Even the most linear of circuits will look boring once they're packaged in too linear an enclosure. For theirs, Soulution contracted with a professional design firm. Early drafts dating back to April 2004 and protected inside thick plastic sleeves showed various proposals. Picking a chassis finalist and figuring out how to physically build it without showing any screws was its very own challenge.
For 2010, Soulution is hard at work finalizing the first two entries for the new Series 5 range. Here we spy on a hollow mockup of the CD player which sat on mechanical engineer Patrik Wiersma's desk.
With or without heatsink was one particular question under consideration which had this shell sport fins on one side but not the other. Both Cyrill and I fancied the rippled look but the heat sink's necessary depth steals from internal real estate to perhaps disqualify the concept. The first two 5 models will be this player and a 200wpc integrated amplifier.
Here are a few computer renderings that demonstrate design decisions as of December 2, 2009.
With the Soulution logo on the right cheek—Soulution won a Red Dot design award in 2006 for the 710 and 720/721 components by
Eulda—the Series 5 components prior to possible alterations are envisioned to sport low-rider fronts and backs to conceal their footers (Soulution was investigating some Finite Elemente parts) and appear to barely float above a shelf.
Back-panel socketry for the player was still incomplete as Schürmann remains on the hunt for superior USB/Firewire-type signal receiver solutions.