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

The cable management cutouts in the rear worked out really well.  I used small bungee cords with mounts for their ball ends.  Finally got a clean solution to my typical cable mess

Impressive creativity and execution. Looks great!

@audionutjeff   

the butcher block looks great, the black sides are a cool contrast, and clever cable management in the rear. A couple questions:

1-why plywood on the legs and not a solid hardwood 2x2 or similar?

2- are the shelves rigidly attached to the legs using the fasteners, or do you have some sort of damping material/elastomer in between?  I noticed many purchased units isolate/separate the shelves from the legs.

3- I love the cable management system- but my problem with cables is often due to the length of the cables and the spacing of the components. With 1meter being the most commonly available interconnect, my cables are too long for the component spacing so a large “loop” in the rear is hard to avoid.  How do you get around this?

Thanks for sharing,

@meiatflask 

Thanks!

1- Plywood is stronger for this application and I like the layered look of Baltic Birch

2- The legs are rigidly mounted with M10 bolts into threaded inserts in the butcher block.  There are different schools of thought on cabinet rigidity versus damping and I chose to go with a rigid configuration

3- Definitely been there!  I use the cable management design to route extra cables around the multiple sections.  It seems to work well and there's less loose cables scattered all around