Tuesday 5 July 2011

First Impression on Solitaire 6a

It looks like a larger sized Solitaire 5a. The unit has the same black wooden finish, and has only power switch and level knob on the back of the speaker (no shelving or boosting features).
Nothing much on the looks of this pair, but what amazes us was that 1 inch difference in driver size can have such drastic sonic presentation!! We're talking about a lot more wider stereo field, deeper depth and almost a full freq band reproduction. This is definitely not sounding or behaving like any other 6 inch monitors we've ever came across.
One of the tracks played was Tracy Chapman's "Baby Can I Hold You". We're able to "see" the sounds, localization has never been easier with these pairs. The impressive stuff is the bass frequency. It can go really low yet very composed and maintaing the clarity of the bass.
We all agreed that the unit needs to be run-in for a few days or at least a week before it can fully open up. So far, the depth was amazing. The reverbs and sound field was just amazing. We're able to hear ADSR of so clearly, especially on the bass and vocal reverbs.
Apparently although they look identical on the outside, 6a was a total restructured unit from 5a. Components used and op amps are different and I would say the designer really maximize the potential of the 6 inch monitor speaker.
Right now the speakers are on the treadmill, so let it run for couple of days and we'll do another round of listening session probably by next week.
If you're interested to listen to the speakers, feel free to contact us at info@starmountstudio.com. We'll be more than happy to listen to it again and again (provided the studio is free from sessions).

2 comments:

  1. Glad to know you have 6A in ur studio. See this post from my dealer also very good friend Ganz.

    The circuit board of 6A is redesigned and more suitable for bigger sized cabinet. Like Solitaire 5A, the 6A brings large sound image then it's real size. It lower the freq down to 25Hz. Trying to simulate the floorstanding Hi-End speaker system or Home Theater system with Subwoofer.

    After 5A released, we got many positive feedback from user. Meanwhile some hiphop, electronic and post/film production house suggest us to design a larger size speaker system with more ultra low freq. Esp for some modern music or sound effect. They design different low freq paths from speaker to your ear. Though many people claimed there's no direction for ultra low freq, you can still trace the "track" in modern music or film. But the mid-sized/3-way speaker need more gain to trigger the unit well. Even the s3A, 1037 or Barefoot model, the internal amplifiers are not enough to trigger them well, especially for 8' more woofer. So we back to 6" inch woofer but trigger it with enough power as 5A did. The 1st benefit is you can see the image easier cause it tighter the sound. 2nd strongness is it's fully triggered by class A amp build the sound path could be seen and heard.

    It took around a week or more to run-in the 6A. Still unbalanced input sounds better if there's no noise on ground. If you have any question, feel free to contact Ganz, Enjoy the 6A ~~XD

    Paul Fang
    MidiMall Inc

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  2. Hi Paul! Thanks for the sharing some insights of the speakers :D
    I would say it is another great advancement or another successful design from Solitaire!
    The lows are powerful yet composed. We do noticed that the transients of 5a is faster and tone reproduction is more delicate compared to the larger 6a. Sound field wise, hands down to 6a...The unit has been running for hours and its just getting better and better. There's a little side effect though, whenever the speaker is playing, people tends to smile automatically, resulting a sore cheek after a certain hours of listening!

    Alex Tan

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