SILENT LABORATORIES Molliter

The colour is not conditioning good sound – the cabinets are – and the cabinets of the Molliter are dead and inert, for they are assembled in a very special way. I will be back to it later. The combination of the automotive finish and the deadness of the baffles remind me of Wilson Audio speakers in a good way. The Molliter sit on dedicated stands, from which they are decoupled by Isoacoustics Oreo pucks. Both the speakers and the stands have milled recesses in them, so the Oreos are practically invisible, and the gap between the speaker and the stand is about 3mm only. The Oreos must not touch the sides of the recesses to work. Once properly installed, the suction of rubber pads on the Oreos makes sure that the speakers don’t move or fall, no bolts needed. This tuned isolation system significantly contributes to the great performance of the Molliter. I tried also Stillpoints in the place of the Oreos and the result was disappointing and the sound lost its relaxing nature.

Another feature which is commented on the Molliter’s backplate: the internal wiring is copper-silver KrautWire, that ends in WBT NextGen binding posts; the attention to details continues - the posts are decoupled from the cabinet by a custom-made polymer plate to prevent any resonances.

The boxes are not made from MDF, they use 33mm thick plywood. The plywood boards are laid flat and cut on a CNC machine into ribs that are stacked vertically, one atop another, and pressed in a hydraulic press. The Molliter’s cabinets are a kind of a high-density vertical ship hull; similar approach is used by German Gauder Akustik. Once pressed and glued, the final shape is machined and coated. The internal bracing is calibrated to push the ribs apart, so the whole assembly is pre-tensioned for maximum rigidity and coated by bitumen damping from inside. No need to say that all surfaces, internal and external, are bent, slanted, or irregular, to suppress standing waves inside and diffractions outside. The result, especially in this rather compact stand-mounted format, is a superstiff design that is built like a safe and that looks elegant and chic at the same time.

Both OEM drivers are sourced from Danish Scan-Speak; the midbass driver is 18cm Revelator, the silk dome is 2.5cm Illuminator. The bass is supported by rear-firing reflex port. The crossover point is set at 2300Hz and optimized for phase alignment. The crossover components are top notch too, with foil in wax coils and Superior capacitors from Jantzen. There are no fastcons and bolts, all connections are cold-welded and hand soldered.