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Gayle Sanders, renowned speaker designer and cofounder of MartinLogan, today announced the launch of a new speaker company, Gayle Sanders Eikon.

The company’s first product, the $24,500 Image1 digital active loudspeaker system featuring the “latest-generation amplifier technology, directly coupled to extremely low-distortion drivers,” will be unveiled at Audio Expo North America (AXPONA), which opens Friday in Schaumburg, Illinois.

The striking system is designed to “achieve excellent precision and coherence without the need and expense of big stacks of gear,” Sanders said. The angular Image1 cabinet was designed using a proprietary, constrained-layer cabinet system that “dramatically damps spurious chassis activity while significantly eliminating sympathetic resonances, ultimately contributing to effortless reproduction of dynamic range and dimensionality in space throughout the audio band.”

The heart of the system is the DSP-based Eikontrol preamp/control center, which accepts any digital or analog input and can be accessed and controlled via any smartphone or computer. In addition to basic preamp functions, the controller has multiple contour mapping settings, fine adjustments, and environmental settings.

Thanks to the use of greatly improved DSP algorithms, the Eikontrol is capable of acoustic wave-shaping in the room, minimizing sidewall interactions and “helping to achieve energetic bass lines as well as phase-perfect mids and highs,” Sanders said, adding that he has perfected customized bass performance using advanced wavelet signal processing for room control. The process is said to dramatically expand the system’s ability to recognize and analyze energy buildup in the amplitude and time domains, resulting in “far more consistent control of destructive energy, dramatically improving uniform frequency response in-room.”

The system is available in black piano gloss with other finishes expected later.

The Eikon Story
Sometime after Gayle Sanders entered “retirement,” he began tinkering with ideas. “I found myself missing our industry — the people, the excitement, the creative process of designing — it pulled me back,” Sanders said. “I still love learning about new technologies, diving into research, and exploring the possibilities of putting it all together.”

After examining several evolving digital technologies, Sanders saw an opportunity to return to the market with a new approach that would be a complete departure from the MartinLogan electrostatic loudspeaker designs he is known for. He began to explore the improvements in digital signal processing (DSP) and new amplifier technology with an eye toward building a complete package for discerning customers who “desire a simple approach to high performance.”

Ultimately, Sanders began designing and building prototypes in his garage. Working through several prototypes over four years, he refined the Eikon’s industrial design and improved its performance. Today, the company occupies a dedicated workshop in Norwalk, Connecticut, where the Image1 speakers are hand-built, tested, and refined.

“I’m a bit of a curator,” Sanders said. “I’m utilizing some of the new DSP technology, which has vastly improved over the last few years, and putting it together with my own engineering. It’s a perfect solution designed to work together in perfect harmony in any environment, and it wasn’t ready for prime time until recently.”

“I’ve always been obsessed with the purity of sound, and passionately explore new opportunities to create a true musical experience,” Sanders said. “I want to make this technology accessible to everyone.”

For more information, visit eikonaudio.com.

Watch this video for a closer look at the Image1 system.