$15,000 Speaker Does Not List Freq Response Specs

Ok. Enough speculation: 1) The system consists of four components--two triangular-section 90" aluminum tube cabinets, one dual-driver (powerful) sub and an outboard amp/crossover. 2) The introductory demo was hosted by a high-end dealer who did indeed intend to "hawk his wares". In fact, he never unpacked our woofer! He has never heard it. Ever. The add-on tweeter was his choice and considered destructive by all who attended. Still, he's a quality guy with his own opinions. That said, I will not ship a system without the woofer. We designed this as a system. 3) there are two dealers on board and more to come. Being hand assembled and using special CNC milling machines, we can only make so many per day. Each finished unit is supplied to my partner, Bob Carver, who personally QCs every damn part and yes, we do frequency measurements before re-packing for shipment. 4) the price is $17,495. Bob had the wrong price on his site so we've already corrected the error and the site needs further mods which I'm attending to. Absolute Sound had the wrong price as they had the prototypes for a full year! Didn't want to give them up. 4) We've sold out the entire first two production runs, half because of the review and half due to the audition that one of our members above found wanting. In fact, the response to the demo was overwhelming resulting in multiple $5,000 deposits from the early adopters. Word spread across the country and we've sold systems from LA to NY and Chicago. 5) want more details? Call me, Frank Malitz at 847-668-4519. This is not a commercial announcement. Note that I've not referred to the actual sound quality as I've never heard it! My samples are on the way but I'm filling orders for you guys first. You might love it or not but it is pretty much room independent and you will have a money-back guarantee. 

Finally, and I've left the most intriguing aspect for last, it cannot be compared to any other speaker in terms of technology. The 22 mid-woofers per tower are wound with high back-EMF voice coils. Each functions as a microphone as well as a speaker. We listen to the room constantly and force a correcting voltage into your amp's feedback loop so the system is self-equalizing. Nothing like this exists nor has it ever from anyone else.

And oh yes, speaker specs are meaningless. When I started Onkyo USA in 1976, I couldn't believe how terrible their speakers were (Onkyo is a huge OEM speaker manufacturer) so I set up a lab and each measured very well. All had, essentially, the same specs and yet sounded competently different. Over 250 speaker brands claim flat response, etc. Almost no designer has the requisite science to design a perfect speaker. Bob had to resort to a very clever correction architecture because of this fact and he's a true genius.

feel free to call. I don't bite. I'll also help you with any Sunfire questions or backup simply to keep Bob's good name.
Peace and harmony to us all.

I may have been wrong about the outboard boxes. Might be two. Just sent a note to Bob to clarify--the result of my being in the Chicago area and Bob being in Washington state. I'll be back.

Yes, Taters, it was Dave's place. Good call. Bob was not supposed to pick dealers. As CEO, that's my job. I inherited the account. Now, I'm glad I did. I've come to respect David for his absolute dedication to providing his clients with the best audio possible. His opinions and mine often are at odds but his heart is in the right place. He does have extensive experience. I value the relationship.

Next, I don't bullshit about sound--ever. I too have little direct knowledge of the speaker's performance capabilities. I don't have my samples yet. Frankly, I'd prefer the purchaser to form his own opinions anyway. I may comment later when I hear them but am uncertain about breaking Audiogon rules since the phrase "conflict of interest" raises questions about my objectivity.

Now, onto a clarification: you get two towers, one subwoofer, one carton with two crossovers and one sub amplifier. I'm considering selling the woofers separately for those rooms with non-uniform coverage. Using two would be preferable under those circumstances. David was concerned about the thinness of the woofer cabinet--like 3", but at four feet tall, there's enough internal volume to allow very deep and powerful bass. Bob designed the shallow drivers for bore and stroke despite their slim profile. The woofer cab is georgeous with its multiple layers of hand-rubbed lacquer. You can use it in any way you can imagine. It won't shake since it has an internal mechanism to cancel cabinet vibration. Hell, make a coffee table with legs if you like. You'll not spill the wine!

There's more than one way to wire it and you'll be guided by a quick-start guide. One scheme utilizes an umbilical we provide which obviates the need for at least one run of expensive cables while simplifying hookup. Bob has provided terminals for bi-wiring but neither Bob nor I feel the benefit outweighs the cost (David Weinhart will throw a fit).

When we finally get feedback from you guys who actually purchase this system, I'll post updates from time to time. Maybe bi-wiring will improve it; I have no way to know at this time.

 I'm not much of a forum guy and that's why I left my phone number. If you have a pressing issue, post it here but if I don't respond in a day or so, call me. There's far too much subjectivity and pseudo-science on forums and I tire of explaining things like specs are meaningless, which, sadly, in the real world, and not on paper, they are.
Frank

Joe, I remember going to my college library to read the reviews in the magazines I could not afford--hour after hour (ca. 1968). I also remember the transition from tubes to solid state in 1964 or so.  the SS stuff had far better specs but I was baffled at the utterly dreadful sound. 

You are entirely correct. One must listen.  Trust your ears on,y as Joe suggests. I can easily attack any specifications generally employed by most companies. Still, there are manufacturers like Bel Canto who provide incredible S/N ratios and yes, their stuff sounds great. Is it simply due to their specs? If it was, how do we reconcile the superb performance of units with lesser specs? Admittedly, tubes usually have mundane numbers but one must agree many sound wonderful.

Some day perhaps we can finish the science and all enjoy the expressive communication all too often at great financial cost these days. Thank goodness for Andrew Jones who demoed a pair of Elac speakers at CES for $500 RETAIL! They positively murdered a $100,000 system from a very famous company in the same hotel in the same size room. If this industry is to survive, it'll be due to folks like Elac who subverted their German pride, hiring an Englishman to bring young people an astonishing listening experience. They deserve our gratitude and support.

i forgot to respond to Almarg: even solid state amps with very low source impedance can be manipulated by the ALS. With an amp with zero feedback, the ALS is still  going to have the same basic character. The equalization is very subtle. One cannot make a significantly crappy speaker sound good with all the band aids in the world. I set up a huge system for a dealer show with the new Yamaha 11-channel separates which use proprietary EQ developed in cooperation with their pro division (it uses two different filtering schemes and sounds pretty good sans EQ anyway) but yet dealer insisted on Polk speakers.  The Polk guy was terrific. Worked his ass off. We used at least four of his subs and all 11 channels but my car system sounds better. As I recall. The Polk stuff was top of their line. Very disappointing for all the work we did.

Sorry about the length of these posts.