Kudos Sigao - the sound of silence
Launched at the Munich High End Show in May 2024, the Kudos Sigao Drive is an unpowered crossover that sits between your pre and power amplifiers to improve the performance of your Kudos loudspeakers, no matter what amplifiers you use.
There is no loudspeaker drive unit available that can reproduce the entire spectrum of frequencies that the human ear can hear (20 - 20,000 hertz) which is why hi-fi speakers have woofers for the low notes and tweeters for the highs. Conventionally the audio signal is split inside the loudspeaker with a passive crossover circuit, which means that your amplifier has less control over the loudspeaker drive unit because of the components in the crossover.
To combat this, active crossovers split the signal before the power amplifiers, which means that you have one power amplifier for each loudspeaker drive unit, and the power amp is connected directly with nothing between it and the loudspeaker drive unit.
However this solution introduces problems of its own. The active crossover needs to be designed for each amplifier and speaker combination, and more importantly, it needs to be powered, which can introduce noise into the audio signal.
The name Sigao is from the ancient Greek word for maintaining silence. This is appropriate because Sigao Drive does not need a power supply, so it does not add any noise. It silently splits the signal so that each power amplifier has direct control of the drive unit, and only needs to amplify signals in the frequency range for that drive unit, giving you a cleaner, clearer, more focussed sound.
On the back of the Sigao Drive is a set of RCA input connectors to connect to your preamplifier output, and three sets of outputs to connect to your power amplifiers. With the exception of the Titan 808, the Kudos range only needs two of these to be connected.
There are also five “plugs” which enable Sigao Drive to be perfectly matched to your system. Three of these are to provide the optimum loading for the power amps, one determines the crossover frequency (the frequency at which the tweeter takes over from the woofer) and finally the treble gain, which allows you to tailor the sound depending on whether you prefer smoothness or detail. If you change your amps or speakers at any point, we can provide you with a new set of matching plugs so that Sigao Drive will continue to help your system perform at its best for many years to come.
Production units should be available for demonstration and delivery from July 2024 - please get in touch if you would like to hear Sigao Drive for yourself.