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That the toolboxes in the van were not for car maintenance became clear when they were opened and disassembling of the crate started. Whizzing Makitas detached the screws which fixed the side panels. Instead of the panels just being bolted together to form a crate, the removed sides revealed a complete inner steel frame cradling a large Styrofoam box secured by straps. Peeking out the bottom next to a secondary box with the crossover was the aluminum foot of the VZ1. When the first crate had come apart the loudspeaker sat inside its protective Styrofoam clam shell surrounded by the steel frame whose four long bolts acting as footers kept the speaker afloat. Later we would see the bolts’ next purpose. First it was time to unload and dismantle the second VZ1. Still our hard-working Poles would accept no coffee, tea or even water. They just kept on working.

When the second loudspeaker was partially unpacked, the tough job of getting the two upstairs began. The frame made firm grips easy but the stairs leading to our top floor listening room is long with a turn at the end. With three Pancin team members cooperating it did not take long until the first was upstairs and the second followed suit. Before the speaker’s arrival we'd already cleared a welcoming area for the intended installation where Marcin now directed placement of the speakers down to the symmetrical millimeter which turned out to be spot on as only became clear afterwards.


With Marcin overseeing the work, the Makitas and spanners started whizzing and rattling again to remove part of the sub frame. Now another clever feature of the engineered packaging revealed its purpose. The foot of the VZ1 protruding from the styrofoam was well intended. With the left-over part of the frame sitting on four extended bolts acting as footers, the speaker plinth hovered safely above the floor made it possible to screw in the spikes, then slowly lower the bolts until the entire speaker landed its spikes perfectly in the designated floor protectors.

With the speaker sitting steady on its spikes, the remainder of the frame could be detached to leave the speaker in its protective clam shell. After removing the straps, the foam halves removed to reveal the VZ1 in a protective sticky plastic foil with additional rubber strips protecting the delicate finish from the frame. Once this protective wrap was removed it was time to check that transport hadn't loosened any driver-mount screws. With a fine touch each screw got checked and tightened as needed.

The spiked crossovers found their protective dishes and the umbilical cords connected such that there was no strain on the cables. The time had come to connect our Ncore 1200-based monos to the crossovers and fire up the system. Not long afterwards we hit 'play' and Marcin could begin his approval rounds. Wheeling his chair through the room he checked not only the sweet spot but also the sound when listening well off-axis at our dining table. Only a good half hour of adjustments later did he sign off on a job well done. But still we could not supply any food or beverages as the team was busy again collecting the sub-frame parts, clam-shell materials and crate bits. Meanwhile Marcin convinced us to also experiment with a second pair of crossovers. Finished in black these were tuned a bit differently from the white ones. Where the latter were tuned for neutrality, the black ones offered just a bit more emphasis on the frequency extremes and were tuned for heavier music. We agreed to try these additional networks as well.


We finally managed to supply the Pancin team with some snacks and drinks for the road when off they went for the 11-hour return trip back to Pruszkow. After half a day of having the team around we could now admire the VZ1 in all its glory in our familiar room which had been left spotless. Nothing gave away that anyone had been here or such intense work been going down. The first thing we did now was make a close-up tour of the speakers. As a sculpture the artist who created it was clearly amongst the very best. Fit and finish were almost breathtaking. We've seen a number of beautiful loudspeakers, alas most of those were veneered, not lacquered. To get a surface meticulously painted is hard. To get a strongly curved surface painted perfectly is very very hard. Our Avantgarde horns are curved and painted at the Porsche paint shop but when closely inspected their paint quality is far from flawless. The VZ1 finish meanwhile made it hard to believe that this wasn't a solidly cast then polished affair. This was even more striking when we remembered that the pods join two wooden halves with a seam running along their tops.

Of equally superb quality was the fit of the trim. Aluminum driver rims and pointed end caps flow seamless into the painted woodwork. The raw pod dimensions obviously gain in girth after paint is applied. Here the metal trim is sized to account exactly for the extra paint-skin thickness. Of course a computer-guided CNC mill cuts whatever it's told but it still takes a designer to write the program. A computer doesn't think by itself. We saw that the transitions between individual pods were just as perfect. Whilst there must be some type of bolts affixing each pod to the next, none of these fixings are visible. There's just a consistent seal between each pod and its lower or upper equivalent. Walking around the VZ1 produced very lovely 3D effects. From the side the VZ1 is far from a small loudspeaker. Imagining the same driver array in a rectangular box would result in a massive block not unlike the delivery packing. The playful design lightens the mass and how the light plays on high-gloss organically flowing curves enhances a certain airiness. The shape of the footer accomplishes the same. The various curves and tapers of the massive floor plate make it almost seem to float. The form factor of the upright stem makes another organic reference by almost resembling a stylized bird of prey. Together with the metal trim of the pods it adds to a strong 50's nostalgic vibe where a smaller version of the bird-of-prey aspect would have done great as a car-hood ornament. So yes, the VZ1 exudes potent personality yet viewed on straight looks very different. Now it almost disappears.

Gorgeous looks are a sure enough thing here but how would looks compare to sound? Here we must return to the form factor again. As a true form-follows-function exercise there’s a good deal of embedded acoustic theory in this design. We already mentioned how the VZ1 almost vanish when viewed straight from the front. This also helps it almost disappear as a sound source. Obviously sound propagates through air and air is subject to turbulence and diffraction. When a speaker excites air, its pressure waves propagate spherically or full space at low frequency. At higher frequencies the wave launch changes into a hemispherical form when a driver mounts in a classical box whose front acts as a baffle. At even higher frequencies where wavelengths are small relative to the diaphragm emitting them sound bundles and beams like a flash light regardless of baffle.

The problematic zones are the transitions between radiation pattern. Enter diffraction. Imagine a box speaker emitting a semisperical (half-space or 2π) wave. When the wave reaches the edge of the baffle it must expand quickly to fill the free space no longer bounded by the baffle. Part of the wave wraps around the edge to propagate behind the plane of the original emission. The pressure of the wave also suddenly changes as it reaches the end of the baffle. This pressure drop reflects towards the front of the baffle but out phase with the original wave whilst the wrap-around part remains in phase. These two additional waves created at the baffle's edges are perceived as two small extra speakers operating partly in anti-phase – not something we want.


The late Harry Olson extensively studied loudspeaker cabinet shapes and their effects on the sound and reported his findings in 1951. From his studies it follows that a spherical cabinet is ideal, a square box least so.


All other in-between shapes vary accordingly. Olson’s findings are based not only on emitted waves on the front of the driver and their diffraction from the cabinet’s shape but also on the effect of the wave propagation inside the box. These internal waves act upon the driver’s membrane and should be avoided. Internal damping is one method, another is creating all manner of labyrinths to exhaust the rear pressure.

Airplanes also work with and in air. Strong turbulence is if not dangerous then uncomfortable and should be avoided to keep plane and passengers safe. Over the years turbine engines have been consistently developed and fine tuned. These large heavy engines attach to the flexible wings. If you’re flying economy you often have a good view on the engines and wings. The wings can bend quite severely without breaking (which would have undesired effects). Next to propelling the plane the engines also shouldn't interfere with the plane’s smooth passage through the air. At 900km/h air becomes quite hard to cut through even at 13km altitude. Whilst looking out of a plane’s window we see how the turbine shape doesn't interfere with the airflow slipping across the engine pods. This shape has very low Cw or air resistance factor. The smooth taper creates very low diffraction to undermine turbulence around the engine and thus vibration and discomfort.

Combining Olson’s findings and aircraft jet-engine shapes could thus result in the ultimate form for a loudspeaker. Additional benefits are that a first expanding then diminishing conical shape avoids parallel internal walls to undermine standing waves. With sufficient lining such a shape can thus be optimized for sound reproduction if its cubic volume was calculated optimally for the intended driver. Lastly internal air compression resulting from the narrowing profile enhances exit flow through a port such as the VZ1 uses for its bass drivers.

Some weeks after the VZ1 were set up, we received an unexpected fairly large package. After much unwrapping of the well-protected contents we had half of a VZ1 bass pod in our hands. Now we could see the innards of the largest compartment to once again feel impressed. Marcin indicated on a cross section of the SMDF wall how the material’s various densities distribute. A softer core embeds in an envelope of hardened wood matter while the entire exterior is sealed in a super-hardened variety of SMDF. But that was only the shell. The exploded view also showed that at least for the bass pod there was more innovative stuff. Suspended on four ‘fins’ the center of the pod sports a 'submarine-shaped' volume. Its outside is carved with flowing indentations, its tail is split. By the looks of it we'd call it some form of wave guide. Though now out in plain view the real deal behind the concept—how it really works—remains a trade secret. What goes on in the smaller pods remains hidden. What all have in common is the use of a sticky internal layer which works really well at collecting and containing dust particles.