"In terms of acoustic testing and validation, we closely cooperated with the acoustic research lab of the Czech Technical University in Prague. Accurate measurements in their anechoic room were fundamental to all our R&D. We also cooperated with our country's foremost specialist from the hifi industry to fine-tune and test our products and gather initial opinions and reviews to push the acoustic performance and design even further."
"Trilateral symmetry was a crucial part of Thunderstone's design. The shape allows for three bass ports and the right amount of space for the ideal diameter and length of the resonant tubes. The flared ports are 1.618" in diameter. Apart from being suspiciously reminiscent of the golden ratio which is a pure coincidence, it is the smallest possible diameter before unwanted noise would arise from air turbulence. The port tubes are an integral part of the enclosure and wrap inside it alongside the outer shell to double as internal reinforcements. This helps to reduce enclosure resonance for cleaner bass.
"Whilst we experimented with wool absorbers inside the tapered Spirula line, we ended up using vatelin absorber tampering. In Thunderstone there's a sheet of Mylar foil between each PCB, all its capacitors are damped with silicone adhesive and all signal cables are shielded. The electronics packaging is by Petr Sladek, a friend who developed Bluetooth smart watches years before Apple bowed their first Apple Watch and who works on the development of Tokamak fusion generators. Unlike our clamshell Akemake monitor, for the Ionic system there is no gluing whatsoever. All three enclosures are printed from one piece respectively. There are no joints or seams, not even with the bass ports. These are all true monolithic structures.
"Also, the penetration of our proprietary hardening compound is 100%, not partial to leave a softer core. The final surface isn't by any means scratch resistant or unbreakable but not fragile or scratch-prone either. It is sandy, therefore rough like sand paper. The material is solid and hard enough but you can of course ding it with a metallic or hard object like keys. We've done drop tests, flinging Spirula prototypes onto different kinds of floors to learn what the material will withstand as it falls from 1.5 meters to carpeted and linoleum floors without any discernible damage. Of course we kept trying and if you drop the enclosure from that height straight onto a concrete floor a few times, it will obviously break. But should your kid accidentally swipe one off your desk, it'll be fine."
