FEATURE: RESIDENTIAL TECHNOLOGY
The Source provides audiovisual solutions for high-spec homes
The advantage of a CORIOmaster … the fl exibility to be different.
equipment, running training events with them and so on. “And we see architects and designers as key influences, so we do the 100% Design exhibition in London each year (part of London Design week and very successful for us) and we’re also supplier members of the RIBA (architects) and BIID (interior designers) associations, and run approved CPD training sessions for both. “Once the customer becomes aware that invisible speakers are a viable option we are a long way towards making a sale.” So far, so designerly – but what do hi-fi buffs think, and won’t such a radical solution have cost implications? “It is worth noting that the incoherent waveform produced by vibrational sound means our speakers are more tolerant of an acoustically harsh environment common to modern minimalist designs than conventional cone-in-a- box solutions,” Moore says. “Realistically our products
are only going to be used in new builds or where major renovation is taking place, and this fact alone will influence decision makers. Budget is an issue, but speaker price is largely irrelevant compared to project cost. Our speakers retail from around £1,000- £2,000 per pair – making them comparable with good quality speakers from the likes of Bose and B&W, but they’re not at the top-end price points of KEF, Meridian and others. “I never dodge the price issue when talking to customers,” she says. “If someone wants a £199 home theatre speaker system from Tesco they are not our customers. Similarly if someone wants to spend £10k–£50k on his speakers to show off to his mates the last thing he wants to do is to hide them!” Moore also recognises the divide between ‘bachelor’ and
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‘family’ audio systems. “Women are great fans of our speakers as most hate the look of ceiling speakers as much as I do. We are used in whole-house audio systems and in home theatres (combined with a sub, often Velodyne in-wall, which is the most discreet one we know).” But there’s more to it than that, she says. “There are other, more subtle, distinctions. Plaster-over speakers are pretty germ proof (and have been used in operating theatres), they’re thief proof, toddler proof and they’re beer proof. People taking our products are going to be homeowners, and typically it will be the kind of house (rarely with a less- than-seven-figure price tag) where aesthetics are key. “You do get a far larger
sweet spot using dispersive speakers like ours than conventional point sources but sometime real audiophiles want to hear the discrete point sources.”
STYLE VERSUS SUBSTANCE Regardless of the relative merits of different speaker systems, what about the source material? Is the compressed MP3 format good enough? How do integrators reconcile client requests for top-end speakers with their use of streaming services such as Spotify? “We don’t try to persuade clients not to use Spotify and MP3 systems – you’ve got to live in the present day,” says Puma. “It’s a new century, and CDs are going away. Instead we use processing to give MP3s a richer, more rounded sound. You get out of your car where you’ve been listening to your iPod MP3s and come indoors and hear your music on the systems we install and you feel like you’re in a different world.” And anyway, there are some more upmarket solutions, points out David Rodarte, president & CEO of NuVo Technologies, a
company with self-proclaimed ‘music in its veins’ which specialises in zoned audio solutions for home audio. “Even as digital audio has become the norm, music- lovers are more aware than ever of quality in relation to the content itself,” he says. “Mastered for iTunes by Apple, as an example, is digital content that offers users an option for better listening, for less compression, for more pristine reproduction. The objective for high-end manufacturers is to develop equipment with easy access to the multitude of digital content sources while protecting the fidelity of the audio, so that what you hear is the content at its absolute best – always.” And manufacturers are bringing hi-fi streaming products to market, points out James Drummie, product manager at UK distributor AWE. “The British audio manufacturer Arcam has embraced the new digital music formats,” he says. “Using 30 years of audiophile engineering experience Arcam’s computer and streaming music products deliver outstanding audio quality with products like its iPod/iPad dock and its digital to analogue converters.” But the sad truth is that
residential audio isn’t synonymous with top-end hi-fi. Perhaps the last word should go to Babs Moore, with a realistic (and salutory) appraisal of what the market really wants. “The popularity of the compressed MP3 format does tell us that an awful lot of people just like having music and are not that obsessed with the real quality of what they listen to. Our market is those wanting good room-filling sound and stunning aesthetics.”
www.amina.co.uk www.awe-europe.com www.nuvotechnologies.com www.thesourcehometheater.com www.waterfallaudio.com
CORIOmaster … a new level of video processing for Videowall applications, utilize irregular combinations of monitors, independent resolutions, image rotation & scaled outputs
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E&OE. All Copyrights and Trademarks are acknowledged August 2012 31
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