Audio Roots & Musing About the Swan D2.1SE.

Initial stocks of the very interesting Swan D2.1SE have been depleted and we're awaiting a series of shipments that will keep us stocked through the holidays. Frankly, I'll admit here and now that we underestimated the demand and we're really scrambling to acquire more samples as I write this.

So, maybe this is a good time to explain a little more about this model. The D2.1SE is the perfect sounding board, if you will, for a short tale about smaller speakers and real musical faithfulness.

In the TAI forum I once mentioned a late dear friend, one Jan Waalkes of West Michigan, where I'm from. Jan and I went back to about 1980 and I have to credit this audiophile's audiophile with influencing me by wringing more sheer music from any hundred dollar bill then anyone I've known, before or since. While Jan didn't skimp where he felt he shouldn't, he perpetually got so much musical truth from any particular combo of front end, electronics, and speakers that he was a force of one in local circles.

The last project Jan and I worked on together was voicing a 6.5” two-way system based on a Dynaudio 17W75 midwoofer and either the matching Dynaudio D28 tweeter or its Morel equivalent. This was “Danish-style” engineering, circa 1985, a design tradition that continues to this day involving prestigious brands all over the high-end landscape. I can only wish we had the parts then that we have available today.

While I'll omit the finer points, in short Jan and I dialed the speaker in over the course of over a year – actually, he did all the heavy lifting as it was his rig, but I still vividly recall the day our crossover adjustments, working in roughly 1/3 dB increments, took this system from hifi speaker to, well, music. The system, for all the obvious flaws all systems have, simply went way “over the threshold” and we both stopped hearing gear and started hearing recordings. Bands. Halls. Music.

It was an impossible sound. It was vastly bigger sound that the humble sum of those parts could possibly deliver, but there it was. It was addictive and in the twenty-plus years since, I've only heard that sound exceeded twice. There are rare moments when audio transcends it's physical origins and lifts you right out of your chair. This speaker had that ability, even as conservative as it appeared and literally was at the time.

The trick was twofold: Whatever it is that these driver types do that's so special combined with razor's-edge tuning the dividing networks. Get it close and it's a rich, nuanced, organic sound. Get it perfect and it's simply not a speaker anymore. It conflicts the mind. It defines the greatly over-used “jaw-dropping” euphemism. It simply stops being a loudspeaker and becomes a window on all outdoors. It does acoustical things you cannot accept that an electromechanical system can. Disbelief is suspended.

This sounds odd – odd enough that I hesitate to post this, wondering if I'll make sense to anyone who hasn't heard it -- but once you have heard it, you know what it is. I wondered ever since if I'd ever hear it again.

Fast forward to the late Nineties and the HiVi/Swan D6.8 midbass driver. Excellent build quality, all the right parts, and a new, optimized, hybrid motor. Interesting – like old times interesting. Then, the HiVi/Swan assault on 28mm domes. Also interesting – and an idea hatches.

Time passes and projects come and go and then, after what seems too long, the inevitable finally occurs: Rumors emerge of HiVi engineers merging the D6.8 7” midbass and the new Q1 28mm dome tweeter into a classic ported two-way stand monitor. I stand back, wondering how they'll execute it.

Then a photo shoot occurs.

I order twenty pairs and turn on the bench, expecting to run a complete suite of measurements.

But they're perfect right out of the box.

Oh sure, not so "perfect" I wouldn't want to play with the design when I have the time and when the market can add at least 50% to the D2.1SE's current sub-$1,000 price, but so perfect that they hit that musical, organic, dimensional sound that tells me they got it very, very right.

After nearly a quarter century, my good friends from halfway around the world not only gave me a very big smile with the design brief itself, but in actually putting the D2.1SE together, gave me actual chills. They hit the genre right out of the park.

I'm not going to say a lot more about this speaker. Sure, I sell them and sure, I want you to buy them. But I really just want to relate one of those rare occasions in life when something special comes full circle and like an old friend -- in this case very much like an old friend and an audio brother, rest his soulful ears – it's like no time has passed at all. I'm terribly pleased not only at just how happy twenty new owners are, but too just how timeless one of the best can really be.

This won't be the end of this story, either. While it's not our style to pre-announce models, we're going to take the risk this once and state that we're currently investigating just how far we can take this concept in terms of models added to the D2.1SE family. We're not going to talk about the specifics until we have samples in-hand, but when that day comes, I think we'll be announcing a little brother satellite and a pair of center channel models. From there, perhaps some floorstanders and matching subs – the HiVI/Swan 12” version of the D6.8 midbass is simply superb. With our new exclusive subwoofer amp technologies, currently under development, we expect great things.

That's enough for now – advance notes will appear here so consider this page your Swan bulletin board. I expect a very interesting Fall 2007 and Winter 2008 and if TAI can bring musical joy to another few dozen or even a hundred music-lovers, well, that's what it's all about, isn't it? I suspect that'd make Jan smile too.

And Jan? If you can hear this, I never forgot. I dedicate this post and our efforts to your legacy, my friend.