"Jason reports on what he saw and heard (at the 2025 Warsaw Audio Video Show)..—plus his life-altering experience with Soft Collective":
"I was thrilled by the beautiful delicacy, wonderful transparency, colors, and solid bass of an Alison Krauss recording that was sourced from Tidal and upsampled to DSD256 via an I2S interface. It was so unlike anything I expected to hear from flea-watt SE amplification that I pulled out my phone and shot an admittedly imperfect but nonetheless compelling four-minute talk with Hildén. To shatter my mind, he played an early digital Erato LP of Rostropovich conducting L'Orchestre de Radio France in a surprisingly lyrical movement from Prokofiev's Seventh Symphony. The sound was beautiful, glowing, lively, and entrancing. Timpani may not have been under full control in the small hotel room, but the musical flow was so compelling as to transcend such concerns. "Color for days and nights," breathlessly scribbled moi in my notebook.
When I asked to hear more, I was treated to a CBS LP of Vivaldi'sConcerto for Two Mandolins in G, performed by La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roy, Jean-Claude Malgoire conducting. The ensemble sounded perfect, warm, and sweet. As I left the room with a smile on my face, I could hear Herb Reichert and the single-ended triode crowd in Brooklyn cheering, "JVS finally got it!" Hey, it may have taken many decades, but what's time in the face of music's eternal beauty?
..for the duration of the afternoon, I could not get the sound of the Soft Collective/Zikra Audio system out of my head."
Jason Victor Serinus
Stereophile Magazine
Our Vision at Soft Collective:
To redefine the audio experience by seamlessly integrating cutting-edge speaker technology with clean Nordic furniture design, inspired by timeless aesthetics and a commitment to sustainability. We envision a world where high-quality sound and environmentally conscious craftsmanship coexist, creating products that resonate with both the senses and the soul.
Our mission is to craft premium loudspeakers that combine the essence of Nordic design with innovative engineering, based on no-nonsense physics. By utilizing sustainable materials and ethical manufacturing practices, we aim to produce exceptional audio products that deliver superior sound quality and aesthetic beauty. We are dedicated to fostering a deep connection with our customers through products that reflect our passion for design, quality, and environmental stewardship.
Core Values Driving Soft Collective:
Key typologies have been combined into a completely unique type of loudspeaker with hard to believe dynamics and total lack of colouration from box resonances:
Dipole sound radiation
The SC 05 loudspeaker radiates sound both front and back throughout the whole frequency spectrum, but less to the sides, upwards and downwards, which has many advantages:
Multi baffle
By using separate baffles for bass and mid/high respectively, we can optimise each one, and avoid problems common in other designs, such as poor dispersion patterns and uneven response spectra.
High quality, low parts count filter
The cabinet layout and driver characteristics combine to allow very few filter components for a flat frequency response - whilst adding negligible insertion loss and dynamic compression, compared to complex filters.
Filter components are of the very highest quality. In the bass filter for example, we use a choke with a series resistance of 0.1 Ohms and 3000W power handling - total overkill, just to get the ultimate responsiveness from the driver.
Of course we don't use printed circuit boards - but point-to-point wiring with supported solder joints.
Close grouping of drivers
All drivers' acoustical center are grouped within a 36 cm (14 inches) diameter - creating a focused wave launch origin, improving stereo imaging and sense of natural scale, compared to standard layout multi-driver speakers.
Quite a feat considering that includes a tweeter, two 7 inch wide range drivers and an 18 inch woofer.
Physical time alignment
The reversed orientation of the woofer allows for time aligning woofer and mids despite their close proximity, resulting in a smooth transition between them.
Natural bass reproduction
Since the mirrored cabinets, made out of massive Nordic birch and birch plywood, are open and only gently loading the 18 inch, long throw woofer - the bass is never boomy. The massive cone area that releases input impulses instantly, without energy being stored and released with delay in resonance systems such as bass reflex boxes, creates a natural and believable reproduction of bass instruments with uncompressed dynamics.
The SC 05 loudspeaker system works with both powerful solid state amplification, as well as with tube amplifiers from about 17W and up, but the bass tuning, system Q, is optimised for low damping factor amplifiers, i.e. tube amplifiers.
Sound pressure output can scale effortlessly from an intimate setting to a 100 square meter room at high listening levels.
The grilles, covered with loosely woven medium density textile fibre, cover both front and back in an identical fashion, and are interchangeable.
Driver complement:
18 inch woofer
two 7 inch wide range
ribbon tweeter
Sensitivity in room: 92 dB @ 1kHz, 2.83V/1m
Nominal impedance: 8 Ohms (DCR: 6.8Ohms, minimum: 4.4 Ohms @ 64 Hz)
System Q: 0.5
Size & weight:
62 x 62 x 22 cm
26 cm stands
ca 33 kg
The SC-Q is a suspension equipment stand where each shelf is adaptable to equipment weight, and weight distribution, by the use of big compression springs and/or Sonic Design 30 mm damping pads.
The SC-Q system is modular and can be expanded with shelves, springs pads or leg sections separately.
When the suspension is dialed in for a specific piece of equipment, the resonance frequency of the spring/mass system created, will be around 3Hz. This attenuates vibration transmissiveness between floor and equipment in the whole music spectrum to a very high degree. We recommend using only springs as far as possible, in order to create a high Q (under damped) system, where higher frequencies will be most effectively attenuated.
Matt Bonaccio of Soundstage Global:
"I’ll reiterate, though, that I was most impressed by how these almost-cute speakers in this really small room made it sound like a huge space. The soundstage was wide and high, and the imaging was sharper and more focused than the look of the speakers might indicate."
Read his full report from our room at the 2025 Warsaw Audio Video Show here
Carlo Lo Raso of Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity:
"Well Soft Collective isn’t just blowing smoke with these speakers. I was not expecting both the depth and spaciousness of sound combined with very precise imaging and a very natural tonal balance. All this from a pair of trendy furniture boxes on stands. I mean…WTF?! I was genuinely blown away by these speakers. A completely unexpected surprise!"
Read his full report from the 2025 Warsaw Audio Video Show here
Michael Fremer of Tracking Angle and The Absolute Sound:
"..look for the interview there too and one with Soft Collective's Gunnar Hildén. The company's newly introduced speaker sounded superb driven by Zikra Audio tube electronics"
See his video report from the 2025 Warsaw Audio Video Show here
Soft Collective is a newly started company with a focus on developing products that have unique qualities, Nordic style and are made with sustainability top of mind.
For more info about Soft Collective and its products, please get in touch.
