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Speculator's alert. On to basic specs. The ProLogos is an aluminium-alloy box* with twin 7" Audio Technology cellulose mid/woofers loaded into a down-fire port and one ScanSpeak Illuminator soft-dome tweeter. The treble and paralleled low/mid section are each driven by a 150-watt class A/B Telos amplifier to achieve >100dB unweighted dynamic range and very loud peak SPL of 120dB. Bandwidth is 38Hz to 25kHz -6dB. And here's the kicker. Dimensions are just 50 x 29 x 43cm HxWxD. That's a half-meter tall box of considerable 35kg mass considering. Nominal AC power input is 117V or 234V ±10% with 8A slow-blow type fuses for either. I/o are coaxial S/PDIF to connect one speaker to the source, then slave the second speaker to the first (the serial S/DPIF transmission protocol is 2-channel). Given the popularity of aluminium speakers from Magico, YG Acoustics, Crystal Cable & Co, here is why Goldmund champion their specific metal build: 1/ the material is 100% consistent; 2/ it won't age. Since even in passive guise the mechanical grounding scheme compensates for remaining enclosure modes which in active mode is assisted by DSP, for Goldmund it becomes paramount that each box behave identical from batch to batch. Their championed alloy is the only one they've found which guarantees that.
The three-way 'Plus' version scales up the box in height a bit and the lower Audio Technology woofer to a 9" unit which gets its own dedicated 300-watt Telos amp. |
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* More specifically, a combination of hard and soft brass, aluminium and steel with Neoprene gaskets and seals.
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Vietnamese advert playing to the Stanley Kubrick Space Odyssey monolith on the moon. |
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Because Goldmund sell into various climates, it's just as vital that their finish** won't discolour or their construction react to humidity and heat. With luxury stickers from Swiss manufacture, protection of investment and all avoidance of upkeep issues loom large***.
As a fully modular build (convertible also from passive to active mode and back) various hardware can be upgraded should significant improvements arise. DSP firmware updates rely on loading new configurator files.
Both standard and plus version mate to either the traditional box plinth (open construction essential to not obstruct the downfire port) or the upgraded mechanical grounding frame.
The latter is said to improve bass control and dynamics. For a surcharge the speaker's standard metal finish can also be covered in various glossy wood-veener or paint skins. Custom requests are possible. |
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** "About our veneers,
those are pressed and glued directly to the aluminium, not to a removable substrate. The wood is then resurfaced with 3-6 layers of varnish. Our standard anodized aluminium finish would be reversible to gold, pearl or other colours but this is a very long expensive process. A customer intent on changing finishes to suit a new décor should prefer swapping drivers and electronics to new boxes."
*** Inherent in the smartspeaker concept is overdrive protection. The ProLogos can't be damaged by SPL. It will auto limit and self protect and the internal amps too benefit from an array of super-fast protection circuits outside the signal path.
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Goldmund's in-house developed speaker modeling program is called Proteus. For room correction, Proteus does not rely on microphone-derived room measurements. Those vary with placement and traditionally use speakers to play back test signal to create four inaccuracies or variables: the quality and exact placement of the microphone; and the quality and exact placement of the speakers. To model the actual room, Proteus maps its behaviour on the architectural blueprint. This occurs off-site in Geneva. After inputting your room's dimensions and exact geometry, Proteus calculates the recommended speaker and listening chair positions, ideal compensation curves and what speaker model/s are required to achieve desired SPL (this becomes relevant for ambitious home-theatre installs). Whilst Goldmund's most advanced room correction remains reserved for surround sound, upon client request 2-channel installations can compensate for delay times and tonal balance. Upon initial delivery and possibly revised later should a client wish to adjust certain performance parameters, a personalized file written by Goldmund's universal configurator could get loaded into the speaker's Leonardo time correction code. This might even include a custom filter to add subwoofers and fill out the ProLogos' lower bandwidth for large spaces****. Optionally the standard or personalized file are loaded into Goldmund's digital Mimesis preamplifier which then takes over signal routing and volume control.
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**** As Rodolphe Boulanger explained, "the core concept of the ProLogos is not to touch its integrity. We prefer to let the speaker go down to its natural response. Of course technically everything is possible in the digital realm but this model was always envisioned as an uncomplicated pair of speakers which offer an active wireless turn-key solution. Personalized configuration is more dedicated to speakers like our flagship or multi-channel installations.
If we started to add a subwoofer which would be our Logos 3N infra sub and not the Metis wireless, we'd move yet further away from the initial concept that is dedicated to a new kind of hi-end lifestyle customer. The ProLogos was not created as an audiophile product.
And because we'd need to use the Logos 3N subwoofer wired, we'd lose a bit more of the essence of the system as it was developed from the beginning. If someone wanted more bass, we would recommend the ProLogos+ instead."
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Traditional Goldmund Metis system with passive speakers.
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When the ProLogos gets linked instead to a computer—either via wireless dongle or a USB bridge's coaxial output—the computer's volume control is put in command. Here Goldmund recommend player software like PureMusic/Audirvana for Mac or JPlay/JRiver for Windows where advanced 64-bit dithered volume overrides basic iTunes or Windows Media Player controls. Another aspect of the Proteus modeling software which was in development for over 7 years is its use as speaker design program. By simply inputting a new model's desired dimensions and the specs of its drivers, Proteus will determine all other variables. I asked Proteus creator Véronique Adam whether they've ever had to make subsequent corrections by ear. She shook her head. Proteus has become far too advanced to be outsmarted by human ears. Or as Michel put it, "many firms have their 'designer' hunker on the floor with a bread-boarded crossover and soldering iron to work his way through 50 different capacitors until something sounds right to him. That's not what we consider proper engineering."
Science-driven speaker design houses today rely more and more on advanced predictive software like Comsol to model air flow, fluid dynamics, pressurization, mechanical and thermal behaviour as well as filter math. With Goldmund that software isn't repurposed from other industries. Their team wrote it specifically for their own applications. Whilst Goldmund's appears to be rather more global and all-encompassing, this scientific approach recalls Albedo Audio's Massimo Costa. His team wrote a software program just to model transmission line behaviour after existing calculation models deviated too much from prototypes that were designed with them. Compared to hobbyist design by trial and error, Goldmund's take on the subject acts like a remote-controlled drone to the former's bow and arrow.
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So let's meet the core of Goldmund's engineering department.
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