Virtual HiFi  ·  Reference Series · No. 01
Open baffle · Three-way · Made in Poland

SUPERNOVA

The loudspeaker that ends the search.

The scale, presence and freedom of the original performance — with nothing left standing between you and the music.

56 kg each  ·  30 days at home  ·  Shipping free both ways  ·  Wheels and Vibron footers included

Begin a consultation

Order now

See the engineering
Virtual HiFi  ·  Reference Series · No. 01
Open baffle · Three-way · Made in Poland

SUPERNOVA

The loudspeaker that ends the search.

The scale, presence and freedom of the original performance — with nothing left standing between you and the music.

56 kg each  ·  30 days at home  ·  Shipping free both ways  ·  Wheels and Vibron footers included

Begin a consultation

Order now

See the engineering
01 / Recognition

You know when the system is still there.

You have the detail. The bandwidth. The image. And still a quiet awareness remains: loudspeakers, electronics and recorded sound standing between you and the event.

Supernova was built for the moment when improving the system is no longer enough — when the only meaningful step left is to remove it.
02 / The conflict

High-end still makes you choose.

Every design answers some of the question and gives up the rest. You have been asked to pick which compromise you can live with.
Compromise

Scale or speed

Big loudspeakers move air. Small ones start and stop cleanly. You rarely get both from the same cabinet.
Compromise

Detail or body

Resolution that thrills on the first record and thins out by the third, or warmth that hides what the recording holds.
Compromise

Room or reach

A design that works in one specific room, and falls apart in the one you actually own.
Compromise

Cabinet or nothing

Every enclosure stores energy and gives it back late. The usual fix is more mass, which changes the character rather than removing it.
03 / The promise

No more choosing.

Scale. Presence. Speed. Colour. Resolution.

Not balanced against each other — delivered together. That was the entire brief, and it is why the loudspeaker is built the way it is rather than the way that would have been easier.
04 / Presence

THEY’RE HERE.

Not a bigger soundstage — a greater sense of presence. The image stops being something projected behind the loudspeakers and becomes people occupying space in your room.
05 / The listening experience

When recordings become events.

Six things people describe after the first hour. None of them is a specification.
01

Presence

The performers occupy space in your room rather than appearing behind a pair of loudspeakers.
02

Dynamics

From a whisper to full orchestra with nothing held back and nothing hardening. Two 15-inch woofers per side never run out of breath.
03

Scale

Instruments arrive life-sized. A double bass is the height of a double bass, a drum kit the width of a drum kit.
04

Texture

You hear the material a voice is made of, the rosin on a bow, the breath before a phrase.
05

Ease

Nothing sounds like effort. Play louder and the music simply grows, without the sense of a system being pushed.
06

Absence of the box

No cabinet colouration, no port honk, no boom. What is missing is what you stop noticing.
06 / Open baffle

Freedom from the box.

A conventional enclosure solves one problem and introduces others: stored pressure, panel energy and the audible character of the box itself.

Supernova removes the enclosure from the equation. Less stored energy, more natural timing, and a freer relationship with the room.
07 / Transducer architecture

Three engines. One voice.

The achievement is not hearing three exceptional transducers. It is hearing one uninterrupted musical event.
01

Dual 15-inch SB Audience Nero

Neodymium beasts of drivers. Scale, foundation and dynamic ease without compression — two per side, so neither is ever asked for more than it can give.
02

TeXtreme midrange

Speed, colour, articulation and the physical substance of voices, on a waveguide developed and printed in house.
03

Large Mundorf AMT

Not a catalogue part: Mundorf do not normally sell it, and ours are supplied to special order. It sits in a waveguide we designed and 3D-print in house. Transient freedom, microdynamics, openness and air from a folded diaphragm with far more radiating area than a dome.
Nothing to hide behind

The back of a Supernova is the design.

No enclosure means no panel to seal the drivers behind. You can see the steel frame, the motors, the wiring and the way each transducer is carried by the structure rather than bolted to a box.

It also means every choice inside is visible — which is a strong incentive to make good ones.
08 / Structural silence

Silence is engineered.

An open baffle has no cabinet to hide behind. Every vibration in the structure is audible, so the structure cannot be allowed to vibrate.
Constrained layer damping

Steel, elastomer, steel — and the vibration has nowhere to go.

The baffle is a sandwich: 3 mm hardened steel, a 2 mm elastomer interlayer, another 3 mm of steel. Bonded, not bolted together.

When a driver pushes against the baffle, the two steel plates try to flex by different amounts. The elastomer between them is forced to shear — and shearing elastomer converts that movement into heat instead of passing it along. The energy is spent, not stored and released a moment later as colouration.

This is constrained layer damping, standard practice in aerospace and machine tools, almost unheard of in loudspeakers — because steel is difficult, heavy and expensive to work. It is also why a Supernova weighs 56 kg.

The sandwich, outside in

3 mm  Hardened steel plate — the driver mounts to this

2 mm  Elastomer interlayer — shears, and turns vibration into heat

3 mm  Hardened steel plate — closes the sandwich

8 mm  Total — stiffer and deader than 28 mm MDF
09 / Crossover

Every part earns its place.

Not one brand's catalogue from top to bottom. Each position was auditioned, and the part that sounded right stayed — whoever made it.
Chosen by listening

A mix of the best from four makers.

The signal path carries Jantzen Amber Z-Cap and Mundorf capacitors together — two of the finest copper-foil and film designs available, each doing the job it does best rather than filling a slot on a bill of materials.

Around them sit Duelund and Clarity Cap parts, air-core inductors, and point-to-point wiring. Every component was swapped in and out on a listening rig before it was allowed to stay.
Jantzen

Body and warmth

Amber Z-Cap copper-foil capacitors — body and warmth without any loss of detail.
Mundorf

Speed and control

Film and foil capacitors, MResist resistors — speed, neutrality and control.
Duelund

Wiring

Tinned-copper wiring on the Western Electric pattern — nothing added, nothing lost.
Clarity Cap

Density

Supporting film capacitors where a dense, rich and organic tonality serves the music.
10 / How Supernova was built

Six stages, and no shortcuts in any of them.

Twenty years of designing drivers, crossovers and cabinets went into deciding what not to compromise.

01

Concept

Create a limitless loudspeaker: maximum performance, cost-no-object parts, and no decision made because a cheaper option existed.

02

Prototypes

Endless iterations. Baffle geometries, driver placements, damping schemes — each one built, measured, listened to and most of them rejected.

03

Steel structure

A breakthrough approach in audio: constrained layer damping with hardened steel and a elastomer insert, for extreme rigidity and vibration that dies where it starts.

04

Waveguides

Developed and 3D-printed in house to the tightest precision we can hold — which is how the three drivers hand over to each other without a seam.

05

Crossover

Perfectly matched, and built with top Mundorf, Jantzen, Duelund and Clarity Cap components. Every position decided by ear, not by catalogue.

06

Final voicing

Lifelike. Neutral. Dynamic. Big. Immersive. Balanced. Concert-like. The point at which measurements stop and months of listening begin.
Grzegorz Rulka · Virtual HiFi

“You need engineering to build it — and artistry to make it alive.”

Co-founder of Cube Audio and Qualio Audio, creator of Virtual HiFi, with a background in technical physics and engineering. Twenty years of designing and manufacturing fullrange drivers, crossovers and cabinets.
11 / Film & sound demonstration

Hear it for yourself.

Recorded in our studio with Schoeps CMC6 MK4 microphones into a 32-bit recorder. Headphones or a good system recommended.
Alt image
12 / Independent validation

Reviewed by 6moons.

Srajan Ebaen followed the Supernova from R&D through to the finished loudspeaker. The review is live and still being added to.
6moons · Srajan Ebaen

“Today snaking R&D opens a review before flowing into the final straight of the finished product.”

“As you come along for the ride, you’ll appreciate why we first took to the twisties. Buckle up.”

Read the review at 6moons
13 / Ownership

Made for one room: yours.

Each pair is built to order, and the room it will stand in is part of the specification.
01

Tell us about your room and system

Dimensions, listening distance, the amplification you own. We will tell you honestly whether Supernova belongs there.
02

We build your Supernova

600 hours of printing and 100 hours of testing per pair. Typical lead time 4–6 weeks.
03

We help you make it disappear

Placement, toe-in and the switch from wheels to Vibron footers, walked through with you after delivery.

Start with a conversation about your room, or order straight away — thirty days at home either way, with shipping free in both directions.

Begin a consultation

Order now
14 / Placement

56 kg, and you can still move them with one hand.

A loudspeaker this heavy usually means you get one attempt at positioning it. Supernova ships with both answers in the box, so you never have to guess.
Wheels fitted

Roll them, listen, roll them again. Positioning a 56 kg loudspeaker stops being a decision you have to get right first time.
Vibron footers fitted

Printed TPU elastomer: the whole footer is the damping material, so the floor stops feeding vibration back into the baffle.

Explore how Vibrons improve the sound

 

Explore how Vibrons improve the sound
In the box · step one

Silicone wheels

Fit the wheels and roll the loudspeakers around the room as long as you like. Find the distance from the wall, the distance apart, the exact toe-in — by moving them and listening, not by measuring.
In the box · step two

Vibron footers

Once the position is right, swap to the Vibron isolation footers and the loudspeakers are coupled to the floor and decoupled from its vibration.
Or simply

Keep the wheels on

Plenty of owners leave the wheels fitted, because being able to move a 56 kg loudspeaker whenever the mood takes them is worth more than the last increment. Either way is a legitimate choice, and both are included.
15 / The risk is ours

Thirty days in your own room. Shipping free in both directions.

We are certain enough about these loudspeakers to make the decision cost you nothing.
What is included, and what it costs you to try

Worldwide delivery to your door is free. Live with the Supernovas for thirty days, in your room, with your music — and if you decide they are not for you, we pay the return shipping too.

There is no restocking fee and no paperwork. You tell me, and we arrange the collection.

Free insured worldwide delivery

Thirty days to listen at home

Return shipping paid by us

Wheels and Vibron footers both included

A direct line to the person who built them
16 / Distance from the wall

An open baffle likes to breathe — and rewards you either way.

Sealed and reflex designs make you choose a spot and live with it. This one behaves usefully in both directions.
The rule

Further out is better. 50 cm still works.

Give the baffle air behind it and the sound opens up. But you are not held hostage by it: down to 50 cm from the back wall is a perfectly usable position.
The part nobody expects

Closer to the wall means less bass.

Sealed and bass-reflex designs gain bass as you push them back, and usually too much of it. An open baffle does the opposite: move it towards the wall and the bass reduces. Which is exactly the behaviour you want, because small rooms are the ones that force you against a wall — and the ones with too much bass.
In practice

Big room, forward. Small room, back.

The room tells you where they go, and the loudspeaker cooperates in both directions rather than demanding one specific spot.
The trick with the wheels

Leave the wheels on, keep them against the wall for everyday listening, and when you sit down for a session that matters — roll them 50 cm forward and let the open baffle do what it does. Two positions, one pair of loudspeakers, no tools.
17 / The destination

THIS IS IT.

No compromise anywhere in it. Supernova was created to stand equal to the world’s cost-no-object loudspeakers — the ones that start at a hundred thousand and go up from there.

Begin your consultation

Order now
18 / Finishes

Ten finishes. Or the one you name.

The baffle is finished in any RAL colour you choose; the flanks stay satin black so the loudspeaker reads as a single object rather than a painted box. These ten are the ones people ask for most.

Original Black

Original White

Ruby Red

Wine Red

Sapphire Blue

Racing Green

Graphite Grey

Traffic Grey

Copper Brown

Cream

Any RAL or NCS

Name a colour.

No extra cost. Send the color code, or the room picture, and we will tell you what we would choose. Special car paints — metallics, pearlescents, candy finishes — at extra cost.
Why the flanks stay black

One object, not a painted box.

The steel structure is always painted black. Only the baffle carries the colour, so what you see from a listening seat is a single form.

The baffles are painted MDF, held on built-in magnets — so they lift off by hand. Moving house, renovating in a different style, or simply tired of the colour? Order a new set of front panels and change the loudspeaker in five minutes.

Every Supernova is painted to order, so the colour is decided during the consultation rather than picked from stock. Special car paints — metallics, pearlescents and candy finishes — are available at extra cost.

Discuss a finish
19 / Specifications

Supernova in detail.

Configuration

Three-way open baffle, passive
Frequency response

25 Hz – 22 kHz
Sensitivity

90 dB
Impedance

4 Ω nominal · 2.9 Ω minimum
Woofers

2 × 15-inch SB Audience Nero neodymium per side
Midrange

TeXtreme cone on an in-house waveguide
Tweeter

Large Mundorf AMT — not normally available, supplied to special order
Recommended amplification

Solid state from 100 W into 4 Ω, or a push-pull tube amplifier on KT88 / KT120 / KT150
Dimensions — loudspeaker

42 × 21 × 129 cm (W×D×H)
16.5 × 8.3 × 50.8 in
Dimensions — on platform

50 × 47 × 129 cm (W×D×H)
19.7 × 18.5 × 50.8 in
Weight

56 kg (123 lb) each
Baffle

3 mm steel / 2 mm elastomer / 3 mm steel, constrained layer damped
Crossover

Jantzen Amber Z-Cap, Mundorf, Duelund, Clarity Cap
Included

Silicone wheels and Vibron isolation footers

Built to order, so the finish and the platform are decided during the consultation, against the room the pair is going into. Typical lead time 4–6 weeks.
20 / Questions & answers

Before we begin.

The questions people actually ask before ordering, answered plainly. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
Room

Will they work in my room?

Supernova is designed for rooms from 25 to 100 m². Below that an open baffle of this size has no room to breathe; above it you would want more than two loudspeakers whatever you bought. Tell us your dimensions and listening distance and we will say plainly whether it fits.
Amplification

What amplification should I use?

Solid state from 100 W into 4 Ω, or a push-pull tube amplifier on KT88 / KT120 / KT150. Class A, AB and D all work well — at 90 dB and 4 Ω Supernova is not difficult to drive, it simply rewards an amplifier with current in reserve.
Listening

Can I hear them first?

Three ways. Listening in the Virtual HiFi reference room can be arranged. The film includes a high-resolution sound demonstration — use headphones. And best of all, we ship to you free of charge; if you decide not to keep them, we arrange the return shipping free of charge too.
Delivery

How are they delivered?

On a pallet, crated, fully insured — always safe and sound. Worldwide delivery is included in the price, and we tell you the collection window in advance so someone is there to receive them.
Bass

Do I need a subwoofer?

No. Two 15-inch woofers per side reach 25 Hz in a dipole pattern, which excites far fewer room modes than a sealed or ported box. Most owners find the bass both deeper and tighter than what a subwoofer was giving them before.
Handling

How do I move 56 kg into position?

On the silicone wheels that come in the box. Roll them, listen, roll them again — then either fit the Vibron footers or leave the wheels on. Positioning a Supernova is a one-person job.
Placement

Are they hard to place against a wall?

Easier than a conventional loudspeaker. An open baffle loses bass as it moves towards the wall, so a small or bass-heavy room is helped rather than hurt. Anything from 50 cm out works, and further out sounds better still.
Lead time

What is the lead time, and what happens after?

Typically 4–6 weeks. After delivery we walk you through placement and toe-in, and you have a direct line to the person who built them.
Finish

Can I change the colour later?

Yes. The baffles are painted MDF on built-in magnets, so a new set of front panels changes the loudspeaker in five minutes. Any RAL or NCS colour at no extra cost; special car paints at extra cost.

When you write, you reach Greg — the person who designed these loudspeakers and knows them inside out. Not a sales desk.

He will help you set up the whole system, advise on what to pair with them, and stay available afterwards for as long as it takes to get the best sound you have ever had at home. Including a straight “these are not for you” if that is the honest answer.

More about the designer

Ask a question
Supernova

Stop building a system. Start living with music.

Supernova was created for the moment when the search is over and only the music remains. Thirty days in your room, and shipping free both ways, is how we make that easy to find out.

Begin your consultation

Order now

Ask on WhatsApp
21 / Order

Order your Supernova now.

Built to order in 4–6 weeks, delivered worldwide free of charge, and yours to live with for thirty days — we pay the return shipping if you decide against them.
Supernova Open Baffle Loudspeakers
Supernova Open Baffle Loudspeakers
Supernova Open Baffle Loudspeakers
Supernova Open Baffle Loudspeakers
Supernova Open Baffle Loudspeakers
Supernova Open Baffle Loudspeakers
Supernova Open Baffle Loudspeakers
Supernova Open Baffle Loudspeakers
Supernova Open Baffle Loudspeakers
Supernova Open Baffle Loudspeakers

Supernova Open Baffle Loudspeakers

72.369,00 zł
Color

Quantity - Pairs
Included

Wheels and Vibron footers

Silicone wheels for finding the position, Vibron isolation footers for keeping it.
Delivery

Free, worldwide, insured

Crated on a pallet, fully insured, shipping included in the price.
Trial

Thirty days at home

Listen in your own room. If they are not for you, the return shipping is on us.
Support

Greg, directly

The person who designed them helps you set up the system and stays available afterwards.