SONY SS-AR1

Both the cabinets and baffles of the 105cm tall speakers are gently curved to minimize standing waves formation and diffraction at the edges that may affect imaging precision and timbre coloration. Other than that the cabinets are classically rectangular with the footprint of 32x49cm. Each speaker sits on four small feet that add another 3 centimeters to its height. Moving the SS-AR1 around is not an easy job as they are 57kg each. The maple wood that was selected for the baffle board is laminated in layers to achieve the final compressed thickness of 50mm and then precisely machined. A similar approach was applied to the rest of enclosure that is built from birch, selected for its good reverberation behaviour. Like the maple the birch is also laminated in sheets to reach 32mm thickness.

After experimenting with many sorts of internal bracing (including metallic frames) the SS-AR1s ended up with a simple yet effective solution: the enclosure is at approximately 1/3 of its height partitioned by two thick birch pieces that are separated by an air cavity, not unlike a double window pane, thus creating two isolated sub-enclosures, one for woofers, the other for the midrange and tweeter. Both chambers are vented with bass reflex ports. Apart from this partitioning the rest of the cabinet is just simply braced with another 7 braces. Taking into consideration the minimalistic solution that was applied the result is very impressive – try and knock on the wood of the assembled cabinets and you will end up with sore knuckles.

At Munich High End Show Sony showed the SS-AR1s disassembled. It was stunning how precisely their individual parts were made. At the show the speakers appeared to be in black piano gloss to me, however, it was only during my review when I learnt they were actually stained in deep brown. Depending on the time of a day and the way light hit their surface the appearance of the Sonys varied from black to rich reddish brown, sometimes showing subtleties of the wood grain, sometimes looking velvety uniform. The SS-AR1s are probably the best finished speakers I’ve encountered in my entire audio life. Sony also provides a cleaning cloth with speakers to keep the look flawless. I only have minor quibbles: the metal pieces that hold grilles in place protrude from the baffle – I would prefer some less visible solution, and the drivers are mounted into the baffle with perhaps too many visible screws. Here the industrialism oposes the beauty and art.