Tír Na HiFi

Came across this in the Innovation section of today's Irish Times. Nice to see a local company having a go. I wonder if they'ld lend Fran a pair of stands for a review?

Standing up for the perfect sound

ARDAN AUDIO: BRENT SMITH has a passion for sound. A musician and audio engineer with more than 35 years experience in all aspects of the sound business, he founded Ardán Audio in 2009 to develop products for the high end of the home and professional audio markets.

For those who don’t demand much from their sound system, speaker stands are unlikely to loom large on their horizon. But for dyed-in-the-wool audiophiles, speaker stands can come between them and their sleep. Brent Smith hopes that his company’s first product, the Elevation Pro speaker stand, will ensure they get a good night’s rest.

“I’ve spent a lifetime looking for the perfect stand and never found it,” Smith says. “There are currently none that tilt, rotate and provide mechanical vibration isolation. There are a few foam acoustic isolating pads but they have no tilt and rotate capability, which are critical to the quality of the sound heard out front. This product has taken two years of intense design and development to bring to the market.”

Smith estimates that there are about 10 million buyers of top-end audio products worldwide and he would like Ardán to capture about one per cent of this market. The Elevation Pro will sell at $1,499 (€1,048) in the US. Prices for other markets have yet to be agreed.

“We think it’s virtually impossible to establish a quality brand starting from a low-cost mass product. Our strategy is to start with the Pro product and bring out a lower-cost version and other products over the coming two years. We have 22 products on the roadmap – not all to do with speaker stands, but all to do with better audio quality.”

Ardán sees itself as a quality audio design company, not a manufacturer. It will license manufacturers worldwide to produce its designs and sell through distributors. The first versions of the Elevation Pro are being made in Italy.

Smith says Ardán’s products are fully protected by patent and that, while it is difficult to prevent people copying an idea if they are intent on doing so, international law tends to back the patent holder if push comes to shove.

“We think the focus should be on building our sales and our brand and ultimately this will protect us,” he says.

www.ardanaudio.com

I hate to see a post that doesn't get a response. Enjoyed reading it Johnny and you're right, it is nice to see a local company having a go. The very best of luck to them.....

The stands look very well made - but then they'd want to be at that price. It would be interesting to try them out - the main market would have to be either for floorstanders or height adjustable ones for bookshelf speakers.

If those small studio monitor one are a grand, then bigger ones may be prohibitively expensive - hope not though.

I wish them great success and not only that, but anyone giving it a go at the moment deserves support.


Fran

Fran wrote: the main market would have to be either for floorstanders or height adjustable ones for bookshelf speakers.


Fran

I had a fairly long response to this typed out yesterday but then something happened and I lost it (hit a wrong key or something - it happens on this laptop. Anyway...)
If the max weight is 20kg upright then where's the real market?

A < 20kg bookshelf speaker will still need a stand or shelf of some sort - doesn't this effect the stability of the Ardan device? It must.
A "typical" low to high end floorstander such as a B&W 683 is 27kg. Anyway a speaker of that quality and price is designed to be used on spikes alone.
I have to admit that as a Quad owner I'd be interested in trying them, the tilt facility in particular is intriguing but my speakers are 25.3kg so again too heavy and that's in upright mode.

I can see this stand being useful in a studio as illustrated but for home use? I think that's the marketing department at work. A product in search of a wider market. I sincerely wish them well but I suspect it's more of a niche product than most Hifi products and that's saying something!

Good lads. I enjoyed that and all very valid points too. It seems they are only suitable for home book shelf/studio speakers anyway and as Ivor says they seem to be a niche product....and they are a bit on the expensive side too despite being well made. The best of luck to them anyway.





The EVP-M1 medium professional speaker stand is designed to support a maximum weight of 20 kg (44lbs) in an upright position, with maximum speaker dimensions of 390mm high x 292mm wide x 332 mm deep (15.3 inches high x 11.5 inches wide x 13 inches deep). We do not guarantee that all speakers with these dimensions will be appropriate for the EVP-M1. If you have any queries please contact us on sales@ardanaudio.com. A speaker may be rested on its side but there are some limitations in use – please see the EVP-M1 User Guide for more details.

If these stands are only suitable for standmounts, they will require a stand themselves. That's very, very niche.

.....Or, umm... nearfield, or something.

[Edit] I can't help but think of my own pair of Sennheiser HD650's....

Made in Offaly, went to a distributor in the USA, sold by a website in Asia, bought by a Dublin man with only an IPOD, sold to me via Boards.ie on Grafton Street, now on my head in Laois..... [Edit]\\\

DancingPriest wrote:If these stands are only suitable for standmounts, they will require a stand themselves. That's very, very niche.

My thoughts exactly.

Ivor wrote:

DancingPriest wrote:If these stands are only suitable for standmounts, they will require a stand themselves. That's very, very niche.

My thoughts exactly.

But that's the whole point!! Of course, these special speaker isolators (my own term for what these devices are supposed to do) need something to sit on, be it a studio desk or speaker stand - that a hi-fi person will already own. The whole point, from my quick read of the design principle, of these devices is to completely isolate the speaker from whatever it's resting on and also with the added benefit of manuevering the speaker to a sonically enhancing angle. This is a good thing. It's way overpriced but so are a lot of so called sound improvers. The only downside is after nearly two years of developing the thing the least they could have done is specify the exact speakers that would suit it. Or at least make a universal device to suit all bookshelf speakers. Maybe they do but really IMO they've put it on the market too soon without covering all the important areas for both studio and home use. This causes confusion. It could also be a marketing ploy too. Who knows ? Somehow I don't think so....

Hi to all,

Firstly, thank you for your comments on the Ardán Elevation Pro speaker stands. I am the creator and my company, together with my business partner, is the patent holder. I will try to answer all questions and am also happy to provide a product to Fran for review - we should have more product in mid next week.

There are a few places to go to first, that answer some of the questions - the brochure and user guide can be downloaded at http://www.ardanaudio.com/products/ under the Publications sub-tab, and our blog, entitled "How can speaker stands improve your sound?" can be found at http://ardanaudio.wordpress.com/. There's also extensive detail on our backgrounds here: http://www.ardanaudio.com/About.

Also a couple of errors to clear up: The Irish Times article was nicely written by a journalist there and we appreciated that, but we were only half way through the pricing on deadline and have now finalised it quite differently. It's based on extensive market feedback and the announcement will be made shortly, so here it is as a first for this forum:

“Ardán Audio has undertaken an enormous amount of market testing in Ireland, New York, the US West Coast and mid-US States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Germany. What we've arrived at is an innovative offer – a single global price, including delivery, any taxes and duties, of €488 all-in, delivered in 4-5 days to virtually 90% of the world, with our logistics partners. The only exception is Canada, where we have a sole authorised Canadian distributor, - Ron Sluzar – at Pacific Island Audio - Tel: 250-658-9540 •Fax: 250-658-9541 - •Email: ron@pacificislandaudio.com - •Web: http://www.pacificislandaudio.com, where Ron is free to set pricing for Canada, and I’m sure he’ll be keenly competitive in that national market. We may authorise other distributors in territories excepting Canada, but our own online single global price will be €488 all-in. For some deliveries and locations, it may cost us more than others, but we will accept the differential ourselves in order to provide such an innovative offer. For Businesses with a VAT Reg number – please contact us by email at sales@ardanaudio.com to allow us to calculate VAT, shipping and duty (if any) for your location, to provide a zero-rated price and bulk delivery.”

I could write a book on all the hoops we went through - VAT, freight, tariff codes, anti-trust, MAP, Duties, import regs, on and on, and in the end, we came back to our core - that is, we're audio guys, not flippin' experts in transfer pricing and tweakin' separate markets and all that stuff. This is not about making a huge mark-up and ripping the customer off - we've genuinely got this down to the lowest possible price we can. So, we've bit the bullet and will supply it through shops that will carry our products and also direct, this is what we've decided to do. We're pretty close to announcing two outlets in Dublin and elsewhere that you can go in and try them out and we've had amazing responses from some shops that really get the concept and the product. Hopefully it will grow in distribution as well as direct.

So, that's where we are on pricing and next week it should be up on our web for purchase.

But this is about audio quality and better sound. I'm mindful of the comments and running out of words. This weekend is also busy and I may not be able to respond again until next week, so please consider the following as brief answers in the meantime that can be expanded on later:

1. We set maximum weight and dimensions for product and consumer protection reasons and all that. The stands are so well made, a speaker up to 30kg could be placed on it, in fact, it has been stood on and hasn't broken, but we have to set limits. We're really proud of the precision, the quality and the robustness - it's taken two long years and multiple prototypes.

2. Floor pylons for couch height and meter bridge height are on the way. Part of the delay is that most stands physically attach the speaker to the stand - they become one vibrating unity - and our ideas are somewhat different, as explained in the blog link above. We are way down the road in design mode right now.

3. We want the stands to be used in homes as well as studios. Put simply, in my home PT studio, the sound stage is unbelievable - everything is exactly where it should be, with beautiful clarity in the bass, crisp mids, and subtle, nicely placed highs. I get excited just turning the rig on! For the first time, I can get real depth of field by placing some sounds in front of others right across the sound stage. I no longer deal with body absorption, vibrating mounting surfaces, muddy base, and confused mids at near-field. These things I’ve previously only heard in very expensive studios and whilst I want the studios to love the product, I also want the home recording musician to have the same depth of field and clarity to mix and go wild. It may be a niche pro product, but for everyone.

I hope this is enough to start. We're proud to be an Irish company doing this. I'm originally from New Zealand but my ancestors are from County Mayo and my business partner is Irish. Thank you again for your comments. Humility is always wise in audio, and we listen to every comment and it informs what we do. We genuinely want people to love the product and get the best out of their sounds.

all the best

Brent Smith

Brent,

Thanks for taking the time to explain a few things. We'll be watching Fran very closely indeed! BTW the two places you mentioned in Dublin, would one of them be Cloney Audio?
Finally will you doing one for floor standing speakers and how much?Anyway the very best of luck with your product too....