Ne Plus Ultra

By Scott Wilkinson • Posted: Jul 30, 2009

Ne plus ultra—Latin meaning "no more beyond," often used to describe anything that is truly ultimate. I can think of no better way to describe the Ultimate speaker system from Swedish boutique manufacturer Transmission Audio. This massive, hand-made system is exactly what its name implies, at least in terms of cost—a million bucks per channel, making it the most expensive speaker system in the world as far as I know.

The Ultimate consists of 12 separate, open-baffle dipole panels, each nearly seven feet tall. (The photo at the top of this blog entry is a "mini" Ultimate system with five panels.) In total, the left and right channels include two super-high-frequency panels (L1 and R1 in the photo above), four high-frequency/midrange panels (L2/L3, R2/R3), two woofer panels (L4, R4), and four subwoofer panels (L5/L6, R5/R6). As you can see, the panels are arranged in a mirror-image configuration, with the less-directional low frequencies in the middle and the more-directional high frequencies on the outside to create a stereo soundfield. Placing the panels next to each other, the entire system stretches almost 37 feet wide and weighs just over four tons—obviously, it needs a really big room with heavily reinforced floors.

The super-HF and HF/midrange panels, shown above with the covers removed, use the company's trademark ribbon drivers—a total of 210 feet of 2-inch ribbons in the HF/midrange panels and 13 feet of 1-inch ribbons in the super-HF panels. All the ribbons exhibit much greater maximum displacement than most, resulting in a distortion measurement below 0.02% at 99dB SPL. The ribbon sections include a total of 1304 superstrong neodymium magnets that are said to increase the impact and "slam" as well as enhance the microdynamics of the system.

Low frequencies are handled by the woofer and subwoofer panels, which use custom cone drivers. Each woofer panel, shown above with cover removed, sports 24 8-inch cones, while the subwoofer panels each include 10 15-inch drivers. Like the ribbon panels, these are open-baffle dipoles and true line sources, which avoid any cabinet-based colorations and limit reflections from the walls, ceiling, and floor thanks to well-controlled horizontal and vertical dispersion.

The Ultimate system comes complete with its own power amps—six BP-1s from Bridge Audio Laboratory to be exact. Each dual-mono amp generates 500 watts per channel for a total of 6 kilowatts, which seems like more than enough until you learn that the system can handle over twice that much power continuously and up to 62kW peak for 10 milliseconds! All six amps are controlled by one BC-1 preamp, which is also included. In total, the electronic components by themselves represent over half a million dollars, which is 25 percent of the total cost for a 2-channel system. (For an extra half-mil, you can get 12 bridged BP-1s with a total of 20kW, but company founder Bo Bengtsson doesn't recommend it unless you live in a castle with very rigid stone walls.)

The Ultimate's specified frequency response is mighty impressive—15Hz to 50kHz (–3dB). And it can play loud—143dB SPL at the maximum rated continuous power and 146dB SPL at peak power thanks to a sensitivity of 100dB/W/m into 8Ω, the system's nominal impedance. Interestingly, the impedance of each ribbon panel is 8Ω over its entire frequency range, deviating by no more than 0.5Ω.

Clearly, the Ultimate is intended for 2-channel listening, but here's a crazy idea for a ne plus ultra home theater—put one Ultimate system behind a 40-foot-wide, acoustically transparent screen and another behind the seats for the surround channels. Perhaps add an extra midrange/HF panel in the middle of the front system for the center channel—the company claims its ribbons can go down to 200Hz (-3dB) with its Ultra Propulsion transformerless interface—or set up the system to produce a phantom center from the front right and left channels. Of course, you'd need a commercial-grade digital-cinema projector to fill a 40-foot screen, but what's another few hundred thousand dollars when you're spending four million on the speakers and amps?

Comments

Submitted by bpw on November 4, 2010 - 7:44am.

@Silver Seven: The only thing "unimpeachable" is that you are clueless.

Submitted by Ray on July 31, 2009 - 3:54pm.

Where's the sweet spot?

Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on July 31, 2009 - 4:48pm.

As my friend Steve Guttenberg says, it's in your wallet!

Submitted by Jarod on July 31, 2009 - 9:40pm.

This has to be the most outrageously awesome speaker set-up I have ever seen or heard of! Do you know of any theaters who are planning on ordering this system? Like you said, you would have to own a castle to install the entire 12 channel system in.

Submitted by E.D on August 1, 2009 - 3:28pm.

May I place them up against the rear wall or should a gap be kept :-)

Submitted by Ben Rogers on August 1, 2009 - 5:35pm.

i dont know. when i saw van halen the last time thier system was pretty awesome for about 3 million less. sure wish i had the money to sit around an come up with sound systems.i think i could come with something that would blow this away for ALOT less

Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on August 1, 2009 - 10:38pm.

E.D, like all dipole speakers, these need some space behind them—Transmission Audio says at least 1 meter for the Ultimate.

Submitted by Jim on August 6, 2009 - 8:17am.

But does it have an iPod dock?

Submitted by Josh on August 6, 2009 - 9:00am.

No, It has a Zune dock.

Submitted by wowsers!!! on August 6, 2009 - 9:07am.

I bet my walmart subs could out thump these. ; )

Submitted by Sonny on August 6, 2009 - 9:54am.

Hmmmm.. I can get 141 spl from 4 fosgate 12" dvc's with 2k behind them. I've seen 161 from factory backed vehicles... is 146 supposed to be impressive?

Submitted by Dirty on August 6, 2009 - 10:41am.

141 from four twelves? thats weaksauce. i put down 143 on the TL from one twelve inch kicker :) does this system come with all Pear interconnects?

Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on August 6, 2009 - 10:42am.

Sonny, you say 161 from vehicles, but with how much distortion? At 120dB SPL, the Ultimate's total distortion in the mid/high frequencies is spec'd at 0.05%, low frequency at 0.5%. TA claims that the distortion at 100dB SPL is unmeasurable. I would guess that any vehicle-based system exhibits far more distortion than that at the same SPL.

Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on August 6, 2009 - 10:51am.

Comparing this system's SPL to that of any car rig is meaningless. Besides, who wants to sit in their car to listen to high-end audio? Not me...

Submitted by [H]Incognito on August 6, 2009 - 11:34am.

The reason they cost so much is because they use Monster Cables.

Submitted by Ken on August 6, 2009 - 1:25pm.

JFC!! talk about excess!!

Submitted by [Ig] Carnage on August 6, 2009 - 1:28pm.

[H]Incognito, If I could rate your post, I'd give it a 6 on the dailytech scale.

Submitted by Dan on August 6, 2009 - 9:01pm.

And if you call in the next 10 minutes, you won't get one, BUT two!! for just 9.99. Call now! operators are standing by...

Submitted by CyberTech on August 6, 2009 - 9:14pm.

To all the posters trying to compare these speakers spec's to some monster sub-woofer setup in a car or a Walmart thumper - get a clue. Seriously! Someone even called it a "12 channel system". It's not, its TWO channel stereo in it's complete form. In fact, the power amps feeding each bank of speakers are MONO, fed by a stereo pre-amp. The spec's to look at on high end gear are the efficiency and total harmonic distortion (THD) not the outrageous sound pressure level (SPL), Watts or any of the other rice-boy bragging numbers. Oh, and Sonny, have you ever seen someone in an SPL competition car while it's being tested? Of course not, SPL isn't about sound quality, its about sound QUANTITY. Why does everyone feel the need to comment on things they have no, or little idea about?

Submitted by mitchell on August 6, 2009 - 10:56pm.

is there a way i hook these up in my 1991 ford fiesta?

Submitted by Tom in Albuquerque on August 6, 2009 - 11:51pm.

Back in the late 1980's I was invited to a "listening party" at a local stereo shop. The star of the night was an Infinity IRS speaker system. A local doctor had purchased them from a gentleman who had just finalized a divorce. His Ex-wife got everything except the $90,000.00 Infinity IRS speaker system. (I'm sure he sold them at a considerable loss.) Originally, the bass towers were powered by Great American Sound amps (a.k.a.: GAS Amps) that were "around" 600 watt mono blocks. They were disconnected and removed. A pair of Threshold S/1000 (two series) 500 Watt STASIS Mono-Block Power Amplifiers replaced the GAS Amps. The mid/high towers (a.k.a.: wings) were powered by a pair of Threshold SA-1 pure class "A" 160 Watt STASIS Mono-Block Power Amplifiers. The entire IRS system was connected to the four Threshold amps, the servo control unit for the bass drivers, and the source via Monster Cable's "top-of-the-line" interconnects and speaker cables at the time.

Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on August 7, 2009 - 12:13am.

Tom, I remember GAS amps! I almost bought a couple for my studio back then. That sounds like a serious system; how did it sound? Worth the dough?

Submitted by Dr. Tettrazini on August 7, 2009 - 1:53am.

Dick Sequerra has plenty of drivers in this range.

Submitted by bassman on August 7, 2009 - 2:59am.

Back at the end of the 70s, having been bowled over by their performance in a domestic setting, Mike Oldfield spent a small fortune buying shedloads of Quad electrostatic speakers and Quad 303 power amps to drive them. He'd jumped to the hasty and ill-informed conclusion that a wall of them either side of the stage would make a fantastic PA. Apples : Oranges ("rice-boy" ...that's an interesting term that I'll have to research!)

Submitted by BenThere on August 7, 2009 - 10:52am.

CyberTech - you are on the right track but THD is worthless as well. THD at what frequency? At what level? What are the gain conditions set on the tested unit? Number of harmonics measured? IMD is more meaningful since these artifacts make music sound harsh. But even that is no reason to buy gear (or not). The point is - don't try to look at specs and determine what sounds best. Sit down and listen. Buy the stuff that sounds best to you.

Submitted by rob on August 7, 2009 - 12:01pm.

Very interesting, however what happened to the reality in recognizing the point beyond diminishing return????? A million dollars per channel wildly surpasses this point!!!!!

Submitted by Bill on August 7, 2009 - 1:05pm.

Nice but there is a lot of snake oil in there and the price does not reflect what it can or can't do.

Submitted by Joe on August 7, 2009 - 2:46pm.

"His Ex-wife got everything except the $90,000.00 Infinity IRS speaker system" ... now THERE'S an example of WAF and spite

Submitted by Cinemagic on August 7, 2009 - 4:49pm.

to Tom in Albuquerque - I know Cary Christie, the designer of the IRS betas. He is still building crazy speaker configurations. Check out Artison speakers. There are some new things coming from them in the next couple months that actually outpreform the IRS Beta system for less $$$. Turst me, you'll want to check these things out.

Submitted by bpw on August 7, 2009 - 5:50pm.

143 dB? WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU! Seriously, this system is for trophy collectors. I'd wager a tidy sum they don't image worth a damn. I'd take a 2-channel version of what Ray Kimber has shown in his IsoMike demonstrations over this system, and add a couple of Bruce Thigpen's rotary woofers.