Some will try copying us, sooner or later, it is part of the innovation process we launched. For this reason, we protected the Naked with patents on the model design and a couple of innovative solutions. However, the path to reach our performance is long, hard and very expensive… and they will always be followers…
The NAKED loudspeaker is an innovative approach to high-end reproduction, targeting to completely cancel the negative influence that the box produces on the speakers’ sound.
Even though some loudspeakers’ enclosures are rigid, thick and sturdy, the box always color the sound with its own signature and this is not what a true perfectionist wants to happen in his listening room.
People is so used to such colorations and compressions that not even appear to notice anymore… until they listen to the IO DESIGN NAKED loudspeaker and enter in a new world of listening.
We innovated the way speakers are done, radically improving dynamics and the realism in the reconstruction of the musical event. IO DESIGN uses the listening ambient to output and tune sound instead of creating a distorted view of the sonic message inside the speaker’s box. This is one pillar.
After painfully long sessions (years) of measuring, comparing and testing, we managed to recreate a perfect emission in all the frequencies spectrum, without denaturizing the source of the sound.
Generally speaking, the back-port design loudspeakers suffer of a non-realistic sound, and this happens because of a dynamic compression and because they “force” the sound on the radiant surface of the speaker itself, due to the box constrictions.
That’s why manufacturers race for more rigid and damped boxes, this raises costs without completely solving the issues.
In the NAKED loudspeakers, instead, all the transducers play in a perfectly coherent way without any interference and without any compression from a big box behind.
To understand the difference in performance between the IO DESIGN NAKED and the rest of the speakers, just imagine how it might feel like running with a heavy backpack and then taking it off and to run free… wow! Relief at last!! air, power, speed, control, easy driving… well you are right, that’s exactly what happens with the NAKED loudspeaker when you drop the big boomy box behind (if you know how to do it of course).
Audio fans are sadly used to the perception of sloppy bass frequencies, in fact the bass range is one of the most criticized areas in old concept speakers. People is used to a quick decay of the sound pressure through space (and these two aspects also bring compression and artifacts on the harmonics structure). For instance, think at a guitar playing in a garden, at normal volume you listen it from the distance away, while a loudspeaker at the same volume decays much quicker.
Instead in the NAKED loudspeakers the sound pressure is constant independently from your position and the distance, similarly to how a real instrument sounds in a domestic ambient… and this positive effect also preserves harmonics.
Audiophile lovers might ask to themself “why no one managed to achieve such a result before?” Well, taking out the box is a solution but also creates problems. The first one is that, counterintuitive as it may be, the Naked structure is much more expensive than a wooden one (you could make a wooden speaker in your garage, the Naked absolutely not). The second is that you need an infinite amount of parts to craft a Naked, in comparison a boxed speaker is a kid’s toy. Third reason is that few companies tried baffleless OR dipole projects but, in reality, they use baffles all the same to support bass frequencies; the few courageous that tried a baffleless dipole, are using either DSP, active amplification or baffles usually all together. This is because it is extremely difficult to obtain a strong bass section, and that’s the magic we did.
The chassis structure is reduced to the minimum, the structural rigidity is maximized (given a reasonable limit of 80 kg. per speaker…), the resonance frequency of the speaker is strictly controlled (contrarily to what happens with traditional boxed speakers).
All these solutions make the rise of sound very fast and natural, a burst like in live music, and the harmonic decay extremely accurate; way better than old concept speakers.
The NAKED was designed to give to the listener the possibility to fine tune the emission on Mid-High frequencies in order to adapt to the listening room and to your optimal listening point.
The IO DESING NAKED loudspeaker also grants a higher degree of freedom because it is not so directional as most speakers are, you will find easily your magic spot but the performance from the seats aside will not change so much, contrarily to what happens with most loudspeakers out there, the same as in a theater where you change the perspective of the sound not the sound itself.
The bass range was designed to allow personalization making the NAKED able to adapt better to different amps and room acoustics. These are proprietary devices (pat. Pending) able to fine tune the bass frequency range in most listening ambients.
To achieve this level of accuracy we needed a high level of specialization in systems tuning and room acoustics, but power is nothing without control.
Power is nothing without control.