Song Audio

Infobox Company
company_name = Song Audio Ltd.
company_
company_type = Limited Corporation
foundation = October 2001
location = Toronto, Ontario, Canada flagicon|Canada
key_people = Song Kim (founder & president)
industry = hifi audio equipment
homepage = http://www.songaudio.com

Song Audio Ltd. is a specialist high-end audio equipment manufacturer, importer, and distributor based in Canada. Song Audio manufactures vacuum tube preamplifiers, power amplifiers, and loudspeakers and imports solid-state integrated amplifiers under the marque Vasant_K [http://www.vasantk.com/] from Thailand. Song Audio also distributes and supports Loth-X loudspeakers in Canada, though the original manufacturer has since closed operations in Singapore.

History

In 2001, Song Audio was established by its eponymous founder, Song Kim, in Toronto, Canada. In North America, Song Audio was one of the first to source manufacture of high-end products from Thailand (esp. Vasant_K). Song Audio was also one of the first to import and distribute single-driver crossover-less high sensitivity loudspeakers from Asia (Loth-X from Singapore). Currently, the renaissance of low power triode output vacuum tube amplifiers and single-driver loudspeakers is more established in Asian and European markets, but interest is gradually increasing in North America.

Being a specialist company, Song Audio produces its products in limited quantities and distributes primarily in North America. The Company is recognised as decidedly non-mainstream, even within the high-end community; for example, it avoids parallel design in output tubes on purist grounds and does not provide remote control handsets in its products. The Company adopts a longevity approach to its products by not phasing any out of production (its earliest products are still in production) and supports their usage world-wide by having a user-adjustable internal voltage switch between 120V/60Hz (North America) and 220V/50Hz (Europe and Asia).

Research and Development

Pre/Power & Integrated Amplifiers

In Song Audio vacuum-tube amplification equipment, the model number prefix 'SA' refers to its corporate acronym; the suffix 'MB' indicates 'monoblock' amplifier and 'SB' indicates 'stereoblock' amplifier.

Though Song Audio produces a flagship preamplifier (SA-1) with separate power supply and single-ended triode zero negative feedback 300B output monoblock power amplifier (SA-300MB), the Company's primary contribution to the typology of vacuum-tube power amplification is the SA-34SB (2003-) integrated amplifier (upper right), now in 'Cecilia' edition (lower right) made in Canada. It is one of the first in absolute purist design consisting of single-ended triode operation with zero negative feedback utilising the EL34 output vacuum tube (which is especially difficult to operate in triode mode without negative feedback). Currently, the only other such similar design appears to be from Decware [http://www.decware.com/newsite/mainmenu.htm?/newsite/SE34I.htm&intro] in U.S.A.

The SA-34SB is somewhat unusual in aspects of its construction, including: proprietary transformer winding, bronze chassis in the original SA-34SB integrated amplifier, high-density acrylic front plate in the 'Cecilia' edition (which frequently breaks drill bits during its construction), lavish use of 18K gold plating, and solid wood side panels instead of wood veneer. By contrast to conventional wisdom of using a single sub-woofer, the Company advises using a mono pair of sub-woofers since the source of bass is directional in a live performance (the bass tends to originate from the right side of stage in an orchestra). For this reason, the SA-34SB provides stereo variable RCA outputs to independently connect a pair of sub-woofers to augment the loudspeakers without the interference of a crossover to them.

For signal wiring, Song Audio has experimented with 98% pure solid-core silver and cryogenic-treated silver plated oxygen-free copper in its circuit wiring and AC power cords; presently, the Company uses both methods in its products. For connections to AC plugs, the Company uses both audio-grade and hospital-grade connectors together with a locking hospital-grade duplex outlet (as provided with Vasant_K).

Acoustic Monitors (Type I & Type II Silk DM)

Song Audio loudspeakers have model designations as the smaller 'Type I' (presently not marketed) and larger 'Type II' Silk DM (Domestic Monitor series). By contrast to the industry-standard practice of utilising medium density fiberboard (MDF) in cabinet construction (and less commonly, solid wood), Song Audio loudspeakers are built of sandwiched layers of plywood (upon which are applied black lacquer or exotic wood veneers such as Aro Ash, Burls, Figured Anigre, or Maka Teak). For component parts, high frequency drivers are sourced from ScanSpeak (Denmark), midrange-bass drivers from Davis Acoustics (France), and rhodium binding posts from JA Michell (U.K.).

Industry Applications

Song Audio equipment has found acceptance beyond hifi enthusiasts, such as music lovers, musicians, commercial venues, and audiophile review magasines (for example, its electronics and loudspeakers have been used as ancillary reference equipment by product reviewers of Canada Hifi, Dagogo, Six Moons Audio, SoundStage, and UltraAudio) [http://www.songaudio.com/news.html] . The Company occasionally demonstrates to regional audiophile groups (e.g. Chicago Audio Society [http://www.chicagoaudio.org/newsletters/cas0106.pdf] , Association Montréalais des Audiophiles (AMA) [http://www.audiophiles-montreal.org/] , Audio Circle (Toronto Area Audio Society) [http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?board=92.0] , Toronto Audiophiles [http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles/] ) and hosts an annual live & recording comparison with its equipment immediately following performance by the Korean-Canadian Symphony Orchestra (KCSO) in Toronto, Canada.

Corporate Logo

The Song Audio logo originated in 2001 from a design competition held within the staff of a major decal producing company in Toronto. In the logo, the letters of the leading word evoke impressions of musical notes. The logo is finished in 18K gold (upper right) in its electronics and is made of brass plate (lower right) in its loudspeakers.

ong Kim

The company founder and president, Song Kim (24 June 1936-), was born outside Ch'ŏngjin in North Korea, presently near the border to Russian Federation. He was the son of a businessman who owned a major department store across the border into China. From 1966, he worked as a personnel administrator for the U.S. Government Contractor in Vietnam (during the Vietnam War) and emigrated in 1971 to Canada [http://www.songaudio.com/about.html] . He is married to his first wife and has two adult children (the younger with BSc from Canada and elder with PhD from U.K.). In the Toronto area, he continues to promote greater audiophile acceptance of single-ended triode (SET) amplification with EL34 and 300B output vacuum tubes, zero negative feedback in amplifier design, and stereo sub-woofer implementation to reproduce the natural directionality of bass of a live orchestra. His personal interests include music, travel, and 35mm film and digital photography with Contax and Nikon equipment, respectively, which are used for product photographs for the Company website and promotional materials, such as brochures and posters for trade show exhibits in Montréal (Quebec) and U.S.A.

References

* Song Audio Website [http://www.songaudio.com/]
* Song Audio Feature in Stereopal (April 2006) [http://www.stereopal.com/Specialvisits/Songkim.htm]
* Song Audio Feature in Audio-Journal in South Korea (January 2008) [http://www.audiojournal.co.kr/bbs/zboard.php?id=ydlee_company&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=29]
* Song Audio User Support Group [http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/song_audio_club/]
* Vasant_K Website [http://www.vasantk.com/]

ee also

* List of high-end audio equipment manufacturers
* List of loudspeaker manufacturers