Certainty from the familiar. Returning to my >100Hz high-passed Qualio IQ with the <100Hz low-passed 2×15" RiPol sub banished squinty Clint Eastwood to the Hollywood archives. I clearly wasn't man enough to handle Supernova in its entirety. With IQ I felt right back at home. More conservatory than club. Less ballsy physicality for more cerebral lightness of being. Less density, more lumens. Charcoal not carbon-jet black. It also reconfirmed that Supernova's dipole bass indeed had shown no extra room reactivity. It was just bigger, beefier, louder, more omnipresent; and indeed bested my subwoofer for raw reach and power. This reverse assessment—by subtraction as in, taking a review subject back out—clarified my sentiments. Now I could pen a well-considered fair conclusion. One of the twelve legendary labours of Hercules had him muck out King Eurystheus' stables of 3'000 cattle; after 30 years of accumulated manure. Instead of using a shovel, Heracles diverted two nearby rivers to flush out the dried scat in one day. In 2026, overkill in the speaker sector includes cabs from Magico, Rockport, Stenheim and YG. Their construction is routinely called heroic. Supernova goes heroic on an open baffle. It's what stretches tenuously to the legend of Hercules across some 34 centuries. Inherent in mythological tales are achievements beyond the ordinary. That metric applies here, too. One reaction to it is bystanders' awe; or puzzlement. If the latter, it's because mediocrity can't relate to loftier goals and the outsized efforts behind them. In fact, their entire rationale vexes. When asked why they risk life and limb to scale the peak of an inhospitable mountain, climbers answer, "because it's there". Grzegorz saw promise in an uncompromised OB so had to carve a path to its peak. What would our audio boutique sector be without such madmen?
Another aspect is actually living with a Herculean character who strangled a giant lion with his bare hands. Concessions must be negotiated, adjustments made. Here they include many exposed bolt heads; industrial derrières only nerds will love; correctly damped amplification; and accommodating transducers which live unapologetically large. Facing Supernova at anything but background SPL quickly decides whether our dreams of wanting to host intense sonic physicality are mere theory which quickly fold in the actual experience; or genuine. Putting this much air in motion occupies far more psychosomatic space than the same bandwidth even loudness would from an unusually hung monitor. An exhibition's tryst is one thing; marrying a very large personality quite another. Here the generous 30-day cohabitation trial can return our mail-order bride should we not be man enough for her. In my setup, Grzegorz's passive ambitions to show up classic low-frequency systems overreached. I thought Supernova too bassy—not beyond normal but abnormal. Digital compensation in Audirvana Studio's embedded EQ returned it to beyond normal so perfectly marriable in a few minutes. For general consumption without such recourse, I still would like to see physical adjustments like perhaps a few bass jumpers. The mounted wheels meant that I could handle delivery and setup by myself. Laying Supernova on its side to swap wheels for isolation footers was nothing, either. On that score Supernova is a pushover. Back to the stables of Eurystheus, the open-backed concept with its lateral cancellation policy did flush out all bass muck which typically lingers and booms with classic bass systems. This wasn't myth or playing telephone whereby something small aggrandizes in the repeat retelling. This was, by gosh, ol' Hercules really did that. The royal flush of antiquity—today!
Going in I confessed to my inability of judging Supernova against today's open-backed top of the class. I haven't heard enough pure not hybrid OB to know what's possible. What's widely shared? What stands out? A day prior to writing these lines, I learnt of new Belgian brand Bombard and their OB1, a twin-woofer affair on a carbonized solid-Oak baffle with a cast-brass horn-loaded compression tweeter. Its small print then differentiates: actively bi-amped, 24/192 DSP. Once digital signal processing and onboard class D enter, the rules of engagement change. It's a helicopter up the mountain which Supernova scales free-handedly. Do the means matter if we make it to the top? Not having heard the Bombard OB1, I couldn't say whether its peak is as high as Virtual's. But here's another aspect. The fact that SB Audience even bothered to engineer and manufacture these new Nero woofers particularly for open-backed use does suggest that dynamic dipoles aren't just here to stay. They're slowly growing their commercial footprint as in Bombard's launch and the forthcoming open baffle of Verseo. If so, it must be because the dipole playback gestalt or style differs enough from the box-loaded majority; and not for the sake of difference but very specific advantages. To my ears, there's no 'if so' about it. These advantages are real and, to the right listener, decisive. What are they again?
♦ no time-smeared thru-cone reflections of the rear wave coming back out the diaphragm
♦ no pressurized captive air to fight free membrane motion
♦ no cabinet to talk back
♦ advantageous cancellation of lateral bass energies to reduce in-room reflections and their time-delayed fuzz
The right listener appreciative of these qualities is highly sensitive to time-domain blur. Once identified by its sudden absence, s/he doesn't wish to return to it. Ditto for the low frequencies where temporal blur involves far greater distances so larger longer-ringing delays. The right listener also appreciates the more dynamic character of extra air displacement; and the slightly softer gentler tonal endings created by the lack of restorative air-pressure loading behind the diaphragms. When it comes to Supernova specifically, the right listener also has actual live-concert experience with sound-reinforced gigs and wants to replicate their scale, larger images and heavier lower bass within the confines of a regular living room. This doesn't imply that Supernova can't do dainty and petite. Such fare will simply show more gumption, mass and presence than usual. Also, the right Supernova buyer is very value conscious to recognize the embedded material extravagance of top-pedigree parts and what their sum total would multiply to with the usual distributor/dealer markups. Finally, the ideal Supernova buyer appreciates Greg's madness for undertaking this passive purely analogue project in the first place, pursuing it through its various setbacks then finessing it to hot-swappable magnetized dress plates and a 3mm wheeled steel dolly to ease and safeguard delivery. As a one-man show, the only suitable term I can come up for all of it I already used. So here it comes again as today's final word: heroic!
Virtual Hifi responds: Hi Srajan, thank you again for all the time you put into Supernova. I really enjoyed watching your impressions evolve as you spent more time with them. One thought occurred to me. Since you mentioned that you haven't had much exposure to open-baffle speakers, there's absolutely no rush to pack Supernova up yet. If you find them useful or interesting as a reference point, you're very welcome to keep them for as long as you like and use them for future comparisons. Just let me know whenever you're eventually done with them. Regarding the bass level, your comments are useful feedback. Adding a selectable attenuation option to the crossover would be very simple so I may introduce an additional bass setting for people whose rooms or personal preferences call for less low-frequency output.
At the same time, the generous tonal balance is very much intentional. Supernova was conceived as my personal dream speaker: lots of body, colour, density and physical presence without becoming slow, dark or congested so retaining openness, space and resolution. A colourful weighty presentation is very much part of its DNA. I wouldn't want to tune that character out completely but giving owners an additional adjustment option could make a lot of sense. And amusingly, the next speaker I'm working on uses 18-inch woofers so apparently I haven't learned my lesson. That one will be even more extreme. Greg
Whilst a generous and sporting offer, my limited in-door storage meant I had to decline. With rare sun outside, I took the op and readied the Supernova pallet for its return trip to Poland wrapped extra thick should the heavens decide to open before pickup…
