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Songer Audio: Simple is Best!

I have been an avid audiophile for decades. I own a large collection of high end gear that I use in multiple rooms, frequently rotate, and listen to constantly. I attend AXPONA and CAF perennially and regularly visit audiophile friends to experience their systems. I’m really into music and audio!

My long audio journey has brought through my system many different speaker configurations, including multi-driver box speakers (B&W, McIntosh, Raidho, YG, Wilson Benesch), panels (MartinLogan, Magnapan, TSW Apogees), omnis (MBL), horns (OMA), open baffles (PureAudioProject, Linkwitz, Cube), various subs (MartinLogan, JL, Linkwitz), full rangers (DIY, Voxativ, Cube, and Songer). I’ve experienced myriad tube and solid state configurations as well as most analog and digital source types. Additionally, I’ve experimented with numerous DSP and analog processing devices including some state-of-the-art components.

My ultimate litmus test is my long-term engagement. No matter how sophisticated, resolving, acclaimed, or expensive a speaker or system may be, if I find myself disengaged, distracted, or just bored, then I will move on from it. I have found that the systems and speakers that hold my attention most are typically the simplest. I tend to increasingly gravitate to simplicity.

The Songer S1x speakers are both the simplest and the best speakers I’ve ever owned. Source to the minimalist conrad-johnson preamp to a magnificent AirTight 300b amp to the single-driver, full-range, field-coil, Songer S1x speakers is a truly magical combination. These speakers are my favorite that I’ve owned (preferable to even my significantly more expensive and sophisticated Wilson Benesch Resolutions which are otherwise superb speakers). They hold their own to anything I’ve heard at shows.

The Songers have bass that should be impossible from a single driver and a 9 watt amplifier! The resolution is superb, the stage is huge, the dynamics are excellent, they are the epitome of musical and natural, and I could listen to them for hours at a time without ever losing interest. Every time I rotate in one of my other speakers, I quickly gravitate back to the Songers.

I credit this incredible accomplishment to Ken Songer’s magnificent driver design, no crossover, the field-coil motor, a superb cabinet, high efficiency, and the perfect point source single full range driver.

At $45,000 a pair, the Songers may be one of the greatest bargains in high-end audio. They’re in that rarified club with the world’s truly great speakers.

If you’re attending CAF, the Songers are a must listen. If you’re in the $50k price range for speakers, contact Songer and arrange a demo. You will not be disappointed!

One more thing….since purchasing my Songers, I’ve had the great pleasure of getting to know Ken Songer. On top of being a brilliant designer and a master craftsman, Ken is also one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in the audio world. I do not consider myself to be his “customer”, I consider myself to be a proud patron of his art!

(This is my current system configuration. It’s a temporary set up. I’m in the process of building new equipment racks and tweaking my cable configurations.)

audionutjeff
audionutjeff OP
70 posts
 

@abd1 

Great description of the Songers, I completely agree!  
 

The Nenuphars are terrific speakers, I am very familiar with Cube Audio.  It’s a speaker that you can enjoy for hours at a time.  Definitely in the same sound characteristics family as the Songers.  The Songers just give you more of everything, particularly dynamics.   

What sources and amps are you using?  I find high efficiency full-rangers to be extremely amplifier sensitive.  

Enjoy your audio journey!  

ronboco
1,115 posts
 

@audionutjeff 

I would love to hear the Songers! It’s just the fact that’s been discussed here many times that a single driver just can’t reproduce the full frequency spectrum like a well made multi driver speaker. There is a shop about an hour away that carries Fynn speakers so maybe I could get a taste of the single driver there. 

ronboco
1,115 posts
 

Oops. It’s Fyne ! 

larryi
4,577 posts
 

Audionutjeff,

I've heard both Songers but I own the horn-based system I described above.  It sounds like you have owned some very nice speakers.  I am sure someone else might have settled on any one of the other systems you've owned, but I am not surprised at all that you went with the Songer. 

Like any of these somewhat efficient systems that deliver extreme dynamic contrast and a sense of quick transient response, the amp choice is VERY critical.  My own preference is very low powered tube amps.  These can be of any topology--singled ended triode, pushpull tetrode/pentode, or even output transformerless.  I currently run a pushpull pentode amp that puts out about 5 watts per channel (runs Western Electric 349 tubes) and I like the sound of this amp with speakers of sufficiently high efficiency.  I also own a parallel single ended 2a3 amp which is good, but not as good (to my personal taste) as the 349 amp. 

The very best amps I've ever heard were either a pushpull 252 amp or a custom made output transformerless amp.  The 252 amp was very lush, natural, and harmonically dense sounding, the OTL had explosive dynamics and a very clear sound while still being on the warm side.  Both are unobtainable amps that are well into six figures.

For more practical amp choices, you can look into 300B single ended triodes and perhaps even lower-powered single ended tube types.  Consult with Songer.  For pushpull amps, I tend to like amps running EL84, 6L6 and KT66 tubes more than I like KT88, KT120, KT150 (it seems to me that lower power output tubes sound better.  Even with these tube types, the more tubes that are used in parallel to get higher power output, the less I like the amp; the sound tends to becoming brittle to me.  I am not as much of a fan of solid state amps because they tend to sound lifeless and unengaging unless cranked up louder than I want to listen.  The better solid state amps for my taste are also lower in power.  I've heard two First Watt amps that sounded fairly good; the J-2 model I borrowed from a friend and ran in my system for two weeks, and the SIT-3 amp I heard in that friend's horn-based system.

larryi
4,577 posts
 

Fyne is NOT a single driver in the same way as the Songer.  The driver is a concentric driver which means it is a two-way driver with a woofer and tweeter and crossover.  The tweeter is located in the center of the woofer.  The people who founded Fyne left Tannoy to start there own company making similar concentric driver systems.  I like Fyne speakers, but they do no sound anything like the Songer which is warmer and smoother sounding while remaining very alive sounding.  

Every speaker type and specific implementation of that type has its strengths and weaknesses.  The single drivers covering full-range do not go extremely deep and deliver the same kind of bass punch as conventional drivers.  To me, it is a tradeoff I can accept because these speakers deliver beautiful bass tone and an overall sound I like.  The very top end is often a bit ragged and unevenly dispersed, but, again, these issues are managed well by the better designs and are not that obtrusive to me and less important that what they do well.  I own horn-based systems that suffer from similar short-comings, but what they do well is far more important in my set of priorities.  I particularly like how horns and most other high efficiency systems deliver lively and engaging sound at modest (comfortable) volume levels.

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