Last month I received a call from an audiophile friend of mine. Our conversation centered around changes we had made to our respective audio systems and our long overdue need to get together for some listening sessions. One of the things he shared with me during our conversation was a High-End Audio Retailer on the north side of Chicago called Van L Speakerworks. Since I was unfamiliar with this brick-n-mortar establishment, it ignited my curiosity. A Google search brought up a Stereo Times review by Mike Wright from 2009: http://www.stereotimes.com/speak042709.shtml on speakers called the Quartets designed by the owner of Van L Speakerworks, John Van Leishout. Going to his website I saw that Van L now had a new speaker design in his line-up called the Silhouette. Unlike the Quartets which are monitors, the Silhouettes are floor standing. Both designs employ Van L's proprietary Ambient Recovery Circuitry. I found this concept quite intriguing:
A New Way of Reproducing Stereo Sound
The next revolution in loudspeaker design comes from the the patent specification entitled "Ambient Expansion Loudspeaker".
As the title implies, this technology expands the perceived sound stage to at least right angles relative to the listener position. It could be described as two speaker "surround" sound. It employs the ubiquitous dual voice coil in a novel, seemingly self-evident way.
The Problem
The promise of stereophonic sound through loudspeakers depends on the ability of the listener to perceive a difference between the left and right channels. In sensing this "difference" component, the ear should be able to reconstruct the acoustic signature of the original hall or studio as well as localize the relative locations of instruments or voices. The mechanisms involved are the same ones used in listening to live music (or, for that matter, any acoustic event). Sounds coming from the left are perceived first in the left ear, then travel around inside the head (the cranial shield) to the right ear reduced in intensity and arriving later in time. Thus the ear-brain system computes all of this instantaneously and correspondingly localizes a sound on the left.
This simplification does not explain why early stereo through loudspeakers could simulate credible left-right "ping-pong" effects, but confined them laterally to the space between the speakers without reproducing the slightest sense of the room where the recording was made.
It seems that the requirements for dimensionalizing sound in the lateral plane involve reflections from the side walls of the recording locale normally situated at right angles to a listener. In live sound these dimensional clues arrive at the listener's ears from reflections at right angles and even behind a listener. The ear-brain employs its phase sensitive mechanism to perceive these late arriving signals and combines them with intensity difference information to construct the subliminal acoustic architecture of the live acoustic event.
But when reproduced through two loudspeakers located at a finite distance, everything falls apart! The longer wavelengths required to simulate the original event cannot maintain their differential separation because of human physiology. The left and right ears are spaced approximately 8 inches (separated by the cranial shield). At approximately one-half the wavelength of this inter-aural ear spacing the difference information becomes commingled in both ears at about 400 Hz and perceived monophonically.
This means that even the very highest performing loudspeakers are perceived monophonically at frequencies lower than about 800 Hz. An experimenter can verify this by inserting a variable low-pass filter with cutoffs from 400 through 800 Hz and then switching between "STEREO" and "MONO" on his or her preamp. The switching differences will become increasingly inaudible below 800 Hz and then totally monophonic below 400 Hz.
The Solution
Is it even possible to design a loudspeaker capable of supplying "difference" information down to at least 100 Hz? The answer lies in another attribute of the human hearing mechanism called the "precedence effect". This says that two sounds of equal intensity from different locations can be PREFERABLY LOCALIZED if one of them is DELAYED in time. The ear-brain will tend to reject the delayed sound in favor of the earlier arrival.
By employing dedicated BINAURAL (dual) voice coils in each left and right speaker system, it is possible to route left and right total signals to the "primary" windings and filtered differential L-R and R-L to the "ambient" windings. In this way, the anti-phase differential radiates from the same acoustic source as the primary left and right signals.
Note that there is NO TIME DELAY, either electronic or acoustic, employed! Precise localization is maintained, accompanied by an enormous increase in soundstage width and depth.
The following day I felt compelled to visit Van L Speakerworks and audition his Silhouette Speakers. Located at 5704 North Western Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, it is very easy to miss this establishment. Upon entering Van L Speakerworks, I experienced an orderly chaos here with many pairs of speakers stacked on top of each other along with audio components. John Van Leishout came out from his work area and greeted me. John Van L immediately shared with me that he was in the process of downsizing his business of 30+ years from 3 storefronts to 2. Van L in addition to selling High-End Audio products does speaker repairs. He led me to his listening room which also contained many pairs of used High-End Audio speakers for sale.( A bargin hunter's dream come true) For the next half hour or so I got to know John Van Leishout as he shared with me his experiences of 30+ years in the audio business, the technological prowess of his speaker's design and his commitment to creating and marketing his own speaker line at real world prices. I found John Van L and I had many things in common in addition to age. John Van L is very ecclectic, confident, laid back and an individual that definitely marches to the beat of his own drummer. It was now time for the audition I came for and nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to experience. Van L's system consisted of an Ayon CD 2, a Linn solid state preamp, and a VTL stereo 90 tube amp all connected with Dynamic Design Cables http://www.dynamicdesignav.com/ which are part of Van L's product line and are extraordinary.
The Silhouettes were positioned approximately 9 feet apart with no toe-in and I sat back from them about 9 feet. The Silhouette is a transmission-line 2-way speaker with a 1.125 soft dome dual chamber tweeter and "Get This" a 6.5 proprietary twin motor "WOOD" cone woofer, a custom designed series crossover which provides greater phase alignment as compared to parallel crossovers, a Frequency Response of 30hz-30Khz, 4ohm impedance and measures 37" h x10.5" w x 15.5" deep (at bottom) The Silhouettes produced highs that were invigorating, and incisive along with bass that was conspicuously clean and articulate forming a coherent whole that completely enveloped you in the musical experience.The Silhouettes also allows you the ability to control the Soundstage of the musical presentation through the Ambient Recovery Technology employing dual voice coil drivers and an additional connection between the speakers to pass the differential information between the two speakers. Setting it on high gives you a Live presentation while med and low narrow the soundstage providing a greater sense of depth. John Van L placed Rene Fleming in the Ayon CD2 and the Silhouettes completely disappeared and Rene was right there with me. I could feel her. Her vocals were beguiling and hauntingly "REAL". Every genre of music played took on this breathtakingly "REAL" quality that was detailed yet not fatiguing. The Silhouettes produced an extremely wide soundstage with a much larger than typical "Sweet Spot". I went to the back and sides of the listening room and experienced the musical presentation as if I were sitting dead center. To say the Silhouettes are startlingly impressive is an understatement. John Van L has a winner here that will go toe to toe with speakers costing 2 to 3 times as much as the Silhouettes and I enthusiastically recommend an audition.
The Problem
The promise of stereophonic sound through loudspeakers depends on the ability of the listener to perceive a difference between the left and right channels. In sensing this "difference" component, the ear should be able to reconstruct the acoustic signature of the original hall or studio as well as localize the relative locations of instruments or voices. The mechanisms involved are the same ones used in listening to live music (or, for that matter, any acoustic event). Sounds coming from the left are perceived first in the left ear, then travel around inside the head (the cranial shield) to the right ear reduced in intensity and arriving later in time. Thus the ear-brain system computes all of this instantaneously and correspondingly localizes a sound on the left.
This simplification does not explain why early stereo through loudspeakers could simulate credible left-right "ping-pong" effects, but confined them laterally to the space between the speakers without reproducing the slightest sense of the room where the recording was made.
It seems that the requirements for dimensionalizing sound in the lateral plane involve reflections from the side walls of the recording locale normally situated at right angles to a listener. In live sound these dimensional clues arrive at the listener's ears from reflections at right angles and even behind a listener. The ear-brain employs its phase sensitive mechanism to perceive these late arriving signals and combines them with intensity difference information to construct the subliminal acoustic architecture of the live acoustic event.
But when reproduced through two loudspeakers located at a finite distance, everything falls apart! The longer wavelengths required to simulate the original event cannot maintain their differential separation because of human physiology. The left and right ears are spaced approximately 8 inches (separated by the cranial shield). At approximately one-half the wavelength of this inter-aural ear spacing the difference information becomes commingled in both ears at about 400 Hz and perceived monophonically.
This means that even the very highest performing loudspeakers are perceived monophonically at frequencies lower than about 800 Hz. An experimenter can verify this by inserting a variable low-pass filter with cutoffs from 400 through 800 Hz and then switching between "STEREO" and "MONO" on his or her preamp. The switching differences will become increasingly inaudible below 800 Hz and then totally monophonic below 400 Hz.
The Solution
Is it even possible to design a loudspeaker capable of supplying "difference" information down to at least 100 Hz? The answer lies in another attribute of the human hearing mechanism called the "precedence effect". This says that two sounds of equal intensity from different locations can be PREFERABLY LOCALIZED if one of them is DELAYED in time. The ear-brain will tend to reject the delayed sound in favor of the earlier arrival.
By employing dedicated BINAURAL (dual) voice coils in each left and right speaker system, it is possible to route left and right total signals to the "primary" windings and filtered differential L-R and R-L to the "ambient" windings. In this way, the anti-phase differential radiates from the same acoustic source as the primary left and right signals.
Note that there is NO TIME DELAY, either electronic or acoustic, employed! Precise localization is maintained, accompanied by an enormous increase in soundstage width and depth.
The following day I felt compelled to visit Van L Speakerworks and audition his Silhouette Speakers. Located at 5704 North Western Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, it is very easy to miss this establishment. Upon entering Van L Speakerworks, I experienced an orderly chaos here with many pairs of speakers stacked on top of each other along with audio components. John Van Leishout came out from his work area and greeted me. John Van L immediately shared with me that he was in the process of downsizing his business of 30+ years from 3 storefronts to 2. Van L in addition to selling High-End Audio products does speaker repairs. He led me to his listening room which also contained many pairs of used High-End Audio speakers for sale.( A bargin hunter's dream come true) For the next half hour or so I got to know John Van Leishout as he shared with me his experiences of 30+ years in the audio business, the technological prowess of his speaker's design and his commitment to creating and marketing his own speaker line at real world prices. I found John Van L and I had many things in common in addition to age. John Van L is very ecclectic, confident, laid back and an individual that definitely marches to the beat of his own drummer. It was now time for the audition I came for and nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to experience. Van L's system consisted of an Ayon CD 2, a Linn solid state preamp, and a VTL stereo 90 tube amp all connected with Dynamic Design Cables http://www.dynamicdesignav.com/ which are part of Van L's product line and are extraordinary.
The Silhouettes were positioned approximately 9 feet apart with no toe-in and I sat back from them about 9 feet. The Silhouette is a transmission-line 2-way speaker with a 1.125 soft dome dual chamber tweeter and "Get This" a 6.5 proprietary twin motor "WOOD" cone woofer, a custom designed series crossover which provides greater phase alignment as compared to parallel crossovers, a Frequency Response of 30hz-30Khz, 4ohm impedance and measures 37" h x10.5" w x 15.5" deep (at bottom) The Silhouettes produced highs that were invigorating, and incisive along with bass that was conspicuously clean and articulate forming a coherent whole that completely enveloped you in the musical experience.The Silhouettes also allows you the ability to control the Soundstage of the musical presentation through the Ambient Recovery Technology employing dual voice coil drivers and an additional connection between the speakers to pass the differential information between the two speakers. Setting it on high gives you a Live presentation while med and low narrow the soundstage providing a greater sense of depth. John Van L placed Rene Fleming in the Ayon CD2 and the Silhouettes completely disappeared and Rene was right there with me. I could feel her. Her vocals were beguiling and hauntingly "REAL". Every genre of music played took on this breathtakingly "REAL" quality that was detailed yet not fatiguing. The Silhouettes produced an extremely wide soundstage with a much larger than typical "Sweet Spot". I went to the back and sides of the listening room and experienced the musical presentation as if I were sitting dead center. To say the Silhouettes are startlingly impressive is an understatement. John Van L has a winner here that will go toe to toe with speakers costing 2 to 3 times as much as the Silhouettes and I enthusiastically recommend an audition.
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