Clarisys Audio Minuet planar ribbon speaker system Review

Also on the rear of the speaker are the strong, well-marked binding posts, which are spaced far enough apart to not cause concern about larger spades touching each other. Regarding the extra binding post, Florian said it was developed in conjunction with Shunyata Research who use Clarisys Speakers in their product development. It is intended for use with the Altaira Grounding System.

The packing, transport, and setup of the speakers spoke to me about the concern of Clarisys and Suncoast that the speakers be presented as first rate. Michael has been very responsive in communication, sometimes answering a call as I am leaving a message. The experience ranks as one of the most positive interactions with a distributor over my years of reviewing, and that bodes well for a customer who wants responsiveness of the dealer when selecting speakers.

Initially, I thought the relatively wide tweeter ribbons were exposed and ready temptations for small children’s fingers. But it was just my middle-aged eyes unable to see the fine protective mesh covering them. The mesh is firm to the gentle touch and would be a welcome barrier to a curious child’s finger poking. The mesh is held internally by an aluminum subframe which lends robustness to the mesh. It’s not a happy moment to have a child or thoughtless person poke at any driver. Thankfully, in a worst-case scenario, replacement parts and the ability of the owner to replace the treble and midrange drivers in the field can save the day. If a mishap occurs with the bass driver, the speaker must be returned to the distributor for repair.

Behind the front lattice work over the mid-bass ribbons is a thin metal mesh, and on the back underneath the transparent fabric is a perforated metal grid quite like the one used for the Sound Lab Ultimate 545 or the King III. With a ribbon speaker the electrical signal is applied to the diaphragm, the ribbon, and it interacts with a magnet array (some dipole speakers sandwich the diaphragm between two magnet arrays). I suspect the perforated metal back is to hold magnet arrays in place near the backside of the mid-bass ribbon driver. See my Interview for the response by Clarisys to this and other technical questions.

Variability among dipole speakers; a look at the Minuet’s bass

March different brands and models of any given genre of speaker through your listening room, and a revelation will unfold. Perceptually, there may be as much difference in the experience of hearing a variety of speakers of a particular class as there is when using different genres of speakers. For example, I have used several dipole speakers, including the Magnepan 1.6QR and Magnepan .7 (magnetic planar), Apogee Caliper (ribbon), Eminent Technology LFT-IV (magnetic planar), Eminent Technology LFT-8A/B (magnetic planar/dynamic hybrid), Sound Lab Ultimate 545 (electrostatic), King Sound King III (electrostatic), and the speaker under review, the Clarisys Audio Minuet (ribbon). I find that these all have their own sonic signature, which can be surprisingly different from the others.

As an example of how much variety can exist within the pool of dipole speakers (“pool” is a frightening term when applied to electrostatic types of speakers), consider the following comparison of speakers in terms of their bass driver(s) only. The Sound Lab Ultimate 545 is 4.5’ tall with a single curved electrostatic panel that uses dampers at critical points of the curvature, reaches down to 32Hz, and is unrestricted in firing forward and backward. The King III is what is termed a Line Source ESL (LSESL) that uses 7 horizontally stacked bass drivers, each one approximately 7” x 16”, has a flat radiating surface, is rated down to 32 Hz, and it also fires equally forward and backward.

In contrast to these, the Clarisys Minuet’s mid-bass driver is more compact, with a surface area I estimate to be 20-30% less than these others. Yet it offers a deeper low-end specification of 25Hz! It has unrestricted forward and significantly restricted backward wave launch on the mid-bass driver only. The bass projected by the Sound Lab and the King Sound speakers is more generously scaled, partly due to the size differences between the speakers. However, the bass output of both is less tactile than the Minuet. The output and impact of the Clarisys speaker is closer to a single 10-12” dynamic driver, perhaps most closely resembling the output of a design like the Tannoy Glenair, but without the cabinet coloration. One would expect the dynamic capacity of the larger models to increase with more bass driver surface area.

Mostly open, somewhat closed

I discovered the essentially closed backside of the big ribbon driver because I usually do a bit of sleuthing whenever I encounter a fabric grill. Even at shows, listeners or not, when I enter a room with a mystery speaker sporting a fabric exterior, I may use the light on my phone to probe the speaker because I want to know what’s inside. It is surprising what you can learn about a speaker when you flash a light through acoustically transparent material! I wish to see what lies underneath, what is making all that sound. The design of a dipole speaker vastly influences its sonic attributes. One dipole does not sound precisely like another, and this is true not only of dipoles but all genres of speakers. The things that may seem negligible are what together constitute the difference in performance. Most designers such as Florian are happy to discuss the design, but I like having a peek as it helps me develop questions for my interviews with designers.

Having experimented with adding or removing the rear grills of the King III speaker, I noted how minimizing the wave radiating backwards toward the head (front) wall influenced the overall sound. When the grill was in place, the interaction between the rear wave and the head wall was diminished, thus shrinking the perceived depth of the room and the associated soundstage. When the grill was removed, additional time delayed information was brought to the ears, which was interpreted as a bit more spaciousness and a deeper soundstage.

I have used ribbon drivers that are designed to have an open front and back, such as the 2” midrange and twin 1” tweeters in the Aspen Acoustics Grand Aspen Speaker. Conversely, I have used ribbons that sat in a channel, or solid rear assembly, as in the Eminent Technology LFT-8B (now an LFT-8C version with active bass is available). Peering into the bass driver sans flashlight one can see aluminum traces which I though initially were part of the driver. Florian clarified that they are not an active part of the driver, “The copper traces to not vibrate or make music. They are simply ‘return paths’ of the multi-trace ribbons. Instead of using copper wire we prefer copper ribbons.” The drivers have no curvature as with Sound Lab speakers.

Simply because a speaker is dipole doesn’t mean that all its backward radiating energy from the bass panel or tweeter is making it to the head wall to be bounced back to the listener (there is expected loss and distortion as the wave smashes into the head wall and bounces off it). One might think that because the Minuet’s bass driver is two-sided, an equivalent amount of energy would be radiating back toward the head wall. That does not appear to be the case. On the backside there is a perforated metal grid to which square neodymium magnet assemblies are affixed. My unscientific analysis is that perhaps 40% of the rear radiating energy is blocked by the grid and magnets. As with all planar and ribbon type speakers, the magnets must be somewhere in proximity and will partially block the wave launch of at least one side of the driver. The Eminent Technology midrange and bass drivers use long, thin magnet assemblies on both sides of the driver. The King Sound King III has metal grids in front and back of the driver.

Florian discussed with me the nature of magnetic planar and ribbon designs necessitating placement of such items as grids and magnets to get the large drivers to operate with uniformity to create their unique sound signature. The presence of the grid and magnets behind the Minuet’s bass driver reminds me of the experiments I did in listening to the King III with or without the rear fabric panel. Placement of the panel on the back of the King III caused more restriction of the rear wave, but it also seemed to draw attention to the direct wave launch. Similarly, there seems to be less rear wave bounce off the head wall compared with the Minuet, and that means less distraction from the direct wave launch. I suspect that was part of the reason the Minuet is precise sounding.

Bass

The Minuet’s ribbon tweeter

If you suspected there would be as much variance in dipole speakers when it comes to the tweeter(s) as there is with the bass driver(s), you would be correct! Many of the same principles apply; the size of the tweeter often influences how generous or easeful it sounds, and the longer the tweeter, the more the treble is stretched into a larger image to fit a larger soundstage. I find that physically larger dipole (ESL, ribbon, and magnetic planar) tweeters capture more minutia of the treble than smaller ones, particularly the acoustic envelope of the high frequencies around instruments. Generally, ribbon tweeters with more surface area sound less etched and piercing to my ears than smaller ones. My perception is that, again generally, unfolded long ribbon tweeters like those used in the Minuet are a bit sweeter to my ears than folded ribbon tweeters. However, the particular components and system setup are powerful influences contouring the treble.

The Minuet’s tweeter ribbon is truly bi-directional, with no obstruction to firing back toward the head wall. It does not seem to present an apparent conflict sonically, as it integrates seamlessly with the bass driver. I own the unique King Sound Guitar Speaker, which has a 6” dynamic mid-bass driver mounted in a guitar body and a 1” x 11” electrostatic tweeter that radiates both forward and backward unrestricted.

A case for inhibiting the bass output rearward while allowing the treble to bounce off the head wall can be made, as uncontrolled bass is the bane of the low end, while higher frequencies return from the head wall faster, giving some queues indicating depth with less potential for bass causing room modes. If circumstance dictates that the speakers be placed closer to the head wall than ideal, one can use room treatments to absorb the high frequencies. I would dare to place a speaker like the Minuet closer to the head wall than dipoles that fire evenly bi-directionally.

Knowingly, for initial setup only, I violated Michael’s recommendation by placing the speakers with generous toe in at the precise position of the King III, which I hear often. Due to that and the use of a Clarity Audio Vortex Power Cable, which carries an innate top and bottom emphasis with a softer midrange, I was hearing too much output from the tweeter and not enough midrange to sense things were balanced. I slipped the speakers — because of the furniture sliders under the footers, a great suggestion by Michael — into position parallel to the head wall (Clarisys designed the speaker to have a maximum toe in of 0.2”) and swapped the power cord on the Legacy Audio i.V4 Ultra Amplifier to the Icononclast BAV Power Cord, and the frequency balance of the drivers as well as the soundstage depth popped into place. When a person knows how to vastly influence a rig’s performance, they can make such sonic changes happen quickly. Why waste even hours on a holistically inferior setup? I try many iterations, but I do not linger over the inferior ones. The sound resulting from those changes told me the Minuet has the chops to be considered an upper-end HiFi speaker.

One can find entirely bidirectional dipoles, ones with either the tweeter or bass driver blocked partially or mostly, ones with curved diaphragm or straight diaphragm, ones with a single driver for the entire frequency spectrum and ones with individual drivers for both tweeter and mid-bass operation, and, finally, ones of greatly varying physical size. This makes it difficult to slap a “this speaker is the ultimate dipole” judgment on the Minuet or any other dipole. As enthusiasts all have their preferences as to which combination of attributes makes the most acoustic sense to them, I will refrain from suggesting that the Minuet is “the best” panel speaker one can buy, especially since it is the introductory model from Clarisys. I also assert that no other manufacturer should lay claim to such a broad conclusion.

What does the Minuet sound like?

I built several systems for my analysis of the Minuet. Over the course of the review I changed the streamer/server, as discussed above, the DAC, Preamp (internal to the Aurender or dedicated preamp), and amplifier (either integrated or dedicated). I often build many iterations of systems as it is my method of efficiently assessing overall performance of a product and advances the product toward its best performance efficiently. I am not a sit-and-wait-for-the-audio-miracle audiophile. I actively and efficiently push a system to perform well. I recommend that no one waste their life on break in or burn in as it only stalls major progress but take action to change a rig until it is enthralling. If your rig is not enthralling, most likely you haven’t put in enough money or changed it enough, and waiting for it to magically transform by itself is unproductive.

The Minuet responded eagerly to system changes, including cable changes, as I took the speakers from their ok initial setup to their outstanding final setup. The term “ok” is used relatively here because the Minuet sui generis is a more detailed and direct (that is, uncluttered) dipole speaker than the other panel speakers I have handled.

The initial setup was the Small Green Computer SonicTransporter along with the SONORE Signature Rendu SE, along with the Clarity Cable Supernatural USB. I used the COS Engineering D1 DAC, which has an integral preamp. The initial amplification schema was two channels of the Legacy Audio i.V4 Ultra, which in constant use has been appealing in terms of both its capacity to drive a variety of speakers well and a nice balance between precision and warmth. Initially, all the cabling was Iconoclast Cable, with their top-level speaker cable conductor, the SPTPC silver plated copper.

Changes that were made over the course of the first week included turning the speakers from toed in to parallel to the head wall, swapping the power cord on the amp, removing the speaker’s copper jumpers and using Iconoclast’s Series 2 SPTPC (blue) speaker cables on the Minuet’s bass posts and Series 2 TPC (red) on the mid/treble posts, and introducing two additional channels of the i.V4 Ultra Amplifier to accommodate passively bi-amping the speakers. The speaker stepped progressively upward in terms of sound quality and convincingly showed itself to be comfortably categorized as an upper-end HiFi speaker. I was surprised at the degree of change, especially when the power cord was changed on the amplifier; the Minuet responded dramatically, more than most speakers I have reviewed. As one can gain such powerful changes with these speakers, an impetus to contour the system and speaker’s performance will be highly rewarded.