How authentically can you bring the philharmonic orchestra into your own living room?

For SoundSpace Systems, ‘high-end’ does not mean giving the music its own character – but rather preserving its original character. Effortless dynamics, natural spatiality, precise timing and a powerful foundation allow music to be experienced not just aurally, but physically and emotionally. The silence between the notes is also crucial: an exceptional loudspeaker must not only reproduce a note precisely, but also be able to let it go completely. The aim: the focus should be on the music, not the technology.

Dr Plessmann, you aim to bring the live experience of a philharmonic concert into the living room.

What is the most important element that is lost in 99 per cent of hi-fi systems, yet is preserved in yours?

Dr Michael Plessmann: Every musical performance thrives not only on the notes themselves, but on its dynamics, spatiality and the emotional connection. Whilst many loudspeakers reproduce the sound of a recording, they rob it of its vitality. For us, therefore, the development process begins with the question: what must be preserved so that music feels like a real performance?

It is the effortless dynamics, the authentic scale of the voices, the depth of the space and the natural foundation. Our philosophy is based on consistently minimising the losses along the path from the stage to the room. A high-end sound system is not characterised by the fact that it imparts its own character to the music, but rather that it preserves the music’s character. Only in this way does the music retain its soul and the listener experience the joy of high-end audio. 

Bringing an orchestra or a rock concert into a normal room comes up against physical limitations.

What challenges do you face in terms of setup and design?

Dr Michael Plessmann: A loudspeaker can only come close to replicating a live concert. There are physical key obstacles that we specifically address:

• Limited dynamic range & temporal coherence: Many systems compress sudden changes in volume. At SoundSpace Systems, high efficiency and a coherent overall system ensure that transients – such as the decay of a piano note – remain temporally precise and sound effortless even at realistic volume levels.

• Physical presence: You have to feel the music too. A fully integrated low-frequency foundation creates the physical basis so that the bass is perceived not merely as sound, but as a physical sensation.

• Spatial information & energy distribution: Our brain requires precise phase and sound dispersion. Controlled sound dispersion preserves the spatial information of the recording for a three-dimensional soundstage.

There are countless physical obstacles between the stage and the listening room. Each one robs the music of some of its naturalness, its energy or its spatiality. Our philosophy is that our audio system consistently minimises these losses, so that not only is the sound of a recording preserved, but also the character of the musical performance.

Live music rarely sounds perfectly polished; rather, it sounds lively and direct.

How do you bring this authenticity into the reproduction without the hi-fi speakers sounding imprecise?

Dr Michael Plessmann: Perfection is not the aim of a live concert at all. Too much technical perfection can quickly sound sterile. What we perceive as ‘live’ is a combination of precision and naturalness. A convincing reproduction preserves subtle differences in timing, the attack and decay of the instruments, and the tension in the space.

Many systems unintentionally ‘reorganise’ this information – they make everything smoother and smaller. This makes a brief impression with its wealth of detail, but over time it lacks that sense of naturalness. We have made a conscious decision not to artificially perfect anything. We want the performance to remain credible and authentic.

What is the secret behind the ‘silence’ between the notes?

Why is this so crucial to musicality?

Dr Michael Plessmann: The silence between the notes is not a void, but an active component of the music. It defines rhythm, tension and space. If the cabinet continues to resonate, dynamic compression masks subtle details, or intermodulation fills the room, this silence is lost.

The musicality of the reproduction is our top priority. A pianist also shapes the moment after striking a key; an orchestra builds tension through brief pauses. A high-end hi-fi loudspeaker must not only reproduce a sound precisely but also be able to let it go completely. When a moment is silent, we want it to remain silent. For it is from this stillness that dynamics and expression arise.

Many listeners report that with your loudspeakers, they don’t just hear the music but physically feel it.

How do you strike the balance between
intimate soloists and a full-sounding p
hilharmonic orchestra?

Dr Michael Plessmann: The sense of a live performance arises from the perfect interplay of impulse fidelity, dynamics and a seamless frequency response. In our systems, the treble, midrange and semi-active bass work together as a single, coherent sound source. This creates a seamless frequency range from the lowest to the highest octave.

The real art lies in scalability: a soloist demands intimacy and must not be artificially inflated. A large orchestra in a philharmonic hall demands enormous reserves and spatial depth, but must not be reduced to living-room proportions. An exceptional loudspeaker respects this standard. When dynamics, timing and the foundation are all preserved simultaneously, you experience the performance physically and emotionally – exactly as the musicians intended.