Arabesque Minissimo

In a perfect world the only parts of a loudspeaker you could hear would be the energy generated by the drive units. But we don’t live in a perfect world, and conventional loudspeakers face a constant battle to eliminate the sound of their cabinets, contained air mass and crossovers from the musical equation. Most enclosures rely on damping to prevent resonance and standing waves, but they tend to simply slow and spread the unwanted energy, blurring detail and limiting dynamics. The Arabesque cabinet shape was developed specifically to minimize these problems, using advanced Comsol mechanical and gas dynamic modeling software. The non-symmetrical shape of this high-end loudspeaker eliminates parallel walls and common dimensions, resulting in natural resonant decay without resorting to damping materials.

Adopting a one-piece cabinet construction, milled from a solid block of resin/metal matrix material is itself a costly process, but dramatically reduces the time necessary for assembly. Additionally, it not only finally reveals the true beauty of the Arabesque shape, but also allows us to further optimize cabinet performance with its progressive curves and total control over cabinet wall thickness.

I consider it the king – or perhaps, the queen – of luxury-grade two-way loudspeakers - Doug Schneider (Soundstage).

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Development

The Arabesque Minissimo is a radical departure from the previous plate-to-plate construction of the Arabesque Mini. The cabinet is milled from a single piece of metal loaded polymer material, a fully automated process that creates a monocoque enclosure in which we can control not just the curvature of the walls but their thickness too, further optimising the resonant behaviour of the structure and the enclosed air volume. Combine that with the same drivers used in the Arabesque Mini, the new Natural Science crossover topology, an integrated stand and monocrystal internal wiring and the result is a compact speaker of unprecedented performance at a lower price than even we thought was possible. The milled cabinet also allows us to make use of automotive paint finishes, making the Minissimo as visually versatile as it is attractive. Small speakers never sounded – or looked – so good.

Materials

The best design in the world can still be undermined by poor execution. Just as much care has gone into the selection of parts and materials as we invested in the design of the Arabesque Minissimo. The cabinet material delivers remarkable mechanical precision and performance, and the hard-wired crossover employs huge air-cored inductors, precision silver-oil capacitors and pure graphite resistors. The carefully selected drivers provide incredible power handling and low compression. When combined, the result is a sound that defies the diminutive dimensions of the speaker. Seamless bandwidth and speed of response delivers the musical scale, dynamic impact and drama associated with much larger designs. The harmonic detail and instrumental texture, intimacy and natural sense of space remind you what makes small speakers so special.

Shaped by nature

Cabinet & Drivers Additional Specs The Minissimo Diamond The Scala Reviews & Awards

Cabinet & Drivers

Way of operation: Two-way full range

Cabinet
– Cabinet machined from one solid piece of metal composite.
– Smooth shape minimizes resonance and allows for wide dispersion for easiest in room placement.
– Stands with internal dampening included
– Low noise bottom port for low distortion bass extension
– Laquered in three high-gloss multi layered durable colors.
Drivers
– Special Berilium dome HF loudspeaker with Neodynium rare earth magnet (diamond tweeter for Minissimo Diamond version).
– Special long through bass loudspeaker with Neodynium rare earth magnet.

Additional Specs

Cross-over filter
– Second Order Natural Sience filter (low Q).
Parts
– Large Silver-oil capacitors
– Low loss, low distortion air inductors.
– High purity resistors
Internal wiring
– All Crystal cable solid silver wire.
Terminals
– Single set of WBT NextGen silver.
Specifications
– Response 48Hz -38kHz (+/-3dB)
– Bass power 150W
– THD 200Hz-20kHz <0.3% Efficiency 83dB@2.83v in 8Ohms
– Impedance nom 8 Ohm, min 7 Ohm

The Minissimo Diamond

As with all Crystal Cable products, their true character lies in the exquisite attention to detail and nothing captures that better than the Diamond Edition’s sole identifying feature: The fragile diamond diaphragm. This upgrade on the standard Minissimo version has a Diamond tweeter, protected by a laser-cut grille that is as beautiful as it is clever: complex mathematics and supreme accuracy in manufacturing created a grille that’s as acoustically transparent as it is elegant. That quality extends far beyond the visible. In fact, it’s a sentence (and a sentiment) that could sum up the whole speaker. As technically advanced and innovative as it is carefully sculpted and flawlessly finished, when it comes to compact speakers the Diamond Edition speaks with a voice of unmatched musical power.

The Scala

Always innovating and searching for improvements, our engineers came up with a brilliant upgrade to further optimize the radiation pattern of the standard Minissimo. A spatial form placed on top of the existing Arabesque Minissimo loudspeaker… the Scala. Scala – as in a musical scale, a gamut or the famous Milanese opera house is a well fitted name for a new addition which improves the Arabesque Minissimo’s ability to perform like live music in various room types even further.

– The Scala’s 3D shape is precision machined from a solid block of aluminum.
– The staircase shape is modelled by our engineers using advanced Comsol physics. Its acoustic behavior is also modelled carefully to further improve the sound of the Arabesque Minissimo series loudspeaker.