Archive: Shahinian Arc

By Michael Jones

August 2008 (first published in August 1995)

Shahinian Arc loudspeaker. $5300 in 1995 (around $9000 today)

The review appeared in the August 1995 issue of AudioVideo (now AudioEnz)

“The box loudspeaker is a travesty of acknowledged acoustic principles!" exclaims Richard Shahinian, speaker designer.

By all accounts a man of genial nature, Shahinian becomes passionate about music – particularly orchestral – and loudspeaker design. More about Dick Shahinian's ideas on speakers later; first let me tell you a little about the man and his company.

Although forming the company that bears his name in 1977, Richard Shahinian has produced speakers for many years prior to that date. 1965 saw his first design for Harman/Kardon. This was followed in 1970 by the Citation 13 speaker, important for two reasons: it was Shahinian's first commercial speaker that fired into the air, rather than directly towards the listener; it was also the direct ancestor of the loudspeaker under discussion here, the $5300 Shahinian Arc.

(As an interesting aside, fellow AudioVideo scribe John Paul came very close to buying a pair of Citation 13s several years ago. He still has the brochure – and would still like a pair!)

Philosophical concerns

Shahinian literature – when you can find it-makes for an interesting read. Unlike many (most?) audio companies, Richard Shahinian makes no secret that his speaker designs are based on, and developed further from, ideas from many of the audio pioneers – Olsen, Hegeman, Bailey, etc.

But Shahinian speakers are not mere copies of old ideas and designs. The application of ideas are original, and the execution of these ideas are unique.

Richard Shahinian's main philosophical point regarding loudspeaker design, which permeates throughout his speaker designs, is that of musical waveshapes.

"Since all sonic wave forms [ie, from musical instruments] are radial in origin," argues Richard Shahinian, forward-firing speakers – virtually all models you'll see in the shops-cannot properly reproduce music.

This is taken to its logical extremes in Shahinian's more expensive poly-directional loudspeakers – the Obelisk, Hawk and Diapason models (the later two have separate mid-treble modules, sitting atop separate bass speakers).

The Arc is not a completely poly-directional model. Instead it offers what Shahinian describes as an "indirect presentation" of music.

Arc of a driver

As a picture is said to be worth a thousand words, I ask you to look at the photographs accompanying this article while reading this description. The Arc is a short, floorstanding speaker. The drive units-a cone woofer, dome midrange and tweeter – are found on the top of the speaker.

But instead of being parallel to the floor, the top is angled slightly towards the listener, so that the drive units are firing both upwards and outwards. On the rear of the speaker is a passive radiator, a electrically undriven drive unit that responds to changes in pressure inside the speaker cabinet (it is a variation of a ported loudspeaker).

This compact, floorstanding box is deceiving, in more ways than one. Its height is short for a floor-stander at only 680mm. Yet, with the grills on, the eye perceives the Arc as being a mere 560mm high-the height of the veneer on the front panel. They are discrete in appearance, which makes them very room-friendly.

You can't see them in the photographs, but the Arc's sit on little plastic feet – apparently the Shahinian philosophy doesn't agree with the use of spikes. I’ll have more to say about this, and the sonic effect, later.

While the Arc has been manufactured for over ten years, the speaker recently underwent a redesign by Richard's son, Vasken Shahinian. The shape and configuration remained the same; the changes came in the midrange and treble drive units.

Replacing the former cloth and plastic midrange and treble domes are two new designs manufactured in Germany from titanium, specifically to Shahinian's design.

Familiarity breeds contempt

I’ve been familiar with Shahinian speakers for several years, but I've never really warmed to them. When everything was perfect, they could sound magnificent. But often, particularly with rock music, they could take my ears off.

Some Shahinian enthusiasts tried to convince me that the speakers were simply very accurate; just “telling it like it was”.

Have you ever noticed how proponents of hi-fi products that could easily sound hard or harsh proclaimed its “accuracy”? And how, when the mark two version later came out which didn’t suffer from the over-the-top predilections of its predecessor, that suddenly that “accuracy” was no longer needed?

Anyway, I remained a Shahinian agnostic.

New ears

What got me interested in investigating further was an experience in the Auckland Shahinian dealer, Soundline Audio. I wandered into the store and, while Soundliner Chris Sinclair was busy with a customer, I went into the sound room.

Now, after spending all day working at Soundline, Chris spent his nights as a recording engineer, recording and mixing that godawful modern rock music that I dislike. (Having passed another age milestone, I can now safely proclaim myself a boring old fart!)

On the old Shahinians, I would have been driven out of the room (by the sound, not the music). With the new Arcs, I could listen. I was interested in hearing more. So began AudioVideo’s first Shahinian review.

Shahinians present music in a different way to most conventional speakers. So much so that, if you've listened to most of your music through speakers, rather than live, they may initially sound wrong to you (“they’re different; therefore they're wrong”!)

But listen again and you'll note some qualities to the Arc’s that are rare to find in speakers, no matter the price.

There’s a sense of openness and space that is intoxicating, which makes other speakers sound closed in. The Arc's may not offer the pin-point imaging of many speakers, but their recreation of the space of an acoustic venue (or a studio- created space for that matter) is stunning.

Associated with this is the almost unlimited sense of dynamics. Virtually all speakers compress dynamics. We may not always notice this – until it's taken away. The Arc’s, from the midrange up, enable the music to soar free, to ring out, without either squashing the sound or causing it to harden up. This is very rare to find in a loudspeaker.

Looking at conventional hi-fi parameters, bass extension of the Arc’s in my room was very good. They went down to 40Hz in my room without any problems – excellent performance for a small speaker. The bass quality was also very good: articulate with good reproduction of the performers pace, rhythm and timing.

John Paul brought around a CD by jazz/blues singer Joe Williams. He has a deep, rich voice – one that is easily compromised by under-controlled woofers and out-of-control speaker cabinets. On the Arc's his voice is deep and rich, but without the false boom and chestiness found in many other speakers.

The upper midrange and treble is a little hot when the grilles are off. But the Arc’s look a little silly with the grilles off. With the grilles on, the openness and transient attack were still there, and in better proportion.

What I find hardest to describe is the sense of “rightness” about the Arc’s. After a couple of hours with the Arc’s, it was easy to forget about hi-fi and just listen to, and enjoy, a wide range of music.

There were areas that could be better – the Epos ES25 reviewed elsewhere in this issue, for example, sounded more transparent. But the Arc’s had a sense of rightness, a sense of whole, that made it easy to forget hi-fi and concentrate on the important things-the music.

Spike it!

I had my suspicions about the plastic feet on the bottom of the speakers. Like many others, I have found that most speakers benefit from being rigidly spiked into or on to the floor (depending on whether the floor is wooden or concrete). That the Arc's wobbled around when sitting on my carpet bothered me.

Suspicions aroused, I looked for a solution. To my rescue came Robert McAdam of Sound Creations, manufacturer of equipment racks and speaker stands. Robert loaned me one of his "sound plates", a thick metal plate, spiked in each corner, designed for floor-standing speakers.

Placing the Arc’s on the sound plates improved the sound. The slight blurring of the bass and lower midrange when the music became complex, that I’d noticed earlier, had gone. The speaker sounded better, without losing any of its previous positive qualities.

If you ask nicely, and give the secret handshake, Shahinian dealers will tell you about a stand manufactured by the New Zealand importer. The Arc sits within this ugly, lethal looking, brute of a stand.

Using this stand – which I did not try – requires a modification to the Arc. First, grab hold of a hammer. Then – and I am not making this up – break off the Arc's plastic feet with blows from the hammer. This modification is not reversible.

Driving home

My time with the Arc’s was immensely enjoyable. Both music and TV/video sound – there's terrific sound on many TV programmes – came alive in my lounge.

The question must be asked: are they worth $5300? For certain music lovers, the answer is yes. I can see many people buying a pair of Arcs, and then forgetting about hi-fi for the next ten years.

Nobody looking for speakers in this price range should not buy any other speaker until they have listened long and hard to the Shahinian Arcs.