Intro
Contents
What do you get when you combine a professional pa system with a real woodwork specialist? Well… the ‘Hyperion’ speaker by Joep Slooten! A large, yet elegant speaker that sounds and looks great!
Joep Slooten’s journey began quite early. He is a trained furniture designer and maker, but his heart also lies with hi-fi. Years ago, he was already building loudspeakers. It started with standard DIY kits. And although these sound quite nice, some modifications were already made to them. Especially the woodwork and the sturdiness of the cabinets were greatly improved.
He also wanted to move toward active systems back then. After some forays with Hypex-based systems, the real work began with the meeting with Frank from KS Audio. The result is the Hyperion iP3.5 (20,000 Euro).
Professional PA
KS Audio is a German company that develops PA systems. However, at a very high level. Joep was quite impressed with the flexibility and musicality of the complete system that consists of – simply put – class D amplification for bass and mid, class AB for the treble, an advanced crossover system with so-called FirTec technology and of course the drivers.
Briefly explained, KS Audio measures all the units and via FirTec corrects the impulse response and sets everything just right – equalizer – and in phase; time correction. Later we will see in the measurements that this is not nonsense; it just works.
Joep wondered if it was not possible to build this system in a nice cabinet. “Try it!”, was the answer from Frank of KS Audio.
The result is a 3.5-way loudspeaker (a modified D’appolito system with bass, upper mid-units/middle mid-units and treble) with a compression driver as tweeter (more on this later), four midrange drivers and two woofers at the rear.
In terms of connectivity, we see that everything is balanced. For the listing test we used AES digital in. (The internal dac is a PCM1798). The measurements were taken on one speaker, where we used XLR, analog inputs (the internal AD converter is a PCM4202). This is switchable through the KS Audio software. This software also allows you to equalize the speakers and place them on the left or right, for example. The software is somewhat rudimentary and clearly aimed at the pro market, but it works.
The entire system handles 20 Hz with ease and extends to just over 25 KHz. But that’s not really important with this system. What matters is the cylindrical imaging behavior as well as the enormous dynamics this system can achieve.
And should you think: I love to throw a party sometimes… Well: with almost 1600 watts rms power per speaker and a maximum sound pressure of 130 dB there should be enough ‘oemf’ for a party. Right?
Waveguide
One of the unique selling points of this system is the compression driver with special waveguide. KS Audio developed this to achieve a near-perfect imaging behavior (30 degrees vertical) where the ceiling and floor reflections almost play no role. It is also tuned to the mid units to minimize comb filtering. After all, that would cause coloration again.
Now KS Audio is a brand that develops PA systems. So do expect a slightly different experience from a ‘hi-fi speaker’. This system plays – to put it mildly – direct and with loads of power. So for those used to the silky smooth hi-fi sound; get your seatbelts on! Everything in this system revolves around dynamics (large and small), control and impact.
It is also true that some distance is needed to get a nice imaging. Too close – say 2 metres away – either requires a lot of toe-in or results in a pretty small sweet spot. You can enlarge the sweet spot with less toe-in, but then the imaging will be a bit off. That effect will be gone from about 4 metres or so. In short: if you have that kind of space; perfect. And otherwise it doesn’t have to be a bad thing either, of course.
Overall
Now our pictures don’t really do this speaker justice; the finish and quality of the wood is truly impeccable. Just like the craftsmanship which can be seen in the ‘bookmatching’ gluing of the fronts. Everything is mirror symmetrical. That might look “just nice,” but it’s a big job if you want to do it by hand.
The model is also simply outstanding. Joep let us know that it could be a bit more compact, because he deliberately left some space above and below. We like it. Anyway: if you think the model is too big; you can save some money.
The combination of the beautiful cabinet and the advanced, professional technology makes it a real wolf in sheep’s clothing. A kind of ballerina with the power and character of Mike Tyson. Or a 1st generation Mazda MX5 with a big block V8 or something. You get what we are referring to. It all looks very elegant, but oh woe betide if you turn on the volume just a little… then it really just goes! Without any effort.
Let’s see what this speaker sounds like.
