I love reading about these audio shows...vicarious pleasure for sure hehe

Stereophile has a nice blog on it with some pics.

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/general/messages/49/497274.html

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/general/messages/49/497238.html

Wow, what are those Podium speakers? Did anyone demo those?

They've really got to get some NOPI babes in those shows.

Thanks. I also found one at AudioFederation.com Looks like I missed a pretty darn good time. Maybe next yr??

Wow, what are those Podium speakers? Did anyone demo those?

The specs are quite impressive.. I know measurements do not tell much about a speaker but the 93 db/w/m sure is remarkable... the equivalent of a 95~96 dB/W/m point source speaker..There seems to be some action on the speaker front...

Can somebody identify this amp for me?

http://picasaweb.google.com/dannykaey/RMAF2007/photo#5121716325359126322

I mean, I'm all for interesting angles and artistic approaches and what not, but when I can't make out who builds the gear...

The specs are quite impressive.. I know measurements do not tell much about a speaker but the 93 db/w/m sure is remarkable... the equivalent of a 95~96 dB/W/m point source speaker..There seems to be some action on the speaker front...

I'm really skeptical about this design. It sounds like this guy took 3 or 4 transducers designed to vibrate wall board and slapped his own moving panel on it. But like everything in audio, if you slap a high price on it, reviewers will be impressed by it right up until everyone else says "yeah, whatever". 6moons did a very promotional write up on them, but then later practically recanted the whole thing, which is almost unheard of. I suspect these have very mediocre imaging and poor treble extension, based on the design. Now, if you put one of these behind every inch of that panel, we might be getting somewhere, but these transducers cost about $500 or more each retail, so I'm surprised they managed 6 or 8 for a pair.

John

I sincerely do not know how good (or bad) they are by just looking at the web site. You OTOH do seem to possess the uncommon ability to derive the "sound" of a speaker from only a few parameters...

I will not also take all High End Audio reviewers for a bunch of idiots who just look at the price tags and go gaga on a design.. Such stereotypes are a disservice to our hobby and to the High End Industry in general..

As far as I am concerned the jury is out on these speakers.. Same about another speaker line whose designer recently started a thread on this forum.

I sincerely do not know how good (or bad) they are by just looking at the web site. You OTOH do seem to possess the uncommon ability to derive the "sound" of a speaker from only a few parameters...

It's a gift.

I will not also take all High End Audio reviewers for a bunch of idiots who just look at the price tags and go gaga on a design.. Such stereotypes are a disservice to our hobby and to the High End Industry in general..

If the stereotype fits......

As far as I am concerned the jury is out on these speakers.. Same about another speaker line whose designer recently started a thread on this forum.

I dare you to buy a set, sound unheard. Then you can let me know how great they are :cool:

Can somebody identify this amp for me?

http://picasaweb.google.com/dannykaey/RMAF2007/photo#5121716325359126322

I mean, I'm all for interesting angles and artistic approaches and what not, but when I can't make out who builds the gear...

Ayre MX-R mono amplifier :D

http://www.ayre.com/products_detail.cfm?productid=14

Ayre MX-R mono amplifier :D

http://www.ayre.com/products_detail.cfm?productid=14

Thank you. I couldn't quite make out the logo.

BTW, Frantz, here's a 6moons comment on Podiums, see how he squirms to say what he heard while also trying to be nice:

Second Opinion
During my recent visit to Siltech, I visited with Marja & Henk before flying out of Amsterdam Schiphol. This gave me an opportunity to hear the panels for myself. They are indeed a suffuse far-field transducer which lacks the dynamic kick of - well, dynamic speakers. Being critical, I also heard some nonlinearities by way of certain hot notes that would jump out of the fabric as it were but not as planned by the musicians. Lastly, massive low bass of the sort eight 10-inch woofers produce in mi casa are plainly not the panels' forte. However, classical music due to its innate spaciousness is truly well served in the far field and -- as a teaser of things M&H will report on later -- the real hammer is combining the panels with dynamic speakers for a Layered Sound experience.


As a fancier of dynamically charged world music, I personally couldn't live with the panels' soft focus and lack of traditional attack if they were to be my only transducers. However, as a polar-opposite alternative to my usual setups, I'd enjoy them a lot for large-scale symphonic, classical piano and chamber music. Plus -- and this is meant as a serious compliment -- if your household is the sort that has music going on most of the time while its inhabitants go about their various things, these panels are uniquely capable because of their diffuse, non-obtrusive, non-sweet spot character which, at levels very high or very low, is ideal for enjoyment listening rather than the traditional sweet-spot hoggin', brow-furlin', pen-toting' critic's nonsense.


At first, the Model One sounds washed-out, tipped up, pale and lifeless. However, the ear/brain truly does "switch" and what seemed all wrong suddenly begins to make a strange kind of holistic sense which then has you question conventional speakers. I'm personally not trusting my first encounter during a mostly social occasion to decide what it all means - break-through or interesting oddity. However, M&H who have lived with these transducers far longer feel them to be award material for offering a very unique, "like in the back of a club or hall" perspective. With more Podium Sound models coming their way to compare, we might add an award to the Model One in due time - or bestow it on one of the stable mates.
Srajan Ebaen

The original writer of the article said similar things but was more positive. He was incensed though that someone who wanted to hear the speakers did so and then said how awful they were on line.

I think this is just another example of a crazy company taking us off track in order to attract crazy customers susceptible to anything different. No one has ever mastered a flat panel transducer (or we'd see them everywhere), so this guy slaps some transducers to one and, voila, he's onto something? Not bloody likely! Yes, I know, I'm a dick about speaker design and BS artists, but, well, of all the silly things that get shown at shows, this comes across as one of the silliest.