In the 30 years before the Illusion became a gleam in D'Appolito's eye, Snell Acoustics had already designed and manufactured six full-range, floorstanding Type A models. The
first Type A was an "upright brick of polished wood and stretched cloth" (footnote 1) that functioned best when standing against a wall. The last Type A, the Reference, was designed by
Kevin Voecks, who is now with Revel. Its 600 lbs of wood and steel included two 6'-tall midrange-tweeter Towers, two 5'-tall SUB 1800 bass enclosures, massive looms of Kimber Kable, and an external crossover. In his "Measurements" section accompanying my review in the March 1996
Stereophile (Vol.19 No.3), John Atkinson said that the Type A Reference possessed an ultraflat frequency response and a superb coupling of low frequencies with room acoustics. The new Illusion ($50,000/pair) is 6" shorter, 6" wider, 9" deeper, and 25 lbs heavier than its predecessor. It has two 10" woofers per enclosure, not the single 18" woofer per channel used in the Type A Reference's SUB 1800, a lower voltage sensitivity (89dB vs 92dB(B)/2.83V/m), and a much higher maximum amplifier power rating into 4 ohms (1000 vs 600W). And, of course, it's a three-way system rather than a 4.5-way system. Gerd Schmieta's enclosure looks nothing like the slim tower of the Type A Reference. No surface is parallel to any other; the Illusion is a gracefully tapering column whose top and bottom surfaces are ellipsoids of equal area but different shapes. The column maintains a consistent cross-sectional area, with greater width at the bottom for the two 10" woofers, but a narrower top to limit high-frequency corner diffraction of the tweeter's output. Sonic reradiation is further curtailed by the smoothly elliptical radius of the speaker's front baffle. Like those of the buildings designed by Frank Geary—such as the "Fred and Ginger" office structure in Prague—the asymmetrical profile of the Illusion presents a changing profile from every viewed angle. The Illusion's enclosure of costly, four-layer, sandable MDF (standard MDF tears or pills when sanded) is milled by a CNC router. The cabinet's exterior is finished using an automotive process of multiple coats of primer and paint followed by hours of polishing with a buffing wheel. Each Illusion is shipped in a thick wooden crate that weighs 75 lbs when empty.
The Illusion flagship was designed by Joseph D'Appolito, whose vertical driver array of midrange-tweeter-midrange bears his name and is used by many other loudspeaker manufacturers. Properly implemented, a D'Appolito array can produce a horizontal radiation pattern of widely dispersed sound while minimizing the music-blurring first reflections of soundwaves off the floor and ceiling. D'Appolito computer-modeled the Illusion's exact driver configuration using the drive-units' dimensions and parameters, the crossover's time-domain characteristics, and the cabinet's interior volume. The resulting vertical array places the tweeter 42.5" above the floor and is designed to deliver a 15°-wide vertical dispersion pattern with 30° nulls, in order to reduce floor and ceiling reflections and thus maintain the speaker's transparency while promoting good soundstage imaging and depth. The Illusion's drivers and rear ports are held in rigid alignment by massive, precisely machined bezels of cast aluminum alloy. Further rigidity is achieved by machine-screwing the drivers to the bezels, not into the cabinet's MDF. All drivers are wired in positive polarity. The soft-dome tweeter—a 29mm, top-of-the-line SEAS Crescendo—boasts resonance-free output up to 40kHz, and very-low–distortion performance well down into the midrange for proper blending of amplitude and directional responses of the D'Appolito array. The tweeter's low 600Hz resonance gave D'Appolito confidence that it could be smoothly crossed over to the midrange driver at 2.5kHz. This tweeter employs SEAS's highly efficient Hexadym magnet structure (patent pending), a ring of six small, radially magnetized neodymium magnets in a focused hexagonal array. The motor's open-backed structure is said to eliminate backwave reflections, and the silk dome is free from the single breakup mode that is characteristic of metal-dome tweeters. D'Appolito requested that SEAS fine-tune its top-of-the- line 5.25" midrange driver to expand its frequency response to five octaves. This cast-magnesium cone of this driver (two are used in the Illusion) has optimal stiffness and minimal mass; its natural-rubber surround is said to eliminate edge resonances, and its open basket of injection-molded aluminum alloy permits the free movement of air behind the cone, to reduce cavity resonances and turbulence noise in this driver's transmission-line subenclosure. A scaled-up Hexadym magnet similar to the one used in the tweeter includes heavy copper components that surround the pole-piece to optimize dynamic linearity and power handling.
The aluminum-magnesium cones of the two 10" woofers are cast and machined for an optimal ratio of stiffness to mass. Each has a high-temperature, 2" voice-coil, a prominent T-shaped pole-piece, and heavy copper support rings and phase plug. A stiff, injection-molded alloy basket maintains complete structural stability while allowing air movement to reduce reflections, cavity resonances, and flow noise.The woofers' rear reflex ports open above the service panel.
The crossover frequencies are 250Hz and 2.5kHz. The crossover itself—a fourth-order Linkwitz-Riley filter network wired acoustically in phase—employs 100% polypropylene capacitors and air-core coils for all drivers except the woofers, for which a steel-core coil is used. All internal electrical connections are fastened with silver-solder. The Illusion has three pairs of binding posts, one each for the tweeter, midranges, and woofers. Each post can accept bare wire, banana plugs, spade lugs, or pins. My review pair of Illusions had a deeply lustrous, black automotive finish under multiple coats of clear, hand-rubbed lacquer. Any wood finish, deep-luster lacquer, color or shade, and/or other special finish is available by special order for an additional cost of 20% per pair. As evidenced by the precision machining of the bezels, the rear port openings, the cast four-spoke feet, and the rear service panel, the workmanship on the Snell is peerless. This speaker's extraordinary fit'n'finish make it an artistic sculpture. Each Illusion takes Snell more than 30 hours to make: 6 hours to mill the bezels and cabinet, 3 to assemble the crossover, 6 for assembly of parts, 9 to buff the finish, 4 of final assembly, and 2 hours to tune each speaker to within 0.5dB of the frequency response of Snell's factory reference. Snell plans to build three pairs of Illusions per month.
Setup The big Snells required more than the usual amount of fine-tuning to sound its best. I began this process just after Snell's Wally Kilgore and a friend had carried each 178-lb speaker up the short flight of stairs to my listening room and deposited it in one of the spots where my
Quad ESL-989s sound best: 3' from the sidewalls and 5' from the front wall, facing the full length of the room. First, I had to move my listening chair 6" to the right before I could unambiguously hear the difference between the in- and out-of-phase tracks on John Atkinson's
Editor's Choice (CD, Stereophile STPH016-2), which suggested that the Illusions' imaging sweet spot would be small. When I locked in the best imaging, the Snells' soundstage stretched from wall to wall but was somewhat shallow, which made the sound somewhat uninvolving—I didn't feel immersed in the music. My son-in-law noted that while the speakers had fantastic frequency range and dynamics, they left him outside rather than immersed in the music "If I won the lottery tomorrow, I'd have to think long and hard about whether I'd buy these speakers," he said. Clearly, more setup work was needed. The owner's manual proved helpful. Page 13 recommends setting the Snells' toe-in between 45° and 60°, as viewed from above, and that the distance between them be 0.85 times the distance from each to the listener. With the speakers 84" from my chair, I adjusted the speakers until their centers were 72" apart. This deepened and slightly narrowed the soundstage, and made the music more involving overall. That accomplished, I played the usual
Editor's Choice test tracks—phase, low-frequency warble tones, pink noise—and did some comparative nearfield (8') and farfield (16') listening. The pink noise revealed that the Illusion's treble balance didn't change during the "sit down, stand up" test, even though its tweeter is 5" higher than my ears when I'm seated. The low-frequency warble tones were clearly audible, and pitch-perfect down to the 30Hz 1/3-octave band. I felt some useful output down to 25Hz, which is not quite low enough to rattle the baseboard radiator panels at the other end of the room, as some speakers have done. Lower frequencies produced some doubling (
ie, second-harmonic distortion) when I drove the Snells with a pure 20Hz tone.
Listening I used two different solid-state amplifiers: first, a pair of Mark Levinson ML-2 monoblocks (50W into 4 ohms), and later, a single stereo
Mark Levinson No.334 (250Wpc into 8 ohms). (Because of the differences in their voltage-gains, I was unable to simultaneously use all three Mark Levinson amplifiers—the 25W ML-2 monoblocks on the tweeters and midranges and the 250W No.334 on the woofers—to biamplify the Snells.) The ML-2s delivered their typically dark, dynamic, three-dimensional sound at moderate volume levels, while the No.334 was brighter in the midrange, with greater bass dynamics that produced room-shuddering chords from synthesizer and sustained organ pedals. All listening was done without speaker grilles or spikes, neither of which were supplied. Set up properly, the Illusions produced broad, detailed, involving, three-dimensional imaging with vivid dynamics. Again and again I was involved in music that was spacious, vibrant, and clear. "Speak To Me," from a hi-rez remastering of Pink Floyd's
Dark Side of the Moon (SACD, EMI 82136-2), presented a wide soundstage for this track's collage of dramatic, cinematic sound effects. This imaging depicted separate and precise placements of the clarinet, harp, pipe organ and individual choir members in "The Lord is My Light and My Salvation," from Timothy Seelig and the Turtle Creek Chorale's recording of John Rutter's
Requiem (CD, Reference RR-57CD). The chorus members appeared to be standing on a broad stage that spread from wall to wall, with many distinct voices discernible, even during crescendos.
A Gaelic Prayer, from the same disc, had new clarity and balance, with superb pitch definition of the organ's pedal notes. I easily got a sense of space and instrument placements with the Eagles'
Hell Freezes Over (CD, Geffen GEFD-24725), with which the Illusions achieved well-defined positioning of audience sounds, acoustic guitars, and congas on a very wide soundstage.
The Illusions communicated the dynamics, power, and pace of percussion instruments: the slowly building kickdrum on David Bowie's "Putting Out Fire," from the
Cat People soundtrack (CD, MCA MCAD-1498); the subtle but eerily clear bass beat backing up "She Misunderstood," from Richard Thompson's
Rumor and Sigh (CD, Capitol CDP 7 95713 2); Jeff Beck's guitar on "Behind the Veil," from his
Guitar Shop (CD, Epic EK 44313); the pulsing conga drums that open the Eagles' "Hotel California," from
Hell Freezes Over; in Esa-Pekka Salonen and the LA Philharmonic's recording of Stravinsky's
Le Sacre du Printemps (SACD, Deutsche Grammophon 00289 477 6198-2), the fortissimo bass-drum strokes in the second movement that burst into my listening room with cleanly defined leading edges; and the stunning mix of high-pitched synthesizer hisses, cymbals, and chimes that tighten the suspense of "Assault on Ryan's House," from James Horner's score for
Patriot Games (CD, RCA 66051-2). In addition to communicating orchestral bombast and cinematic drama at loud volumes, the Illusion also produced subtle detail and shadings at moderate volumes in the nearfield. This is rare among large speakers, which can sound bland when played softly.
The Illusion had one of the finest midrange responses I've heard. At volumes low or high, it realistically reproduced tones and timbres of voices, acoustic piano, and percussion. Keith Jarrett's piano in "True Blues," from his
The Carnegie Hall Concert (CD, ECM 1989/90), was clean and translucent, with normal emphasis in the presence range and no sodden overtones when he used the sostenuto pedal. Suzanne Vega's a cappella "Tom's Diner," from
Solitude Standing (CD, A&M CD5136), formed a chillingly realistic, three-dimensional image of Vega's voice centered between the speakers. Similarly, the Illusion transmitted more of the timbres and harmonics of male singers' voices, with no midbass tubbiness. "Who's Loving You," from
Cantus's eponymous album (CD, Cantus CTS-1207), revealed each voice in the harmony, while the voice of tenor soloist Albert Jordan was buttery-smooth and stunningly realistic. Willie Nelson's "Getting Over You," from his
Across the Borderline (CD, Columbia CK 52752), captured his smoky baritone, while José Carreras's light, lyrical tenor remained pure during the
Kyrie of Ariel Ramirez's
Misa Criolla (CD, Philips 420 955-2). Harry Connick Jr.'s vocal on "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," from the
When Harry Met Sally... soundtrack (CD, Columbia CK 45319), was transparent and clear, with no overblown warmth or extra resonance. The Illusion's upper midrange and treble were similarly equal to those of the best electrostatic loudspeakers, including my Quad ESL-989s. The harmonic overtones of the vibes on "Unspoken Words," from Joe Beck's
The Journey (CD, DMP 211), were strikingly natural. Cymbals were particularly translucent and sweet, whether tapped gently with a stick, as in "Noxus," from Patricia Barber's
Café Blue (SACD, Premonition/Blue Note/Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDSACD 2002), or stoked softly with wire brushes, as in "Fruit Forward," from Attention Screen's
Live at Merkin Hall. The subtle dynamic shadings during the decays of clashed cymbals were readily discernible during the overture from
A Chorus Line, on Fredrick Fennell and the Dallas Wind Symphony's
Beachcombers (CD, Reference RR-62CD). The Illusion's bass both delighted and vexed me. It delivered tuneful, dynamic, punchy, powerful midbass and lower bass with excellent pitch definition, but seemed to weaken on the lowest bass notes. It captured the power and presence of Jean Guillou's organ-pedal chords in Gnomus, from his transcription of Mussorgsky's
Pictures at an Exhibition (CD, Dorian DOR-90117), but didn't cause the air in my room to pulse or objects to rattle. Instead of extension, the Snell's strengths in the low bass were pitch definition and power, which made it possible for me to hear many things: the telltale sound of a fabric-covered stick striking a large bass drum in H. Owen Reed's
La Fiesta Mexicana, from Howard Dunn and the Dallas Wind Symphony's
Fiesta! (CD, Reference RR-38CD); the plosive synth-bass pulses that drive the rhythmic power of "Something's Wrong," from Randy Edelman's soundtrack music for
My Cousin Vinny (CD, Varèse Sarabande VSD-5364); and Jerome Harris's careful bass work weaving in and out of "The Mooche," from
Rendezvous (CD, Stereophile STPH013-2). Although the Illusion captured the pitch and power of pipe-organ bass, I didn't feel the room "lock"—a level of deep bass sufficient to be felt as a pressure wave—from the 32Hz pedal note that ends James Busby's performance of Herbert Howells'
Master Tallis's Testament, from the
Pipes Rhode Island collection (CD, Riago 101). The sustained low G played by the double basses in the introduction to Strauss's
Also sprach Zarathustra, from Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops'
Time Warp (CD, Telarc CD-80106), was more indistinct than I expected, with evidence of doubling. Bass notes slightly higher in frequency, such as the synthesizer in the beginning of Jerry Goldsmith's "
Star Trek: Main Theme" from the same album, played with good definition and even produced room lock. Listening to the Snell's cabinet sidewall level with the tweeter through a stethoscope while playing the chromatic half-step sinewaves on track 19 of
Editor's Choice, I was able to hear a resonance excited by the toneburst at 261Hz. I also heard an emphasis at 125Hz, and felt a slight buzz when I rested my hand on the cabinet. This sensation was particularly evident when Attention Screen's Chris Jones played his fretless bass at high levels on "Blizzard Limbs," from
Live at Merkin Hall (CD, Stereophile STPH018-2).
Conclusion The Snell Illusion is a flagship loudspeaker in terms of price, iconic enclosure design, the deep luster of its automotive black finish, and its stunningly realistic midrange and treble dynamics. The setup requires time and patience to extract the Snell's best imaging, and the widest sweet spot necessary for optimal listening, but then the speaker's bass response, at least down to 30Hz, is extremely well defined, coherent, tuneful, powerful, and satisfying. The Illusion's dynamic capabilities are almost without equal. Its reproduction of orchestral music has a startling, dynamic, almost Technicolor quality that rapidly became addicting. Over the years, I've auditioned many Snell flagship systems; the Illusion is the most listenable, exciting, and satisfying Type A I've heard to date. My son-in-law may never have to face the dilemma of how to spend his lottery winnings. I, on the other hand, having met the Illusion's setup challenge, wouldn't hesitate. For me, the Snell Illusion is what the High End is all about: exceptional performance at an exceptionally high price; iconic design; and a flaw or two. (Despite its size, the big Snell didn't reproduce the very deepest bass notes, and there was that audible resonance in the upper bass.) This makes any purchase decision more complicated, and perhaps more interesting. With these caveats in mind, I recommend the Illusion from Snell Acoustics—it's one of the best floorstanding loudspeakers I've heard.
