$415,000 PER PAIR

YG Acoustics has released the Sonja XV, an ‘extreme’ four-tower version of Sonja, created to celebrate YG Acoustics’ fifteenth anniversary. They retail for $415,000 per pair. Yoav Geva, the founder and owner of YG Acoustics, said of the new Sonja XV design: ‘ It combines everything that we know about speaker design, and incorporates several next-generation technologies that cannot be found elsewhere, with innovations that include a breakthrough tweeter made in-house, and proprietary cost-no-object bass inductors.’ The bass, mid-bass and midrange drivers (a total of 18 of which are used in the Sonja XV) are made in-house at YG Acoustics, each one being machined from a slab of aircraft-grade aluminium. ‘ This process offers overwhelmingly superior dynamics, musical delicacy and low distortion due to industry-leading rigidity and accuracy,’ says Geva. The brand new ‘BilletDome’ tweeter comprises a soft dome that’s supported by an aluminium ‘airframe’ that weighs only 30 milligrams. ‘ Because the critical sections of this tweeter are up to 14 times thicker than a typical hard dome, its structural strength is vastly superior to domes made of exotic hard materials,’ says Geva. ‘ This tweeter ends the age-old debate of hard versus soft, by combining the best of both.’

YG Acoustics crossover circuits are all built in-house and are optimised for both the frequency and phase domains. The Sonja’s crossover uses ‘ViseCoil’ inductors that get their name because after being wound, they’re encased in a vise-like milled structure that YG Acoustics says ‘ eliminates vibration and tightens tolerances’ as well as ‘Toroair’ toroidal air-cored inductors. ‘ The ViseCoil inductors result in better control over the woofers, far greater bass impact, and an easier job for most amplifiers, while the ToroAir inductors eliminate cross-contamination, resulting in preservation of high-frequency detail without harshness, brightness or sibilance,’ Geva told Australian Hi-Fi Magazine. He says the new speakers handle ‘from below 20Hz to more than 40kHz’ and have a frequency response that extends from 20Hz–20kHz ±1dB. Sensitivity is rated at 88dBSPL. The entire system weighs 1.69 tonnes. ‘ The new Sonja XV, which is hand-made in the USA, is an entirely new sonic benchmark that’s truly extreme in every way,’ said Boris Granovsky, of Absolute HiEnd, which distributes YG Acoustics in Australia. ‘ The speakers have the ability to move near-limitless amounts of air, resulting in an effortless listening experience that is typically only associated with a live musical performance.’ The YG Acoustics Sonja XV speakers are available now, and an upgrade path is available for owners of the earlier Sonja models.

For further information, please contact Absolute HiEnd on (04) 8877 7999 or visit the website at www.absolutehiend.com