Like few other loudspeaker drive units, the design of bass systems suffers from a paradoxical problem: the higher their performance, the greater their potential to transmit vibration to the cabinet as a whole. Bass drivers are usually positioned on the front of the cabinet, but the Solitaire S 530 and S 540 feature two opposed long-throw bass drivers installed in the solid side panels of the cabinet. The cabinet sides are coupled to each other at this point by additional braces. This form of installation allows the drivers to balance each other out exactly, thereby eliminating vibration and resonances: the cabinet itself remains totally unmoved at all times, and exhibits no tendency to resonate even at extremely high sound pressures. Thanks to these characteristics the speakers form a harmonious unit, delivering an unbelievably dry, clean, high-pressure bass combined with mid and treble ranges utterly devoid of interference. High sound pressures not only make very special demands on the cabinet, but also on the drivers themselves: if they are not designed from the outset to satisfy these requirements one hundred percent, harsh non-linearities can easily occur very quickly. That is why our drivers are equipped with the StarStabilizer principle, as well as a new high-performance suspension which allows enormous travels. The reward for this additional refinement is apparent above all when the speakers are driven very hard: they are much more stable, and any non-linearities occur with far softer transitions.
Like the Solitaire S 430, the S 530 is equipped with two newly developed long-throw bass units with a diameter of 22 centimetres. The large cross-section bass reflex system, calculated precisely to match the cabinet volume and the driver parameters, provides superb deep bass reproduction as well as a highly dynamic bass range overall, harmonising superbly with the ultra-agile mid-range system. The relatively large internal volume of the S 540 has allowed us to fit no fewer than four long-throw bass units of 22 centimetre diameter, whose parameters are optimised for the closed cabinet principle. The transient response of an enclosed system is superior, and permits an extremely clean, highly dynamic bass response, capable of handling ultra-high levels. The S 540 demonstrates the limit of what can be achieved with a passive system.