Oribitsound Air D1 reinvents high-end loudspeaker design

British audio company Orbitsound has introduced the world’s first high-end one box loudspeaker. The Air D1 presents an omindirectional stereo soundstage using Airsound audio processing, a proprietary technology that the company has been pioneering in soundbars for a number of years.

Using a mix of forward facing and side facing drivers, it doesn’t produce a sweet spot, and so can be placed anywhere within a room. Inside CI had an opportunity to listen to the system at its London launch, and was amazed by the coherent stereo image the single enclosure produced.

There’s a forward facing textile dome tweeter and midrange array, supported by two 10-inch neodymium bass woofers. Two additional side-mounted Airsound drivers, running out of phase, create spatial width.

Connectivity includes Bluetooth aptX and Wi-Fi, digital optical digital, analogue stereo and Ethernet. The system is 24-bit 96-192kHz capable.

The Air D1 is also notable for using a transconductance amplifier design, which Orbitsound has dubbed Airamp. Transconductance is a solution to an inherent problem in traditional audio systems, says designer Daniel Fletcher. “With standard designs, a perfect signal from the amplifier may have distortions added, due to vagaries in the loudspeaker. But with Orbitsound’s Transconductance design, the amplifier continually monitors the behaviour of the loudspeaker, and actively corrects its own output to eliminate all such distortions.”

The system delivers 70W to the tweeter, 2x100W for the mid and Airsound drivers, and 150W to the bass woofers.

The Air C1 is handmade in the UK, and is currently available through Harrods, priced at £12000.