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Vegas07 Ugliest Ducking: Siltech Signature SC-1

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by Josh Ray on January 12 '07

Mg 4171-2

Only $100,000 for a speaker that looks like it will give you cancer. Siltech, maker of wildly expensive cables, is contemplating bringing their SC-1 speaker to the US market. A tech extravaganza, the SC-1 was created entirely in the digital domain using the COMSOL Multiphysics Advanced 3d modeling software. Doing so, Siltech was able to: "model and accurately predict total cabinet, driver, and in-room acoustical behavior." Can't predict female behavior, sadly.

The 16" bass drivers are isobaric loaded with a jumbo port round back. 7" mid crosses over at 200 and 2500 while the electrostatic tweeter uses its 72" of radiating area to take you all the way up to 38k. Hero pics next page...

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Comments

US 100.000,= for a speaker with a dent (see last pic; right side middriver). Or is the light playing tricks? It's outreageous anyway methinks. Better give that kinda money to Dafur.

Posted by: Cornelius | January 12, 2007 11:08 AM

It's not that ugly. How did it sound?

Posted by: henryp | January 12, 2007 11:25 AM

How'd it sound? Not a dime over $90k. Big and fun but I didn't get a chance to listen to my own music. Really, though, there's only so far one can go with a passive speaker. Vegas07 will probably be remembered (in my mind, anyway) as the year DSP, EQ and room correction became "audiophile accepted." Mark my words: all the hottest speakers over $5k will soon have some sort of active voodoo. It just sounds that good.

Posted by: Josh Ray [SonicFlare] | January 12, 2007 2:00 PM

By your last comments, Josh, it appears I was ahead of the curve for the first time in my life -- I was bi-amping in the late 70s. I'll take two amps (preferably, tubes on top; SS on bottom) over one on most speakers. Overwhelmingly so. As for these speakers, in particular, I'd go beyond saying they have poor WAF and say they have poor HAF as well (Husband Acceptance Factor). For my tastes, those are some fugly SOBs.

Posted by: Rods84 | January 15, 2007 11:55 AM

I think they look pretty good, all depends on the room you want to put them in. Speaker cabinet design is so varied per application to fit design it really does not matter except to one's taste and of course no sound sacrifice. The price seems a little high for what you get to me and it seems they priced them as a sculpture more so than a piece of audio equipment. Still, I would like to give them a listen.

Posted by: Xenon4U2C | January 17, 2007 12:16 PM

Unless memory is failing me (quite possible), Siltech has introduced cool prototypes from various categories at past CE Shows -- with the product never seeing the light of day. I'm thinking in particular of a battery-powered pre-amp with beautiful, low-profile casework that was never marketed. And I think they might have shown a nice amp once, although I'm less sure of that. It's a bit of a tease when a company shows neat products, but lacks the cajones to take a chance on seeing it through. Offering a new cable is one thing; selling six-figure speakers is something else entirely.

Posted by: Rods84 | January 21, 2007 10:53 AM