Hong Kong Hi Fi Show - 2007

Does our very own Cadence not participate in these HiFi shows?
Why, I wonder!

Kamal schrieb:

Does our very own Cadence not participate in these HiFi shows? Why, I wonder!

Distribution !
Sir, that is the problem.
Cadence is not sold the world over.
What is the use in going to a show, when there is no distribution in that country.
However, Siltech + Crystal + Cadene is 1 parent company, so if the Phaeton takes part, it is the same as Cadence !! Is it not ??? No Sir, I know it is not, but I have seen and heard Cadence in Germany !
I do believe they did take part in London & CES etc. in the earlier years........

Shahrukh schrieb:

Thank you sir. Do keep us informed!

They will be up for a demo / audition in Pune - next month.
You could call and drop by, maybe Manek can take you along. Should make for interesting listening. The Siltech Tube Amp too will be there......
If you can spare the time, it would be nice. Do not know how it will sound, but you will not know until you go there !!

Yes sir, I'd love to listen to this. FWIW, I was in Pune just this weekend.

The Phaeton is not there as yet;

However, the Arca VI is playing. Maybe you could have heard that.

But in September, the Phaeton will be there.
Will let you know when it comes.

bhagwan69 schrieb:

SC-1 = Pheaton The SC-1 has been re-named. It will have a name of 'Phaeton' [same as Volkswagon's top of the line car].

Gentlemen, I am sorry. But I got the name slightly wrong. It is not Phaeton but 'PANTHION'

The Siltech Speaker has been named Panthion !!

Yeah, sounds better!! Was wondering y they named their flagship speaker after a car!!

BTW, is it 'PANTHION' or PANTHEON??

Its Siltech Pantheon;
Here's a link to some photos of the spkr(could'nt figure out how to copy then to the post.
news.u-audio.com.tw/newsdetail.asp?newsid=57 - 32k

Kamal schrieb:

Its Siltech Pantheon; Here's a link to some photos of the spkr(could'nt figure out how to copy then to the post. news.u-audio.com.tw/newsdetail.asp?newsid=57 - 32k

http://news.u-audio.com.tw/newsdetail.asp?newsid=57

Great work - Kamal !
Nice site & good pictures, even the new G-6 Crown is shown there. Lovely. The final version of the Pantheon will have a 'black' esl panel.

Looks fantastic. individual enclosures (sealed box or ported ? ) make it look as though they will sound great !

wonder how the interplay and handover from th ESL to the Midrange would be..

The bass unit has a port in the front.
Re successfully marrying the Dynamic Drivers & the ESL panel, after all, Cadence has done it marvelously;no reason why they should'nt make the knowhow available to Siltech which is a partner Co. now.
Can't wait to hear them/read a review by our forum friends-I do know Bhagwan will prob be the first one!

Arj schrieb:

Looks fantastic. individual enclosures (sealed box or ported ? ) make it look as though they will sound great ! wonder how the interplay and handover from th ESL to the Midrange would be..

It is ported, but it is issobarik.
2 woofers - 15" A.T. each.

wonder how the interplay and handover from th ESL to the Midrange would be

We will know after the 18th of September for sure !!

The Siltech Pantheon Snaps @ HK @ Audio Show - Close ups. Thanks to Kamal !!!

August 07: Siltech Pantheon: Pantheon XXV - Celebrating 25 years of Siltech precision audio engineering. On September 18th, 50 journalists of the international audio press from Europe, US and Asia will descend on Holland to witness the official launch of Siltech's new statement loudspeaker project. For a teaser, here's part of the press release:

Siltech started with a lofty vision: to create the world's best transducer liberated from musical compromise. It would cater to every style of music and every type of listening room. From the most subdued background levels to extreme 118dB sound pressures free of distortion, it would champion true-to-life dynamics no longer plagued by room issues.

The Pantheon is the fulfillment of this ambitious dream. It portrays the finest of nuances alongside the grandest of fortissimos

• faster than the human ear,
• with spectacular low-level linearity,
• unbelievably warm and natural;
• built to the highest quality standards,
• precision-engineered by using complex software modeling with multi-physics programming.

"The Pantheon loudspeaker is a true musical performer that stands as the flagship for the entire Siltech Pantheon Series and provides the highest level of technical advancements, sound and build quality, craftsmanship and sonic purity," commented Edwin van der Kley, Siltech's CEO and General Manager. "This loudspeaker development combines sound quality with cutting-edge engineering innovations. Siltech deliberately limited the Series to 39 pairs. They are crafted exclusively for a select music-loving elite who seeks the very highest possible audio performance in a clear aesthetic and functional design."

When Siltech launches a reference loudspeaker, one expects truly uncompromising quality and impeccable finishing. With the launch of this unique loudspeaker, we now fulfill your wildest musical dreams!

Acoustical Design
A new approach: Room-invariant loudspeaker performance

As a regular attendee of classical and other concerts, Edwin van der Kley noted that even the most advanced loudspeakers hardly ever resemble a true life experience. "As an equally enthusiastic pop and jazz fan, I always enjoy the unlimited power, dynamics and especially with Jazz, the raw energy of the brass section slicing through the air. That's the sound we like to recreate, including the crucially infallible timing which separates the best of performers from the rest."

Why do real instruments sound so good in our homes? When recorded and played back, all manner of artifacts suddenly intrude - like boomy bass. This does not happen over headphones. There must be a reason why even the best loudspeakers in the market continue to excite room modes and boundary-induced resonance.*

Siltech took on the challenge to tackle these common problems. By using the most advanced computers and state-of-the-art engineering normally reserved for the aerospace industry, we were able to set new standards.

* Prior to our latest research & development, it seemed obvious to most that big speakers will create more room-induced problems than small speakers. A common belief was that higher bass output aggravated low-frequency resonances to significantly degrade the overall sound.

Building a Pantheon
For our design, we were inspired by organic forms and refined ingredients. The careful selection of natural materials combined with light metal elements transformed our substantial 300-pound loudspeaker into an object of timeless elegance. Key designers of Traditional Arts, a London-based institute of the Prince of Wales Foundation, co-developed the cosmetics of this unique loudspeaker series to add a pristine and luxurious character to its laboratory-driven functionality. High-gloss paintwork contrasts with the recessed leather of the front panels to emphasize the curved sculpting

Fashioning a Siltech Pantheon Loudspeaker involves a unique process that demands pioneering technology and exceptional hand-crafted artisanship. We employ advanced technologies to control potential enclosure resonance. Eliminating cabinet reactivity while relying on today's most advanced drivers creates a wonderfully realistic sound source that is second to none in the industry.

As just one of the many innovations Siltech developed especially for this project, you will find dome-shaped diffuser panels inside the Pantheon enclosure. Tested in a 3-dimensional control environment, these panels quickly proved to be the most effective address of neutralizing mechanical resonance. As demonstrated by subjective listening evaluations, controlling resonance with a non-harmonic structure proved highly efficacious. This patent-pending invention is just another Siltech contribution to the audio industry.

Technical Specifications:
• Power handling: 800W RMS
• Recommended amplifier power: 60W or more into 4 Ω for a tube output amplifier

Recommended amplifier power: 80W or more into 4 Ω for a transistor amplifier
• Bandwidth: 8Hz—40,000Hz
• Frequency response: 18Hz—38,000Hz –3dB (with bass port contribution)
• Bass Q-factor: 0.38/0.5 (port closed/open)
• Midrange Q-factor: 0.5
• Distortion: 0.1% THD nominal, < 0.5% @90dB/1m, 30Hz—23000Hz
• Maximal sound pressure: 120dB
• Linear phase crossover, with all drivers wired in correct absolute phase.
• System acoustical slopes 24dB/octave Linkwitz-Riley
• Crossover transitions: 180Hz and 1200Hz
Impedance: 5 Ohms (min. 4 Ohms)
• Shipping weight: Bass cabinet 110kg/240lbs net; head unit 35kg/78lbs net
• Height 140cm 36inch
• Depth 60cm 24inch
• Width: 48cm 19inchColor schemes:
For the Pantheon, we created three exclusive color schemes.


• Option 1: a classy combination of lustrously deep black piano lacquer with aerospace-grade aluminum parts and the subtle use of real fine leather.
• Option 2: a combination of lustrously deep black piano lacquer with exclusive leather accents and real gold-plated cast-metal parts.
• Option 3: A high-tech combination of warm metallic carbon grey paint with matching metal parts.

Every Siltech Pantheon is hand-built and finished to exacting standards by the finest technicians and craftspeople. It is this extreme attention to detail that distinguishes the Siltech Pantheon even among statement efforts.

In our state-of-the-art clean room, highly trained craftspeople spray the enclosure panels with successive layers of Akzo-Nobel primer followed by two layers of high-gloss base coat and five layers of high-gloss transparent coat. Between each layer application, the structure dries at room temperature for 5-7 days.

“‘We check each newly painted dry surface by spraying on a thin contrasting test layer. This shows off the smallest of imperfections during polishing” explains Wim, Siltech’s master cabinet maker.

Enclosure
For our enclosures, Comsol™ optimized angled and dome-shaped multi-layer panels for minimal refraction (Siltech patent-pending) insure flat acoustical impedance to greatly improve driver performance. The twin-cabinet architecture guarantees perfect mechanical isolation and the constrained-layer composite panels add high damping and stiffness to transform each Pantheon into a Comsol-engineered energy-neutral cabinet (Siltech™ patent-pending ENC system)

Transducers:
• 2 x 16-inch precision low-Q woofers
• 1 x 7-inch ultra-fast, Comsol-optimized low-Q midrange with patent-pending decoupled motor
• 1 x 19 inch ultra-fast electrostatic high-frequency driver with long-life self-powered power supply
All drivers can withstand very high input power without distortion. The tweeter array includes a 0-15° (+75° to +90° ISO) vertical tilt adjustment to optimize the sound balance for your preferred listening position.

Crossover
The substantial crossover is optimized for minimum parts density despite its 4th-order architecture. All coils are patented supersonic air-core inductors weighing up to 5 pounds each.

Binding posts
Heavy-duty Rhodium-plated WBT terminals.
Akzo-Nobel is a registered trademark of Akzo-Nobel NV. Siltech is a registered trademark of Siltech BV. Comsol, Comsol Multiphysics and Comsol Reaction Engineering Lab are registered trademarks of Comsol AB.

Pretty impressive sounding write up-can't
wait to hear reports abt the performance.
Thanks for the info, Bhagwan-prices would be known only after the launch, I guess-any sneak preview on that?

Kamal schrieb:

Thanks for the info, Bhagwan-prices would be known only after the launch, I guess-any sneak preview on that?

I heard that it was @ 100/- K Euro. No confirmed report, just things floating around. 3 other models will be following soon, watered down and at a bit human price !!!

Career audiophiles with deep pockets know about Siltech. Fewer will know that Siltech has long since assembled a very exotic and expensive cache of measurement hardware that continues to guide their ongoing research. The latest measurement-driven exploit by Edwin van der Kley and team is the forthcoming Pantheon XXV limited-edition reference speaker which celebrates the company's 25th anniversary. On first glance, the visible ingredients, while top shelf and heavily customized, don't seem completely unusual: multi-faceted and movable ESL tweeter panel; 7" dynamic midrange in discrete enclosure; isobarically loaded 16" woofers in separate bass enclosure. What is unusual are the stout claims for uncommonly room-invariant behavior. Anyone considering the presence of twin 16-inchers per side might swallow hard. Shouldn't those behemoths aggravate room modes to an uncommon degree? Without giving away the farm as Americans might say, Siltech's CEO explains their underlying findings such:


"Without active electronic room correction, standard room nodes cannot be suppressed. This admission on our part might suggest that we too have failed to design the room-invariant loudspeaker we claim to have designed. We began this loudspeaker design project by first analyzing the most common room variations like reverberation time, natural decay and related products which all depend on the size and damping of the room. We built these models using highly advanced 3D modeling with Comsol software [NASA's choice for most advanced software - Ed.] to break down how a loudspeaker will interact with various acoustic conditions imposed by the room. Naturally, in the process we confirmed what is already well known - that controlled dispersion greatly minimizes reflection effects from walls and ceilings in the midrange and treble bands. However, we believe to be the first who actually applied predictive engineering to truly optimize a controlled directivity loudspeaker for both cabinet shape and driver diaphragms.


"Of course this still doesn't touch the real issue of sub 300Hz information. There experience suggests that room nodes fixed by room geometry will predict the outcome of subjective listening tests. Accordingly, one would predict that the more bass a speaker reproduces, the more these problems would be compounded. Our software models suggested instead that given certain prerequisites, loudspeakers and rooms can couple their low-frequency energies rather well. Smaller loudspeakers of course gain some free bass enhancements but large enclosures react differently. To overcome this, the woofer should remain invariant to room impedance. The load the driver encounters by the total air volume of the enclosed space it faces should not alter its behavior. This requires a Q factor as low as possible, plus minimal driver resonance to insure superior bass extension.


"Invariably, the large excursion woofers commonly employed suffer SPL-related phase distortion to muddy and smear the bass. Lowering resonance equates to raising cone weight which increases system Q - a vicious cycle of sort. To solve these mutually contradictory requirements, we relied on developing reliable computer simulations. The end result is a bass system that employs two isobarically mounted woofers with specially optimized front and back loading to achieve a spectacularly low system Q of 0.38/0.5 (open/closed port) with a cut-off below 8Hz. Low Q means shallow roll-off, in our case -8dB @ 10Hz with very high power handling. As a result, woofer speed generates a phenomenal 2.5ms impulse response for extremely fast stop and go that avoids ringing and smearing on dynamic peaks.



"In short, our bass solution combines extreme self-damping with high power handling and unusual extension due to a very slow roll-off. By comparison, competing bass systems of dynamic low extension are invariably poorly damped despite claims to the contrary.


"How does such well-damped infrasonic bass performance create a room-invariant loudspeaker? Without divulging proprietary details, the same way that live instruments with equivalent low-frequency energy don't cause the problems that are endemic to loudspeakers which attempt to play back such recorded instruments at the same levels. The chief issue is not the bass information per se but the far inferior damping of loudspeakers in this band as compared to real instruments."


While the public launch of Siltech's Pantheon XXV in Holland won't commence until September 18th when 50 members of the audio industry are invited to witness the presentation, the promise that ultra-sophisticated computer simulation might have advanced the art of loudspeaker design in how endowed bass systems interact with the listening environment is exciting even prematurely ...

Bhagwan, Thank you so musch for sharing the information. this was a very interesting read

the promise that ultra-sophisticated computer simulation might have advanced the art of loudspeaker design in how endowed bass systems interact with the listening environment is exciting even prematurely ...

this is something which is of the utmost interest to me..cannot wait for this to happen. would make loudspeaker shorlists so much easier than the current word for mouth that we all go thru.

If you want to shortlist this baby, put together 100,000 my friend!

Kamalji, my interest is purely in the software.

100K for a speaker ? will need one large enough to house my family.

The technology sounds really interesting.
Is the isobaric enclosure the key to the damping and low node excitation? Who needs 100K - DIY anyone?

Spoke to Mr Shirke this evening-he said the Pantheon was outstanding & , acc to him,lived up to the pre release claims re the design concept.
As of now, there appears to be no feedback avbl on the net from any of the invitees to the launch.

Kamal schrieb:

Spoke to Mr Shirke this evening-he said the Pantheon was outstanding & , acc to him,lived up to the pre release claims re the design concept. As of now, there appears to be no feedback avbl on the net from any of the invitees to the launch.

http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/siltech/pantheon_2.html

Most details are here;

Thanks a lot, Bhagwan!
I had been trawling the net since the 20th, incl the 6 moons site.
Mr Shirke said last evenong that he would be getting a pair to Pune in 15-20 days.
Should be cause for a pilgrimage to that city!

bhagwan69 schrieb:

Kamal schrieb: Spoke to Mr Shirke this evening-he said the Pantheon was outstanding & , acc to him,lived up to the pre release claims re the design concept. As of now, there appears to be no feedback avbl on the net from any of the invitees to the launch. http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/siltech/pantheon_2.html Most details are here;

Sad to say! A typical press release, with lots of hype and no substance. Lots of pretty and mostly irrelevant pictures (lawn scenes, dining tables, etc). The only thing they really said is that the speakers play loud. Which ones don't?

Close and critical listening with a variety of music is the only thing that will prove these Pantheons really deliver. As so few will be produced, what's the chance any of them will come our side?

Neut, this was a typical launch-lots of visual & sound bytes.
The quality of the speakers will only be known after some serious & critical listening sessions.
As for them coming to India, as I posted earlier, Ajay is getting a pair for himself, so hopefully, Manek, Bhagwan & others who have a long association with Cadence would get to listen; I hope they would share their experience ith us.

Kamal schrieb:

Neut, this was a typical launch-lots of visual & sound bytes. The quality of the speakers will only be known after some serious & critical listening sessions. As for them coming to India, as I posted earlier, Ajay is getting a pair for himself, so hopefully, Manek, Bhagwan & others who have a long association with Cadence would get to listen; I hope they would share their experience ith us.

Cool Thanks Kamal. Now this is good news. Guess you mean they will be on demo in Cadence Pune for a select few. I must say it's rather rare for world-class stuff to come to India.

Kamal schrieb:

The quality of the speakers will only be known after some serious & critical listening sessions. [A] As for them coming to India, as I posted earlier, Ajay is getting a pair for himself, so hopefully, Manek, Bhagwan & others who have a long association with Cadence would get to listen; [B] I hope they would share their experience ith us. [C]

A] Yes you are correct; Listen and decide.

B] This is not some exclusive club, any interested parson can call on Cadence and drop by for a listen. The punch line being 'Drop By'
You or any other forum or non forum member is more than welcome to call on Cadence - Pune & drop by for a listen. But the initiative has to be taken. You will not be invited, one has to express a desire to go; If you are ready to go, Cadence will surely welcome you.

C] What do you want me to share with you ? It has to be experianced; Come to Pune & enjoy it for yourself. Very Very Simple.

Very Very Simple

May not be able to easily go-hence the request for a report
on the listening experience.

Part 2 :-



Where and how they find the designers, materials and resources is still a question only Siltech can answer but now they discovered this ribbon tweeter in Serbia where Aleksandar Radisavljević has developed a foil of just 0.004 mm in thickness or almost as light as air itself. The same manufacturer also developed a tweeter with an amorphous core magnet which will be used in the subsequent prototype of the Pantheon XX. Knowing Siltech, the final product will have a ribbon tweeter fully customized to their additional ideas and benefit from the Comsol multi-physics modeling software they use.

I presume this would a regular, not a limited production model;any idea of the prices to help me plan how much I need to begin saving ?8)

Hello Kamal !!!

There are to be 3 series.
Each series will have 3 models.

Top in each series will be a ELS Panel. ext will be a magnetostatic ribbon tweeter & the lower most will have a dynamic driver.

Basically 9 models are planned.
Nothing is frozen as yet; this is all hear say !!!!

All speakers will have different woofers & midranges.

Prices are not known. But they will start as low as 7 to 10 K Euro for the lowest - cheapest model & the top of the line should be Euro 50/- K. However, prices are not known either.