Zellaton - SOTA

[Big Dog RJ]

G'day maties, hope all is well and you're all enjoying those finest tunes.

During my last trip to Spore, and the HK shows, apart from the outstanding systems on demo, there was one of our dealer mates who had just taken delivery of this particular type of speakers. We were all quire sceptical when he claimed that it has Electrostat performance... with sheer speed, power and control, plus all that finesse in the midrange found on Stats. He had been appointed as the primary dealer for Zellaton. So we all went over to his place, with doubts about his claims. Closely viewed the rest of his gear, and seems really tops! CJ's ART27A and the ART88 preamp, with a full Esoteric four chassis digital playback system (clock, transport, DAC & power supply). Sat down and took a deep breath... holy hector! One word- SUPERB!!!

Now I can truly understand why our good mate himself, Mr JF uses Zellaton speakers as his exclusive reference system for all the CJ Art gear made. They're just different from any box/ cabinet types we've ever heard. I'm not sure how the Zellaton tech team have done it but I believe it's all to do with the driver materials being uniform. That is, one type of material from one single driver in an uniform array. This is what gives it that uniform pattern and not spread all over the joint, like those diamond tweeters, carbon this, plasma that, ribbon tweeters matched with fibre cone drivers etc... it just doesn't work. And regardless of what type of fancy cabinet design, I can distinctively hear the box! We can all hear the box, and most of us are planar or Stat type owners. So this time, was the first that one of us in our group of old dogs, actually went the other way in reverse and found Zellaton's to be the pinnacle of SOTA in speaker systems. We all agreed and didn't get back to our hotels until 4am that day.

Also, quite a number of other owners who have been using top tier speakers from Wilson, Rockport, Dynaudio, Kharma, Magico, YG Acoustics and similar, have all changed over to Zellaton's. There's a big waiting line for these hand crafted beauties and I can certainly see why.

I didn't talk much about it, thinking it wasn't really a big deal as compared to the majority of other panel type speakers that I absolutely admire: Alsyvox, Diptyque and Martin Logan. It was only when I seriously saw one of these and sat down for a listen, did I realise what a level the SOTA has achieved, Truly tops!
If any of you get the chance to listen to these at least once in your lifetime, I'd say it's truly worth it.

Here's a pic of the Plural Evo series, the smaller one.
A big cheers to Jeff, now I can understand why he uses these exclusively, and you can begin to understand his top mind set.
Woof! RJ

[Big Dog RJ]

The Zellaton Plural Evo system

[Big Dog RJ]

Here's the Zellaton Reference Ultra, this is the system I auditioned with the ART27A and the ART88, with the Esoteric gear, superb!!!
As you can see at the back, those rectangular windows are actually open from front to back. They act as an open -transmission line / array driver, giving space beyond the cabinets. Therefore, no standing waves to bombard the internal cabinet! Hence no resonances. Fantastic design. The extra heavy duty speaker supports are made by Rolls Royce. Go figure!

[Joe Appierto]

I'm sorry for the quality of the photo but it's the only one I have of the room with the Zellaton speakers -- I think this was the Stage model from the April, 2013 New York Audio Show. As you can tell, some of the partnering equipment were CH Precidsion brand. Even these "modest" by Zellaton standard speakers sounded great. It was one of my favorite rooms at the show.

[Big Dog RJ]

Nice one Joe mate.

Yes, those Zellaton's are something else. With CJ's Art series amplifiers, they're at another level!

Most who have switched over to Zellaton from others, such as Wilson & Magico, are using either Solution or CH Precision (SS gear). However, there are a few who use highend tube gear, and it's been a revelation for them to experience a whole new level of finesse! Some of that tube gear being Lamm Audio, VAC, Aries Cerat and CJ. Not many users with ARC, VTL, Jadis etc., goes to show exactly where CJ's ART is placed. Top of the podium with the elite. No wonder JF kept the ART series on par, especially at this highly prestigious level. Good on him!

Nonetheless, although most of us here don't own the current ART series (being the exception of a few) it's still damn proud to own CJ. I wouldn't change these amplifiers for anything else, no chance.
That deserves a mighty WOOF!
RJ

Note: do enjoy those finest tunes

[Joe Appierto]

What impressed about that pair (they're the only ones from Zellaton I've ever heard) was how they combined the smothness you hear from Sonus faber, for example, but with just so much detail. And the detail never was forced or in your face. Mighty impressive even with this older model.

[admin]

I've never heard a bad review about a Zellaton speaker. Unfortunately, you don't see too many of them around. I think this is just a price point issue and they are not as a big name as Wilson, SF, etc. The build quality is amazing and I'm not surprised that your experience top notch. As mentioned, it's what CJ uses in their testing setup. I have no idea how much the Reference Ultra's cost, but I'm sure it's a pretty penny. If I had an unlimited budget and looking for conventional cone/woofer speakers, Zellaton would definitely be in my top short list.

Here is the manufacturer's page for the speaker: https://www.zellaton.de/en/reference-ultra.html

It sure looks amazing. I don't know if the weight is 300 lbs for the pair or each,... but that in itself speakers for the no-limits design philosophy.

Anyhow, I wish I was in that room with this gorgeous speaker playing with top end CJ gear. I'm sure that was a very special day of listening. Very cool.

[Joe Appierto]

Found this in a review by Robert Ross. Holy Cow!

"Each of the Zellaton Statement’s 771-pound enclosures is nearly six feet in height. At its size and price—$200,000 per speaker..."

https://www.zellaton.de/en/statement-ultra.html

[Big Dog RJ]

Yes, that's about right.

My good mate in Spore just mentioned the other day that there are 20 back orders waiting for the reference Ultra and 12 back orders waiting on the Statements! I'll be damned... of course, only in Sth East Asia, where else eh?

Apparently they take several months to build because each speaker is hand made then a mirror marched pair is created. It's mind boggling, I guess this is a similar process to what Nordost does with their cable manufacturing, it's a long lengthy process. They take something like 8hrs just to create 1m of cable! Just 1meter! Oh! And I've seen this first-hand. Amazing work!

Emiele Podzuros (spelled incorrectly of course) was the founder and original design chief. Now his son has taken over that department, along with a very highly skilled tech team. They can only produce very limited numbers of certain models at any give time. So if you order a pair now, you'll probably get delivery next year!

I haven't heard the Statements as yet, and that's mostly because none of Zellaton's Statements models have arrived in the Sth East Asian region, that I know of. If any of my close former dealer mates were aware of, they'd let me know. Similarly, there's one other speaker system I'm trying my level best to audition, that's the Genesis Tributes. This is another one I must listen to before leaving planet Earth.

Those who have heard the Genesis Tributes say it's the finest ribbon towers ever made to date. However, that very few who did say that, now claim that the Zellaton's are superior and that's mainly due to the fact that it uses just one type of driver material, simple as that!

If you look closely at the G-Tributes, right at the bottom is a conventional dynamic driver. This is not the same material as the rest of the Tributes ribbon drivers... that's the major difference!
Cheers, RJ

[Big Dog RJ]

The Zellaton Statement!
Mmm... which one would you rather own?
Extremely difficult choice eh? Although the G-Tributes are a tad less expensive. Around 220grand USD vs 400grand on the Z-Statements! No worries, here's a cheque!