When the company folded in 1999, existing owners were left with what might have quickly become expensive white elephants. Fortunately, the company’s demise coincided with the rise of the internet and self-help groups quickly sprang up, along with a cottage industry in replacement driver diaphragms, general parts and repairs, helped by the inherent simplicity of the design. Take a sheet of Bacofoil, cut it to the correct shape and pattern (okay, so that bit is easier said than done) and hang it between or in front of an array of magnets and away you go. Original driver diaphragms were hand cut using craft knives and sliding jigs – which given the zig-zag structure of the bass panel, with each ‘leg’ consisting of multiple narrow, parallel bands was a triumph of concentration and a steady hand. But it was at least reproducible…
Clarisys started out delivering Apogee spares, but with the rights to the original designs lapsing, they were perfectly placed to start manufacturing speakers of their own. After all, who had a better handle on the issues surrounding the original designs or the demand for high-quality quasi-ribbon speakers? So the departure point for the Clarisys designs (there are currently three – the Minuet at $46,000 USD, the Studio at $66,000 USD and the Auditorium reviewed here, at a not insignificant $146,000 USD) was the shortcomings in the original Apogee models…
Even a cursory glance should tell you that the Clarisys products are a world away from the distinctly artisan Apogees. Remove the radiussed MDF cover from an Apogee baffle and underneath it was astonishingly crude, a jarring visual and qualitative discontinuity given the refined elegance of its sound. The Clarisys speakers are a whole lot more sophisticated, serviceable and useable, starting with their basic construction. Rather than a wooden substrate to which the magnet frames and diaphragm clamps are mounted, before being hidden by a cosmetic sleeve, the Clarisys design uses what amounts to a laminated monocoque. A massive aluminium and reconstituted hardwood substrate (think ‘tank wood’ but without the cross-plies) is wrapped in a front-facing, heavily bevelled and contoured sleeve, machined from the same processed and compressed hardwood material, allowing for carefully profiled driver surrounds and fancy finishes, like the piano black of the review pair. Customers can order finish and colour to suit at no extra cost (including white)! The internal substrate is a massive panel constructed from the same heavy, high-density RHW board mounted within substantial aluminium framing. The bass driver and its tensioning mechanism is built directly onto the RHW baffle, but the mid and treble drivers are individual, self-contained units that then bolt to the frame, rather like conventional moving-coil drivers bolt to their cabinet. Trash a Clarisys mid or treble driver and it’s just a case of unbolting the injured party and replacing it with a complete unit. The aluminium-framed substrate with its precision-machined channels ensures accurate alignment of both the drivers themselves and one driver to another.
Surfing the wave of history…
Those silvery ribbon diaphragms are now CNC-cut, which improves accuracy, as well as providing total consistency and a near-zero manufacturing failure rate. It also allows Clarisys to incorporate a more sophisticated shape into the ribbons, gentle curves or waves helping to reduce and control resonance in the drivers. The Auditorium is a three-way design with a three-trace tweeter ribbon, a seven trace, 42mmm wide midrange ribbon and a broad, tapering bass ‘ribbon’. Why the inverted commas? Because while the mid and treble drivers are true ribbons, flanked by full-height magnets on either side, the bass diaphragm sits in front of its planar magnetic array, technically a hybrid solution, one inherited from the original Apogee designs and dictated by the dimensions of the bass diaphragm itself. That diaphragm is double sided, with mirror-imaged ‘voice-coils’ attached to either face of a kapton core. It’s worth noting that all the drivers use a kapton carrier, rather than the mix of kapton and mylar you find in some other designs. One huge advantage that the Clarisys enjoys over the original Apogees is the availability of compact and incredibly powerful neodymium magnets. The increase in efficiency is one thing. The increase in control and resolution, quite another! Even on paper the benefits are stark, with the Auditorium offering 90dB sensitivity and a relatively easy, non-reactive load while delivering ±3dB points at 20Hz and 20kHz. Although the driver impedance values vary between 7Ω for the bass unit and 3.3Ω for the tweeter, each driver stays within±0.2Ω of its median value, so there are no nasty electrical surprises lying in wait for your amplifier(s). The baffle stands on a massive, rectangular RHW base, fitted with billet aluminium shoulders equipped with four adjustable feet for precise angular alignment. The speakers weigh in at 210kg (nearly 500lbs) each, stand 203cm (6’8”) tall and an imposing 88cm (almost 35”) wide.
