It looks like the Perun guy is working on a really crazy new project. More details have come out about the "rock" version, which is going to have three membranes per ear
Here's a Google translation of a post on their Facebook page (
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Perunstatic/permalink/970171013449763):
"Recently I had the rare luck of being involved in the amazing birth of a completely new, beautiful, hitherto unknown !!
My son and I rested on the southern coast of Crimea, and of course I could not resist visiting the most respected maestro, the creator of Peruns, Alexander Zakharkov! The fact is that Alexander just now switched to new technologies, and with passion he is working on the creation of a completely new two-way model of Perunov! And I was lucky enough to listen to and test the preliminary version in detail!
The new model has two mid-low-frequency membranes in each cup (one duplicates the other), and the high-frequency tweeter is pushed forward, which gives, in particular, a special depth of the scene, previously unattainable for Peruns. What else does this technology give in terms of sound?
I recently managed to test the new Orphei HE1 in some detail. Like Alexander in Peruns, the Senheisers in the new model also sought to combine the depth and solidity of the lower range in the spirit of the best isodynamics like the Abis and Susvarra with a truly columnar space in the spirit of K1000. And the Senheiser brilliantly solved this problem !! HE1 is able not only to build space well, but to convey in its entirety the most complex multidimensional volumetric interaction of all layers of musical fabric, which is rare even in expensive floor speakers, and even more so no headphones can give anything of the kind! At the same time, nothing merges and does not mix, the sound is amazingly clean even in the lowest range, on the deepest bass of the organ.
For example, listening to an organ on old Orpheus HE90 with stock amplification is quite difficult, an excess of low bass pretty much crushes everything else, and with a noticeable increase in volume, the headphones already go into a stupor and the lower range sometimes merges into a mess due to overload. And Abusakh this moment is expressed much more and I cannot listen to the organ in them at all. To some extent, this moment is, to be honest, and in Peruns there is a living sound, although not to the same extent as in the Abises, but there is, especially on weaker paths. Indeed, when listening on clearly unsuccessful paths, especially those close to budget ones, ZhZ often has a certain slowness and even a tendency to overload.
But in the new Orpheus HE1, when the volume is increased, on the contrary, more and more tasty details are revealed with the halographic accuracy of the transmission of all layers of the multidimensional sound picture. I was especially shocked in the new Orpheus by the unspeakable transparency and purity at the beginning of the organ fantasy in C minor, where the lower BO of the subcontroctave sounds (16.3 Hz) and then the chains of the deepest organ pedals follow! Weight, power, even drive - more than enough, trills in extreme bass already physically hit the legs (this is such an illusion), but at the same time everything is absolutely clean, without the slightest hint of porridge. In short, the bass in HE1 is really the best in the world. So I sincerely thought. Until I heard Alexander's two-way model. Now for me this question already remains open - in order to identify the winner, a detailed thoughtful direct comparison is necessary.
Alexander and I tested the two-way model in detail in comparison with the ZhZ. And she showed herself better than ZhZ on all records in all respects! Alexander jokingly named the new Peruns UBZH, that is, the killer of the Living Sound. At ZhZ, the edges of the range are still slightly lifted, the lowest infra-bass, and the top starting from 10 KHz and above. In my opinion, it is from the forced infra-bass below 50 Hz that a certain tendency to slowness and overload of the HZ comes from. In recent years, I have listened quite a lot to the bass of the organ live: on Malaya Gruzinskaya in Moscow, on Montmatre in Paris, in the Church of St. Peter in Poitiers, in the main temple of Pitsunda in Abkhazia, and even a real Zilberman in Bremen! So, in all cases, purely by ear, the range of about 130 to 60 Hertz stands out brightest. If, conditionally, we take the BO of the subcontroctave of 16.35 Hz, then the walls tremble from it and the benches in the temple vibrate, But this sound is actually the least audible by ear, and is perceived rather as a sub-buffer, giving power and density to the sound of the whole. BEFORE the controctave (32.7 Hz) is much more audible, this is already a real sound, it is thanks to such basses that the sound of the organ is perceived as unusually grand, wide and large. But only approximately starting from the C large octave of 65 Hz, the sound goes into the most powerful, most audible roar. I remember, in Poitiers, hiding behind a stone column about 30 meters from the organ, and all the same, the most powerful sound wave literally physically crushes and presses you from all sides! But this is not at all 16, or even 30 Hz.
The new two-band model was originally created for rockers, and there is a slight hump in it, not on the infra-bass, but higher, from about 60 to 100 Hz, giving firmness and providing drive! But it was precisely this frequency response that turned out to be the most lively, realistic, and reliable for any genre, since it most closely matches the perception of the human ear! The new model turned out to be much smoother, and most importantly, much more natural and richer in sound. The very two-lane with duplicating membranes and pushing the tweeter forward gives not only a special depth of the scene, as in my K1000 s / n 6xxx (even the new Orpheus HE1 does not have such a deep scene!), But above all extraordinary flexibility, liveliness, speed, and unique fullness formation of space, which is already really approaching the new Orpheus HE1! In direct comparison with ZhZ, the new Peruns have much more complete filling of the virtual center (compared on many records!), And this, it seems to me, is due to the richer elaboration of the entire mid-frequency range. If the ZZh has slightly raised edges, then the two-band model has much better worked out the rest of the frequency response - from 60 to 9000 Hz !! Therefore, the new model sounds much more interesting and richer in terms of timbres. If the new Orpheus HE1 has a barely noticeable tilt towards sterile analyticity in the spirit of ACG, then the two-band Peruns of Alexander are at least in no way inferior in timbre to the much more tasty lively and spicy old HE90! The new model in the violin timbre had a particularly tangible superiority over ZhZ. Alexander definitely liked my self-digitization from vinyl of a double concert by Vivaldi (he rates this work of mine higher than Likhnitsky's digitization), and we compared in detail ZhZ and UZhZ with different interconnects on this recording. In all variants, the advantage of the newest model was very noticeable. ZhZ sounded very good, unusually beautiful and soft, but in the new headphones the violin timbre seemed to blossom, shimmer with the richest colors and shades, and without any tinting in a bad way - it just sounded more authentic, fuller and richer !! It is in the midrange that the new two-lane Peruns are particularly powerful. Naturally, in this comparison we were not limited to my digitization. which I do not consider as a standard at all. We also compared in detail the 2nd part of Bach's 6th Brandenburg Concerto, written for strings alone, where they are presented especially richly - this is my test recording from a good quality German disc. And in this case, the result was the same! I also listened a lot and compared the deepest organ. In ZhZ, the bass is denser, not so differentiated, and, as it were, spread out a little on the sides of the stage. In the new model, the bass is much larger, faster, more detailed and slightly lighter. Infrabass is presented here in all its glory, but it is not so accentuated, does not crush the texture, it sounds more like a sub-base, which does not bulge out at all, gives a special solidity to the lower range, but at the same time gives all its higher floors to sound in all its beauty! As it really happens in life! sounds more like a subwoofer substrate, which does not protrude at all, gives a special solidity to the lower range, but at the same time makes all its higher floors sound in all its beauty! As it really happens in life!
The same applies to the upper treble above 10 KHz - they are there, but they do not protrude, but at the same time they give extraordinary brilliance and rich iridescence to the same high violins or flutes.
I do not yet pretend to be complete and categorical in my conclusions. The two-lane version of Alexander is still only preliminary and has to be thoroughly revised. In addition, at that moment Alexander had only transistor circuits, although they were very advanced and expensive, much better than any Stacks ones. But all the same, in order to understand what and how, it would be very desirable for me to listen to all this on the best tube paths of Dmitry-Demographer. Maybe I'm wrong, but on the basis of many auditions, I have long formed a deep conviction that only on the paths of the Demographer Peruns (and not only) fully reveal themselves in all their splendor !!!
But even the first preliminary conclusions are worth a lot. On the paths of Dmitry it is quite obvious that the last copies of Peruns have long outplayed not only 009 Stax, but even the old Omegas. And only the unsinkable Orpheus loom ahead as a kind of reference point.
If we evaluate the New two-way model in comparison with the two versions of the Orpheus, I would say that the new two-way Peruns are slightly inferior to the new OrpheusNE1 in halographically accurate transmission of all multidimensional layers of the sound picture, surpassing them in stage depth, and most likely, not inferior in bass quality ...
As for the old Orpheus HE90, the new Peruns for the first time became a real competitor for them in beauty, authenticity, and richness of timbres, perhaps a little inferior to them in the crystal purity of the high frequencies, which are really simply incomparable among the old Orpheus! But Alexander's version is only preliminary, and he is still going to refine his squeaker to achieve more transparent and high-quality highs! In which we wish him great success!
Alexander has already reached the real depth of the K1000 scene, and in all other respects the AKGs are not suitable for the new Peruns. So it turns out, I seem to be present at the secret of the birth of the ideal, perfect speaker concept in headphones !!!"
@vvar10ck Sounds super cool! When is it expected to be released? Thanks