Published measurements tell their own story of minimal energy storage with quick rise and settle times. One expects a very quick very detailed sound liberated from the usual narrow sweet spot. One adds a far more energized ambient field and more broad-band room interactions than typical 'direct' radiators. Finally one sees realistically rich/natural tone from more reflections aka reverb being mixed into the direct sound. It goes without saying that small-scale fabrication of curved carbon shells by experts from a different industry is time consuming and costly. It makes Bayz Audio more of a one-up custom shop than standard production house. "I don't keep stock and only build to order so be patient. If you want broken-in samples, add two weeks."
We appreciate that carbon fiber makes for a very rigid yet low-mass enclosure solution where thinner walls conceal more internal air volume than typical. Just 13kg for a 139x41x19cm sculpture is back to minimized energy storage. That returns us to higher fidelity in the time domain. If these Bayz handed out business cards, they'd list time fidelity and omni dispersion as their combined job titles. Or perhaps it'd say speed for president?
In this photo of a customer system with Kondo electronics, we appreciate the Courante 2.0's now higher risers to elevate its tweeter to ear level. We also see how this client opted for the smaller Bayz model with stereo subwoofers rather than the bigger Counterpoint. The upgrade from original to 2.0 version includes "improved internal wiring; upgraded radial driver with response to 40kHz; laser-cut aluminium hard tweeter cover for increased protection; improved mechanical connections to the solid granite base for greater stability; wood back plate for improved vibration damping of the cabinet."
About setup requirements, "we recommend 1m minimum distance from the front wall. That's it. As an amateur pianist and music lover, I've enjoyed hundreds of live concerts of jazz, classical, vocals etc. As a result, my objective was to build a playback system that most closely exemplifies a real performance and puts the listener in the same room as the musicians.
"This is where the audio industry has completely failed. They build very good loudspeakers but fail at reproducing a real event. To reproduce a real event, we started with a clean sheet of paper and chose an omni configuration. We rejected monopoles and dipoles because they cannot emulate real three-dimensional in-phase music."
About future Bayz subwoofers, "we're working on several. The problem is designing a woofer with a rise time anywhere near our BRS which is lightning fast past 50kHz. We successfully tackled this challenge with the Courante's and Counterpoint's custom dynamic drivers which are among the quickest to market. The same challenge exists for a subwoofer but is much more difficult. We are looking at numerous ingenious innovative solutions. If the sub's rise time is too slow, it will diminish the lifelike experience of the Courante and Counterpoint, thus defeat the whole listening experience." With Michael Børresen as another speed freak working on his own, the category of fast music sub would soon see exciting additions.
When Zoltán announced my shipment, "I wanted to use a nice professional travel container which is possible by special request but their whole team caught the virus so I'll use our standard solution at left." That crate measures 149x74x62cm LxWxH and weighs 86kg gross. My white van delivery guy and I would manage very easily. It's lovely when state-of-the-art hifi sheds its old high-mass thinking—hello full aluminium monkey coffins—by exploiting modern race-car building blocks like carbon fiber. Wilson Benesch in the UK are another speaker firm specialized in advanced applications of it.
