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Carl Marchisotto Makes His Statement With The $37,000 Phalanx / Poseidon System

Alón Phalanx and Poseidon Speaker System
By Tom Miiller

Today it's kind of middle of the road in pricing for super-speakers, even if you include its $15,000 companion subwoofer system, Poseidon.

Who could have foreseen that Wilson Audio would make a market at the $60,000 price point and that a whole slew of other manufacturers would tag along? While Alón's Phalanx system (I am referring to the Phalanx and Poseidon whenever I call it a system) is well removed from the $60,000 price point, its designer, Carl Marchisotto, makes no apologies for its performance and fully expects it to compete at any price point. Good thing, that, because $37,000 ain't affordable any way you look at it.

You Pays The Price, You Gets The Hardware
For $37,000, a consumer has the right to expect some serious hardware, and that you get with the Phalanx system. Comprised of nine separate elements (only one of them small), the black piano-finish Phalanx system will easily fill a moderately sized listening room. There's a point in that - the Phalanx system was designed to work in a moderately sized listening room.

The main part of the system, the Phalanx, is an unusual shaped speaker (see picture, I'm not describing it!) that is dipolar from the lower midrange through the treble. Even the tweeter, a one-inch aluminum-alloy dome, is an open-backed design (thus, dipolar). All of the Phalanx system drivers use cobalt magnets, which are said to have a stronger field and thus reduce distortion. On the curvy baffle of the Phalanx, the middle 5.25-inch driver is the sole midrange unit. Surrounding it are five 5.25 mid-woofers that handle the 125 to 400Hz region. The dipole baffle sits atop a sealed infinite-baffle box, which houses a 10-inch woofer that extends into the low 30Hz region if the Phalanx is operated alone. If it is to be used with the Poseidon subs, Alón installs a high-pass filter in the Phalanx's passive crossover to roll off signals below 40Hz. Before I forget, the Phalanx's passive crossover accounts for two more pieces of the system. It is separate from the Phalanx cabinet and sits in its own box on the floor, connected to the Phalanx by a quadwired cable harness from Alón (snake city). Throughout this audition, I drove the Phalanx with the Audio Research Reference 600 or conrad-johnson Premier Eight XS power amplifiers.

The Poseidon subs are a two-channel, five-piece system. Each channel is comprised of two sealed footlocker-sized boxes that each contain two 12-inch woofers, one loaded inside the cabinet behind the other (isobarik loading), which is mounted on the cabinet surface. One cabinet is stacked on top of the other, so that the external woofers are facing each other, separated by no more than an inch. This creates "dynamic compression loading." The frequency response of the Poseidon is 16 to 40Hz, a true subwoofer. Each channel is driven with a stereo amplifier (user provided; in my case, a pair of BEL 1001 Mk IIs), one channel per box. The Poseidon electronic crossover is a highly modified Dahlquist DQLP- I crossover that is -adjustable for (1) level, (2) low-pass frequency and (3) equalization at 20Hz.

Complicated? You bet. But for $37,000. your dealer had better handle the installation

The First Duty Of A Super Speaker Is Delicacy
It matters not the cost, a high end superspeaker is not a public-address system. It's not supposed to drive a concert hall to realistic levels. It's supposed to render the full frequency range neutrally, with realistic, undistorted dynamics and ultra-resolution in a normal sized room (or maybe a little bit bigger than normal, but nothing the size of a basketball court, i.e., 94 feet long). Loud is easy. Horns are loud. It's the delicacy that's tough.

And it is delicacy that the Phalanx system has. Especially in the midrange and treble. In the bass, it is subtle - a rare quality for a mega-buck high end speaker.

Look at the driver complement; it's no surprise the Alón is subtle. One tweeter, one midrange and five relatively small drivers handling the midbass. The Phalanx system is not designed to play stupendously loud (though it will get quite loud enough for this listener); it is designed for that delicacy - nuance. Sublime revelations.

Tonally, the Phalanx system is a chameleon. Alón speakers are typified by a relaxed, slightly mellow presentation and that's what you think the Phalanx system does when first you listen. Drop in Braveheart (London 448 295-2) and you would swear that the system was smooth, dark and earthy in tone. Then spin Symphonic Star Trek (Telarc CD-80383) and reverse course, Captain. Forward, slightly edgy and bleached through the upper midrange. Would you care to guess what these two recordings sound like? The Phalanx system is just as revealing of component differences. I used it in Part I of the $200 CD Player Survey (June 1996) and I really should have given the Alón the by-line. That's how quickly and surely I could hear the sound of each CD player. All products should make the reviewer's job so easy.

Now stop just a minute there. You're thinking: "Reviewer's tool, overly analytical, not musical!" Aren't you? Well, it is analytical in the literal meaning of the word. Not over-analytical, but revealing. Not ruthless,, though. When you lower the distortion across a wide midrange and treble bandwidth as Marchisotto has. done here, the speaker will expose everything, but punish nothing. Most of all, it won't punish the listener. Be careful, though, if you try to push this speaker into extreme high levels; the distortion will creep up on you and destroy the carefully crafted illusion.

That Good Ol' Dipole Presentation
To me, the most striking attribute of the Phalanx system is its sonic presentation. Striking and attractive. I love the open, relaxed presentation that dipole designs seem to do in their sleep. I agree, the imaging is not as pinpoint as the top monopoles (e.g., Wilson WATTS), but I can live with that. There is a realism in the way the Alón creates a soundfield populated by credible images. Never has "Everything Is Possible" by The Flirtations (Live Out On The Road Flirt Records FL1002) sounded so soothing, as it should. It's a lullaby. Each of the five voices singing in a cappella harmony were part of a hypnotic whole, and yet each was nearly corporeal in their individuality. One voice did not blend spatially or timbrally with another. This was the highlight of my time with the Phalanx system.

Part of this magic relates directly to the bass. When you hear this system, you would be excused for thinking that the Poseidon subs were turned off. But turn them off and you'll be shocked to hear the environment shrink. Rarely does the Poseidon actually "play a note." Its job is environmental, in large part, and it adds to the experience in subtle but significant ways. Bombast is out of the question, although there is real conviction when the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra hits the downbeat at the start of the "Main Theme From Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (Symphonic Star Trek). You'll whoop with the thrill and then giggle at yourself for letting go. And hit replay.

Limitations? Well, most of the superspeakers will play louder, but I already mentioned that. Ditto the extreme complexity of the system. The only significant sonic limitation is in the system's resolution.

Whoa, there, buddy! Don't get going just yet.

The Alón is a state-of-the-art caliber speaker in the realm of resolution. it does it naturally, without artificial edge. In this respect, I think it is better than dang near everything out there. But there is a limit and here it s: The resolution of the midrange and treble exceeds that of the bass in this speaker. Not that the bass is bad, but as a monopole design, it loads the room differently than do the mid and treble drivers. Thus, you get more. room distortion in the bass.

Regardless of where it's coming from, though, you hear it. In this case, you don't hear it as gross-overhang and bloated nodes. This bass is much too good for that. What you will hear is a slight loss in timbre differentiation as you descend in frequency. Further, there is a slight softening of the transient character in the bass. A smoothing and minor veiling. I'll wager that most listeners won't even notice these effects unless their sonic compass is permanently aligned with the concert hall. Why? Most speakers are much worse in the bass (especially in a normal sized room) and you never reach a point where you can hear these more subtle distortions.

The Alón's bass performance points us toward the next level in overall speaker performance. How so? The clarity of the midrange, and even the treble, depends on low distortion in the bass. As good as the Phalanx system is in the higher octaves and the tweeter is a marvel within its dynamic range - it could actually be much better if the bass were even cleaner. This point goes to the core of speaker performance. The cleaner the bass, the more open the midrange and the less treble emphasis is required to balance against the bass and to "extract" detail from the midrange. That's the future, a future that Alón has taken a firm step toward.

The Decision Is Yours
Is this the speaker for you? You had better answer that one yourself It does not sound impressive unless the music is impressive. It doesn't have the snap and sparkle that so many listeners (mistakenly) call "life." It just doesn't contribute that way. It plays the music, whether it's Beethoven or Peter Gabriel. It is one of the best speakers available in the world regardless of price. Enjoy!