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Now Jan Zamiar joined Greg
—short for Grzegorz—and David.  Jan is the owner of Sounddeco and comes from the mother company Witowa. This company not only specializes in OEM speaker cabinets but also produces furniture, doors and kitchens – basically anything that combines fine wood work with carpentry. Witowa has the expertise, quality industrial machines and workforce to handle all wood work at precision levels. Carpentry is one thing but it needs finishing. Here Witowa are equipped with high-quality paint booths and veneer shops with matching specialists. Many of the industrial designs are by Emilia Cieśla. How did all of this pool into Sounddeco?


Greg earned his doctorate in acoustics and works with several Polish loudspeaker companies in the pro as well as hifi arena as designer and consultant. He is also a regular speaker at AES conferences and has submitted various papers on loudspeakers and filter designs. Many of the results of these collaborations are manufactured by Witowa so there was the link. Clearly the logical next step for Witowa was to launch their own brand. All they needed was access to a quality driver supplier. That became SB Acoustics. Witowa spawned Audio Witowa to become the Polish distributor for SB Acoustics. Combined the company would have the technical loudspeaker design skills of Greg, the visual design of Emilia, the production infrastructure of Witowa, the drivers from SB Acoustics and the stewartship of Jan. Sounddeco were born.


A year later we were back at the same audio show. Sounddeco again were in the same room which seemed even more packed not only with OEM cabinets but more Sounddeco models. The Alpha F3 playing made for compelling reason to raise the subject of a review. Jan and Greg liked the idea but wanted to wait a little longer since Sounddeco were just getting access to the latest Witowa paint facility which then was still under construction. They wanted to be ready to dispatch their top production for review.


Finally Greg gave the heads up that Sounddeco were ready to ship a pair. He confirmed that we’d really liked their white finish and not long after that email a Polish van stopped at our place. On board was a pallet with two fairly large carton boxes solidly wrapped in cling foil. The driver asked if we could lend a hand with unloading. It appeared that each box weighed just over 50 kilo. Once upstairs we unpacked the Alpha F3 from their protective enclosures. The speakers sit on a plinth which meant sliding them from the box onto a towel for easy movement across our polished floor to their initial position in the room. One box contained not only the loudspeaker but also a set of spikes with small protective coasters and a set of black grills that attach to the loudspeakers with strong magnets.


Measuring 1160 x 250 x 500mm, the Alpha F3 is well proportioned. The baffle slanting back by ~3° not only time aligns the drivers, it also makes the cabinet appear less bulky than a completely rectangular construction would. The rounded top and bottom of the baffle enhance the appearance of elegance further. Sounddeco claim a sensitivity of 92dB with a benign 4Ω impedance and bandwidth of ±2.5dB from 40Hz to 28kHz. With these characteristics a wide array of amplifiers will be a good electrical match. Sonics were still to be determined. The slanted baffle houses four drivers in a 3-way array. On top is an SB29RDC-C000-4 ring dome tweeter with signature dent to prevent unwanted resonances. Mid frequencies are handled by a 4-inch SB12MNRX25-4 driver with a cone made of a proprietary material based on natural fibers called Norex. Bass is handled by a tandem of 8-inch SB23NRXS45-8 woofers again with Norex cones. All drives mount flush to the baffle with smooth transitions between the high-gloss wood and black driver baskets.


That high-gloss finish warrants a second mention as proof of very fine paint craftsmanship. All edges and ridges were flawless and when looked at from an angle betrayed no ripples or orange peel. Whilst the cabinet itself was executed in high gloss, the plinth beneath it was satin for a lovely contrast. The gap between cabinet and plinth is maintained by four 3cm tall aluminium posts. This gap creates fixed loading for the downfiring bass-reflect port which too is finished in high gloss.