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Surreal Speakers: Made to order in Virginia, USA

My wife and I have just returned from a listening session at Surreal's auditioning room in White Stone, VA, and we have been super-impressed with these speakers and the marvelous musical experience they create! I'm convinced that the newest version of the Surreal Speakers out-perform speakers at twice their price.

Over the past three years, I've watched Surreal evolve these speakers. Today's listening session convinces me that the designers have really achieved the promise that these speakers have suggested since day one. These speakers integrate seamlessly across the frequency spectrum, deliver exceptional dynamics and resolution, and deliver superb results with tube amplification of as little as 30 watts per channel.

The speakers operate with a single cross-over at 135hz. The sound above this crossover comes from a single driver per side for exceptional coherence and soundstage precision. Crossing over below 135hz are six dynamic 10" woofers per side in a dipole array for incredibly fast, dynamic and highly resolved bass reproduction. This woofer cabinet is fast enough and accurate enough to mate seamlessly with electrostatic speakers. With the dynamic drivers used by Surreal on the top, the sound of the entire speaker is completely coherent.

If you are anywhere near Virginia, scheduling an audition of these speakers will reward your effort in doing so.

Surreal Speakers: http://surrealspeakers.com/
128x128rushton
brwolf
2 posts
 
We would just like to add that we are just two "old guys" in this hobby who are attempting to share our love of music and sound who graciously invite anyone to make an appointment for an honest listen to music of your choosing on our system. It may or may not be for you. We, however, have built what we find to be the Holy Grail of sound reproduction. It took a long time and wasn't easy. You can PM me through the 'gon if you would like more information.
rushton's avatar
rushton OP
2,445 posts
 
Mechans (Steve), I've listened to these speakers in all their iterations over the past couple of years. The key was finding something that will drive the 1 ohm load presented by the woofer array. Ralph (founder and engineer who designed these) determined that a high output switching amp allowed him to get the results he was seeking to achieve while doing so at some reasonable cost.

The Crown 4002xti at 1,000 wpc has been a decided improvement over the custom Class G amps they started with (and still offer). The additional virtue offered by the Crown is extensive control over choices and combinations of crossover point, rate of filtering, EQ, signal delay and other factors that help the driver arrays match most effectively to a given room's acoustics. This is not a trivial virtue. I've been told that you can move further up the Crown line and there may well be alternatives from other manufacturers that one could substitute. They key in making another choice is also finding something that allows you to control so many of the frequency and phase characteristics.

If you get an opportunity to listen to these speakers, ask Doug to let you hear some different control profiles he's experimented with for the crossover. It's mind-blowing for this non-engineer to hear the differences.
rcprince
3,070 posts
 
Rush, is this a further version of the speaker I heard last year at our listening session? That one sounded pretty good to me, if this is better I'd be VERY impressed.
rushton's avatar
rushton OP
2,445 posts
 
Yes, it is, Russ. I think you heard it with the Tangband drivers. They then moved to Lowthers with field coils, which were very good and this is what they showed with at CAF. But Lowther (manufacturer) couldn't provide consistent quality and reliability. With the new German AER drivers, they've made a very substantial further improvement: much higher build quality, more resolution, and more natural sound.
trelja
3,223 posts
 
Thank you for this, Rush.

I also heard them in July at the Capital Audio Fest, driven by the Atma Sphere S-30 power amplifier. I very much enjoyed the sound. A liquidity and naturalness was present that made listening quite easy. Don't exactly recall the imaging. But as I said, I liked them a lot overall.

Hope you are doing well...
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