What Makes Sound Lab Special?
Sound Lab speakers are praised by audiophiles, musicians, sound engineers, and music lovers alike for their ability to reproduce the true essence of an acoustic recording.
While electrostatic speakers have well-documented advantages (see Principles/Advantages), Sound Lab takes this technology further with a unique, uncompromising approach. Instead of designing speakers to fit a room, we prioritize the most accurate audio reproduction possible -just as a concert grand piano is built for performance, not convenience. A full-sized Steinway is 9 feet long because that size is necessary for its sound quality. Likewise, our speakers are tall up to 9 feet because size is essential for the best performance.
Of course, just as grand pianos come in different sizes, Sound Lab panels are available in a range of heights and widths to fit different spaces. However, all configurations share the same design, build quality, and electronics: panel size is the only difference.
Our uncompromising approach begins with one fundamental concept born from our belief that to achieve the accuracy of musical instruments and sound stage in a recording, all full range models should use only one membrane to generate all frequencies from all parts of the membrane equally. One suspended membrane which requires no cross-over, no voice coil, no magnets, no enclosure and no multiple driver system solves simply and effectively the inherent problem with which all other speaker designs have to struggle: specifically that of time and phase alignment as well as coloration from a boxed enclosure.
Sound Lab has proprietary designs making our panels well known for having excellent bass performance. But it is the quality of bass (and of all frequencies) that make up the magic of Sound Lab. Music is made up of complex combinations of frequencies: just one key on a piano, for example, has a fundamental frequency, but striking that key generates countless harmonics thru the audio spectrum and all need to be delivered in unison from the speaker membrane to preserve the original sound and soundstage. The human ear can hear and notice delays of even just 30 millionths of a second. Those few millionths of a second are key to our sense to locate origin and accuracy of sounds. A speaker using multiple drivers in different positions and varying sizes of cones which move at different speeds invariably cause delay and phase irregularity which detract from the accurate recreation of a recorded soundstage and results in a blurred performance with less detail.
However, our one membrane construction, though large, achieves this with flying colors allowing for virtually perfect time and phase alignment.
Research shows the normal human ear can hear and notice delays of even just 30 millionths of a second.
So ‘What’s Special’ about Sound Lab Electrostats? More than anything, it would be the uncompromising and unwavering persistence to implement the purity of electrostatic theory to ensure the closest reproduction of recorded sound. With this understanding that the use of one membrane to generate all frequencies isophasically is a key fundamental, we have then worked to solve all forthcoming performance challenges in turn while keeping this constant. Detailed discussion of this and much more