​Simply put, this is one of the finest loudspeakers money can buy, period!

 

Handmade in Switzerland

 

As one reviewer aptly summarized his experience with an AC system : “For lack of any other way to put it, this is a system that has to be heard to be believed".

 

Another comment :   "In its totality, it is not like anything else I have heard before".  

 

Yet another :   "My entire point of reference just went out the window".

 

Finally :   "This is a review about the pure listening experience, because an Audio Consulting system can only be heard, not criticized"

 

 

 

About the Rubanoide Loudspeaker

 

Rubanoïde. The name derives from the French word ruban which is equivalent to the English ribbon. The "oid" suffix turns it into "ribbon-like" as this new driver operates similarly to the way ribbon speakers work while still being different from a true ribbon. The basic Rubanoïde concept was developed by a French engineer who is nearly 80 years old today. He labored over this project for 20 years because his invention, while deceptively simple in concept, is quite tricky to implement and even more difficult to usher into regular production.

Swiss Audio Consulting has advanced the Rubanoïde development further by working on the wooden frame and other proprietary aspects. The Rubanoide development focused on a single driver with extension to 200 Hz.  Audio Consulting offers a double-driver version, the Dvaijnoy, extending bandwidth to about 100Hz, "allowing for most critical fundamentals in natural instruments and human voices to be reproduced by this new breakthrough driver".

​The Rubanoïde works as a bipole unlike Magnepans, Apogees and most electrostatics. The use of very strong magnets achieves the high efficiency with a purely resistive impedance to work well with even single-ended triode amplifiers. The paper membrane's surface is the equivalent to a 15" driver.

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"Like the big electrostatics (with however far higher efficiency) and good horns, this stunning driver has velocity impedance air coupling unlike the pressure coupling of almost all other drivers. The efficiency in energy transfer from the membrane to the air is such that even for higher frequencies, the sound is more realistic and dynamic than for example a Raven R3 ribbon. This is particularly interesting as the Raven features a 30mgr moving mass while the Rubanoïde has a 30gr moving mass.



Features for the Rubanoide include 100 dB efficiency from 250Hz to 20,000Hz. The 2-way system's Bass unit developed in collaboration with Sven Boenicke, deploys a 12" custom woofer and extends the system's response down to 35 Hz.



The Rubanoide can be extended at both frequency extremes via Audio Consulting's new 25 cm Ribbon Supertweeter and a pair of Subwoofers, resulting in a truly awe-inspiring system. In the 3-way System the subwoffers utilized are the Rubabass 2

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To read more about the history of this remarkable and unique driver, and learn more about its technical specifications, please refer to the PDF document provided in the Button Link below :