Sestetto Speaker Orchestra by Stefano I. Scarascia and Shyam F. Zonca is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2017 Golden A' Design Award in Digital and Electronic Device Design Competition Category.
GoldConsumer Electronics· 2017
Sestetto Speaker Orchestra
by Stefano I. Scarascia and Shyam F. Zonca
Client: Produzione IMpropria
Golden A' Design Award Winner in Consumer Electronics Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #56634The Design
About Sestetto Speaker Orchestra
An orchestral ensemble of speakers that play together like real musicians. Sestetto is a multi-channel audio system to play individual instrument tracks in separate loudspeakers of different technologies and materials dedicated to the specific sound case, among pure concrete, resonating wooden soundboards and ceramic horns. The mixing of tracks and parts comes back to be physically in the place of listening, like in a real concert. Sestetto is the chamber orchestra of the recorded music. Sestetto is directly self-produced by its designers Stefano Ivan Scarascia and Francesco Shyam Zonca.
The Recognition
About the Golden A' Design Award
Sestetto Speaker Orchestra is a Golden A' Design Award winner, an immensely prestigious recognition granted to first-rate, marvelous, and outstanding designs. Golden winners are exceedingly innovative, visionary, and glamorously dazzling creations that reflect the prodigy, wisdom, and prowess of their designers. Sestetto Speaker Orchestra is expected to be a highly praised, trendsetting, and monumental invention that delivers unprecedented value. This Golden A' Design Award-winning design is a spectacular, respected project that highly benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Sestetto Speaker Orchestra creates intense feelings of desire, evokes passion, encourages creativity, and fascinates us.
Where to Get It
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Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
The main aim of Sestetto was to allow the self-production of the listening experience of recorded music. The mixing of tracks and parts back to be physically in the place of listening, like in a real concert. In this way you can better distinguish the single voices and instruments that are usually merged in the common stereo premix offered by the traditional recorded music and audio players.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
The main focus has been designing something able to be completely self-prototyped, while maintaining a proper aesthetic quality.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
The first plan for Sestetto is to find music producers and distribution partners that believe in this next approach of the musical fruition, for its scale developments or just for interesting public and experimental performances. Smaller spin-off projects could follow it.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- An orchestral ensemble of loudspeakers that play together like real musicians. Sestetto is a multi-channel audio system to play individual instrument tracks in separate loudspeakers of different materials and technologies dedicated to the specific sound case.
The HiFi concrete speaker is especially suitable for drums and basses.
The ceramic speaker can emphasizs wind instruments and voices through its ceramic horn.
The wooden speaker puts in vibration the wooden soundboard itself, for acoustic string instrument. Sestetto is directly self-produced by its designers Stefano Ivan Scarascia and Francesco Shyam Zonca. - Dimensions & Packaging
- Console (USB connection, multi-channel digital-analog converter, six separate 30W amplifiers with dedicate controls, passive and active outputs, dimensions 280 mm x 250 mm x 250 mm)
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Speakers (8 Ohm impedance, 30W power, dimensions 350 mm x 300 mm x 300mm)
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Concrete Speakers (polypropylene mid-woofer speaker,
tweeter speaker,
two-Way Crossover,
8 liters closed cabinet of reinforced concrete)
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Ceramic Speakers (midrange speaker,
ceramic horn in a case of reinforced concrete)
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Wooden Speakers (vibration transducer,
soundboard of fir and birch in a case of reinforced concrete) - Tags
- multi-channel, audio, system, speaker, concrete, ceramic, wood, vibration, loudspeaker, orchestra
- Production Technology
- The console case is handmade and finished of fir, walnut and mahogany.
The speaker cabinets are molded in reinforced concrete.
The ceramic horns are turned by hand by a ceramic artisan, while the wooden soundboards and boxes are made of fir and birch. - Design Challenge
- The hardest part of this design activity has been finding rapid solutions for the self-development and especially the self-production processes, while maintaining the design and aesthetic quality typical of Hi-Fi audio devices.
- Research
- In the context of a deep self-production research at the Politecnico di Milano, the aim of Sestetto was to extend this approach also to the self-production of the listening experience. After investigating the alternative audio systems technical possibilities, it has been developed the electronic multi-channel device, in parallel to the typical sound properties of different materials and technologies for experimental sound combinations. The selected self-production processes massively influenced the final aspect of the product, with the aesthetic considerations on the historical audio devices and trends.
- Inspiration
- Sestetto is the chamber orchestra of the recorded music: the mixing of tracks and parts comes back to be physically in the place of listening, like in a real concert. From the majesty of the ceramic horn, the heat of the wooden soundboard, the fidelity of the concrete cabinet, Sestetto incorporates in a set more diverse methods of sound reproduction, for a continuous musical experimentation also in the listening experience.
- Project Duration
- The project started in September 2012 in Milan, Italy and finished in February 2013. It was exhibited in Fuorisalone del Mobile in April 2009, in XXI Triennale from June to September 2016, in Lambrate Fall Edition in October 2016. It appeared in Domus, Ottagono, Case e Stili and Interni magazines and web-zines.
- Operation Flow
- Connect the console to the computer through the USB port and just play the multi-channel tune with a common music player software. Try and choose different speaker connections to experiment surprising combinations with the materials and the technologies. Adjust the dedicated volume for each instrument or voice channel and feel free to locate the individual speakers in the whole space.
- Team Members
- Stefano Ivan Scarascia
Francesco Shyam Zonca - Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Marianna Milione, Stefano Ivan Scarascia, 2013.
Image #2: Photographer Francesco Shyam Zonca, 2013.
Image #3: Photographer Francesco Shyam Zonca, 2013.
Image #4: Photographer Francesco Shyam Zonca, 2013.
Image #5: Photographer Francesco Shyam Zonca, 2013.
VIDEO CREDITS: Shooting Beniamino Sulfaro / Video Editing Stefano Ivan Scarascia / Soundtrack Stefano Ivan Scarascia, 2013.
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