The passion that AV Enthusiast's have for their hobby is demonstrated by the members of the numerous and excellent AV web forums. It's not uncommon to find people from the AV press and AV industry contributing to the discussions. As a fan, I've always enjoyed reading and participating in discussions with the people responsible for creating the objects of my obsession.

I've always felt that there weren't enough instances of the AV press sitting down with people in the industry to provide a glimpse of who they are, what their background was, and giving them a chance to talk about their product in their own words.

In that spirit, AV Enthusiast is going to start publishing interviews with notable people in the industry. In this inaugural AV Enthusiast Interview, Jim Salk of Salk Sound was gracious enough to sit down and answer some questions for us:

Jim Salk: I started building speakers as a hobby in 2001 and things pretty much took off from there. As people saw and heard what we were doing, they asked if I could build speakers for them as well. I continued building speakers in my home for a while, but things gradually started getting out of hand. Soon we were at the point of no return and were forced to rent some manufacturing space. We've experienced very gratifying growth ever since.

 

JS: I worked as a studio musician as a teen and always loved working in that creative environment. So after studying electronics in college, I decided to build my own. I operated that studio for a number of years, but finally went on to more lucrative endeavors. Even though I no longer owned a studio, however, I continued to work in them ever since.

This experience had a significant impact on my philosophy when we began building speakers. I wanted to create designs that were every bit as accurate and detailed as the best studio monitors I was accustomed to. But I also wanted them to look like pieces of fine furniture rather than utility cabinets. So it was probably the combination of great sound and exotic finishes that attracted customers to our products from the start.

 

JS: I only had two real "jobs" in my prior life and both involved, among other things, extensive audio and video production. Part of both jobs entailed traveling around the world producing travel videos of the most exotic destinations I could find. So this provided an opportunity to both experience the best the world had to offer in terms of travel destinations and continue to work in studios producing finished pieces. As far as jobs go, I couldn't have asked for more.

 

JS: I do have a studio in my home with an automated mix-down console and the works. But I rarely have time to play with it these days. Salk Sound occupies almost all of my time - about 12 - 14 hours per day. If I had known how much work was involved in building speakers for a living, perhaps I would never had agreed to build the first pair for a customer. But that is a moot question at this point. Speaker building is what we do and it is the only thing we have time for these days.

JS: Well, there are benefits to offering products directly to consumers. But there are drawbacks as well. One huge benefit is that we have a direct connection to our customers. This allows us to easily provide them with exactly what they are looking for (regardless of what that is) and we can develop long-term friendships in the process.

Another major benefit is cost. A retail dealer will not take on a product without a margin of at least 40%. By selling direct, we can eliminate that cost (as well as others) and deliver twice the speaker for the same money. The industry norm is to put about 10 - 15% of the retail selling price into parts. In comparison, we can invest up to 40% of our selling price in parts.

The fact that our speakers out-perform most retail manufacturer's products on a $ for $ basis does not mean we are smarter or better speaker designers than they are. It just means that we really do deliver better speakers per dollar spent. In other words, better parts results in better speakers.

But this direct-to-consumer model does have some drawbacks, the most significant of which is exposure. With dealers nationwide, our speakers would be exposed to many more consumers. And more exposure would undoubtedly lead to more sales. But that distribution model means our prices would have to basically double and we would lose touch with our customer base. To date, we have fought moving in this direction. But who knows what the future will bring.

At the recent Rocky Mountain Audiofest, for example, we were approached by a number of large retail outlets wanting to take on our speaker lines. Since this would require us to increase prices and cease offering products directly to consumers, we told them it was not possible at this time. We do feel the direct-to-consumer model is the wave of the future. The question is, can we wait for the model to mature or do we take the easier route to growth and develop a dealer network? This is the question we wrestle with on an ongoing basis. For the time being at least, we will continue selling direct as we feel it offers the best value possible (and our customers fully agree). But we do have a responsibility to grow the business in order to provide a secure future for our employees. Who knows what the future will bring.

 

JS: I don't think you can be successful in any endeavor these days without mentors. I have many I rely on every day - woodworkers, finishers, metal workers, etc. For example, I knew absolutely nothing about working with wood when I began. So I found a mentor who helped me get started. What I find gratifying is that every once and a while this person now calls and asks for advice on some of his wood-working projects. That tells me we've come a long way in a very short time.

Surrounding yourself with good mentors is a critical key to success. And I was fortunate to find many people willing to help at every stage of my development (which continues today). I started out building DIY speaker designs and in the process met Dennis Murphy. Dennis is a consummate crossover artist as well as a practicing classical musician. So he has a strong technical background but, more importantly, a well-developed sense of hearing. A few years ago I was describing a speaker I was interested in building using the G2 ribbon tweeter and the Seas Excel W18 mid-woofer. I thought they would make a wonderful combination. Dennis agreed and offered to design the crossover. The result exceeded our expectations and was named the Veracity HT1. That was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship. Together, Dennis and I when on to develop a number of other successful designs, including our most popular - our flagship Veracity HT3. We continue to work on a number of new designs including our latest offering, the SongTower QWT - a small MTM tower in a mass-loaded quarter wave cabinet based on the pioneering work of Martin King. We feel it is the best speaker in the world currently under $1500 per pair (price subject to change once we have more manufacturing history under our belt).

Our success with these designs has also attracted the notice of other speaker/crossover designers interested in partnering with us. Jeff Bagby is one such example. Jeff, author of a number of highly acclaimed software programs for speaker design, and I have worked on a number of designs together including our HTS home theater series, a new high-efficiency design and a new subwoofer design. We consider it an honor to work hand-in-hand with these talented artists. Since we are not confined to producing designs that are priced for retail sale, I think they look upon it as an opportunity to really "show their stuff," so to speak. This makes for some truly wonderful relationships and what we feel are some spectacular products.

JS: There is a myth circulating on the internet that great 2-channel speakers make poor HT speakers and vice versa. This myth does have some basis in fact. Many budget speaker designs, focused on music reproduction, trade midrange quality for extended bass response. They use larger woofers to obtain deeper bass response. Unfortunately, these larger drivers typically do not perform as well in the midrange. (Actually, in a budget design, this trade-off makes some sense since people generally don't notice a lack of midrange detail as much as a lack of bass extension when listening to music.)

The problem is, in home theater all the dialog is in the midrange. So, using a budget speaker designed for extended bass response and lacking in midrange detail results in poor intelligibility. But that is simply not an issue with a great speaker design. When we design a new speaker, superior midrange detail is one of our primary goals and is not subject to compromise. This is because midrange comprises about 80% of what we hear. Unlike manufacturers designing speakers to sell at retail, we are not bound by limitations imposed to reach a reach a target price point. So we can concentrate on midrange quality and still spend the money to achieve impressive bass response. The result: accuracy, detail, utter transparency, pinpoint imaging and articulate and extended bass response are all hallmarks of our Veracity line of speakers. While these are obviously fabulous 2-channel music speakers, they are also among the very finest home theater speakers.

The bottom line is that a truly great 2-channel music speaker is also a great home theater speaker. And I personally would not be without either since I love great 2-channel sound, but also have a dedicated home theater. (I happen to be a film buff with a rather extensive collection of classic and contemporary films on laserdisc and dvd.)

 

JS: Historically, ribbon tweeters have suffered from limited vertical dispersion and very high prices. This made them very unattractive to speaker designers, especially those selling at retail and needing to reach a specific price target. But advances made in the last few years have pretty much eliminated these roadblocks and you are now seeing more and more ribbon-based designs. 

I have nothing against a good dome tweeter and we do use them on a number of our products. A good dome tweeter, when implemented well, can result in a gorgeous top end. But no dome tweeter I am aware of can compete with a ribbon in terms of micro detail and transparency. A good dome tweeter can produce a very lush top end. But with a good ribbon implementation, it is as if the speaker has no top end at all. It just seems to go on forever. It is like a crystal clear window into the sound. I have yet to hear a dome tweeter than can provide that illusion.

There is no such thing as the perfect speaker (although it is what we all strive for). Speaker design is all about trade-offs. Effectively balancing those trade-offs is the key to great speaker design. It is easy to criticize any given speaker driver, any crossover topology or any cabinet design. Personally, I don't like to involve myself in debates such as this. It is simply too limiting. I have heard too many great speakers that seem to violate all the "rules." And I have seen too many designs that looked great on paper (had all the right attributes) but failed to perform up to expectations.

To me, the only thing that matters is how a speaker performs. I do not want to hear great speakers, I want to hear great music. If the speakers sound impressive, I am not impressed. If they call attention to themselves for any reason, I regard that as a flaw. I want the speakers to totally disappear leaving only the music. I find when listening to music with the ribbon-based Veracity series speakers, I don't really notice there are speakers in the room. It is more like the performers are in the room with me. So I am very pleased with these designs and they just happen to use ribbon tweeters.

 

JS: This is the type of question I am often asked and am not in the best position to answer. I simply haven't the opportunity to listen to our speakers with every combination of quality amps and preamps out there. I typically refer these questions to our owner's group at audiocircle.com.

I currently use components by Audio by Van Alstine. These are moderately-priced units that perform extremely well with our speakers. Other amps I have used or our owner's seem to be very pleased with include Bryston, Moscode, Simaudio, Odyssey and others.

But this reminds me of a conversation I had with a customer. He had $2500 to spend and was wondering if a $1200 receiver or a $1500 receiver would result in the best system. I told him to purchase a pair of Veracity HT1's and go find a used Panasonic XR45 digital receiver. The resulting combination would be $2250 and I told him to pocket the remaining $250. I didn't expect he would take my advice but I told him that if he did, he would end up with the best $2500 system possible. He did take my advice and was very happy with the results.

The point is, the speakers are by far the most important link in the chain. My advice is always to purchase the best speakers you can and don't worry too much about the rest. If you think about it, speakers are normally rated at +/- 3db. You would never even consider an amp with this degree on non-linearity. The performance difference between a moderate and high end amp is insignificant when compared to the difference in speaker performance. If you start with great speakers, you will get great sound. Sure, the better the source gear, the better the sound will be. But even with moderate source gear, great speakers will produce great sound. (Even the best source gear will not perform anywhere near its potential with lesser speakers.) So by starting with great speakers, you will get great sound right off the bat. Later, if you ever upgrade source components, the sound will only improve. I have demonstrated our speakers with a $300 receiver in the past and no one has ever been less than impressed with the results.

JS: Well, I never like to announce products before they are "ready for prime time." I have had too much experience with designs that looked fabulous on paper, but failed to impress me enough to offer them as a product. But we are working on a number of projects I have high hopes for.

Although they are our most costly speakers, our Veracity HT3's have become our most popular by a wide margin. I developed this model primarily for myself and didn't really expect to sell that many pairs. But apparently, there were quite a few people out there who were looking for the same things I was.

Now that the HT3's are about 3 years old, it is time to start working on a new flagship model. But there would be no reason to introduce a model that was not a significant step up. And that represents a challenge. The HT3's do everything extremely well. For example, the HT3's F3 is 29Hz, low enough to reproduce about virtually any traditional musical instrument. Improving on this performance characteristic will require even more bass extension - no small feat. Although we will not do it at the expense of sound quality, we will try to increase sensitivity somewhat. And although the HT3's imaging and sound staging is quite spectacular, we do have a few ideas on improvements in this area as well. But as I indicated, this is a real challenge.

So I wouldn't expect to be making any new product announcements in this area for quite some time. All I can say is, we are constantly working on new models that break new ground in one area or another. So "stay tuned..."

I want to thank Jim for giving us his time and for giving us all a window to Salk Sound and the man behind the designs.

If you:

A. Love music and are interested in loudspeakers that are true to it

B. Admire world-class, furniture grade enclosures

C. Can't afford to take out a second mortgage for your loudspeaker purchase

D. All of the above, go directly to Salk Sound