Напольная акустика — AudioSolutions Virtuoso M

The Virtuoso M is the three-way floorstander that opened the Virtuoso series from AudioSolutions, a loudspeaker maker founded in 2011 and led by Gediminas Gaidelis, with production in Vilnius, Lithuania. It had its world premiere at the Munich High End show on 9-12 May 2019 as the first and at that time only model of the range, priced at USD 32,000 per pair in the US and EUR 25,000 in Europe. The company places the Virtuoso line between its Figaro and Vantage Anniversary families and says it borrows much of the technology first developed for its top Vantage speakers. The range now also includes the Virtuoso B stand-mount and the Virtuoso S and Virtuoso L towers.

Key specs that matter

Four drivers sit in the cabinet - a 3 cm silk dome tweeter, a 16.5 cm hard pulp paper midrange and a pair of 19 cm hard pulp bass cones. Crossover points are 500 Hz and 7,000 Hz. The maker quotes 25-30,000 Hz measured in a room, 92 dB at 2.83 V and 1 m, and a nominal 4.0 ohm load. Power handling is 170 W RMS nominal with 340 W as the maximum unclipped figure. With its plinth the speaker stands 1,240 mm tall, 444 mm wide and 621 mm deep, dropping to 1,205 x 319 x 542 mm without it. Each unit weighs 75 kg, or 120 kg packed for shipping.

Engineering and use context

Because the midrange runs across almost four octaves between the two crossover points, no crossover point falls inside the band around 1,000-2,000 Hz where hearing is most sensitive. The tweeter sits in a mini horn first used in the Overture series, whose damping is tuned to the frequencies where the soft dome shows resonance and distortion. The enclosure is built as a box in a box - a braced inner skeleton forms one shell, and a denser outer shell is fixed over it. Walls change thickness and density across the panel, and a polyurethane glue layer of 0.1-0.15 mm between the layers absorbs vibration energy; the company claims up to ten times the stiffness of a single-layer box. The port has a wing-like profile for low-turbulence airflow. An Adjustable Harmonics Crossover offers three switchable profiles, among them Balanced and Moderate, and each one reshapes how the drivers distort while leaving output level unchanged. The four stock colours are Black, Zinc Grey, Pearl White and Silver Grey, and seven further custom colours are offered.

Pairing

The low nominal impedance and generous power handling call for a stereo or mono power amplifier that is specified into low loads and can deliver current into them. WBT nextgen bi-wire posts let the bass and upper sections be fed by two cable runs or by two amplifier channels.

Alternatives

The larger AudioSolutions Virtuoso L uses two 24.2 cm bass drivers and a 19 cm midrange, and is rated at 360 W RMS nominal with a 120 kg weight per speaker.