Italians do it better
Its a fact that when it comes to design Italians have a certain mood that capture the essence of great design and acceptance. Let it be furniture, cars, speakers or cloths, they are not only good, but legendary great.
Sound and Design Tyche speakers
Tyche represent an modern concept of monitor speaker that is based on simple, yet well thought idea; create an appealing design and put it in the non resonant enclosure that works like a real musical instrument when it comes to music.
I would put Tyche in line with the concept of almost outrageously expensive Kiso Acoustic HB-1 and and more reasonable priced Onkyo DT-K10. Why exactly? As I said, all of these three speakers are trying to deal with acoustic as musical instruments do, but Tyche do it a bit differently than other two. While Kiso and Onkyo are going for a full sound through resonance enclosure, Sound and Design used this concept partially, but with really nice result. Tyche is incorporating both wood as the main curved frame that define the shape and see through acryl for the side panels. Combination of two works greatly and it shows that designer took the time and refined the interaction between the materials. Acrylic panels add a contemporary feeling to the speaker and with it's slick looks it is a great object of art. My wife Natalija was instantly thrilled by its appearance and she commented that it looks like somebody from Apple breath some life into it. No further comments needed. Tyche is a shower not a grower :).
Finding the space
I tried Tyche with few different settings. From a living room installation, bedroom Ikea night credence to my listening room. In the last instal I used Sonus Faber Guarneri Memento original stands. This combination did not only look wickedly good, but performed greatly.
While Tyche will perform good placed right beside walls on the shelf or even closer together, they will show their real potential with the dedicated speaker stand and with enough room around them. They are not demanding like some other monitors with bigger mid-bass drivers, but there still must be a right amount of space between the side walls and speakers. Since woofer hole is on the front, they are easier to place and positioning wont take to much time.
Sound
When first connected to the amplifier, Tyche brought me back to the years of single ended amps and self made Fostex based speakers. Having custom made Hajdinjak Labs 300 b monoblocks with built in tube phono, it was an ascetic, but musical setup. For the vocals, acoustical instruments and small chamber recordings I'm yet to find a more tuned setup. Tyche almost opened a black hole and transported me back in that time. I don't recall this happening in the past.
Saying that Tyche is only good for this kind of music would be not only wrong, but heretic. Tyche excels with live instruments, vocals and acoustical recordings, but they are as good as many small speaker or monitors, if not better when it comes to the reproduction of music. They are not trying to be pertinacious, but seems to capture and replay the most important things that brings music to life with an attitude. An that some!
I was also impressed with the quality and amount of the healthy bass. It was nicely controlled, fluid and with enough presence, that wont disturb anyone with any given material reasonably considering Tyche proportions.
High end not hi-fi
I promised myself that with Mono & Stereo venture I'll seek and reveal products having that special ability to bring the feeling of music to life, no matter in what price range they are or how they look. Lately it seems that not only high-end industry, but also audiophiles are forgetting what high-end is all about. It's a about passion for music and revival of those great and unique moments that happened in interaction between musicians, their instruments, audience etc. Tyche is a messenger of this revival movement.
Driving miss Daisy?
No worries. With a bit higher efficiency there should't be a problem driving Tyche. I tried them with few watt SET tube amps, gain clones, pure A class transistors amp and few others and all to the great result. I would say that even more commercial and affordable amplifiers from Marantz, Nad, Onkyo etc. will make an honorable partner for this speaker. Any amplifier up to 50 watts will do them fair justice and minimal 10 watts are great door to wide variety of tube based or pure A class transistors amps. Tyche is not only a great system starter, but a true keeper for music enthusiasts and a purists.
Would?
Sound and Design Tyche costs 950 eur. For this money you'll get a hell of a stylish speaker with enough high-end and audiophile DNA that it simply wont let you frustrated with your music.
I'm impressed with this speaker concept and it clearly shows how much love, devotion and respect for music their creators have.
This one is no brainer. Highly recommended!
Technical specs
System: 2-way bass reflex
Nominal Impedance: 8 Ohms
Recommended Amplifier: 10-50 Watts
Frequency Response: 60-20000Hz
Sensitivity: 96 db SPL 2.83Vrms @ 1m
Woofer: Fostex 12 cm wide-band
Tweeter: B&G planar
Crossover: LowPass RL parallel arm, HighPass 12 db/oct @ 5 kHz
Dimensions: 380mm h, 290mm w, 292mm d
Weight: 8 Kg
Material: Waxed Baltic birch plywood & acrylic lateral walls
www.sound-design.it
Matej Isak: text
Mono & Stereo high-end audio magazine
January 2011, All rights reserved
mi(at)sgn.net
matejisak(at)gmail.com