If
we would believe in the fairytale of "the perfect speaker"
then we would have stopped our work already right in 2003. With
the TIDAL Sunray, a ground breaking construction. It was the first
speaker on earth with a 30mm diamond tweeter, 4 symmetrical bass
drivers in push-push configuration perfectly phase aligned around
the high-midrange heart, pure silver capacitors and an almost
endless list of other details.
Overwhelming
success in countless shows, awards and in the end of the day success
in real world sales proved the TIDAL Sunray as an iconic product
for connoisseurs worldwide.
Properly driven until today a breathtaking music machine.
Then ten years later we introduced
the TIDAL Sunray G2 as its successor with an all new developed
cabinet material, new drivers, crossover and so on. But long story
short: as good as these speaker are, we wanted to go further.
Way further....
What's
in a name? In this case we can say: the name
was becoming the guidline for this project. We wanted to build
a speaker matching the approach of the name and the other way
around: La Assoluta.
Also on of the best female singers of all times Maria Callas was
called la Assoluta... So there is a lot in this name. But it would
be meaningless to claim it is THE best speaker in the world, since
this approach is covered by many products already. We had something
totally different in mind: a game changer.
We
knew right away it will be a hard and long way to go, on one side
we had an all new white sheet of paper allowing us new technologies
and solutions, on the other side we have a very strong brand product
design and wanted to stick with our philosophy. For pure timeless
designs reasons it had to be the monolithic sculptured TIDAL design
which we have been become famous for, especially in black.
We
knew very quickly it had to be a double-driver array around a
tweeter as center. But we never liked the sound and results from
such constructions, no matter built like real D'iappolito or fake-D'iappolito.
So a complete new crossover design was another challenge to overcome
that. And we are glad to say already: we did. So the concept was
clear, but just the beginning....
To
create an extra ordinary result we needed to do something never
done before. Again. And the heart of this unique speaker is this
driver below to see: the first, one and only pure diamond diaphragm
midrange woofer.
And
with "diamond" we mean: real diamond. Not "diamond
powder coated" diaphragms or whatsoever marketing stories.
No, a real and true diaphragm out of the best material on earth
for reproducing frequencies flawless and all the way up from 150
Hz. 27 carat per speaker, so 54 carat in total for the pair. Diamond.
We
did this exclusive speaker driver project together with speaker
driver specialist Accuton, a partnership which is existing over
13 years now and a company located actually down the street just
around the corner. We decided to create something ultimate to
find out where the limits are in today's audio speakers performance
and bundled all strentghs for it.
To
be clear, this project is not about cheesy marketing lines like
"we got the biggest diamond driver in the world". Well, of course
this would be true by fact, and for most companies the approach
would have stopped here. But we are TIDAL, we had diamond drivers,
silver parts and other sophisticated technologies already more
than a decade ago. So
also again it is just playing a role within a very complex "clockwork".
To explain the significance of it and why it is a game changing
part, please see the graphic below:
This graphic shows how much air we can move with this driver.
It can move 14 times more air than the biggest pure diamond speaker
driver so far. One TIDAL La Assoluta has a cone area of 136 cm²
out of pure diamond. So with sheer excursion and surface area
one simply extends the frequency range of the driver itself.
The
big lead forward is that it is a real midrange woofer, it is able
to make 7 mm excursion movement - this is 10 times more than the
biggest diamond driver so far. This means it can play within a
bandwidth range within impossible to think of up until now with
diamond diaphragm material.
These drivers have no resonances and move like the perfect piston
since it is the hardest material one knows of and has also the
best heat sinking capability of all materials on earth. This means
also the voice coil is perfectly cooled while playing, which allows
incredible power handling and lowers the distortion like never
before.
The
basket of the driver itsef is milled out of a complete block of
aluminum to match the unique requirements we had with this driver,
and both drivers are assembled in a 18 Kg/40 lbs. frontpate out
of a special alloy of stainless steel with resonance-control millings
and damping. The titanium-to-diamond voicecoil is huge and so
short that it has zero flex to the diaphragm. Needless to say
all drivers were designed to have the acoustical center all in
line.
To
be honest: we had the highest expectations when we started and
never had the slightest doubt that it will be something extra
ordinary. But what happened when we listened to it when it was
ready was something we and all listeners were not prepared for.
It was and is simply a mind bending experience. Well, starting
sound descriptions would make no sense, since a.) we are the manufacturer
and b.) since all has been used (and to be honest: wasted) in
superlatives for whatsoever results, we simply refuse to warm
up metaphors which in the end of the day barely cover what happens
in reality.
So
all we like to do herewith is to create interest for those who
like 'to reach for the stars' and we do stand 100% behind the
statement: that this new diamond midrange woofer technology -
and therefore the La Assoluta itself - is a pretty big step forward
to reproduce music more realistic than ever, something TIDAL has
already been rewarded and accepted for all over the world.
As
an example below one can see a pair in TIDAL piano finish covering
a veneer, 'wrapped' around our latest cabinet technology: TIRALIT-Ultra.
It is the only advanced cabinet material for speakers which can
be lacquered in real piano finish and even veneered with the most
exciting veneers and lacquered in transparent piano finish. And
with that we mean TIDAL piano finish.
The backside of the TIDAL La Assoluta: The La Assoluta alllows
literally plug & play performance, all passive. But as all
TIDAL's this can be tuned even further with part-active bass activation
and the new Assoluta-LPX.
With every La Assoluta comes a free choice of finishes
and details. Every pair can be and should be highly individualized
within a complete bespoke process. Delivery, set up and the consulting
process does involve us directly and we will open this year especially
for this speaker a very special TIDAL flagship showroom to invite
clients personally to experience the TIDAL La Assoluta.
We
have to admit, the TIDAL La Assoluta is and always will be one
of the most limited speakers ever built, but such an exclusivity
is less a part of a vanity concept, but the very time consumptive
process to make the diamond diaphragms simply does not allow huge
production numbers.
Also given the sheer costs and size of this project it will not
be a speaker for everyone - but again: the name of this unique
transducer was and is at the very same time the approach, the
story, the effort, engineering and craftsmanship behind it. And
we are very glad to say: also the result.
Much more details about the La Assoluta will be launched soon.
Just see this as little pre information and feel free to contact
us if you have further and relevant questions:
contact@tidal-audio.com
TIDAL Audio GmbH
www.tidal-audio.com
Preinformation
technical specifications:
-
3-stack-module 4-way fullrange speaker
- H 232 cm, W 38 cm, D 65 cm
- 2 x 485 Kg (without packaging)
- F3 in passive mode = 23 Hz (FFT near field measurement, complete
B&K )*
- F3 in active mode = 20 Hz (FFT near field measurement, complete
B&K) *
-
frequency response within the relevant field for later in-room
behaviour between 200 Hz (below about that the room is in control,
above about this the speaker is in control) and 10.000 Hz: +/-
1.2 dB (FFT, complete B&K) *
-
efficiency: +6 dB than TIDAL Sunray *
* Please
allow us a comment on a sidenote: some manufacturers claim numbers
like "20-100.000 Hz, +/- 2dB" or even "better",
which we have to admit is nice to read, but is also, sorry to
say that, complete baloney. There is simply no professional microphone
and measuring system able to measure such thing, also by pure
physics this is absolute nonsense.
But we do not want to be the kill-joy guys here, so as alternative
we offer herewith for
those who compare specs on paper, and would like to make conclusions
about the product performance from it, also some impressive numbers.
We calculated these with
the very same 'reality-to-nonsense factor' simply into the La
Assoluta. Rumor has it we used selfwritten software for it, CRAY
super computers and NASA space technology microphones. So that
no one could say we would not use real science for it.
- F3 = 5 Hz
- frequency response: 8 Hz - 200.001 Hz, +/- 0.5 dB
- efficiency: 96 dB
- cabinet material: TIRALIT-Ultra with RF-shielding chambers
- 2 x 10" La Assoluta subwoofer, unique construction for
this project: long excursion high efficiency subwoofer with ultra
low distortion magnet design, CNC milled basket and backside clamp
mechanism into the massive TIRALIT-Ultra front baffle
- 2 x 7.5" La Assoluta wooferr, unique construction for this
project: long excursion high efficiency woofer with ultra low
distortion magnet design, CNC milled basket and backside clamp
mechanism into the massive TIRALIT-Ultra front baffle
- 2 x 5.0" La Assoluta midrange woofer, unique construction
for this project: long excursion high efficiency midrange woofer
with ultra low distortion ring-magnet design, CNC milled basket
and backside clamp mechanism into the massive special alloy stainless
steel frontplate, low
loss spyder design, direct diamond-to-titanium-voicecoil design
for perfect heat sinking and zero flex in the voicecoil former
itself
- 1 x 1.2" La Assoluta tweeter, high efficiency design with
ultra fast transient response, completely decoupled stainless
steel mounting chamber
- 4 x 10" La Assoluta long excursion low loss passive radiators
- Assoluta-Unopulse crossover for unique point source behaviour
and off-axis performance
- silver crossover, silver binding posts, grounding option
- 20 watt to >1.000 watt power handlingfully passive or part-active
to drive, free choice of finish, veneer and detail
- extra
ordinary low level and high level response without compression
effects
- prepared for complete system integration into the 4-tower design
for the "TIDAL Assoluta Music System": the La Assoluta
can be extended with active powered Assoluta Subtowers
copyright: all pictures taken by
J. Janczak and are property of J. Janczak c/o TIDAL Audio GmbH,
all rights are reserved.
