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LOUDSPEAKERS ⸜ floor-standing

Pylon Audio
ZIRKON 20

Manufacturer: PYLON S.A.
Price (when reviewed): 15 990 zł/pair

Contact:
ul. Powstańców Wlkp. 1
63-200 Jarocin ⸜ POLSKA


www.PYLONAUDIO.pl

» MADE IN POLAND

Provided for test by:
PYLON AUDIO


Review

Text by WOJCIECH PACUŁA
Translation Marek Dyba
Images by „High Fidelity”, Pylon Audio

No 245

October 1, 2024

˻ PREMIERE ˼

Pylon S.A. is a company established in May 2011. It is the largest Central European manufacturer of loudspeakers and cabinets sold under the PYLON AUDIO brand. What's more, it is also a manufacturer of cabinets ordered by many well-known companies from Europe (and beyond). It has its own state-of-the-art anechoic chamber, and also produces the drivers it uses in many of its designs on its own. We're PREMIERE testing the ZIRKON 20, two-way, floor-standing speakers.

I DON'T KNOW WHETHER IT'S THE PLAN FOR “FOREVER”, or whether it will change someday, but since the first design of its speakers, the Pearl model unveiled in 2011, Pylon has chosen the names of precious, and semi-precious stones, as well as, apparently, pearls, to name successive series. It currently has the Pearl series, which opens it, and Jasper, which closes it from the top. In between you'll find Amber, Emerald, Sapphire, Opal, as well as Diamond and Ruby, though it might seem that these are the most prized gemstones.

Perhaps it was the case that when the company reached a higher level, it acknowledged that this is the best design in its history and when it reached the “diamonds” it may have had the impression that it had a top product in hand and that nothing would change for a long time. But Pylon is a company that is still developing, expanding, so such an assumption that something is “top level” is unsustainable, temporary in its case. For right away, just around the corner, there may lurk a solution and an idea that will turn all this upside down. And that may have been the case with series more expensive than Diamond.

The Zirkon series is the latest series from this Polish manufacturer. In the price list it is located between the Jade and Diamond speakers and is to replace the Emerald models. “The PWN Polish Language Dictionary” says of this mineral:

'Zirconium'
1. «a silvery-white, very hard metal used as an additive to harden steel»
2. «a mineral used to make refractory materials»

SJP.PWN.pl, accessed: 9.09.2024.

Sites dedicated to jewelry, however, immediately add:

Zircon is a stone that occurs in the environment and is used in jewelry. Its name refers to its appearance and means “golden” in Persian. In fact, zircon can vary in color, depending on the admixtures of other minerals - from bright yellow, to blue, purple and red-orange, to transparent. Sometimes there is a cat's-eye effect in zircon. (...) It is found in Norway, the United States, Canada, France, Brazil, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, among others. In Poland, deposits of the mineral are found near Szklarska Poreba.

Strony poświęcone jubilerstwu zaraz jednak dodają:

Cyrkon a cyrkonia — czym się różnią?, → www.ROSANTO.pl, accessed: 9.09.2024.

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| A few simple words…

GRZEGORZ MATUSIAK
Leading engineer of the Zirkon Project
images and drawings Pylon Audio

AS THE WORK ON THE ZIRKON progressed, we realized more and more that we were dealing with something much more serious than just a good, slim speaker.

It started with the vision of a narrow speaker cabinet that is easily accepted in a room. Therefore, we worked on a special woofer basket that would place a large area of the speaker diaphragm on the narrow front of the enclosure. What is the result of this work? Just look at the Zirkon. The problem required an unconventional approach to the design of the speaker basket, but also to the design of the speaker cabinet. The developed basket is not only for a large diaphragm, but also for enables a long-throw action. So why not also use a great diaphragm? That's what we did.

It is made of very hard cellulose, laminated with silk with additional impregnation, in order to achieve high stiffness and lightness, and its flexible natural vibrations are properly damped. So we were going up with quality. So we decided to take all measures and methods to develop a really good woofer. We spent a long time designing its drive, that is, the voice coil and the entire magnetic circuit. As a result, we introduced a new class of very large and powerful ferrite magnets to Pylon Audio, meeting the exorbitant requirements of high-efficiency drivers with small voice coil diameters for great midrange quality, but also able to go deep in bass range at very high sound levels.

⸜ Zirkon 20 loudspeakers with measurements - this is a technical drawing, part of Pylon materials, the circles list the components: 1) Rear view | 2) Cross-section with view of bass-reflex | 3.1/3.2) Wiring from speakers to crossover | 4) Tweeter | 5) Terminal with speaker sockets | 6) Internal damping | 8) Two woofers | 9) Wood screws | 10) Logotype.

It's easy to conclude that a powerful magnetic circuit with a long small-diameter coil means not only a high SPL max, but also solid acceleration, or dynamics, as well as high purity and sound quality. We achieved high purity here because the magnetic field is strong and stable. What can be improved? We could develop and add Faraday rings. Here they are. So we have developed a detailed driver in the midrange that can also play deep and structured bass.

The Zirkon 20 is a two-way model, and the low-midrange band is handled by two of our drivers. So it is plays twice as loud, while at moderate levels it is twice as effortless. So we had to take another look at the speaker cabinet concept. We successively raised the bar for both the sonic performance and aesthetics.

The cabinet is to be narrow so that it does not dominate the room. However, the bass has to delight. So work began on the design of the cabinet, especially since we already had the drivers ready. In fact, these developments overlapped. The result was a design optimized in terms of the rigidity of the enclosure, but also the standing waves inside the body. The Zirkon 20 consists de facto of three internally optimized spaces, situated one above the other. It is slim and tall, but moderately deep. Here again we have to appreciate the work of the designers, who participated throughout the whole process. Ideas were born for the base, surface finish, accessories - the whole thing.

⸜ Zirkon 20 in isometric “dilated” projection; figures as above

As a result, the Zircons 20 can even be “hidden” near the edges of a large interior, where the bass-reflex outlets will stimulate all the room's modes in the corners, and the sound will become powerful, with clearly marked deep bass, which will not, however, lose its structure. The speakers can also be placed out in the room. What allows such a choice in terms of placement? The design and electroacoustic construction allow it.

The bass-reflex is low-tuned, and its tunnel is formed by two loss-optimized slots with outlets above the base under the side walls of the cabinet. The so-called downward slope of the bass response and the positioning of the bass-reflex outlets make it possible to freely place the sets in the room for both sonic and aesthetic reasons.

The treble and upper midrange are also an important part of the sound, so the tweeter also evolved to a new level. Without splitting hairs, we ended up with Diffraction Expansion Technology from a renowned driver manufacturer. The driver we chose enables superb micro-dynamics at both low and very high sound levels, and its directional control adds freedom when placing speakers in a room.

Further topics can be mentioned, such as approximation of sound sources, as seen in the shape of the tweeter horn’s contour, or optimization of reflections from the front edge, or the crossover design. The drivers are equidistant from the side edges of the front panel, as we have directional control of the tweeters. So the left and right sets are identical, which optimizes the processes and saves money in the music lover's pocket. The distance to the top edge has been carefully chosen too.

Finally, a word about the crossover, the tip of the iceberg of the issue of optimizing the overall sound, where perfection of design in the passive domain is achieved by perfection in other domains as well. Only linear components have been used here - air coils and film capacitors, manufactured with the latest technology developed for top-quality audio equipment. GM

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Zirkon 20

PYLON WRITES about their new speakers as follows:

Characterized by incredible slenderness and elegance, the body of the Zirkon 20 speakers was achieved by the manufacturer through the development of a special basket for mid- and low-range drivers of its own design. It makes it possible to incorporate the drivers into the very narrow front of the cabinet, while maintaining the largest possible area of the diaphragm, which, combined with a very large diaphragm excursion, guarantees above-average sound dynamics. (source: press mat.)

Several things can be deduced from this description, but one thing cannot be replaced by anything other then seeing them in the real world: these are big speakers. I would even say that they are substantial ones. They won't “disappear into the interior,” they won't “fit in smoothly,” as I once read in press materials accompanying the products of one of the big brands, but rather they are something of a manifesto: this is the home of a man who listens to music. It is an important part of his life.

As Mateusz Jujka, CEO, who also works in the paint shop, assembly plant, carpentry shop when needed, as well as in other Pylon departments, said in a phone interview, the pair that made it to the review is exactly the one on which the final development work was carried out in the R&D department. That's didascalia. And the key information is that the new acquisition of this company's R&D department, Mr. GRZEGORZ MATUSIAK, was responsible for this project. And this may be one of the most important pieces of information of this test.

This graduate of Wroclaw University of Technology, since 2001 a doctor of acoustics at its Department of Electronics at the Institute of Telecommunications, Teleinformatics and Acoustics, has published in the Audio Engineering Society and the European Acoustics Association. At the beginning of his career he worked at Tonsil, the original one, and then was production manager of → SOUNDDECO, and his knowledge is also used by → APS, a company offering high-end studio monitors. He has been working at Pylon for almost a year, and the Zirkon 20 model is his debut as a lead engineer.

The most important feature of Pylon's new speakers is their height, all of its 1330 mm (including the feet). Still, they are slim, something Pylon also points out, as their depth is only 326 mm and their width only 168 mm. So just a glance at their design, the chosen driver layout, makes the purpose of these choices clear: the idea was to create a point source of sound with large speakers.

Speaking of drivers layout I'm thinking of the D'Apollito system, in which the tweeter is placed symmetrically between two woofers (two-way system) or first the midrange and then the woofers (three-way), connected in parallel and processing the same frequency range.

For this to be the true layout proposed by its creator, Joseph D'Apollito, this type of division must be carried out with high order crossovers with steep slopes. Among the advantages of this arrangement are the reduction of reflections from the floor and ceiling, as well as the accumulation of the ideal sound source, as if it were coming from a single point. The Focal Point Source 5.1 loudspeakers are often used as the flagship example of this arrangement; this French company cultivates this layout to this day, as does American Wilson Audio Specialties.

DRIVERS • The Zirkon 20 speakers look like a textbook example of this type of solution. They are large floor-standing designs with a bass-reflex enclosure. They feature three drivers on their front panel: two Pylon-manufactured woofers, with a SEAS tweeter between them. It uses, in the manufacturer's words, a “super-light and rigid” aluminum-magnesium diaphragm, in front of which a short horn is placed and which is protected by a metal mesh. The front has been undercut from the top and bottom so as to bring the other two drivers closer together.

Also their baskets were undercut, but from the sides. In this case, the idea was to make the front panel as narrow as possible. Today less common, but in the 1990s and early 2000s a desirable solution, culminating in the Audio Physics speakers, is to better disperse waves, this is the technical reason, and on the other hand to improve the appearance of this type of products, this is the “aesthetic” reason. The Vademecum of “Audio” magazine reads:

Waves much longer than the dimensions of the obstacle (here the “obstacle” is the front baffle) will bend and flow around it; shorter waves are not capable of this. However, even a relatively very narrow enclosure will not ensure that the waves flow around it for the entire acoustic band (a 20 kHz wave is 1.7 cm long).

⸜ Entry: ‘Is a narrow column enclosure acoustically most favourable?’ w: Vademecum, → AUDIO.com.pl, accessed: 9.09.2024.

Right after that, the authors of the entry inform us that the use of a narrow panel does not automatically translate into a better sound, if we compare it with classical speakers. An example would be designs from the BBC “school”, such as my Harbeth 40.1. But it is also the case that some companies, such as Dynaudio, use the D'Apollito layout and narrow fronts in all generations of their most expensive speakers.

CABINET • Be that as it may, the narrow front helps to visually free the room from the speakers - the Zircons 20, despite their large size, look quite “light”. The main body is tall, and the drivers are not on top of it, which is a bit disorienting, but I got used to it pretty quickly. The plinth, made of two layers of MDF divided by damping material, does not go right into the cabinet, but through a kind of expansion joint - this also makes the body of the speaker seem “lighter”.

I mentioned that the new Pylons are a bass-reflex design. However, when we look at them from all sides, it turns out that its outlet is nowhere to be seen. And that's because the designers used a clever solution - the slot of the system was placed on the mottom side of the speakers, and the expansion joint I mentioned is part of it. This is a solution that improves the aesthetics of the design, but also provides a constant load on the system, in a way making its operation independent, although not entirely, of the distance from the walls.

The signal is fed to single satin-finished speaker terminals, located close to the floor. The speakers stand on small feet, but spikes or anti-vibration feet can be screwed into place. The cabinets are finished with natural veneer, with matched grain to make both speakers look similar. The veneer is coated with clear varnish, using an open-pore technique. Unlike the earlier oak veneer, this is an American walnut veneer. Finishes in matte lacquer, white and black, are also expected to be available later.

Zirkon 20 are very well made and look nice too. After the initial surprise caused by their size, after just a few days, all that I felt was respect for their serious appearance.

SOUND

HOW WE LISTENED • The Pylon ZIRKON 20 speakers stood 230 cm from the listening position and 230 cm from each other (counting from the center of the front panel). They were 90 cm away from the wall behind them, counting from the center of their back panel. The speakers' tweeter is not on their axis, but was moved to the side. During the test, the speakers were toed-in so that the axes of the drivers crossed in front of my head.

I determined the distance between the speakers and their leveling using Bosch PLR 50 C . For more on loudspeaker positioning, see the article Mikrodostrajanie. Czyli ustawiamy głośniki, HIGH FIDELITY № 177, 1 stycznia 2019, → HERE. For more on HF listening room acoustics, see the article Pomieszczenie odsłuchowe „High Fidelity” w oczach Mariusza Zielmachowicza, HIGH FIDELITY № 189, 1st January 2020, → HERE.

In the test, they were driven by a SOULUTION 710 power amplifier, and the signal was sent via SILTECH TRIPLE CROWN speaker cables. The reference point was HARBETH M40.1 loudspeakers, and the music was played through an AYON AUDIO CD-35 HF SACD player and a LUMIN T3 file player.

» RECORDINGS USED FOR THE TEST ⸜ a selection

⸜ JOHN SCOFIELD, Swallow Tales, ECM Records UCCE-1183, SHM-CD (2020).
⸜ JARRE, Geometry of Love, EastWest | Aero Productions 2564 60693-2, CD (2003).
⸜ ELLA AND LOUIS, Ella And Louis Again, Verve Records UCGQ-9055 „Acoustic Sounds SACD Series”, SHM-SACD (2024).
⸜ SAVAGE, Tonight, Discomagic Records/Vintage Pleasure Boutique VPB 010, CD (1084/2022).
⸜ DEPECHE MODE, Personal Jesus, Mute/Sire | Reprise Records 9 21328-2, Maxi SP, CD (1989).
⸜ FRANK SINATRA, L.A. Is My Lady, Qwest Records/UMG Recordings/Tidal, SP 16/44,1 (1984/2024).
⸜ QUEEN & MEGAN THEE STALTON, We Will Rock You, Universal International Music BV/Tidal, SP 16/44,1 (2024).
⸜ MAC DeMARCO, Mac’s Record Label/Tidal, FLAC 24/96 (2023).
⸜ SMILE, Don’t Get Me Started, XL Recordings/Tidal, SP 16/44,1 (2024).
⸜ FATHER JOHN MISTY, I Guess Time Just Make Fools of Us All, Bella Union/Tidal, SP 16/44,1 (2024).

» The recordings featured in the test can be found on the HIGH FIDELITY playlist on TIDAL → HERE

»«

WHEN I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT from a tested audio component, I reach for recordings that I call ‘safe’ to begin with. That is, well recorded and released, with a pace that is not too fast, enjoyable and familiar to me. Only after the first tests, if it turns out that the product meets my criteria of a ‘good sound’, I decide to test it and reach for other titles.

The same was also true in Pylons case. On the one hand, a company of this type, that is serious, anchored, and does not release poor products. So one can assume that it will be at least good. However, it is also true that the Zirkon 20 is a new type of design for Pylon, in addition prepared by a newcomer to its team. So it could be that, although it is a high-end sound, it is not ‘mine’.

As it turns out, the sound I heard reminded me a lot of what we achieved with the Emerald HF Edition model a few years ago; more → HERE. That is, there is good saturation, there is no bright treble, and yet the amount of detail is very high. But also, it must be known, we are dealing with a significantly different sound, simply put: better. And better by higher resolution, better selectivity and much more freedom.

You see, nothing of what I just wrote was missing from the Emeralds HF performance, at least not for me. In fact, I would say that these were THE elements that made it all play so nicely and that made these speakers so good to listen to. I could blindly recommend them to anyone who wanted to get a really high quality sound in their systems for moderate money. Admittedly, there were some who thought the HF version sounded too dark, too conservative and who preferred the original model, where the sound was more open, but for me the HF version was the right one.

I think the Zirkon 20 speakers are able to reconcile both of these views. This is largely because these are speakers that play with tremendous freedom, and thus are freed from many of the constraints among which one had to compromise before. As you can see, physics works, and if you load the speakers with a larger cabinet, you get a bigger sound. But there is also, it seems to me, something more to it. For these designs are not internally damped, and the crossover is simple. And these, in turn, are elements that almost always translate into the opening of the sound and its speed, i.e. the ability to render the front of the attack with its energy, but also without exaggerating it.

Pylon's new speakers demonstrate these qualities effortlessly. JOHN SCOFIELD's guitar on Swallow Tales, released in Japan on SHM-CD, sounded saturated on the one hand, and selective on the other. The latter is not just about ‘detail’, because the latter implies signaling the sound, as well as the ability to show it against others, along with the acoustics. Selectivity is detail plus saturation and three-dimensionality. The Zircons 20 are excellent in this respect, and play like much, much more expensive designs.

I also heard an interesting thing at the bottom of the band. Because although the midrange is the most important here, its extremes are equally interesting. And what I heard was not only freedom, that too, not only selectivity, that too, but also contouring combined with low extension. A thing that happens really rarely. But I guess that's why, when Steve Swallow plays a bass solo in the third minute of ˻ 2 ˺ Falling Grace, it's an interesting solo. Not just because we're talking about an excellent double bass player and bassist. But because it's a story that we understand, a message that is clear to us.

Let me explain. What I mean is that the bass impact here is fast, but it is not “square”, i.e. exaggerated in terms of contouring. We also get color saturation and good decay definition. So on the one hand, nothing blends together, and on the other hand, there is no lack of information. Interestingly, considering at all that, I won't be wrong if I say that Pylon's speakers seem to sound like closed designs. They are fast and don’t ‘pump’ mid-bass. And as if their large internal volume was used not to go as low as possible and to pressurize the bottom end, but to “free” the sound, to make it as free as possible.

I had a similar impression while listening to ˻ 1 ˺ Pleasure Principle, the opening track of JARRE's Geometry of Love album. It was with this recording that I came to the conclusion that Pylon's new speakers should play placed quite close to the wall and that it is in this setting that the whole bandwidth will be best integrated. And this is because the bass then fills in and saturates. In my case it was enough to move the speakers 20 cm closer to the wall behind them to achieve this effect. In that these speakers reminded me of what we know from Audio Note designs and some Spendor and Harbeth models - proximity to the walls helps, not hurts.

All the more so, because in the case of the tested designs, the space, which usually flattens out when the speakers stand against the back wall, didn't change enough for it to matter. Maybe it's because this space is simply spectacular. The recording in question sounded powerful, clear, with deep planes and wide stereoscopy. I've ‘saw’ the instruments on stage before with Scofield's disc, but here the sensation of being surrounded by the sound was downright riveting.

On the other hand, when I listened to the mono material from Ella And Louis Again, recently released on SHM-SACD by the Japanese division of UMG Recordings, which owns Verve, the sound sources appeared precisely, centrally in front of me, and they were sources of a high volume. Fitzgerald's and Armstrong's voices were smooth, somewhat warm, but also open - that's how they really sound on recordings from that period. There was no tightening of the lower midrange, no rounding of the treble.

Zirkon 20 seems to be a more precise sounding design than the Emeralds, in both versions, and slightly less ‘forgiving’. In the bass tuning one can hear, hear very well, the choice to liberate the sound and open it up at the expense of smoothing the irritating edges of the attack. So it's important to know that these are - ultimately - different designs and a different vision of sound. Pylon's new speakers do most things better, in a less forced way, making the sound from any record very impressive and drawing listeners in with trillions of micro-sounds. But some of the latter are not always pleasant, which needs to be taken into account when choosing all components in the setup.

But when I heard FRANK SINATRA and that “no longer-so-young” voice of his from the L.A. Is My Lady album, just remastered, with - for now - one track available on Tidal, I froze. On the one hand because he's one of the most important artists ever to me, and on the other because of the natural sound of his vocals. The large orchestra conducted by Quincy Jones had momentum, clarity and even the baritone saxophone, usually hidden under the brighter brass, sounded nice, and clear.

However, when a new version of We Will Rock You by QUEEN interpreted by MEGAN THEE STALTON played immediately afterwards, with deep compression and a beefed-up upper midrange, it got less pleasant. Clearly, nomen omen, came out what I mentioned earlier, namely the fact that these are speakers very transparent to signal. The attack, fill extinction, so characteristic of this type of music, were presented by them in all their glory.

But, again, when the first sounds of ˻ 14 ˺ 20181212 from MACA DeMARCO's album played, I froze still. And that's because it was so palpable, so believable, such a natural sound that I didn't want to ‘get out of it’. It's a piece played on synthesizers and piano, but with the voices of the musicians underneath, with non-musical sounds, as if it were a demo. And maybe it was. This resulted in a sound that you wanted to ‘enter, to ‘wrap’ yourself in it. Zero brightening, or sharpening, problems.

Very, very similar was the case with the latest song by the group SMILE entitled Don't Get Me Started. Let me remind you that this is an English rock band, consisting of Radiohead members Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Johny Greenwood (guitar, bass, keyboards) and Tom Skinner (drums), co-founder of the band Sons of Kemet. According to Wikipedia, critics have compared their music to Radiohead, but with more jazz, krautrock and progressive rock influences and a “looser, wilder sound.”

And it was similar, because this is superbly produced and recorded music - the mastering engineer was Greg Calbi, who is also responsible for the sound of Tame Impala records, new remasters of Iggy Pop and Taylor Swift albums. Equally important as timbres is space in this piece. The Zircons 20 played this, coming from a digital single, track with panache, fullness and fantastic focus.

Because when I say that Ella Fitzgerald's and Louis Armstrong's vocals are shown by them in a remarkably nice, clear and focused way, it means that these are perfectly time-coherent designs. And that, in turn, means that any, any song will get the same treatment. That is, that we will sit in the realm of sound, often coming from behind us, from the sides, and - so it may seem, at least - from above us, as in this case.

And when we hear the trumpets opening a very pleasant, such a “forward-thrusting” track by FATHER JOHN MISTY I Guess Time Just Make Fools of Us All, when after the chorus the leader starts playing the guitar, shown in the left channel, with a warm, deep reverb, then although there's a lot of upper midrange, that's how it was mastered, and there's a fair amount of compression, what's shown, and right away, is rhythm, something like ‘rocking in the saddle’.

Summary

ZIRKON 20 IS A DESIGN that shows the signal with extraordinary resolution and selectivity. Their sound is incredibly free and fantastically stereoscopic. Space is built deep into the stage and when necessary extends to their sides and even behind us. The freedom I'm talking about accompanies us at all times.

The large cabinet was used here for exactly that - to free the drivers from dynamic limitations. These are extremely fast and open speakers, in which fill in has as important role to play as sound attack. The sound is focused, perfectly defined and powerful. Sitting between two high boxes, we get the impression not so much that they disappear from the equation, because that's obvious, but that the sound is solid and deep.

This works not only with top quality recordings and releases, but even with old, disco tunes such as ˻ 1 ˺ El Choclo from the RADIORAMA's The 2nd Album. I recalled this band because, next to Savage, it's my favorite 80s performer from this musical circle, and also because the speakers also offer calmness, refinement and poise in their case. Indeed, these are superior designs to the Emeralds, in virtually every aspect of sound. And only two elements in the older speakers were different, for some, perhaps better.

One thing is subjective bass extension. Zircons 20 go down much lower and freer, but by missing the mid-bass emphasis, they seem ‘leaner’. The second is the upper midrange in the new speakers. It resembles what the basic version of the Emeralds offered, and what I put out in the HF version. However, these are changes based on my taste, and objectively it is the sound of Zirkon 20s that seems more even or better balanced.

Because they're just that kind of speakers: well-balanced, fast, selective, resolving, spacious, effortless. Truly exceptional. Match them sensibly with a good setup, and you get a fantastic sound. Well-deserved ˻ RED FINGERPRINT ˺ from us.

Design

AS MATEUSZ JUJKA DECLARES, the Zirkon model was intended to be a higher-end model than the Diamond and meant to replace the Emerald series. Similar diaphragms were chosen for its construction, but the entire woofer, as Pylon's boss says, was changed.

These speakers look very different from all previous designs by this company. Mateusz puts it bluntly, “Zirkon is an important design for us, it is meant to be a fresh breath of air in our lineup. Its introduction into production was preceded on the one hand by hard engineering work, and on the other hand by trying to find out whether people would accept such a huge change in terms of aesthetics. It was developed mainly due to structural requirements, but they also wanted to present something new.

It's been a year since the Zirkon prototype was shown at the Audio Video Show 2023 in Warsaw, and in May this year the finished design was presented at High End 2024 in Munich. According to Mateusz, the proposal has been accepted and after the AVS 2024 Zirkon 20 will be available for sale - production of the enclosures starts on October 3rd. If all goes well, it will be joined by a smaller and also even larger model.

As we said, these are high, two-way, three-driver speakers in bass-reflex cabinets. Their cabinet is made of MDF boards veneered with natural American walnut veneer, coated with oil-wax. The speakers are quite tall, so the internal ribbing, used to separate part of the inner chamber, but without enclosing it, are also elements that improve rigidity the body. Such “ribs” have been placed just below the tweeter and, roughly, at 1/3 of the height of the speaker; the first one allows air to pass through at the front and the second one at the back.

That's not all. The enclosure was also reinforced with two crossbars glued between the side walls, at the height of the upper woofer and in the middle of the speaker. Additional side walls have been glued to the plinth, which, together with the walls visible outside, form an unusual bass-reflex outlet. This arrangement is supposed to allow these drivers to be placed, according to Mateusz, very close to the wall behind the speakers. The speakers don't have much damping inside - rolls of artificial wool were inserted only at the height of the two larger drivers.

The drivers come from SEAS and Pylon. The 27TBCD_GB_DXT dome tweeter features a metal, aluminum-magnesium diaphragm and a rigid front. The DXT suffix in its name stands for Diffraction eXpansion Technology. It's a technology designed to minimize wave reflections from the front of the driver, and can be seen in the form of symmetrical circles in the short horn, with different angles.

The undercuts on the sides of the woofers, which allow two larger drivers to be brought closer together, are made in-house by Pylon. They have a diameter of ø 180 mm and a cellulose diaphragm impregnated using the company's proprietary process. It has a distinctive pattern of ‘scales’ - these are ribs that increase its rigidity and minimize standing waves. The dust cap is different than before, now it's a cone of material resembling cellulose doped with carbon fiber or similar material.

The crossover was assembled using the point-to-point technique and fixed to the top ‘frame’. As Mateusz said, it's very simple circuit, as some of the tuning was accomplished by means of component selection in the drivers, the drivers and cabinet themselves. The signal from the crossover is routed via long braided copper cables to the terminals, bolted to the nameplate, just above the black-painted plinth.

Technical specifications (according to the manufacturer)

Nominal impedance: 4 Ω
Frequency range: 35 Hz - 24 kHz
Nominal power: 130 W
Power handling: 250 W
Sensitivity: 89 dB
Tweeter: SEAS 27TBCD_GB_DXT
Low- mid-range woofer: PSW18.8CSP-CUT
Grill: yes
Spikes: Yes
Dimensions (W x H x D, without plinth): 168 x 1330.5 x 326 mm
Dimensions (W x H x D, with plinth): 232 x 1330.5 x 390 mm
Weight: 20.9 kg/pc.

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  • HighFidelity.pl
  • HighFidelity.pl
  • HighFidelity.pl
  • HighFidelity.pl


Reference system 2024



1) Loudspeakers: HARBETH M40.1 |REVIEW|
2) Line preamplifier: AYON AUDIO Spheris III Linestage |REVIEW|
3) Super Audio CD Player: AYON AUDIO CD-35 HF Edition No. 01/50 |REVIEW|
4) Stands (loudspeakers): ACOUSTIC REVIVE (custom) |ABOUT|
5) Power amplifier: SOULUTION 710
6) Loudspeaker filter: SPEC REAL-SOUND PROCESSOR RSP-AZ9EX (prototype) |REVIEW|
7) Hi-Fi rack: FINITE ELEMENTE Pagode Edition |ABOUT|

Cables

Analog interconnect SACD Player - Line preamplifier: SILTECH Triple Crown (1 m) |ABOUT|
Analog interconnect Line preamplifier - Power amplifier: ACOUSTIC REVIVE RCA-1.0 Absolute-FM (1 m) |REVIEW|
Speaker cable: SILTECH Triple Crown (2.5 m) |ABOUT|

AC Power

Power cable | Mains Power Distribution Block - SACD Player: SILTECH Triple Crown
Power (2 m) |ARTICLE|
Power cable | Mains Power Distribution Block - Line preamplifier - ACOUSTIC REVIVE
Power Reference Triple-C (2 m) |REVIEW|
Power cable | Mains Power Distribution Block - Power amplifier - ACROLINK Mexcel 7N-PC9500 |ARTICLE|
Power cable | Power Receptacle - Mains Power Distribution Block: ACROLINK Mexcel 7N-PC9500 (2 m) |ARTICLE|
Power Receptacle: Acoustic Revive RTP-4eu ULTIMATE |REVIEW|
Anti-vibration platform under Acoustic Revive RTP-4eu ULTIMATE: Asura QUALITY RECOVERY SYSTEM Level 1 |REVIEW|
Power Supply Conditioner: Acoustic Revive RPC-1 |REVIEW|
Power Supply Conditioner: Acoustic Revive RAS-14 Triple-C |REVIEW|
Passive filter EMI/RFI: VERICTUM Block |REVIEW|

Anti-vibration

Speaker stands: ACOUSTIC REVIVE (custom)
Hi-Fi rack: FINITE ELEMENTE Pagode Edition |ABOUT|
Anti-vibration platforms: ACOUSTIC REVIVE RAF-48H |ARTICLE|

Isolators:
  • PRO AUDIO BONO Ceramic 7SN |REVIEW|
  • FRANC AUDIO ACCESSORIES Ceramic Classic
  • HARMONIX TU-666M "BeauTone" MILLION MAESTRO 20th Anniversary Edition |REVIEW|

Analogue

Phono preamplifier: Phono cartridges: Tonearm (12"): Reed 3P |REVIEW|

Clamp: PATHE WINGS Titanium PW-Ti 770 | Limited Edition

Record mats:
  • HARMONIX TU-800EX
  • PATHE WINGS

Headphones

Headphone amplifier: AYON AUDIO HA-3 |REVIEW|

Headphones: Headphone Cables: Forza AudioWorks NOIR HYBRID HPC