It has been in the works for a while, but we can finally announce publicly that AudioRev is now the exclusive reseller in Singapore for planar-magnetic dipole speakers from Magnepan. Why did we do it? And why planar dipole speakers in particular? The simple answer is that it is a natural progression for us in terms of growth and diversification. More importantly, it fits with our view that high fidelity in audio means accurate (preferably perfect!) conversion of electrical audio signal into sound pressure waves.
Like many hifi enthusiasts we agonised over and replaced components in our hifi systems, seeking that magic combination of components that would fix everything that our ears told us was wrong with our hifi system. Some of the perceived problems were real, others imaginary. But it sometimes got to the point where started to suspect that a problem might actually be in our minds.
Then a realisation hit us like a ton of bricks—we were wasting our time and money! There are just too many variables in the audio reproduction chain. The chain starts at the acoustics of the the recording venue, and stretches all the way to our individual ears (with their different frequency responses). This implies that there is no fixed reference point or universal defintiion of what ‘good’ sounds like. What should we do now? We didn’t want to continue playing hifi roulette because it was too expensive and time-consuming.
Well, let’s see. We have no control over the electrical signal that the mastering engineer recorded. But we do have some control over what we use to convert the recorded electrical signal into sound waves that reach our ears. And we want that conversion to be as accurate as possible. It turns out that the listening room’s acoustics has by far the largest influence on what we hear. The effort and money we put into improving the acoustics of our own listening rooms at home yielded the best value that we have ever gotten from expending resources on hifi.
This personal endeavour was eventually turned into a business. AudioRev launched in January 2014 with a modular reflection control system called UNISON. It comprised three products: a dual-profile broadband bass trap, and two patented 2-dimensional binary array sound diffusors (each covering different frequency ranges).
The bass traps have multiple mounting options (wall bracket, floor stand, gobo carriages). Diffusors could be mounted onto walls and ceilings with 3M dual-lock tape, dry-wall screws, adhesive, or dropped into a standard T-bar ceiling grid. Diffusors could also be mounted onto the face of bass traps to create ‘diffsorbers’.
The UNISON system continues to be offered. Two more patented diffusors have been added to the line-up. More reflection control products are in the pipeline and will be released in due course. Feedback from many satisfied customers confirmed what we already knew, that our reflection control products work, and work very well.
Then another realisation hit us—controlling the listening room’s sound reflections is only half the story. The other half is the transducer that converts electrical signals into sound pressure waves, i.e., the loudspeaker). The transducer must track the complex voltage signals and then pressurise the air perfectly. Such a transducer must have zero mass, be perfectly compliant and also perfectly stiff, all at the same time.
Towards the last quarter of 2015 we decided that it was time to offer our customers a solution to the transducer problem. It is physically impossible to build the perfect electro-acoustic transducer. But there are some that come closest to the ideal, and these are planar dipole speakers. And of the manufacturers who make such speakers one immediately spring to mind: Magnepan. When driven with suitable amplifiers these speakers are capable of performance for which you would have to pay many times more than what they cost.
Absolute Sound, the local distributors for Magnepan asked if we would like to be the exclusive Singapore reseller for their product lines. As you can see, the answer was ‘yes’.
Call or email us today to arrange an enjoyable listening session in our demo room!
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