Audio Solutions Virtuoso-S speakers -“Sound Stage - Best of Award” w/ Townshend series 4 Seismic Isolation Podiums
Rear view showing adjustable harmonics crossover selector
Price guide - Virtuoso’s RRP $44,995/pr + Townshend Podiums @ NZ$3995 (special price)
Special Price: SOLD
DESCRIPTION
I have a pair of these highly regarded Virtuos-S speakers available, they have been in my personal system from new, it’s now someone else’s turn to enjoy. They have a natural, dynamic, open presentation with no glare or haze to spoil many hours of engagement. One reviewer commented that they are able to compete with some well known exoteric, high-end brands that cost twice the price. Presented in excellent, like new condition, in piano black gloss with no marks that I am aware of in original shipping boxes.
Additional I’ve included is a pair for the very highly regarded Townshend series 4 Seismic Isolation Podiums to match these speakers, offer superior isolation a tighter bass and clearer, finer detailed musical outcomes.
High Fidelity review summary: “the Virtuoso S is also absolutely versatile in terms of the musical repertoire. They did great in my favorite acoustic music, built a unique atmosphere and soundstage for good live performances, impressed with super punctual pace and rhythm and high energy in blues and rock recordings, or the momentum and scale of music when playing large classical pieces. The vocals sound great, convincing and present with these speakers, but also the slightly lesser in terms of recording quality tracks/albums can sound really good, better than usual, because some of their flaws may be slightly tempered. Whether I listened to an acoustic trio, a rock band or a large symphonic orchestra, the Virtuoso S treated every challenge the same - in an unforced, effortless way but still a highly precise one, and the only limitation to the quantity and quality of information reproduced by the speakers, was the signal they received, i.e. the quality of the recording and the system that „prepared” signal for the Virtuoso S. These are excellent loudspeakers for top, well-balanced systems. Simply, as befits good loudspeakers, the AudioSolutions Virtuoso S are to be "only" the last, key element of a system that will convey its full potential without taming it or imposing its own character. These are truly classy, high-end speakers!” See full review: www.https://highfidelity.pl/@main-1020&lang=en
AUDIO SOLUTIONS:
Virtuoso series employs much of the advanced technology originally developed for the company’s Vantage and sits comfortably just below our flagship Vantage 5th anniversary series.
DESCRIPTION:
Notable highlights of Virtuoso series includes an advanced Box-in-a-Box system, mini-horn loaded tweeter, an extended frequency midrange driver, a user-adjustable crossover with three listening profiles, and of course self-locking cabinets borrowed from our Vantage flagship speakers
FEATURES:
Three-way speaker system. Highly braced internal skeleton with complex all new Box-in-a-Box enclosure and multi-layer walls. Inspired by Vantage 5th anniversary speakers with many technologies borrowed from and advanced to fit for our new generation platform. We believe that Virtuoso is a dawn of a completely new generation of speakers at AudioSolutions and it starts with Virtuoso series.
EXTENDED MIDRANGE BAND:
AudioSolutions exploits a unique concept of extended band midranges. While most systems utilize crossover points within the 700-2500hz region, we believe that having a three-way system and wide-spectrum midrange is critical. While this method creates a bit narrower listening window, the benefits of it are by far more superior and worth striving for.
A human ear has uneven sensitivity across the audio band. We are naturally less sensitive to low-frequency irregularities and high-frequency irregularities, but our ear is enormously sensitive to mid frequencies within the 1000-2000Hz band. Each driver has naturally occurring irregularities across the spectrum a.k.a. distortions which make each driver sound with imprinted unique character (i.e. metallic sound). We can hear that different imprint between two drivers (i.e. midrange and tweeter) while playing music if the crossover point is somewhere near that sensitive region of 1000-2000Hz. This phenomenon is audible and understood as unbalanced, harsh or tiresome sound and eliminates speaker main purpose - recreate life-like sound and emotions. Physically it is impossible to fully eliminate naturally occurring distortions in the driver, but we can stay away from the most sensitive region and cross-over drivers where our ear is least sensitive. The principle behind this is very simple - human senses can't accurately distinguish sole stimulus but can be extremely accurate in distinguishing slightest differences if two stimuli are present.
The simplest example - all paper is white and you cannot tell how white different sheets are until you have them close to each other. Comparing two of them you can easily tell which one is whiter even if it is the slightest shift in colour. The same works for sound. If you have two drivers crossed in a most sensitive region - you immediately hear the tonal shift of drivers, different irregularities and the overall sound is far from natural. Keeping crossover points as far as possible from that region allows you to hear most information (most sensitive information) coming from one driver and unchopped by crossover.
Virtuoso Extended Band Midrange driver covers the spectrum from 500Hz up to 7000Hz. That is almost 4 octaves of most essential musical information coming unsplitted between different drivers. Because of this concept, we can truly say that possibly we have the most natural-sounding speakers among all.
ADJUSTABLE HARMONICS CROSSOVER:
Virtuoso is equipped with a new type of speaker performance tuning device which encloses three different crossovers in one speaker to choose from. This system does not change SPL of speaker response and should not be mistaken with room/system tuning devices where levels of individual drivers are being changed. In Virtuoso we decided to take a step further and use natural drivers' distortion pattern to manipulate listening experience.
As it is known all speaker drivers have more or fewer distortions present across the spectrum which is the natural behaviour of the driver. Each driver's distortion pattern is different which reflects as unique-sounding units - aluminium cone drivers have a metallic/harsh sound or ceramic cone drivers have analytic sound. The same is true for musical instruments. This is what makes two different violins sound tonally different, despite the same note being played. Although in music this phenomenon is called overtones rather than distortions. Technically speaking cause of both overtones and distortions are one and the same. Different overtone patterns create a unique sounding instrument with a richer or leaner, more dramatic or more neutral tone. So is with speakers. By adding more than one driver to the speaker we create a speaker system with a distortion pattern described by crossover points. By manipulating crossover's cut-off frequency and steepness of slopes we create different distortion/overtone patterns where different portions of each driver's distortions/overtones participate in the final system. It is a unique feature which allows us to offer you three different listening experiences without actually changing speaker technical characteristics.
AudioSolutions Adjustable Harmonics Crossover has three modes:
1. Balanced – this mode is a sweet spot with a perfect balance of musical clarity and an immersive soundstage.
2. Moderate – this mode is ideal for prolonged listening sessions when less dramatic and less detailed sound required.
3. Enhanced – engaging this mode will allow the listener to experience the finest level of musical details from their recordings. This mode is especially well suited for quiet evening listening sessions when ambient urban noise is reduced, and micro details in the music come alive. This mode can make the difference between simply listening to music and establishing an emotional connection with your music, prompting you to get up and dance or shed a tear, when listening to your favourite tunes.
A TRUE BOX-IN-A BOX CABINET:
Virtuoso speakers share a true box-in-a-box enclosure design. This system relies on an internal structure with extensive skeleton-like bracing which grants rigidity of enclosure and controls primary vibrations which are created directly by the drivers. This internal carcass is covered with lightweight material to form an inner box. Lightweight walls have very low inertia and don't store energy. Because of that, inner cabinet ringing characteristics are very good. The outer box is being attached directly to and over the inner box. By applying more dense material with higher inner losses we eliminate any high Q spikes which can be transmitted from inner structure. Outer box works in tandem with inner box by dampening each other out. Specially calculated corner joint point’s and shape increases structural forces even further. The resulting cabinet shares properties of those aluminium or composite cabinets, but do not add high-frequency ringing and harmonics which is common in those type cabinets
MULTI-LAYERED SURFACES:
Virtuoso benefits from different thickness walls across all cabinet. We use different thickness and density materials, combine them so that each layer would have different resonance frequencies. This technique allows us to dampen vibrations inside those materials. A thin polyurethane glue layer between materials has a thickness of 0.1-0.15mm and forms a unique layer which helps to transfer energy from walls to heat (absorb mechanical energy) and help to dampen all structure extensively. The thickness of sidewalls, front baffle and back of the speaker is not equal along all perimeter. It constantly changes. This technique not only serves as a pretty curved outer shell but promotes differential vibration dampening when the driver works at high-pressure levels. This technique along with a box in a box technology forms a complex cabinet system which only some high-end manufacturers can allow themselves to manufacture.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Drivers : 3cm silk dome tweeter, 13.2cm Hard Pulp paper cone mid, two 16.5cm Hard Pulp cone bass drivers
Sensitivity : 91.5 dB @ 2.83V 1m
Nominal power handling : 130 W rms
Maximum unclipped power handling : 260 W;
Impedance : nominal 4,0 ohms
Crossover frequency : 500 Hz; 7000 Hz
Frequency response (in-room environment) : 26-30000 Hz
Dimensions with plinth: 1130H x 391W x 547D mm
Dimensions without plinth: 1090H x 281W x 478D mm
Weight : 50 kg each
Shipping weight : 80 kg each
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