SONY SS-GR1

Commentary

The R Series speaker system was developed with original know-how aiming at comfortable and rich sound.

The enclosure uses a super-oval enclosure that prevents harmful reflected waves and reduces the concentration of internal sound pressure. This enclosure uses a unique super-oval shape designed by applying a high-order elliptic function to the shape of the round part. It is manufactured by introducing the rounding technique used in the side plate molding of a grand piano.
The rounding technique is a time-consuming process in which dozens of plates of approximately 1 mm thickness with different internal losses are stacked, bent, and kneaded together to form a single baffle plate without any cuts. This realizes a smooth shape extending from the front to the side and back. It smoothly diffracts sound waves and creates a unique soft form.

We have adopted a resonance control (RC) frame that guides the sound of the enclosure in a better direction while ensuring that the enclosure has sufficient sound insulation characteristics. In the RC frame, a large, robust wooden frame is placed in the center of the enclosure to form the framework of the enclosure with front and rear baffles connected to it. As a result of careful vibration mode control, the structure and sound similar to those of string instruments such as cello and contrabass are realized.
In addition, by applying a slanding process to the left and right of the top plate and giving it a function similar to the soundboard used for piano, the sound is made more natural.

The speaker unit above the mid-range is equipped with a CD (Constant Directivity) horn, a machined horn with a front baffle. The CD horn performs impedance matching between the vibration system of the unit and air, not only increases the radiation efficiency of sound waves, but also provides excellent directional characteristics for a predetermined radiation angle.
In the SS-GR1, the directional range is set to 90 degrees horizontally and 40 degrees vertically on the axis. In the horizontal direction, the sound pressure outside the range is lowered to minimize the reflection of the sound on the wall of the listening room. In the vertical direction, harmful interference between the speaker units is reduced to obtain sound without turbidity.
In addition, the horn is machined directly from the baffle plate to reduce harmful horn noise, and there are no steps or grooves at the horn opening to enable smooth sound wave emission.

Using a time alignment system, the sound source positions of woofer, mid-range, tweeter, and super tweeter are aligned on a vertical line, and sound waves of all bands are radiated so that they reach the ear equally.

The network section has a crossover design of 18dB/oct. with good slope sharpness and the ability to drive all units in positive phase.
We also select individual parts through trial listening. For example, we use an iron-core coil for low-frequency sound and an air-core coil for medium-frequency sound. We select the right material for the right place and use it after curing it with a resin mold. We also select capacitors with aluminum electrolytic type, MP type, and film type.
In addition, to prevent adverse effects such as electromagnetic induction, the circuit boards of network circuits are separated for each band and fixed together on the bottom plate of the enclosure, which is the most stable in terms of layout.

In the low range, a 30 cm cone type woofer using pulp mixed with polyamide fiber for the diaphragm is mounted.
By adopting a triple suspension system with a three point support with a damper behind the voice coil, the rolling phenomenon is prevented and the voice coil stroke is stabilized. In addition, the triple suspension system can make the edge material softer than that of the two point support, so compliance (mobility) is increased and distortion in the ultra-low frequency range is reduced.
In addition, aluminum die-cast with excellent vibration characteristics is used for the frame, and a sound with less turbidity is achieved by deadning treatment for vibration isolation.

The mid-range is equipped with a 10 cm balanced drive mid-range consisting of a cone section made of pulp paper mixed with polyamide fiber and a SiC dome section.
The balance drive method places the contact point between the diaphragm and voice coil (bobbin) at the point where the diaphragm can be driven most efficiently. This minimizes harmful split vibration and expands the piston motion range.
In addition, both the voice coil and magnetic circuit are larger in the balanced drive than in the general cone type unit, so it contributes to the improvement of the distortion, and the distortion from 1 kHz to 3 kHz, which is easy to be heard, is suppressed to 0.1% or less.
In addition, it is housed in an independent back cavity to optimize back pressure.

A 3-cm dome type tweeter using SiC for the diaphragm is mounted in the high range.
In order to reduce the conversion loss from electricity to sound, we have adopted a surface drive structure in which the voice coil drive is performed outside the diaphragm surface. In the surface drive, the sound wave is generated through the shortest route from the voice coil (bobbin) to the diaphragm surface, so the sound wave is emitted from the diaphragm surface faster than the sound that has passed inside the diaphragm. Therefore, the characteristic sound of the diaphragm itself is hardly generated.

A 2 cm dome type super tweeter using biocellulose for the diaphragm is mounted on the super high frequency range.
Biocellulose was developed jointly by Sony, Ajinomoto Co., Ltd., and the Research Institute for Fiber and Polymer Materials of the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology. It has a high propagation speed comparable to that of aluminum, an internal loss comparable to that of paper, and an extremely light weight of approximately 0.01g except for the edge.

The exterior of the enclosure is finished with a veneer with a walnut.

Model Rating

Method	4-Way, 4-Speaker, Bass Reflex System, Floor Type
Unit	For low band : 30 cm cone type For Middle Range : 10 cm Balance Drive Type For High Pass : 3 cm Dome Type For Super High Range : 2 cm Dome Type
Playback frequency band	25 Hz to 35 kHz
Output sound pressure level	90dB/W/m
Impedance	6 Ω
Rated maximum input	100W
Instantaneous maximum input	300W
Crossover frequency	500 hz, 3.5 khz, 12 khz
Level control	Medium Range : 0 dB ~ -4dB Continuously Variable For High Frequency : 0 dB ~ -4dB Continuously Variable
External dimensions	Width 544x Height 1,026x Depth 445 mm
Weight	75kg