POETRY Center Channel Loudspeaker w/ Stand
In this new era where the promise of truly high-resolution audio playback has finally become a reality in home theater, Vienna Acoustics have created Poetry. Named for one of the most famous “movements” within Gustav Klimt´s, Beethoven Freeze painting, Poetry succeeds in setting a new standard of sonic realism and midrange articulation. Capable of being used as a Center Channel or Left – Center – Right configuration as well as surround channels, Poetry possesses an ability to produce the proscribed full-frequency range without dynamic limitation. As a center channel only, it was designed to offer proper matching with the flagship model from The Klimt Series, “The Music” or “The Kiss”, without compromise. Created around the same-patented Flat-Spider-Cone™ coincident driver system with the identical hand crafted silk dome tweeter at its center providing vocal clarity and dispersion never before possible. On either side of the sealed enclosure housing this coincident driver are Vienna Acoustics exclusive Spider-Cone™ woofers each individually vented via large rear mounted ports.
The Poetry incorporates a truly revolutionary new flat, concentric 7” (18cm) driver that closely approximates the platonic ideal for which speaker designers have been striving as it places seven octaves of music in a single, phase coherent time plane. With a wave launch that mimics a “pebble dropped in a still pond”, this remarkable driver reproduces spatial coherence unfamiliar to anyone, save perhaps the original recording engineer.
The physics of this driver are an outgrowth of Vienna’s Acoustics’ longstanding use of reinforced cones designed to maximize strength at nodal multiples, while keeping mass to a functional minimum. However, by using finite element analysis, Vienna Acoustics’ chief designer Peter Gansterer was able to create a radial-vaned structure, cast into the flat cone that produces an enormously stiff, flat surface, thereby eliminating time and frequency specific phase shift across the driver.
At the upper end, a new silk dome tweeter using a neodymium ring magnet with a large vented pole piece allows for sweet extended highs and excellent lower extension with tremendous dynamics.
What makes this flat driver – we call it Music Center™ – so revolutionary, after all, haven’t others previously attempted flat drivers? The answer is yes, but at a significant loss of performance. Flat drivers previously lost much of their rigidity; it is the cone shape in conventional drivers that confers much of their strength. Previously, the best choice had been using a sandwich-style cone that requires a second layer and a softer material in the center. This approach adds a substantial amount of mass – weight that must be accelerated and stopped many times per second.
The Viennese approach is unique and uses just a single lightweight layer of the polymer TPX amended by polypropylene, that is reinforced by the radial ribs and the result is no more moving mass than a conventional cone, yet with all the necessary rigidity. Naturally, careful construction of these components is necessary and we found just one specialist firm in Germany with the precision necessary to execute this construction method.
In addition to the aforementioned benefits, by placing the stiffening ribs at carefully selected distances calculated using finite element analysis (FEA), it has been possible to simultaneously dissipate standing waves across the surface of this driver, resulting in purity of tone and freedom from coloration that is immediately apparent.
Now that one grasps some of the technology necessary to produce this vision of sound, it is reasonable to ask why is it that these people are willing to go to such extraordinary lengths to execute this daunting design? The answer lies in music and more precisely, in how we experience and perceive music.
The ear is a fascinating and quite selective tool. In particular, it is immensely discerning of very small errors in time and harmonic shift in the upper midrange. In a conventional loudspeaker, these sounds are produced in the region of the driver closest to the middle of the cone, and in fact clever designers have paid close attention to the materials used for the so-called “dust cap” in the middle of a cone.
However, this region is set much further back in what is referred to as the “throat” of the driver and because of this, these sounds emanate at a different, slightly later, time than sounds that are deeper in tone and launch further out on the cone surface. Finally, there is also a decreasing radius in the center that produces a type of horn loading which produces a sound not unlike a squawk, old-timers often referred to midrange drivers as “squawkers” for this reason.
So much time and effort has been expended by Vienna Acoustics on developing such a radical departure from the norm because it addresses all of these very shortcomings and pushes forward the art of loudspeaker development. At once, the flatness of this new design eliminates the time delay in upper mid-range sounds, it eliminates the throat coloration because no horn loading is present and eliminates the sound of the dust cap, since this space is taken up by the high frequency driver. In its place is simply beautiful music, reproduced as it is in nature with seven octaves emanating from a single point in space.
Below this primary driver two proprietary 10” (25cm) NAWI bass driver that handle the region from 32 to 100 Hz. These drivers are produced using proprietary cast TPX cones, and are assembled into final drive units by a leading specialist German manufacturer. The bass drivers are optimized for low-to-upper bass performance and act as a transition to the main driver array.
The striking form of these designs makes the most of this technology; the separate Music Center enclosure is mechanically de-coupled from the Poetry enclosure by a precision-machined aluminum cradle. This cradle allows adjustment and careful tuning of rake (fore-and-aft angular height adjustment).
Because the Music Center has a broader vertical optimization zone, a “sweet zone” is possible instead of a sweet spot. By adjusting the Music Center and directing it up/down one is easily able to create the optimized direction of the main sound source, making The Poetry one of the easiest center channel speakers to sound focus.
In true Viennese tradition, the veneer and cabinet finish quality is to the highest of standards. The Kiss is available in just two finishes, a true Piano Black lacquer and a lovely warm Sapele wood that is offered in book-matched pairs.
Floor stand in gloss piano black lacquer designed specifically for the Poetry is optional. |
