Suncoast Audio's Sensational Rooms At FIAE 2024
True reference gear with Clarisys Audio, VAC, MSB, and an MBL room too!
Florida International Audio Expo 2024 Show Report By Steven R. Rochlin

  As with virtually all shows, the local dealers come out strong to showcase their best gear and the FIAE 2024 was no exception. Suncoast Audio, based in Sarasota (FL), featured one room with MBL gear and assorted components while the other contained the Clarisys Audio Auditorium speakers, VAC amplification, MSB digital gear, etc.

Since there's been a lot of cyberink about the MBLs, and most know of their excellent products, I'm going to focus on the Clarisys Audio room.

Doing a double-take as the Clarisys Audio Auditorium speakers are quite large at 76" high and 36" wide, yet are only 4.3" deep. Why so thin? Because they use a custom-made and very special ribbon / panel driver that uses very strong neodymium magnets and a double-sided bass panel. This very strong magnetic field ensures a precise reaction from your amplification while ensuring the load is within about 6 Ohms. The 42mm wide multi-segmented seven-trace design ribbon midrange enters the music at ~500 Hz.

According to the company, this is the widest design within any loudspeaker. For the uppermost frequencies, a three-trace ribbon tweeter starts at ~9 kHz and goes up to over 20 kHz. To ensure design rigidity, the aluminum substructure is extremely well designed and prevents undesirable flexing.

Paying careful attention to every part of the design, their passive external crossover uses high-quality copper foil internal wiring, capacitors from Jantzen Superior Z, Multicap, plus custom inductors and resistors. Bring a friend or three during setup as each loudspeaker of the stereo pair weighs in at 507 lbs(!)… plus the external crossover. The nominal 6 Ohm impedance, 90dB/W/m sensitivity, and frequency response from 20 Hz to 20 kHz (-3dB) means that virtually any good-output amplifier should drive them.

Speaking of amplification, VAC's vacuum tube Statement Phono Stage, VAC Statement Preamplifier, and VAC 300 IQ amplifier had the overall system sound truly glorious! With Various MSB bits for digital and AudioQuest cables plus a turntable, this was without a doubt a very, very serious bit of kit (as the British would say).

My wife and I enjoyed quite a bit of time listening to various tunes on this very high-performance stereo system. When your wife smiles as the music flows, you know there's something truly special here. Asking her opinions, she said it sounded natural and easy. Agreed, there's a sense of sound that is incredibly well-defined, yet no stress, no strain, and filled the room with music. I tend to call these systems "all-day listenable" because they are so natural to the ears. If you ever have a chance to hear the Clarisys Audio speakers my wife and I highly recommend it. As always... enjoy the music.

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