Who doesn’t love a good controversy? SoundStage! founder and publisher Doug Schneider is not a fan of single-driver loudspeakers. And he has offered a strong defense for his point of view, to be sure. The thing is, I’m not so sure it’s a sin to love them. When I found a smallish room tucked at the end of the hall here at the PGE Narodowy stadium at Audio Video Show 2025, I was met with some conflicting feelings. Does the single-driver, open-baffle speaker system put together here by the Katowice-based company Closer Acoustics actually sound great, or am I being tricked? To me, there’s no controversy here.
Jacek Grodecki and his creation
Some explaining is in order, and Jacek Grodecki, founder and CEO of Closer Acoustics and Stereopolis (a Polish retailer that sells Closer speakers, among other products), readily provided it. Walloped though I was by the sound of these chunky, odd speakers, I needed to understand what was going on. These speakers are referred to as “Blocks” on the Closer Acoustics website, because customers can order sets of modular speaker blocks to meet their needs. One pair of full-range OKHO blocks will run you zł15,399, or €2892 (prices hereafter listed in zlotys, euros, and US dollars, as applicable). Want more bass? Add another BOB bass module (zł15,351, €2883). Just need a bass driver and a full-ranger to complete your home sound system? Purchase only the two BOB+OKHO blocks (zł30,750, €5775) and skip the blank blocks (zł3957, €743) and additional bass drivers. The system on display here had four full Blocks, including a full-range driver, two bass drivers, and a blank block. Hence, the full name is 2xBOB+OKHO+Blank, and a pair will run you zł51,037, or €9588. A Fostex supertweeter, which reproduces frequencies above 15kHz, was mounted atop each stack of Blocks in this demo room.
Grodecki further explained that Closer speakers are all based around drivers made by a small, family-run company in France called EMS. The full-range EMS drivers are popular with the DIY crowd because they are so easily integrated into a loudspeaker design. A brief look at the graphs shows why—these French drivers have a clean, flat response, far better than the old Fostex or Lowther full-rangers that people like Doug love to hate.
The EMS driver, with its attractive carved wooden phase plug, was not only running full-range, but was mounted in an open baffle—the Block enclosure has a completely open back, with wooden braces visible to shore up the wood-veneered sides of the unit. Folding the baffle like this is effectively the same as using one made of a single, wide sheet of material, so the Block achieves as deep a bass response as a speaker with a flat baffle roughly three times the Block’s width. The two added bass drivers simply augmented low-frequency output, and it was audible. Single-driver, open-baffle speakers still have a reputation for lacking bass output, but the Closer Acoustics Block system reached low enough to make me confident describing it as a full-range system.
Perhaps most impressive is that all the other components in this system were from Polish companies. ElinsAudio, which I’ve reported on before, provided the 1000Wpc Opera amplification system (zł96,000) and Cello phono preamp (zł21,000). And, praise be to analog, the Cello was in use, as the only source component in the room was the Aspire turntable, the recently-introduced entry-level machine by Polish maker J. Sikora. This one was outfitted with an upgraded KV9 Kevlar tonearm, so the whole shebang costs €9800. The cartridge was an Audio‑Technica AT33PTG—this unit is no longer available, but its successor, the AT33PTG/2 goes for €599 in Europe, or $649 stateside. Robert Sikora was even present in the room spinning some choice wax, despite having his turntables running in systems all across the show. It was all held up by a Divine Acoustics MARS modular rack (€10,000, $12,000), and everything made use of Divine’s adjustable Kepler Evolution footers (€1000 for a set of three).
So, we have an all-Polish system, running bespoke, full-range, open-baffle speakers, with an analog setup as its only source. Doug’s hell is my heaven, it would seem, as I heard a wide and deep soundstage and top-notch tonality from the low bass up to the tippy‑top of the treble. If the imaging wasn’t quite pinpoint, it still sounded natural and well-defined. With a Chet Baker album playing (cut in a groovy shade of purple vinyl, by the way), I heard Baker’s voice seemingly floating in the front of the room with us. I should emphasize, though, that I heard no disturbances across the audioband as the bass transitioned to the midrange, and the midrange to the treble. These speakers are just damn good, and integrate damn well.
No, there’s no controversy here, and I’m quite sure I’m not being fooled—this room has earned an enthusiastic two thumbs-up. Each year we come to report on Audio Video Show, and each year it seems like there’s an all-Polish system or two that knocks my socks off. This year, it was the one by Closer Acoustics, ElinsAudio, J. Sikora, and Divine Acoustics. You bet I hope to hear more.
Matt Bonaccio
Contributor, SoundStage!
