Estelon speakers - the secret's in the cabinet

By AMMAR MARITI

WHAT do you get when you mix beautiful organic design with uncompromising sound engineering? Why, you get Estelon speakers of course!

We were invited to a conference video call with Malaysian high-end A/V dealer CMY Audio & Visual and Estonian high-end speaker manufacturer Estelon on Tuesday (June 16). Estelon founder Alfred Vassilkov and his daughter, CEO Alissa Vassilkov, discussed the Estelon history and brand, as well as the speaker, cabinet and material design of their products.



The story of Alfred Vassilkov, who is the company's chief designer and engineer, started decades ago when, at a very young age while growing up in the Soviet era, he began to dismantle radios and adjusted their components to improve the sound quality. He took his interest to university, studying electro-acoustics in St Petersburg. This was the beginning of a journey that led to an important moment back in 2010 when the engineer was having breakfast with his family.

"It was a lovely Sunday morning having breakfast with my family," he recalls.

"I had long held the ambition of creating the world's best loudspeaker. I knew what the concept would be but instead of selling my idea to a company, I decided to build it on my own. Luckily, I already had the best key executives in my family, my daughters Alissa and Kristiina. That same evening, we decided to set up the company."



"Alfred is not only in charge of the technical design for Estelon speakers but also the outer design," Alissa adds, "and the name Estelon does not really have a meaning, but it is a beautiful name. The name also sounds close to Estonia," referring to the country of origin.

On the unusual design of the speakers themselves, "I have had experience making speakers before, so I am experienced with different companies, the materials, and the design of enclosures," explained Alfred.

"To get the best sound possible, we need a special shape for the speakers. The woofers need to be near to the floor to maximise low end performance while the mid-woofers are positioned quite high to minimise the coloration from floor reflections.

"We must use proprietary materials in making the enclosure. It is a marble-based composite material. It is a good material and has good internal damping characteristics. We have worked with good engineers and it was certainly not easy."



Alissa adds onto the subject, "The marble composite contains some special ingredients which took many years to find the recipe because just using marble alone is not enough to get the properties we need. You can knock on the speakers and there will be no sound because of its good dampening.

"We use this material for all our speakers, from the YB all the way up to the flagship Extreme. The marble composite material is also very stable - it will not oxidise like aluminium, and it is not affected by external factors like humidity."

Speaking about the crossovers, Alfred explains that only the best components are chosen for the crossover networks.

"The beginning idea is to make the best speakers possible, so we use special components like the best Mundorf products and the best cables for the internal wiring."



Among the models made by Estelon are the X Diamond, XB Diamond, XB, XC Diamond, XC, YB, Forza, Extreme Limited Edition and Extreme - all of which are built with a specific room type in mind prior to engineering.

"The YB is designed to be able to be placed close to the walls due to its sealed enclosure design. With the YB, we are able to play with the tonality, this allows it to be placed in smaller rooms. The XB is a rear ported design so it requires some space around the speakers. We are also able to reach low frequency with this design.

"With the XC, the positioning is approximately more like monitor speakers," Alissa explains, "and the Forza is suitable for big rooms as they are high sensitivity and powerful. The taller height of the midrange and tweeter reduces floor reflections.

"For the Extreme model, they are able to sound really good in difficult rooms. The speaker is built in two parts - the lower part for the bass woofers and the higher part for the mid-woofers, midranges, and tweeters. The higher part is height adjustable for up to 30cm so you can get the best driver position from your listening position.

"Estelon speakers are designed with smooth cabinets for smoother speaker diffractions which allows easier positioning in the listening room. This makes our speakers more flexible."



She concludes, "The main idea is to get easy positioning in the room because the shape and design philosophy of Estelon speakers is for our users to be able to play the speakers immediately. 

"Because there are no parallel surfaces on the cabinet design, our speakers can sound good immediately."

To browse Estelon's line of speakers and read more on the company philosophy, visit the website.

Pricing details are available from CMY Audio & Visual.