A classic for the present
The inspiration to build the Satorique Live was a long time ago now. I had thought of something?!
The first thing that came to my mind was the name. The big speaker should be called "Tokiohoo". How do you come up with such a name, you ask now. The fancy name came to my mind, because I met a Japanese guy from Tokyo at a party with some friends, who told me how crazy they all are about the old speakers from the 80s. The horse's foot in this is the big bass. What else, it's always the bass. They don't even make them like that anymore. So a competent partner for big drivers was needed. I already had an idea with whom we could solve this together. In addition, there is the aspect of how the claim of the Satorique series can be fulfilled in the project. Also the tube lovers with their wattage-tweezers should come to their audiophile sound experience.
Read the Satorique Live report.
An inspiration from the past for the present
It's been almost two years since we were treated to audiophile fare at Munich's High End. It was the highlight of the year for the hi-fi scene. Who doesn't know that when you walk through the aisles of the trade fair, your eyes go sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left into the rooms. If the music appeals to you, you are magically drawn in. Often, the unusual construction of a loudspeaker also attracts you. In any case, anyone interested in loudspeakers will get their money's worth.
There was one particular highlight that can no longer be erased from my mind: a JBL L100 Classic. As a young man in the 80s, the name already electrified me, only the wallet did not play along. When I entered the JBL listening room and the first waves of sound streamed towards me, I wondered what time machine had beamed this speaker into the listening room? Classically retro in design, it stands casually on its stand with its Quadrex foam cover. One can be divided about the design of the cover, but I find it cult, so delightfully against the mainstream. When one of the chairs became available, I dropped into it and gave my fair-haired feet a rest. As the beat flowed towards me, only one thought occurred to me: this is fun, I'll sit here and take a little break from the stress of the fair.
I really like this high-pitched bass and the present tweeter, but what about the midrange? Who needs midrange drivers when you can enjoy the bass?
Where might they have separated the frequency range of the speaker? At 300 to 400hz?
In any case, the bass comes across very well. So much for deep bass separation.... I wonder what bass filling would be left with a deep crossover separation? I didn't have time to think about it, because the next pressure wave of the bass already reached me. I didn't know the predecessor, the L100 from the 80s, like this either.
"Finally something different, a great retro box" commented fellow listeners. Did I miss something here? Is there a need, despite the current oversupply of speakers? I would have loved to take them to my hotel room to have more time to listen. I could have asked if that was possible, just to enjoy the astonished looks. In addition I would have fetched me a few Hamburgers and renounced the evening buffet. Who needs appetizers and cultivated small talk? Unfortunately, this was not possible.
It was a long day and my eyes should have closed, but I wanted to enjoy a few more songs and then I had to leave. The show closed in an hour and my list of things to do was still long.
In the evening I went to the buffet after all, you never know who else you might meet.
The analog and retro boom is currently in vogue, which is also impressively confirmed by the comeback of vinyl and turntables. For me, the analog era was never over. I still meet with friends today (before Corona) and everyone brings a record.
Thinking about it, maybe it wouldn't be bad to build a classic retro box with the midrange and treble tuning of a Satorique.
Back at the hotel, my thoughts were constantly circling around this idea.
With the possibilities we have today thanks to the driver qualities, it would certainly be possible to create a retro classic that would meet the demands of our Satorique customers today. For one or the other it is surely an interesting alternative to build such a loudspeaker.
But how should this fit together with the slim and modern Satorique speakers?
Currently there is a lot to read about such projects in the DIY scene, but you don't get to hear most of them. I find that a pity. My tip would be, dare to do something! Theory must translate into enthusiasm in the listening room. You can only get that goosebump feeling live in the listening room.
In the meantime it was getting late and time to turn off the light and turn off the thoughts. Tomorrow would be another long day and the subsequent drive back home would also take a few hours.
On the way home, I made the decision that a great classic had to be built.
But as it always happens, a lot of things came up in the following year. First, in January, we had to attend the Hamburg trade show with our Intertechnik turnout components. Shortly thereafter, the Corona crisis began, which has kept us all busy to this day. From then on, we had more time and leisure to stay at home on the weekends and tackle new projects.
In the summer of 2020, the time had come. The construction of the box could begin in beautiful weather in the garden.
A classic for the present with Satorique genes.
The inspiration to build the Satorique Live was a long time ago now. I had thought of something!
The first thing that came to my mind was the name for it. The big speaker should be called "Tokiohoo". How do you come up with such a name, you ask now. The fancy name came to my mind because I had met a Japanese guy from Tokyo at a party with friends at that time, who told me how crazy they all are there for the old speakers from the 80s.
Some companies are still restoring these old treasures, in their various versions. The classics are all being prepared for their second life, back to the future so to speak.
For those interested, there is a cult channel on YouTube: Kenrick Sound
I had already made a Sketchup drawing at that time. Let's see, maybe we can build on it. Paper is sometimes patient and before the development could begin, there were still some questions to clarify.
The horse's foot in the matter is the big bass. What else, it's always the bass.
They don't even make them like that anymore. So a competent partner for large drivers was needed. I already had an idea with whom we could solve this together. In addition, there is the aspect of how the claim of the Satorique series can be fulfilled in the project.
Also the tube lovers with their wattage-tweezers should get their audiophile sound experience.
In the 80s, a 15-inch driver as a reference size was no exception.
Now you should be open to new driver combinations, otherwise it won't work.
And which loudspeaker drivers can transport this live atmosphere better? PA drivers are often underestimated in the high-end scene, but if you look long enough, you will find a suitable playing partner. After a few phone calls with Eighteen Sound, we found a solution together that meets the technical parameters for the driver.
If the driver now disproves the prejudices of some colleagues to play loud and rough, it would be the ideal solution.
As far as quality is concerned, Eighteen Sound is a real house number. The question remains whether our customers can live with the size of a 15 incher. I think so, since the volumes have already almost halved the last few years, the new driver technology makes it possible.
We use a lightweight, fiber-reinforced paper cone with an extremely strong drive and maximum ventilation that can be loaded far beyond the hifi range. This will please the home theater folks. The rib-cooled magnetic drive lets the driver keep a cool head in all situations. It plays delicately right into the midrange without developing a harshness. A dry, very musical bass with a slight tendency to play with detail.
The top workmanship guarantees the same high level that we have come to expect from Satori. If this is not another reason to combine this driver with Satori. The high quality and excellent interaction of the drivers makes it possible to integrate the Satorique Live also in a Satorique cinema.
To the Eighteen Sound, the Satori midrange driver with the Beryllium dome just fits perfectly.
Now a tweeter is needed. Efficiency is an important criterion here, since such a tweeter must be sufficiently resilient when things get louder. For this case, we have the beryllium dome tweeter with sufficient efficiency and very low distortion. It also matches the other two drivers at high levels.
The driver choice has been made free of design specifications, so there is a possibility to build your own round fabric cover in the style of Satorique covers. These are available in our store. Alternatively, there is also the possibility to make yourself a stretching frame over the entire front. Of course, you can also just leave the Satorique Live as it is.
I'm slowly getting used to the name and am already quite excited about the result.
Crossover
A crossover with few components.
From Intertechnik there is a new coil for the Satorique Live.
A crossover with 2nd order filters was realized. Nevertheless, the woofer still needs an extra suction circuit, which reduces the PA-typical bass exaggeration of a driver with very strong drive. And for the optimization of the presence range there is still a suction circuit, so that this sensitive frequency band remains smooth and sounds excellent even on a variety of amplifiers.
All three drivers play in their ideal frequency range, are thus very high power handling and play very free of coloration, which speaks for the component quality of Intertechnik and the driver selection.
The crossover ensures a balanced temporal behavior so that the minimum phase runs very close to the zero degree axis - which means a time-correct performance. This is an essential criterion in combination with the diffraction behavior at the baffle for a loudspeaker to sound "real" and create a natural acoustic stage in the listening room.
The question of the on-axis frequency response characteristic that tends to slope toward the high frequencies can be addressed fairly quickly by looking at the energy frequency response, which is a function of the different driver diameters. The 15 inch woofer bundles in the fundamental tone, where the otherwise small drivers used in rooms play much wider and thus contribute more sound energy to the room relative to the mid-high. Therefore, the frequency response on axis must always be evaluated under the aspect of diffuse sound in the listening room. If one specifies the analysis of the frequency response on axis, then the bass is 2 dB louder compared to the mid-tweeter. This is a tuning for a speaker with a large bass diaphragm area and for use in rooms. The exciting thing is that even speakers of past decades were designed this way.
Active is not an option would you lower the woofer accordingly the 2 dB. This would then have the kitchen radio effect that the midrange plays itself into the foreground and loses the connection to the bass. The overtones of the bass are heard too quietly and are blended by the midrange. However, this acoustic and also subjective perception coincides with the theory that in the frequency range below 400 Hz the diffuse level in the room is decisive and not the frequency response on axis.
But these explanations also say that the linear tuning becomes necessary in strongly damped rooms such as recording studios or also outdoors, so that the harmony is also right there. And since we have developed the loudspeaker for the home and home theaters, there is such a tuning and not otherwise.
The crossover could be realized with quite few components for the optimal sound. However, this requires a special coil to be newly added to the program with exactly the values we need for the Satorique Live. As far as passive components are concerned, I can always draw from Intertechnik.
(Switch photos still show prototypes).
Measurement results
Frequency response and impedance
Distortion 90db and 100db
Lateral angles inward and outward
Waterfall
Easy assembly possible in one day thanks to well thought-out design
The housing is built in such a way that it is easy to assemble. It is extensively braced and built with two material thicknesses. The internal geometry of the enclosure is designed to prevent resonance and thus reverberation. This is one of the most important features of the enclosure design.
Here, the cabinet can fully score in both disciplines and thus lays the foundation for a successful project.
Since birch plywood is very often offered in 21 mm thickness and is available in most hardware stores, one should use this thickness for the outer shell. I unfortunately only got 18mm birch plywood for the outer shell. So don't wonder why it looks so narrow in the build pictures.
When choosing whether to miter the case, everyone should consider in advance whether they have enough clamps and straps in their workshop.
We have documented all the dimensions for the detailed construction of the case step by step in the building instructions. If you buy the Satorique Live, it will be included in the delivery.
For your purchase decision, here are the external dimensions:
The case is approx. 100cm high, approx. 50cm wide and approx. 40cm deep.
Now here's a point I'd like to address:
We specialize in the development of complete loudspeaker kits. As far as cabinet or crossover plans are concerned, we do not deliver individual parts or documents. This is the only way to ensure that we can continue to develop high-quality kits in the future. Since all turnouts for Satorique kits are supplied fully assembled, you will ultimately benefit from this as well. The faultless assembly of the turnouts is a basic requirement for the good sound result.
The weather plays along today. So I can build outdoors! Wonderful, so let's get started!
When building the cabinet, you should first start with the mid-high section and glue the dividers vertically onto the base plate.
The biggest challenge during construction might be to implement the mirror-inverted design, since there is a right and left speaker. A printed plan makes it easier to build the cabinet.
Since the 5 boards are all the same length and are glued to the vertical center board, it is only necessary to align the boards with marks on the base plate.
A school compass is perfectly sufficient to mark the blanks.
For the back wall bracing, a board is needed from which a triangle is sawn out.
The other boards can also be processed with the jigsaw.
Even though the router has to work pretty hard, I'm amazed at what it's capable of. The little guy takes his time to mill, but with a nice low speed it works great.
If you don't want to mill, you can go 80's style and set up the boxes. I built one with the chassis on and the other with the chassis milled in.
All parts are milled. Now the assembly can begin.
Don't forget to saw out the cutout for the switch chamber on the back wall.
That looks very good already. Now you can decide whether to miter the outer shell. You can also go to your local carpenter and have the four boards cut to size.
For your information, the bottom bracing board is not yet shown here.
I had decided on the miter variant to find out whether it makes sense to offer a housing kit here. I then decided against it, because it is not possible to achieve a satisfactory result with lamellos at this size.
You need a lot of clamps and straps, but if you have a well-equipped workshop, you won't have any problems building the case.
So, now grind the housings and vacuum them at the same time. That is already a fine thing.
Since the woofer is very heavy and also the forces are introduced into the housing, drive-in nuts are not a bad idea. We supply the drive-in nuts with the screws.
This prevents wood screws from tearing out during the first installation, despite being pre-drilled. It also helps to reach through the lower bass reflex tube with the other hand when installing the driver to hold and align the driver from the inside to prevent damage to the front.
Then tighten the 15 inch drivers for a test to check if the drive-in nuts are seated well.
Do not forget the Bitumex and glue it well so that it does not come loose at some point and play along.
The housings are ready and the evening is approaching. Then I'll fire up the grill.
I take this as an opportunity to greet a fellow builder who has the same two passions as I do. He already knows who is meant.
Thanks also for the "Live" signs and the lids for the back wall, which came from his art workshop.
Both are still getting a finish of black boat paint.
I'll use the time to give the bass reflex tubes a more noble finish as well. If you don't like the matte design of the Intertechnik HP 100 tubes, you can give them a high gloss finish for a little money. Synthetic resin paint looks very valuable and you only need to spray it once.
The placement of the crossovers
The bass crossover goes into the bass compartment on top of the internal bracing so that it is placed as far away from the driver's magnet as possible and there is no interaction between the driver magnet and the coils.
The tweeter crossover goes into the crossover compartment at the height of the midrange driver.
The midrange crossover is the crossover with the two lying coils. This comes at the height of the tweeter in the crossover compartment, which is 2 cm lower at this point.
The placement of the crossovers is well placed in relation to the cable lengths, the mutual inductive interference and the microphony effect occurring in the tweeter.
Insulation in the housing
The damping is very simple.
Simply place some black soft Sonofil(TM) in the tweeter chamber.
To insulate the midrange chamber, roll a mat of Sonofil into a tube and push it through the midrange opening and place it loosely - as a tube into which the driver plays. It does not make sense here to glue the wool anywhere.
For the woofer chamber, cut only two pieces of Sonofil (one package) in half lengthwise and use them to cover the side and rear walls in the woofer chamber. For this, the amount of insulation is scarce, but sufficient in terms of sound. The crossover parts must remain free. This makes it easier to tighten the screws and provides better cooling when it gets loud.
The remaining areas of the box remain uninsulated.
It's always easy to design a booming cabinet and then dampen it to death with lots of damping. The side effect of this is that the sound of the entire speaker suffers from this type of damping and fine details disappear from the sound image.
The sound of the Satorique Live!
Annett Louisan makes the beginning with Hello.
The retro video and the fantastic voice of the present fits the story of the Satorique Live.
A difficult voice that makes many a midrange and tweeter despair. What comes across here as easy and audiophile loose, demands everything from the Satori drivers in the other songs.
Listen to the different songs. The lyrics of Annett Louisan are not everyday. A little rebel in her lyrics, I think.
Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits gets it across loosely when he plays guitar.
Although his playing is characterized by melodic structures, it's the looseness of his playing that comes across so clearly and fits perfectly with the character of Satorique Live. Just listen to it.
Mark Knopfler - Brothers In Arms (A Night In London Official Live Video)
Brothers In Arms
It will remain a mystery for many guitarists how Mark can convey such a feeling by playing a few notes. Satorique Live is like that, too. It can play fine, be direct, and doesn't need much to play up to its sonic potential.
The bass that is simply there in real time. Crisp and fast.
Although you think you've heard it all, you keep experiencing new things.
On a listening evening, I had heard a piece by Yello (The Race - remastered) from a Stereoplay CD. With this piece, which is originally from 2008, the bass in the room still stopped, there came already the wettest sound in real time, so to speak. That was fantastic, pure goosebumps.
I didn't expect a 15-incher to be that fast, it's not an 8-incher after all.
The great development work of Eighteen Sound is noticeable here. With its stiff textile surround suspension, it provides a fast excursion with high level reserves.
Thus, the design of the driver also disproves the prejudice regarding public address systems and thus shows that it can play up to the midrange. It thus impressively demonstrates its high-fidelity class.
Finally: there it is again, the not wanting to get up anymore!
Do you know the thunder when a thunderstorm is approaching in the mountains. First it is far away and then the rumble races towards you. That's how it arrives at the listening position.
At one listening session, my neighbor asked if we had an earthquake. No kidding, he wouldn't have heard music. We, on the other hand, could hear the music louder and louder. Nothing was annoying. Even if there are no real live concerts in these times, it is possible to get the feeling at home with the Satorique Live.
My friend always said that his Satorique Petit brings everything over. Yes, that is true until he brought his old rock records. You sit in the middle of it and are there live. That would be a reason to overlook the size of such a driver, especially since it plays excellently on many amplifiers.
Invite your friends if it's possible again. They should bring their amplifier and their old records if they still have any.
With the current boom, I'm not worried. There are currently more record owners than before. Support the artists with your record purchase and relive your record players.
The life in live music
Of all things, how did I come to build the Satorique Live, why this speaker and no other? After all, I am not a proven vintage or retro fan. But I do know the sound of classic speakers of the 70s and the corresponding "big" receivers of those days. These have left a lasting impression because they offered a special listening experience for me that is difficult to describe and grasp beyond the technical key data. In the end, it's not about the equipment, but about the music created by the artists and the experience inspired by it in me, the listener. Maybe it's even about the inner state that listening to the artists' product, the music, leads you to and what kind of receiver of art it makes you become. Probably it is about whether one becomes a judging critical listener, who can and wants to analyze sitting in front of the music with a certain distance, or whether this distanced attempt must fail because one is actually inwardly seized by the music, unconsciously taken in and carried away as a human being, into the music that the artist has created in a corresponding act of inspiration. In the end, it is precisely about getting so deeply into the music that I can participate in the music in the creation of the artist or artists, instead of just sitting in front of it as a scholar and pursuing my distanced ultimately unmusical technocratic analyses. After all, I am not a critic of hi-fi equipment, nor am I a critic of musical productions. I am a music lover who builds a loudspeaker for his enjoyment, a pair, in fact.
Happiness
I have a vague idea of what it might be that sucks me into the music and lets me live in the music and rejoice obliviously. Yes it is about the happiness that one feels when one is absorbed in the music and goes along with it. I look for this happiness when listening to music and what I buy, build and put together may help me to find it. What could be decisive for me, that is probably, in addition to the time-correct way of playing, a moving bass reproduction, which embraces me emotionally and physically and takes hold of me. But then it's also an authentic rendition of medium instrumental and vocal registers. And it's a stirring but nerve-saving high-frequency reproduction. In search of a speaker that could provide this, I built myself a large speaker 30 years ago, which I then refused to replace for 17 years, quite unlike electronics. Then, however, I let myself be tempted to build a more typical and living room suitable loudspeaker with hip Seas Excel drivers, which, objectively speaking, certainly reproduced a lot better, but also initially delivered a less substantial bass. After rebuilding the cabinet and crossover, this could then be partially remedied, so that I have listened to music with it for the last 13 years quite satisfied. Nevertheless, the deep dive in and out of the music did not occur as often and regularly as with the supposedly declassified large speakers. Of course, the lack of bass competence in a loudspeaker in my case also seems regrettable to my wife, who as a former bass player is a proven connoisseuse of the lower octaves.
Curiosity
All this led me to look for a speaker that should be at least on par with the Seas Excel speakers in terms of high and midrange reproduction, but should offer a much more gripping and at the same time well audible and expressive bass reproduction. It should also be suitable for all music genres. I found some interesting approaches with 15 inch woofers at a Danish loudspeaker developer respected among connoisseurs, but actually wanted to find at a domestic supplier. When I finally discovered the Satorique Live design at Intertechnik, where I had already bought my last kit 13 years ago, I became curious. The designer's description of the path and emotional approach to this design and the speaker's characteristics made me feel confident that it could be the right speaker for us.
The speaker cabinets didn't appeal to me much at first, and I considered possibly building the speakers in a different shape. I thought about a two-piece design or a symmetrical design with the addition of a slit-shaped bass reflex port below the woofer. But at the same time the design of the developer increasingly animated me to go a little deeper into the nowadays obviously again increasingly popular wider speakers, which at least visually belong to the vintage and retro scene. After a while, I found myself enjoying building what was in fact a technically ultra-modern loudspeaker that, due to its more wide than deep box-shaped design, was visually reminiscent of the musical experiences of my childhood and youth, including the joyful listening sessions at friends' houses, whose parents, in my impression, had correspondingly powerful-sounding and emotionally gripping music systems even more often than they do today.
Case design
So I decided to adopt the construction method of the developer as far as possible and now only thought about a suitable design of the surface. I did not want to build a speaker cover after all, but a smooth and slightly rounded at the corners box without protruding frame around the baffle, it should be for me. A classic look was to be realized, in addition to the design, by a two-tone design, with a dark baffle, which should give a hint of the grain of the birch multiplex, and should be contrasted by as light a color as possible for the side and top panels. For this purpose, I wanted to use an oil for the side panels that promised to achieve a raw wood effect and which had already caught my eye in some furniture construction projects as a possible alternative to the usual waxes and oils that create a wet wood look. The only question that remained was how to cleanly delineate the dark wood front from the light side panels while creating a smooth, continuous surface all the way to the rounded edges. This was finally solved by a 2-3 mm deep groove running around the baffle after sanding, into which that black mysterious resinous agent was applied via a glue gun that I otherwise like to use for touching up knotholes.
Building
So we ordered the speakers and I quickly built the cabinets after receiving the blueprint in advance. For this I used some power tools including a flat dowel cutter, with which I made a lamello connection between the baffle and the surrounding parts. I also built up the midrange and tweeter chambers with flat dowels. The outer walls as well as the stiffening walls were built from 21mm thick multiplex. I had this cut to size at the hardware store, but had to do some reworking to ensure a truly uniform dimension. To do this, I clamped all the components together that were supposed to have the same dimension and finally sanded them carefully to a uniform dimension using the Festool Rotex gear grinder. I cut the fixtures from 18mm thick MDF from board material using a plunge saw and jigsaw. All round openings and landings were made with a router and a matching circular template. The corners of the cabinet were made with a matching router bit in the router as well as the opening for the crossovers in the back panel and the circumferential groove between the baffle and side panels.
I found it useful to glue the side panels on last. In addition to screw clamps, I also used straps with corner protection caps.
In addition to the "Raw-Wood-Effect Oil" for the remaining outer sides, a varnish glaze in the color dark walnut was used for the baffle, which I applied in each case with a paint roller, as well as a black lacquer spray, which I sprayed into the cabinets to blacken the area behind the bass reflex ports. The bass reflex tubes themselves were also treated with the black lacquer spray after they were prepared for it with a bonding agent spray for car plastic parts.
Assembly
In the meantime, the crossovers were manufactured at Intertechnik and the kit was finally delivered. I installed all parts according to instructions, wired and soldered everything according to instructions and was already looking forward to being able to put the speakers into operation soon after screwing the drivers into the fortunately suitably manufactured openings in the baffle.
I pulled the wiring for tweeter and midrange individually through small holes, which I then sealed with hot glue. The crossovers for tweeter and midrange were installed in the crossover chamber according to instructions. The chamber got a cover made of 12mm thick multiplex, which I sawed to fit, milled and sanded. The large coil of the crossover of the woofers I connected via shorter pieces of cable.
I also carried out the insulation of the cabinet according to the construction manual, leaving out the crossover components of the woofer accordingly.
Of course, it took a few hours after commissioning until the sound became increasingly rounded and plausible, since this large speaker obviously and understandably needs a significant break-in period in which the sound still changes and tends to become increasingly smooth and coherent.
Result
The result is now actually again difficult to put into words. Everything that my wife and I had hoped for came true, and the speaker plays authentically and with a strong bass, but we were still very surprised by the sound. It is almost a shocking, overwhelming experience to listen to music with these speakers at high volume for the first time. It is this terrific gripping, bullet-like directness with which low frequency events are placed in the room, which is simply off the beaten track of what we have known and expected from home devices so far. Now this doesn't have much to do with the first speakers I built 30 years ago, and certainly nothing to do with the speakers of the 70s and 80s. Nor does it have much to do with the typical compact and column speakers that you can often hear in high-end stores in a large selection. Rather, this new speaker can do live bass and high end at the same time, making it a sort of universal genius of home music playback. Yes, I know that this may seem totally exaggerated and excessive. But the speaker is for me after decades of the hobby Hifi actually extremely good in all disciplines. The tweeter and midrange imaging is better than the Seas Excel speakers and the peculiar thing is the fact that despite the size and width of the speakers, the sound is excellent, even better detached and sets an impressive stage, which is probably supported by the immensely fast and precise bass and chiseled. And the music takes you over, not only as I had wished in advance, but in a more serious way than I and my wife had suspected and known. It's really like a well-mixed live concert that you experience not from the back, but close to the stage, and that makes you forget where you are and who you are, because the joy in the music is just so great. Because you arrive in the music, it's live. Oh, it has also become quite pretty, we think.
Change
Can that be, can a loudspeaker change our lives?
I think now that it is so. Because the Satorique Live gives us the opportunity to live in the music whenever we want. You can also let it be by listening to quieter music and this works quite wonderfully, because no chassis seems to require a special performance bonus, but the entire box is simply able to sound louder or quieter as a unit, without losing the balance between the frequencies. This, too, is actually a huge advantage in addition to the high efficiency. The Naim Nait XS amplifier seems more powerful than before. So the only question that remains is whether one is willing to trade the unobtrusive appearance of the slim floorstanding speakers that have been seemingly obligatory in recent decades for this visually and acoustically undeniable statement of a truly enthusiastic music lover. This speaker doesn't hide, and it shouldn't.
Equipment
I listened to the speaker on a Naim Nait XS integrated amplifier and fed sounds once from a Naim ND5 XS network player via an adjacent NAS with Minimserver software in WAV format and via Tidal Hifi in Flac format. The sound advantage of the on-site server over the streaming service seemed less than I was used to. On the other hand, I fed via a Rega RP8 with Rega Apheta 2 cartridge, Funk Firm Achromat turntable support and Trigon Vanguard II / Vulcano II phono preamp, standing on Phonosophie rack with top frame. This is then also the preferred way to listen to music: from vinyl to Satorique Live. I have already listened to all sorts of music genres over jazz, electronic music, classical, rock, reggae, blues, singersongwriter, chanson, pop and worship / gospel. Overall, I am not only very enthusiastic about the speakers, but even convinced that my life is greatly enriched by this speaker, which can bring me and my fellow listeners into the music, as probably no other speaker. Its time-correct playing style also fits perfectly with my system with Rega turntable and Naim electronics.
Perhaps an even larger Naim amplifier would get even more out of it? I guess we wouldn't know until we tried it out.
We'll let it go and enjoy our life with and in music.
