through the information to let our readers know about it. Other manufacturers take notice - and we will gladly share our list of great PR companies and professionals who regularly send us great press releases in case you want to hire much needed help. It's one of the best investments any manufacturer or brand can make. But enough of that.
"Stratton Acoustics sometimes feel that the rarefied world of high-end audio has tended to focus on the cerebral aspect of music playback and lost sight of the absolute emotional joy of recorded music. Examples, perhaps, would be Hotel California played on a 1970s large JBL – west coast rock played on a west coast loudspeaker or The Four Seasons played on an old pair of Quads – European music played on a European loudspeaker. Try both on an Elypsis1512 and experience the combination of accuracy and fun with music. This will not be notes on pitch and in the correct order. This will be heart-tugging music," says the company's announcement. Great stuff.
Stratton Acoustics is in fact a new UK-based high-end loudspeaker manufacturer, that takes inspiration for its products from the iconic, large-scale studio monitors that shaped recording in the 1970s and 1980s. Products such as the legendary JBL 4350, the Tannoy Buckingham, or the Urei 815a, provided the effortless dynamics and massive soundstage that only large-diameter bass and midrange drivers housed in a substantial cabinet can provide.
While the inspiration is that of vintage giants, Stratton Acoustics' goal is to produce thoroughly contemporary high-end loudspeakers, so it employs only the best materials, processes and construction techniques. "Vintage studio monitors were tools built to do a job; exposed fasteners, chipboard cabinets, hook-and-loop grill fixing pads, blanked-off driver apertures and industrial finishes were all acceptable. Stratton Acoustics' loudspeakers, however, are intended as fine objects of furniture as much as they are high-performance music transducers, so elegance, style, finesse and refinement replace the old functional palette of materials and finishes," the company adds.
"While our products always have to create an exhilarating musical performance, they also have to provide excitement through all aspects of their ownership. When not making music, they must be stunning pieces of fine furniture capable of complementing and defining any interior design. After years of development, we can fulfill this goal with various materials and finishes limited by the customer's tastes and daring. I can't wait to see how our customers will challenge us and what wonderfully unique, bespoke pieces we will be lucky enough to produce," says Amy Richards, one of Stratton's founding partners, defining the company philosophy.
Stratton Acoustics also takes a no-compromise approach to cabinet design through engineering complex, comprehensively braced birch plywood enclosures finished to the finest furniture standards. The team works with suppliers to conceive unique finishes, which they can manufacture to the highest standards, with all aspects designed and engineered in-house using advanced technologies and materials.
The Elypsis1512 speakers are influenced by the mentioned large monitors but, along with glancing reverently back at vintage speakers and their qualities, they are also an entirely contemporary design that employs the best of modern driver and crossover technology. Stratton Acoustics' manufacturing processes also employ a combination of high-accuracy computer-controlled production techniques allied to the finest artisanal, hand-finished, low-volume manufacture.
The Elypsis1512 is a three-way passive design built around twin 15" bass drivers, a single 12" midrange driver and a mechanically decoupled, 29mm soft dome tweeter with a precision waveguide. The drivers on the enclosure front panel are in an asymmetric array, which the company says results in similarly asymmetric horizontal dispersion. Pairs of Elypsis1512 speakers are built in mirror image format in front panel component arrangement. The phase relationship through the crossover region between the midrange driver and tweeter ensures that the off-axis frequency response on the midrange side of the speaker remains linear. System group delay remains under 12mS above 40Hz.
The Elypsis1512 twin woofers use reinforced paper cones, and are each rated at 800 Watts power handling. The Elypsis1512 enclosure provides a 230-liter internal volume for the bass drivers. Reflex loading utilizes four large-diameter laminar flow internally and externally flared ports tuned to 34Hz. The speaker low-frequency bandwidth extends to -6dB at 28Hz.
The Elypsis1512 midrange 12" driver also uses a reinforced paper diaphragm and is carefully hand-doped to fine-tune its response characteristics when torqued into a sealed enclosure filled with an optimal selection of damping materials. The Elypsis1512 soft dome tweeter is fitted with a CNC machined aluminum waveguide that defines its dispersion characteristic and provides some increased efficiency through acoustic impedance matching. The tweeter mounts within the Elypsis1512 enclosure via a Stratton Acoustics patented (GB2606586) decoupling arrangement that ensures its isolation from mechanical vibration. The tweeter features a neodymium-iron-boron magnet system with a double copper capped, T–shaped pole piece and a flow-optimized rear enclosure.
The Elypsis1512 passive crossover integrates the drivers at 350Hz and 2.5kHz via asymmetric 2nd and 3rd-order filter slopes. Targeted impedance compensation is employed to linearize the system impedance and to enable close control of filter slopes. Crossover components are all audiophile grade and comprise predominantly plastic film capacitors and air-cored inductors. EQ controls on the front baffle offer ±2dB adjustment on the midrange and tweeter drivers.
The system impedance that results from the combination of drivers and crossover remains above 8Ω between 100Hz and 10kHz. The electrical phase remains within ±20° over the same frequency range. System sensitivity for 2.83V at 1m is between approximately 94dB and 98dB, depending on the midrange and tweeter EQ settings.
The Elypsis1512 can be partnered successfully with almost any amplifier – from the least to the most powerful. Despite its large diameter and traditional paper diaphragm bass and midrange drivers, the Elypsis1512 is said to have a flat axial amplitude frequency response.
Manufactured from a combination of 24mm and 18mm precision CNC routed birch ply panels, the Elypsis1512 enclosure also includes a 46mm Front Baffle capped with a solid CNC machined acrylic outer baffle. Complex and comprehensive internal bracing ensures that the construction is effectively inert, and the internally divided midrange enclosure volume incorporates non-parallel panels to help suppress internal resonance.
"The Elypsis1512 demonstrates what is possible when, in parallel with a philosophy of maximizing musical impact and communication, design restrictions of cost, size and weight are almost entirely disregarded. The result is an electro-acoustic performance unlike almost any other contemporary hi-fi speaker: half-power (-6dB) bandwidth from 28Hz to over 20kHz, sensitivity of 96dB for 2.83V at 1m, and impedance that doesn't drop below 8Ω between 100Hz and 10kHz. Its high sensitivity (more than 8dB above a typical hi-fi speaker) and easy load means it can be driven by almost any amplifier – from a 5-Watt valve amp to a 1kW high-end monster. In the latter case, you might want to stand back," the company concludes.
Great, fun stuff. The price, without any of the custom finishes (Pure model), is listed on the company's website at £69,000 (British Pounds) per pair, which equates to to $85,000 USD before shipping.
www.strattonacoustics.com
