I got to know Jason Melman, owner of Boutique Audio (an extremely high-end retailer just north of Toronto), by chance. Fellow SoundStager George da Sa hooked us up after he discovered the store a few months ago. On my visit back in April, I spent a short spell listening to one of Melman’s systems, which was fronted by a pair of Aidoni speakers from Germany’s SoundSpace Systems. These large, expensive, beautifully finished speakers threw a huge, dynamic soundstage and really turned my crank.
The next week Melman arranged a Zoom call with Michael Plessmann, the owner of SoundSpace Systems, so we could discuss his speakers and arrange for a review on SoundStage! Ultra. We also bonded over our shared hatred of audio-show music and our appreciation of musician John Zorn, and made plans to meet up in Munich so I could have a further listen.
So there I was, right up front, with Dietrich Daniel Brakemeier of Acoustical Systems giving me the low-down on the deeply impressive A*Stellar turntable (€170,000, all prices in euros), fitted with the infinitely adjustable Titan arm (€70,000).
This iteration of the A*Stellar features a new titanium top plate on an air-supported plinth. It’s a drop-in exchange for the current aluminum top plate. Each layer of the plinth is a different hardness, softer aluminum alloys at the bottom, harder as you go up, with the hardest layer—titanium—at the top.
The phono stage here was also from Acoustical Systems, the tube-based, fully balanced, highly adjustable Evocator (€40,000).
Of course, the original mission statement for this room was to evaluate the Aidoni speakers. This was where the action happened. We sat through some older mono recordings, and then Brakemeier cleared the room with a track from Tom Waits’s Dead Man Walking. I loved him for it. Waits was a physical presence in the room, with an enticing feeling of depth and roundness to his voice. Well done indeed.
The Aidoni (€330,000 per pair) is a unique speaker. The two midrange drivers are open-baffled, radiating to the front and rear. The front tweeter is a unique pressure-loaded magnetostat design, and there’s a rear tweeter also. Woofing is by way of a pair of horizontally opposed 15″ drivers with a high-powered, DSP-controlled amplifier.
SoundSpace Systems speakers are made to order, and can be constructed from any wood—whatever timber you like. Or just choose a stock veneer over MDF, or any automotive color.
Amplification was via Vitus Audio SM-011 mono amplifiers (€51,000/pair) operating in class-A mode. Since the Aidoni is 101dB efficient, it’s likely they were cruising on less than one watt. Preamplification duties were courtesy of a Vitus Audio SL-103 (€36,000).
Later in the day, I stopped by to hear SoundSpace Systems’ smaller Robin speakers, which I’d say are just the right size for my room. The Robin is the smallest speaker in the SoundSpace Systems lineup, and it retails for €65,000 per pair in its special edition-trim shown here. I was sold by the first thing I heard: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade played at just the right volume, with an excellent sense of scale that was out of proportion to the compact size of the cabinets.
I’m looking forward to hearing the Robins in my room. Stay tuned.
Jason Thorpe
Senior Editor, SoundStage!
