RMAF 2008

Most audiophiles probably associate New Jersey's Symposium Acoustics with vibration control and isolation devices. However, Symposium's Peter Bizlewicz explained that he's been working on loudspeaker designs for nearly 30 years. While vibration control became a business priority, Bizlewicz continued to toil with his loudspeakers. It's no wonder that vibration control plays such a large role in his speaker design. The massive and idiosyncratic Symposium Panorama 2.0 is a "5-way, quasi point-source speaker system which marries ribbon, planar dynamic, and cone speaker technology to vibration control techniques," Peter said in one quick breath.

Say what?

Four separate columns make up the Panorama system. Interestingly, wonderfully, strangely, the entire mid-high frequency column, built from aircraft-grade aluminum, is isolated using Symposium's Rollerblock technology, and uses an integral Ultra Platform base which works to dissipate stray mechanical energy. Bizlewicz gently rocked one of the drive units to demonstrate. It appeared as though it was floating in air. Meanwhile, the mid/high column connects to a similarly massive bass system. Three separate, stacked Rollerblock-isolated enclosures per side contain a total of six 8" drivers. You can push these guys around, too, and you can be sure that they push back. A whole lotta air, that is. They push air.

Altogether, the system weighs in at something over 600 lbs per side! The price? Oh, $110,000/system. "It's really rather fair considering the build quality," Bizlewicz concluded. It's true: In a high end world where we have $350,000 amplifiers and $150,000 turntables, $110,000 for a speaker system like the Panorama 2.0 does not seem completely out of the ordinary.

The speakers were powered by the lovely Emotive Audio Vita Mono power amps ($33,000/pair). The 50Wpc push-pull Vita uses "E-linear" technology. Emotive Audio's Fred Volz explained that it's "a topology variant of an ultralinear design, combining high-powered circuitry with feedback to reduce noise and distortion while preserving the purity of the signal." Combined with the Symposium Panorama loudspeakers, the sound was effortless and graceful.