Mandolin Solo
A Passionate Experience
It is extremely difficult to define the impact that a good full-range speaker design has on the listener. They are unique in their ability to make instruments and voices sound “real” and it is very common to come across expressions such as “passionate”, “organic”, “natural”, “effortless”, “fluid”, “exciting” and “magical”. The main reasons for this are the absolute inherent phase coherence of full-range speakers (something that our brain notices immediately – and likes!) and the total absence of crossover, which helps to display the smallest nuances of the music.
The Mandolin Solo is the passport that Audiopax has created to this incredible world.
We've been studying and testing full-range speaker options for over two decades and have finally chosen one of the best models ever developed for our speakers: the F8 Neo from Cube Audio, a Polish company that has taken the high-end audio market by storm with its creations. In the Mandolin Solo, the F8 Neo is connected directly to the amplifier, with no filters or any electrical components between the two devices. To achieve an exceptional (and not just “OK”) bass response, we added two woofers integrated into the full-range speaker in an unusual way: a conventional filter exclusively for the woofers and a 100% acoustic filter for the F8 Neo, ensuring perfect integration of the set and maintaining the concept of a direct connection between the heart of this speaker’s reproduction and the amplifiers that power it.
The result? A speaker with all the features described above but with an extensive list of new possible expressions: refined, with exceptional micro and macro dynamics, timbral coherence, a spectral image and a spectacular bass response. A true Audiopax!
The Drivers
Our intention in developing the Mandolin Solo was to create, using full-range speakers, a captivating and realistic emotional experience, combining dynamics, timbral precision, resolution, micro-dynamics and musicality as in the real world. These are the same premises used Mandolin Ceramik II and we chose to use the F8 Neo from the renowned Polish company Cube Audio after concluding that only an exceptional speaker model could, together with our experience and engineering, meet all these demands simultaneously.
The features of the F8 Neo are impressive:
The voice coil is completely immersed in a magnetic field, with an excursion of up to 12mm, ensuring maximum operational linearity and minimum distortion. The tolerance between the elements is 0.01mm. Its magnet is made of neodymium, the best material for speakers today, and is composed of 81 independent magnets with a total weight of approximately 1.5kg and an impressive 2.1 Tesla magnetic field, allowing absolute control of the cone.
The cone is made up of 4 parts – the main cone and 3 whizzers that guarantee an extensive frequency response up to 18KHz. Everything here has been optimized for maximum performance: diameter, height, surface, geometry, rigidity, damping and coating are all part of the final sound equation, with a sweet, rich and natural sound.
For the woofers, we selected drivers from the “Satori” series from Danish company SB Acoustics. These drivers are made with EGYPTIAN PAPYRUS™, a proprietary material that simultaneously combines the best features of paper and aluminum cones, ensuring bass with excellent transient response while also being extremely musical, in yet another combination within the Audiopax universe of precision and musicality. The use of two 6.5” drivers in parallel guarantees in this case the equivalent surface area of a 10″ driver, with a demand for half the excursion and consequently obtaining a significant reduction in intermodulation distortion. With this, we were able to create an extremely elegant and small speaker but with all the bass power of much larger speakers.
The Construction
The Mandolin Solo are extremely elegant and exquisitely finished, playing dynamically, quickly, articulately, integrally, with impressive phase coherence and linearity, creating a ghostly soundstage. High-quality speakers, crossover superlative (both in design and in the materials used) and extreme attention to detail (from the binding posts to the solder used) are important parts in achieving this result, but the cabinet ends up being the final detail in creating this work of art of sound reproduction.
Its design does not include parallel walls, thus preventing resonances from occurring in an accentuated way at any frequency. Its baffle is made entirely of solid wood, with the central module made of very high-density wood (close to 1,000 kg/m3) integrated with epoxy resin and laminate modules developed by Audiopax. This assembly is fixed to the rear of the cabinet using low-density solid wood pieces, an assembly that acts as a shock absorber against the influences of reverberations generated in the listening room itself. All internal damping is made with pure wool felts associated with the best compounds developed for this purpose by Mundorf. It is a bass reflex box and its duct is located at the bottom of the box and tuned to the base, greatly facilitating positioning in rooms of any size.
In addition to the incredible number of features created specifically for maximum final performance, it also adds elements that make it one of the most beautiful speakers on the market. Its rear follows the perfect contour of a quarter ellipse and harmonizes perfectly with its inclined sides, creating the impression of a small, delicate, feminine box. Its finish is made with epoxy and automotive paint in seven layers and its baffle has marquetry details similar to those used in the iconic D28 series from the beginning of the 20th century by Martin Guitars – a classic!
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