High-end audio company targets global luxury market
Manufacturing
A LUXURY home audio company is amping up production in preparation for expansion into the global hyper-premium speaker market.
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Kyron Audio is setting up its studio in Adelaide, South Australia on the back of strong showings at major hi-fi events in Europe and the United States last year.
The company’s extreme high-fidelity dipole loudspeaker systems combine analogue and digital technology to create a true sound through boxless speakers.
After relocating from Melbourne, Kyron co-founders Lee Gray and Leon Suter are establishing an assembly plant and listening room in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.
Suter, a clarinetist and sound engineer, said the all-in-one systems (except for the source) allowed people “to reconnect with music and stop worrying about the tech”.
“As far as I know we are the only ones who are applying analogue technology and DSP digital technology in combination to perfect the way that the sound radiates out of the loudspeaker without a box,” he said.
“Almost every other speaker on the planet is in a box.
“We have this exceptional clarity and speed of the bass. A box speaker basically gives you an effect – it’s unrealistic – it’s not what’s on the record.
“Not only does the bass sound distorted but it basically carries along the whole frequency chain, it stuffs up your highs, the vocals become muddier and you lose clarity. What we’ve done is cleaned up the bass and it has this extreme speed and attack and it just gets out of the way and it opens up the vocal, you have depth, you have height, you have width and you have believability.”
Kyron Audio has won several Australian awards including the 2014 Sydney Design Awards and Sound + Image Magazine 2015 Best Loudspeaker over $20,000.
The company now wants to target the international hyper luxury market.
The former Air Force musicians have been making speakers together for 15 years after first discussing the idea on a Hercules flight in 2001.
They designed high-end bespoke systems for a couple of years before embarking on their goal of building the world’s best loudspeaker.
“We spent about eight years building our first flagship, the Gaia, which sells for $249,000. We launched that in 2011 at the Australian Hi-fi Show – no one knew who we were and we walked away with best sound in Australia two years running,” Suter said.
The Gaia system features 20 drivers and eight 1200-watt mono-block amplifiers.
“It’s a big beast for a dedicated space … it’s for the guy who wants the Veyron not the Hyundai,” Suter said.
Kyron Audio released its $121,000 Kronos dipolar system in late 2014, which is designed to fit into a more standard living space.
The all-in-one system created a strong impression on debut at THE Show Newport in California in 2015 and also exhibited at High End Munich.
Suter and Gray have set up a listening room in Adelaide and hope to use it to lure high-end tourists to South Australia.
The clarity of the sound of the Kronos is incredible. It is an amazingly realistic sound reproduction that gives the listener a live music experience as if they were just metres from the stage. Everything from the vocalist’s breathing to the squeak of the fingers on the guitar fret board are reproduced with stunning realism.
“We’ve had a lot of interest from Hong Kong and the Japanese love it as well but the difficulty has been having a place where people can listen to it because it’s such an experience, it’s not like you just read the specs and say ‘yes I’ll take it’, it’s an immersive process,” Gray, a percussionist and industrial designer, said.
“We already have a culture of people coming to Adelaide for high-end music events such as the Adelaide Festival of Arts, the Guitar Festival and WOMADelaide so that also makes it an attractive proposition for Kyron to be based here.”
South Australia is also known for its world-renowned wine regions, fresh food, scenic landscapes and wildlife.
Kyron Audio is looking to establish an assembly plant in Adelaide for its Australian manufactured systems. The company will release a $300,000 Phoenix model later this year and is looking to develop a system at about the $60,000 mark.
Suter and Gray have also established a board of directors and appointed a global sales director to drive the global expansion.
“We love music and Kyron exists for other people who love music. If people make music a real priority in their life then this is something that will interest them,” Suter said.
KRONOS SPECIFICATIONS:
Loudspeaker Type: DSP-Controlled
Frequency Response Range: 40KHz
Polar Response Pattern:
Tweeter:
Mid-range:
Woofers:
Stereo Pre-amplifier: analogue
Digital Inputs: PDIF, XLREBU, PDIF,
Analogue Inputs: XLR,
Crossover:
Amplification:
Total power before clipping 2800 Watts
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