Sony's new SA-Z1 Hi-Res Near Field Powered Speaker System

[Musicraft (Derby - UK)]

Looking forward to seeing and hearing Sony's new SA-Z1's -

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/speakers/sa-z1

 

[Koeitje]

51Hz-100kHz(-10dB)

I think their frequency range is extended in the wrong direction

 

[georgeT]

The woofer is partially blocked and there's probably comb filtering going on from those two tweeters so close together. Am i missing something, can this actually measure decently?

 

[digitalfrost]

The woofer is partially blocked and there's probably comb filtering going on from those two tweeters so close together. Am i missing something, can this actually measure decently?

ME Geithain does similar things and their stuff is highly regarded.

 

[jhaider]

ME Geithain does similar things and their stuff is highly regarded.

Wow, that’s beautiful! That finish is way too pretty to be a studio monitor.

 

[georgeT]

ME Geithain does similar things and their stuff is highly regarded.

I can see it working at that scale, the woofer probably doesn't go very high, the mid range driver is 5" and there's only one tweeter.

 

[dwkdnvr]

Uh, wow. Interesting set of choices there. At a quick glance the don't seem to use 'cardioid' in the lit, but that seems to be what they're going for with the woofer arrangement. Dual super-tweeters seems like a very odd choice, but if they're designed around a very specific and narrow listening window it can be used to limit vertical directivity and somewhat mitigate bounce off the desktop.
I'm guessing they'll be pricey. Will be interesting to see how they measure.

 

[dwkdnvr]

51Hz-100kHz(-10dB)

I think their frequency range is extended in the wrong direction

Yeah, I"m guessing they're relying on boundary reinforcement to extend the bottom end. Still, 51Hz @-10 seems awfully anemic unless there are bass controls that can contour the response.

 

[q3cpma]

Certaily an interesting speaker. A bit heavy for such a small speaker, and obviously no LFX, but still different enough to make you wonder.

ME Geithain does similar things and their stuff is highly regarded.

Way less diffraction problems at the wavelengths that woofer is outputing.

 

[slingshot]

$8,000 no thanks.

 

[mhardy6647]

ME Geithain does similar things and their stuff is highly regarded.

As a child (young adult, more accurately) of the Seventies, I look at these and see these...

Or -- in fairness, something like this

sk0180 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
(pretty sure these were Matsushita (Panasonic) OEM)

or (speaking of "real" Jensen Triaxes of yore) even this

 

[Putter]

51Hz-100kHz(-10dB)

I think their frequency range is extended in the wrong direction

For some reason Sony is big on catering to the dog in us who listens to musical dog whistles. There's very little evidence that extending response beyond 20 khz yields improvements in audible frequencies. That is my main complaint with their budget offering, the SSCS5 which uses a 3 way system but is essentially a tweeter and super tweeter. A good midrange would yield more improvement especially in improved directivity.

 

[mhardy6647]

In all seriousness, over the decades, Sony's built and sold some very serious & competent loudspeakers -- as well, of course, as lots of marginal, cheap, consumer-grade... umm... junk.

The SS-M7 is an example of the former, e.g.

 

[Koeitje]

For some reason Sony is big on catering to the dog in us who listens to musical dog whistles. There's very little evidence that extending response beyond 20 khz yields improvements in audible frequencies. That is my main complaint with their budget offering, the SSCS5 which uses a 3 way system but is essentially a tweeter and super tweeter. A good midrange would yield more improvement especially in improved directivity.

Same as Kef with their super tweeters on the Reference series before the current one.

 

[Musicraft (Derby - UK)]

51Hz-100kHz(-10dB)

I think their frequency range is extended in the wrong direction

Nice one

 

[TimVG]

Nice way to repurpose old CRT monitors

 

[Ilkless]

Side venting reminds me of the TAD CR1. It seems Sony has chosen the triple-tweeter array as their hill to die on. Problem is that in their previous, non-coaxial implementations (SS-NAxES series), it has even more dismal vertical dispersion than the typical cone-and-dome. So it makes sense to place the array in front of the woofer as the next step. I dig how adventurous it is and the design choices are (vaguely) rationally defensible. But yes, unless it has a larger mid like the Geithain such that it can be low-passed at a low frequency, I can't see how diffraction would not be an issue in the Sony.

If anything, Sony hasn't gone far enough with their array before placing it coaxially. Add a pair of midwoofers per side and it could have made a compact Horbach-Keele array - now that is something that is long overdue on the market (only design out is the Lexicon SL-1). No need for a finicky coaxial configuration.

 

[FrantzM]

I see a great deal of speculation and conjecture without us having any idea how it actually works.
The speaker seems to be DSP-controlled, let’s wait, know more, then ... Fire away.

 

[Ilkless]

I see a great deal of speculation and conjecture without us having any idea how it actually works.
The speaker seems to be DSP-controlled, let’s wait, know more, then ... Fire away.

The tweeter array is quite ill-advised. Plus the array is significant compared to woofer diameter. Unless it has Genelec One-level wizardry with the slot-loaded woofers behind the large waveguided coaxial (thus allowing a low XO), I can't see how diffraction would not be a problem.

 

[Tks]

$8,000 no thanks.

Modern Sony products, no thanks.