Coming face to face with the Clarisys Atrium loudspeakers
By Roy Gregory
As audio systems and hi-fi components get larger, more complex and more expensive, the old, three-tier manufacturer/distributor/dealer sales model is breaking down. When it comes to loudspeakers like the Wilson XVX, the Magico M7 or the Göbel Divin Noblesse, the number of dealers who can accommodate them is small, the number who can afford to floor and feed them, smaller still. To that you can add the challenge of having such products reviewed, with few writers having the space and fewer having the equipment to complement such products. These days if you want to audition those products, the chances are you are going to have to travel – and not just to the next town – while finding a suitable writer, room and system to review a product even like the Clarisys Auditorium or Stenheim Ultime 2 presents a challenge.
So, it’s hardly surprising that when it comes to hearing flagship products like the WAMM MC, the Magico M9, the Living Voice Vox Olympian or Göbel Divin Majestic under anything like representative conditions, whether you are a reviewer or a potential customer, the chances are you’ll be doing it in a dedicated (often purpose built) facility and you’ll be travelling (often internationally) to do it. All of which helps explain how I find myself navigating the access roads of a nondescript – as only Switzerland can be – industrial park, in search of a grey door, into a blocky grey building. But inside this particular bland, grey exterior, in amongst all the other anonymous grey-clad ‘sheds’, lurks a surprise to make the journey worthwhile: this is where you’ll find the Clarisys demonstration studio. This is where you’ll find this upstart Swiss company’s latest assault on the audio market, its latest threat to our wider musical sensibilities…
I’ve reviewed and enjoyed the startling and impressive Clarisys Auditorium speakers in both passive (https://gy8.eu/review/return-of-the-thin-white-duke-2/) and active form (https://gy8.eu/review/brilliant-adventure/). With serious musical chops that more than match its more established price peers, at $146,000 USD (+taxes) it’s an impressive achievement for what is a young company, no doubt helped by more than a strand or two of Apogee DNA. But it’s not the Auditorium that I’ve come to see and hear today. Up the stairs and down the corridors I reach an interior door that opens onto a 10M by 12M space, currently home to the new Clarysis flagship product, the Atrium. At over 8’ (or 2.60M) tall, this six-panel, $785,000 USD speaker system is an outright and unapologetic assault on the state-of-the-art. It’s aimed squarely at the market segment occupied by the WAMM MC, the M9, the Vox Olympian/Palladian and the Divin Majestic – and it both looks and sounds the part!
Once you get over the visual and physical impact of what is, by any measure, a massive loudspeaker, you start to appreciate the effort and attention to detail that’s gone into its construction. The entire structure, both the panels and their supporting bases are built entirely from aluminium with each channel consisting of three, separate vertical elements. Starting at the top of the audible range, the tweeter and midrange drivers are built onto a single, narrow baffle that covers the range from 550Hz upwards. These are pure ribbons, with full-height, aluminium foil diaphragms suspended top and bottom, hanging in their respective magnetic gaps, the result of the most powerful N52 Neodymium magnets available – or at least the most powerful ones it’s safe to ship! No debate here about planar magnetics or Kapton substrates. These are the very definition of a ribbon driver, writ large. They are also a first for Clarisys. The mid/treble baffle stands on a 160mm annular bearing that allows precise rotation for fine tuning of toe-in without having to shift the whole element. The square base is aligned at 45degrees, it’s four large, circular feet running on M10 threads to allow for easy attitude adjustment.
