atelier 13 audio
AUDIO CONSULTING SWITZERLAND
About the Rubanoide Loudspeaker
Rubanoïde. The name derives from the French word ruban which is equivalent to the English ribbon. The "oid" suffix turns it into "ribbon-like" as this new driver operates similarly to the way ribbon speakers work while still being different from a true ribbon. The basic Rubanoïde concept was developed by a French engineer who is nearly 80 years old today. He labored over this project for 20 years because his invention, while deceptively simple in concept, is quite tricky to implement and even more difficult to usher into regular production.
Swiss Audio Consulting has advanced the Rubanoïde development further by working on the wooden frame and other proprietary aspects. The Rubanoide development focused on a single driver with extension to 200 Hz. Audio Consulting offers a double-driver version, the Dvaijnoy, extending bandwidth to about 100Hz, "allowing for most critical fundamentals in natural instruments and human voices to be reproduced by this new breakthrough driver".
The Rubanoïde works as a bipole unlike Magnepans, Apogees and most electrostatics. The use of very strong magnets achieves the high efficiency with a purely resistive impedance to work well with even single-ended triode amplifiers. The paper membrane's surface is the equivalent to a 15" driver.
"Like the big electrostatics (with however far higher efficiency) and good horns, this stunning driver has velocity impedance air coupling unlike the pressure coupling of almost all other drivers. The efficiency in energy transfer from the membrane to the air is such that even for higher frequencies, the sound is more realistic and dynamic than for example a Raven R3 ribbon. This is particularly interesting as the Raven features a 30mgr moving mass while the Rubanoïde has a 30gr moving mass.
Features for the Rubanoide include 100 dB efficiency from 250Hz to 20,000Hz. The Bass unit developed in collaboration with Sven Boenicke, deploys a 12" custom woofer and extends the system's response down to 35 Hz.
The Rubanoide can be extended at both frequency extremes via Audio Consulting's new 25 cm Ribbon Supertweeter and a pair of Subwoofers, resulting in a truly awe-inspiring system.
The very original bass speaker design was produced by Boenicke Audio exclusively for Audio Consulting.
RUBANOIDE 2-Way
$ 60,000 - $ 70,000 / Pair
RUNANOIDE 2-Way
with AC Ribbon Supertweeter
$ Call / Pair
RUBANOIDE 2-Way SPECIFICATIONS
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Frequency Range : 35-20'000 Hz
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Efficiency : 100dB/w/m
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Dimensions : H 135 cm, W 35 cm, D 50 cm
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Weight : 45 Kg each
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Crossover @ 250 Hz
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Impedance : 8 ohms
AUDIO CONSULTING RUBANOIDE
3-WAY SPEAKER SYSTEM
The “Rubanoide three Way Speaker”, that includes two Rubanoide medium drivers per side, as well as one Rubabass 2 low frequency dipole driver for frequencies below 120 Hz.
The latter is technologically similar to the Rubanoide medium drivers, but features about double the paper surface than the Rubanoide, which is equivalent to about 2.5 times the surface of a 15” driver per side.
We also decided to add a super tweeter for frequencies above 12 KHz. After another year of R&D, we ended up using a dipolar design.
Product Features:
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Rubabass 2 bass driver, low passed @ 300 Hz
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Rubanoide Dvaijnoy medium driver, high passed @ 300 Hz
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AMT super tweeter driver, high passed @ 12'000 Hz
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Over 96dB/w/m efficiency
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Impedance 4 ohms
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Silver wire crossover coils and transformers , and silver capacitors
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Dimensions: d 80 cm, w 65 cm, h 195 cm
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Weight 98 kg/unit
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Veneer to customer's requests
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Mipa and Meteor Mipa bass amplifiers highly recommended
$ 300,000 / Pair
Constantin Gregg-Saad
Audio Consulting of Switzerland Auditorium in Nashville
Come visit us !
The Audio Consulting Nashville Reference System
DVAIJNOY Rubanoide speakers, RUBABASS Bass speakers, Rubanoide SUPERTWEETER, SR MIPA 30W /120W amplifier, SWGLA Preamplifier, SR AC Meteor AVC Autoformer Attenuator (2Mhz Bandwidth), pair of MIPA 120W monoblock bass amplifiers, SR NOS OPT DAC, Silver Rock Phono stage, MINIMA Turntable, Thomas Schick 12" tonearm, KOETSU RSP Cartridge, Audio Consulting Refernce Silver Cable throughout.
THE RUBANOIDE
Simply put, this is one of the finest loudspeakers money can buy, period !
As one reviewer aptly summarized his experience with an AC system :
“For lack of any other way to put it, this is a system that has to
be heard to be believed"
Another comment :
"In its totality, it is not like anything else I have heard before".
Yet another :
"My entire point of reference just went out the window".
Finally :
"This is a review about the pure listening experience, because an Audio Consulting system can only be heard, not criticized"
Handmade in Switzerland