IO DESIGN writes: "IO DESIGN is an alliance. A strong team of professionals from different and highly respected companies in several industries, sharing the same vision of perfection in audio reproduction, innovation and a deep team-working approach. Technically speaking IO DESIGN is a new brand, but the roots carve deep down into 35 years in the hi-end market, jointly with more than 30 years of R&D, engineering and manufacturing in hi-tech and bio technologies for civil and military industries. Nothing that audio fans are used to see in high-end."
"All the knowledge on materials, the engineering competences and industrial know-how, relies on the hi-tech soul. The sound competences, and the drive allowing to use technology at the service of sound performance, comes from Hifi4music’s team. The ensemble counts on:
- technical supervisor of the projects
- materials and technology supervisor
- CAD design team
- sound performance supervisor
- production team composed of top professionals for CNC, electronics, finishing, assembly team
- finishing teams for architectural grade leather work and painting
- project management supervisor
The key is network playing, the enablement is the specific knowledge and competence in every sector relevant for top audiophile projects, the ace is putting together all of this in one focused team.
IO DESIGN peculiarity is to able using expensive R&D and production resources not available to hi-end companies, because normally unsustainable, without costs overburden and keeping a lean and agile structure that can’t be found in hi-fi companies.
It’s a paradox but the highest end of audio market, doesn’t usually have the possibility to seriously invest on expensive R&D innovation, instead we do it in network… and it works brilliantly!
Welcome to a completely new world of listening.
WHY IO DESIGN is comparable to a complex Formula 1 team whose cars are designed to outperform everything else regardless of price, brand, advertisements, etc.…
The tech competences of our tech team include materials, electronics, engineering, CAD designing, programming where necessary, measurements. The competences of the hi-end team is well eradicated into 35 years top high-end with sound and acoustics setup.
These are rock-solid pillars starting from consolidated results in high technology industries, reversed onto audio performance through a rock-solid high-end drive. Imagine a top driver giving advises to the engineers in order to improve chronos lap after lap…
Visual design is delegated to a top-quality Italian facility, no need to explain the reasons…
Sound performance setup is delegated to Hifi4music’s team, frontend of the project due to the experience and competence in sound setup and acoustics.
Production is delegated to Western European top-quality companies under the control and with the scale economy prices of our hi-tech partners network.
Finishing is empowered by a few top-quality producers with facilities in Italy, this includes superb painting (never seen in hi-end before) and handmade leatherwork where needed.
All the design elements always have a meaning and participate to the final performance of the loudspeaker, nothing is left to case and not a single solution is bent to the sole request of the visual aspect without a payback on the sound performance. All of this made it crazy difficult to get such a brilliant and innovative design jointly with performance.
WHAT - LOUDSPEAKERS NAKED
Some loudspeakers manufacturer, sooner or later, will copy us; it is part of the innovation process we launched, but they will always be followers…
The NAKED loudspeaker is an innovative approach to high-end reproduction, targeting to completely cancel the negative influence that the box produces on the speakers’ sound.
Even though some loudspeakers’ enclosures are rigid, thick and sturdy, they always color the sound with their own signature and this is not what a true perfectionist wants to happen in his listening room.
People is so used to these colorations and compressions that not even appear to notice anymore… until they listen to the IO DESIGN NAKED loudspeaker… well, welcome in a new world of listening.
We innovated the way of doing speakers, radically improving Dynamics and the realism in the reconstruction of the musical event. IO DESIGN uses the listening ambient to output and tune sound instead of creating a distorted view of the sonic message inside the speaker’s box. This is one pillar.
After painfully long sessions (years) of measuring, comparing and testing, we managed to recreate a perfect emission in all the frequencies spectrum, without denaturizing the source of the sound.
Generally speaking, the back-port design loudspeakers suffer of a non-realistic sound, and this happens because of a dynamic compression and because they “force” the sound on the radiant surface of the speaker itself, due to the box constrictions.
That’s why manufacturers race for more rigid and damped boxes, this raises costs without completely solving the issues.
In the NAKED loudspeakers, instead, all the transducers play in a perfectly coherent way without any interference with one another and without any compression from a big box behind.
To understand the difference in performance between the IO DESIGN NAKED and the rest of the speakers, just imagine how it might feel like to be running with a heavy diving suit and then taking it off and to run with normal running apparel… wow! Relief at last!! air, power, speed, control, easy driving… well you are right, that’s exactly what happens with the NAKED loudspeaker when you drop the big boomy box behind!
Audio fans are sadly used to the perception of sloppy bass frequencies, in fact the bass range is one of the most criticized areas in old concept speakers; and they are also used to a quick decay of the sound pressure in the space (and these two aspects also bring compression and artifacts on the harmonics structure). For instance, think at a guitar playing in a garden, at normal volume you listen it from many meters away, while a loudspeaker at the same volume decays very quickly.
Instead in the NAKED loudspeakers the sound pressure is constant independently from the position and the distance, in a very similar way to how a real instrument sound in a domestic ambient… and this preserves harmonics too.
The chassis structure is reduced to the minimum, the structural rigidity is maximized (given a reasonable limit of 80 kg. per speaker…), the resonance frequency of the speaker is strictly controlled (contrarily to what happens with traditional boxed speakers).
All these solutions make the rise of sound very fast and natural like in live music and the harmonic decay extremely accurate; way better than old concept speakers, you will understand.
The NAKED was designed to give to the listener the possibility to fine tune the emission on Mid-High frequencies in order to adapt to the listening room and to your optimal listening point.
The IO DESING NAKED loudspeaker also grants a higher degree of freedom because it is not so directional as most speakers are, you will find easily your magic spot but the performance from the seats aside will not change much, contrarily to what happens with most loudspeakers out there.
The bass range was designed so to allow personalizations making the NAKED able to adapt better to different amps and room acoustics. These are proprietary devices (pat. Pending) able to adapt the bass frequency range in most listening ambients. To achieve this level of accuracy we needed a high level of specialization in systems tuning and room acoustics.
Power is nothing without control."
Features
- Aerospace aluminium and military grade CNC machining precision. Proprietary laboratory grade anti-vibration structure, torque wrench precision joints tightening (first ever usage to control the resonances), damped solid steel precision feet with proprietary unidirectional vibration draining flow. Structure is resonance frequency controlled.
- Custom loudspeakers drivers precision matching. Proprietary crossover design with top quality electronic components.
- Patent pending tuning solutions for a perfect room's setup.
- Top level finishing featuring a luxury architectural leather upholstery (non animal origin) and interiors design grade painting.
- Wood crates ISPM15 norm compliant. CE certification.
Specification
- 2 Woofers 12"
- 1 Custom magneto-planar Midrange
- 1 Custom ribbon Tweeter
- Sensitivity 91 dB
- Nominal Impedence 8 Ohm (minimum 4 Ohm)
- Frequency response 22-35.000 Hz
- Hight 1550 mm
- Width 470 mm
- Depth 660 mm
- Weight 80 kg (each)
- Boxed weight 95 Kg (each)
- Wheel carrying system (for shipping & positioning)
- Price 80.000 euro