Anti-Matter

This review will appear in the June 2025 PDF issue of Audiophile Magazine. We publish its English translation in a syndication arrangement with the publisher and by special request of the manufacturer. – Ed.

Reviewer: Joël Chevassus
Sources: Esoteric K-03 and N-05XD, Cybershaft 21A, Mac Mini M1, HiFi Rose RS201E, Weiss Helios [on loan]
Power & integrated amplifiers: Coïncident Speaker Technology Turbo 845 monos, Esoteric S-5, SPEC RPA-W3EX, Kinki Studio M7, Red Dragon S500
Loudspeakers: Vivid G1 Spirit , Leedh E2 Glass, Recital Audio Illumine Hefa
Cables: Luna Red series for speakers and interconnects. Vertere HB USB and Esprit G8 USB.
Room: 7 x 7.5 m with high beam ceiling, acoustically treated by Tecsart
Review component retail: €34'000/pr

Kalimera. "I'm currently reviewing a new pair of loudspeakers and have at home the sole and first samples thus far. The brand is called Matter Loudspeakers and by one of the two founders of Ypsilon Electronics. As I'm starting to prep my quarterly magazine, I'll finish my review well before publishing the June issue. As the owner is interested in promoting his speaker before the Munich High-End show, he'd like to know if we can publish a syndication of my review before the French version publishes in June? Are you okay to proceed this way for a change?" That was my occasional contributor Joël Chevassus in Paris. Why ever not? Are the two of us accredited hifi hussies or blue-eyed barking huskies? A quick look at the Greek website showed a 3-way open-baffle asymmetrically populated speaker whose top-half driver complement mirrors my Qualio IQ's 6½" SB Acoustics Satori midrange whilst my Mundorf dipole AMT becomes a dipole true ribbon of the company's own manufacture. Down low is the biggest divergence from my Polish speaker. Where that runs a 9½" ported Satori woofer in a box, Fanis Lagkadinos opted for dual 15" SB Audience woofers in an open-backed heavily angled array. It arrives him at a listed 90dB/8Ω sensitivity—2.4Ω minimum at 53Hz—and 136cm profile 53cm wide and 47cm deep, with spikes and shoes by Spanish brand Artesanía which he distributes domestically. Despite top-quality drivers and their motors, the lack of a typical box limits the weight of the Birch ply baffle and braces to a very manageable 37kg. All of that we learn with a quick peruse of the specs.

For more we have Joël's findings. Perhaps they'll stimulate a few hifi pilgrims in Munich to search out the Matter exhibit in Halle 02-01 with Ypsilon electronics and phono with Wand designer Simon Brown? Will they hear this design cashing in on the usual dipole promise of reduced room interactions? We'd also expect serious dynamic wallop by not killing off half the generated acoustic energy in a box but releasing it into the listening space. That essentially doubles the cone surface we see from the front. It's how dual 15" woofers add up to the compound area of one box-loaded 30-incher to move copious air. Dipole mode obviously suffers lateral anti-phase cancellation. That necessitates bigger woofers than a ported box needs for equivalent reach. But there's theory and actual practice. Joël will talk us through the practice.

When it comes to European dynamic dipoles not ribbons or planarmagnetics like Diptyque, our new Greek speakers join a rather small club that hosts Diesis of Italy, sound|kaos of Switzerland, Ecobox of Bulgaria, Hex3 of the UK and Lyngdorf of Denmark. Australia have Kyron, the US Spatial and Clayton Shaw. There will be more. Yet the breed remains very specialized. Hence fans should applaud a new option particularly with the cachet of Ypsilon DNA. As to the brand name, "matter in the universe illustrates duality as either energy or mass so wave or particle. Our logo visualizes a wave particle". – Publisher

Fanis Lagkadinos, co-founder and partner of Ypsilon Electronics, is also the founder of Matter Loudspeakers. He has long experience in the high-end audio market and a deeply developed audiophile culture. For some historical background, Demetris Backlavas and Fanis met on the benches of a university in the 1980s. Demetris studied electronics, Fanis civil engineering. Their common passion for high fidelity brought them closer. Demetris specialized in amplifiers, Fanis built electronics but also speakers. The two future partners worked as sound engineers for several years, acquiring experience with major musical projects from small to stadium concerts, sound reinforcement gigs, stage plays. They finally decided to launch Ypsilon Electronics as a simple workshop for manufacturing an integrated amplifier and power amplifiers for professional use. At the same time the two accomplices also made custom speakers. In 2005 they presented the first high-end Ypsilon model in the SET100 amplifier. At the same time they developed their own ribbon tweeter and speakers for their R&D assessments. One of these speakers presented at the high-end Heathrow show during the first international presentation of the SET100. Today this speaker remains their in-house reference for the development of the entire range of Ypsilon electronics.

Ypsilon at the time tested all available compression and regular tweeters searching for bandwidth hence a part that could be taken quite low instead of yielding to the fashion of quasi super tweeters which turned out to be less harmonious than they hoped for. This created the dream of their own planar tweeter inspired by the Raven ribbon. The hunt was on to manufacture their very own. Gradually the deepening of R&D in the design and manufacture of output/interstage transformers led to very satisfactory tweeter designs. The end result integrated into the above Erato LS-100 used during the launch of the Phaethon integrated during 2014's High-End Munich show. However, our two men never commercialized this speakers likely due to their operation's small size, limited production capabilities and the hassles of speaker cabinetry.

Fanis & Demetris

Hence Fanis finally decided to strike out on his own with his partner Evgenia Panagiotopoulou to create new speaker brand Matter. Evgenia is a researcher in particle physics, a singer and in charge of Matter administration and marketing. It's a family business which now enables assembly of a front-to-back Ypsilon system which doubles as proof of global sonic concept without having to rely on speakers from other makers. That said, it would be premature to predict how both brands will develop in the future. It should also be noted that Fanis was the creator of Ypsilon's cable range which will shortly rebrand under Matter and undoubtedly create additional business volume during the launch phase. Matter Loudspeakers leverages the joint experience of Fanis and Demetris, their manufacture of ribbon tweeters and a combined passion for live music which helped accelerate this project. The initial target was a 3-way floorstander inspired by the Ypsilon Erato already shown.