Sigberg Audio Saranna (fullrange, cardioid active floorstander) development thread

[617]

Mostly due to the form factor, very few studios employ floorstanding speakers. So I'm sure it would work well in a studio as well, but that was not the target audience I had in mind when I designed it. I explain in some detail here the thinking behind the Saranna:

The horizontal directivity is available:
View attachment 496310





On what parameters? 8361a/w371a is a system with subwoofers, so it would make more sense to compare to the Manta system(?). With regards to bass extension, the Saranna will extend deeper than the 8361a, but likely not deeper than the w371a. Which is "better" is something I try to avoid discussing with regards to other brands.



Do you mean here on ASR, or elsewhere? It has been reviewed many places already (let me know if you want links), and four other reviews are in progress as we speak.

Is soffit mounted cardioid operation possible? Seems like it would work well

 

[sigbergaudio]

Is soffit mounted cardioid operation possible? Seems like it would work well

Hm. Not sure what you are picturing. This would not be possible with any of my designs, as they have the cardioid ports on the sides, which would then be inside the wall? Soffit mounting is more like an alternative solution to cardioid, as the side wall beyond 90 degrees + the back wall no longer exists. And it is primarily the reflections from these (now non-existant) surfaces that is attentuated with a cardioid design.

 

[sigbergaudio]

A bit of cross-posting;

Here is an interview / article with a Saranna owner recently published on our website

The Singing Mountain Guide

Please introduce yourself to our readers My name is Håkon. I am a former singer and actor who now works as a mountain guide. I live in Molde, home to the Jazz Festival and beautiful views. Like most people here, I live in a wooden house with a south-facing view. My interest in sound began when I...

www.sigbergaudio.com

 

[sigbergaudio]

Saranna is finally in place at Hörzone, our new dealer in Germany. So Saranna can now be auditioned in Munich, Germany.

 

[sigbergaudio]

The time has come for the first small revision of the Sarannas.

Currently there are bass tilt presets (easily available with the press of a button behind the speakers) that lets you select between a bass tilt of +0dB, -2dB or +2dB.

So far zero reviewers and zero customers have found a need for the -2dB preset. The speakers are optmized to be placed relatively close to the wall, and the default +0dB offers a neutral in-room response even when placed close to the wall. This means, in practice most(all) customers will either be happy with the default, or would require additional bass either due to preference, or because they have opted to place the speakers further from the wall.

Based on this, the default preset will be changed to +0dB, +1.5dB and +3dB.

Note that these presets can be adjusted to be anything else by the customer. I will reach out to all current customers to offer assistance with changing to the new defaults (unless they have already adjusted them to something of their preference).

 

[Audionaut]

The time has come for the first small revision of the Sarannas.

Actually, you could also offer a Saranna Plus.

With two 12" chassis at the rear or on both sides, which would also give you impulse-compensated bass.

The coaxial chassis would probably also be able to handle two 15-inch bass drivers.

You could call it Thornarök or NorSPL.

I wish you continued success
and all the best for 2026 – Happy New Year!

 

[sigbergaudio]

Actually, you could also offer a Saranna Plus.

With two 12" chassis at the rear or on both sides, which would also give you impulse-compensated bass.

The coaxial chassis would probably also be able to handle two 15-inch bass drivers.

You could call it Thornarök or NorSPL.

I wish you continued success
and all the best for 2026 – Happy New Year!

Thank you, happy new year to you as well!

 

[Fledermaus]

Actually, you could also offer a Saranna Plus.

With two 12" chassis at the rear or on both sides, which would also give you impulse-compensated bass.

The coaxial chassis would probably also be able to handle two 15-inch bass drivers.

Pump up the coax too and what you've got is, more or less, a [Manta + sub] floorstander - OK, D10 might be a bit weak, make it a D12 or D15

Happy new year everyone

 

[sigbergaudio]

Hehe. I feel like I have to emphasize that the Saranna is plenty powerful already for most people and most rooms. It's conservatively rated at 1% THD@96dB/1m, but the reality is closer to 0.5%.

 

[Audionaut]

Pump up the coax too and what you've got is, more or less, a [Manta + sub] floorstander - OK, D10 might be a bit weak, make it a D12 or D15

Happy new year everyone

Yes, you could do that, but I wouldn't. Perhaps you're overlooking the fact that these are PA speakers, which are electrically and mechanically very resilient, highly efficient, and capable of producing very high sound pressure levels.

The bass always requires the most energy, and you can easily use the coaxial speaker with more than the two 8-inch bass drivers used in the Saranna – and it won't even break a sweat.

I also don't think anyone would really want to push the maximum sound pressure levels in their home in the high and mid ranges, unless they are listening from a distance of 20 meters. The efficiency is immensely high and the tweeter only needs one watt of power to produce 101.3 dB at a distance of 1 m. That is more sound pressure than some dome tweeters are capable of delivering at full power – before they die of heat exhaustion.

The low-midrange driver has a sensitivity @ 1W/1m of 96.7 dB. That is also extremely loud. In addition, it can continuously handle 600 watts. You can calculate for yourself what maximum sound pressure this chassis can deliver when it does not have to handle the low frequency range. There is quite a bit of headroom.

I also really appreciate the reproduction of an 8-inch speaker in the midrange. A larger chassis bundles even earlier and has more problems with fine dynamics. An 8-inch speaker is always a very good choice for a clean and high Pressure mid band. If I remember correctly, you yourself have an 8-inch B&C speaker in your speakers. I think that's a very good choice too.

But, as so many people like to write here > Your opinions may differ.

 

[Buckchester]

These speakers look very cool, both aesthetically and the design. However, they also seem very expensive. Forgive me if this has already been mentioned, but is there a spin of the measurements?

 

[Fledermaus]

An 8-inch speaker is always a very good choice for a clean and high Pressure mid band. If I remember correctly, you yourself have an 8-inch B&C speaker in your speakers. I think that's a very good choice too.

But, as so many people like to write here > Your opinions may differ.

Thank you for remembering - appreciated
You're right of course, but the Saranna as it is already exists !
In my view, the benefit of having a midbass driver with more Sd, be it coaxial or not, rather than even higher SPL at 800 Hz which no one really needs, would be an easier coupling with low-bass driver(s) and more punch, with smaller excursion, in its lower range - where I think the Manta should perform particularly well - and, pushing the cardioid effect half an octave lower wouldn't hurt either.
Please note that at this point, these are just wild theories on my part. To make it a valid point, I'll have to experiment with some new prototype during this new year - which is convenient, since I'm retiring in 3 months from now !

 

[sigbergaudio]

These speakers look very cool, both aesthetically and the design. However, they also seem very expensive. Forgive me if this has already been mentioned, but is there a spin of the measurements?

It has been mentioned, but can be repeated of course. A full CTA-2034 spin is not available, as I have no good way of doing vertical measurements of such a large speaker. All measurements below are from the anechoic chamber at Seas here in Norway.

Reference axis (simulated below 200hz as the speaker with its rear port and drivers does not sum correctly even in the anechoic chamber):

Horizontal polar:

 

[sigbergaudio]

Actual measurement from the anechoic chamber (not accurate below 200hz) for reference:

 

[sigbergaudio]

Simulated bass extension (which corresponds well with what is seen in reality):

f3 26.3 Hz
f6 23.1 Hz
f10 20.9 Hz

This is of course extended by room gain in normal rooms, typically we see flat to around 20hz.

 

[sigbergaudio]

With regards to CTA-2034 data, we can at least predict some of it, since in part due to how some of it is calculated and in part due to the coaxial nature of our designs are pretty similar both horizontal and vertical before you get too far off-axis, omitting the vertical measurements doesn't change it much.

As an example, here is the SBS.1 data, first with both horizontal and vertical data, and then an overlay of the same data where the vertical measurements are missing. As you can see they're pretty similar.

So here is listening window (green), predicted in-room (yellow) and sound power DI (red) based on the horizontal data of the Saranna. Starting at 200hz as again it's not accurate below that.

 

[David_M]

How would the Saranna's sound and measure if the rear woofers and rectangular port were front side. Would they still maintain a cardioid radiation pattern? Would their sound signature be different?

 

[Everett T]

How would the Saranna's sound and measure if the rear woofers and rectangular port were front side. Would they still maintain a cardioid radiation pattern? Would their sound signature be different?

Are you talking about slot port, which is already there? What are you curious about in the end?

 

[sigbergaudio]

How would the Saranna's sound and measure if the rear woofers and rectangular port were front side. Would they still maintain a cardioid radiation pattern? Would their sound signature be different?

The rear woofers and port does not contribute to the cardioid pattern at all, so the cardioid performance would have been unchanged. If you have a look at the very first post of this thread, you see a prototype with the woofers in the front (and a different coaxial). I almost regret that design decision now, as it has made them much more difficult to measure.

The second major iteration with the new coax surfaced here:

Sigberg Audio Saranna (fullrange, cardioid active floorstander) development thread

www.audiosciencereview.com

And the idea of moving the woofers to the rear here:

Sigberg Audio Saranna (fullrange, cardioid active floorstander) development thread

Indeed, I looked at the BD02 mentioned earlier in this thread - that explains it :) The dual 8" gives a real life performance from each speaker landing relatively close to our Inkognito 12" sub, possibly even more powerful in the very bottom end since it's ported. Does it play louder than...

www.audiosciencereview.com

The reason this happened was through a series of iterations on different ideas (including in this thread). I guess the start was the idea to have one woofer at the bottom and one close to the top to get slightly more even bass response in-room, and I never got comfortable with the look of that. So an obvious solution was to simply move them to the rear for a much cleaner front. This also allowed for boundary coupling with the speakers placed close to the wall, similar to what is happening with our Inkognito subwoofer (designed to have the driver facing towards the floor or wall).

With regards to measurements, it would measure differently anechoically since the current Saranna doesn't sum properly in an anechoic chamber, at least not the one I'm using. In-room it would likely measure relatively similarly, but slightly worse in the bass as the drivers would be further from the front wall.

 

[David_M]

Interesting ... and thank you! So, why do you think most (if not all) full range speakers are designed the traditional way (with front woofers and ports)? The front facing design was definitely full-range as the measurements showed.