Why restoring Magnepan MG3.6R speakers and updating the speaker cloth is totally worth it
Let’s be honest: have you ever listened to music from a recording that truly captures the spatial depth and precision of a live concert? In today’s world of immersive audio and Dolby Surround, that might sound like an odd question. But think about it—this isn’t about digital tweaks that “optimise” sound and put you in the middle of the stage, where, frankly, the audience would never sit. The real question is: how do you recreate the sound from the front row, where every detail is razor-sharp, and the soundstage feels genuinely three-dimensional?
Most audio purists will agree that traditional speakers just can’t get you there. Speaker cabinets always influence the sound, and conventional speakers are unidirectional: They project sound mostly forward, making the listening experience a bit flat. The room doesn’t “breathe”, and even with perfect phase alignment, there’s usually only one “sweet spot” where everything sounds just right—the much-quoted apex of the stereo triangle.
The advantages of planar speakers If you’re after a truly spatial and precise listening experience, you’ll want to explore alternative designs, like open-baffle systems or planar speakers—specifically ESLs and full-range magnetostats. These speakers, with their figure-eight sound dispersion pattern, allow the room’s acoustics to become part of the music. They also offer phenomenal transient response, fantastic detail, and minimal distortion.
Magnepan MG3.6R planar speakers
So why aren’t there planar speakers in every living room? For starters, they’re technically demanding to make, so they’re pricier—and they’re also delicate. They’ve got limited membrane excursion, so they tend to be large. And to deliver their spatial magic, they need space. You can’t just tuck them into the corners of your bookshelf. In short, these high-end hi-fi speakers don’t come cheap or compact. But if you’ve got the room and the budget, you might find yourself dreaming about them until you own a pair—perhaps the revered Quad electrostats, which often come equipped with our speaker fabrics, by the way.
The legendary Magnepan magnetostats If you’ve got even more space, consider Magnepan’s massive magnetostatic speakers. Since the 1970s, they’ve been celebrated for their neutral, detailed sound, incredible inner detail and focus, brilliant transient response, and massive soundstage. The catch? A brand-new pair of Magnepan 3.7i speakers will easily set you back five figures.
The hidden gem: MG3.6R That’s where the MG3.6R comes in. As the predecessor to the 3.7i, it’s available on the second-hand market for far less. Yet many of these legendary speakers are sitting neglected in storage, suffering from issues like buzzing and rattling due to loose or oxidised wiring on the Mylar membrane or somewhat torn and tired-looking speaker fabric. So, are they better left in the attic as dusty relics? Absolutely not!
The interior of an ageing MG3.6R: oxidation, dirt and detached conductor wires cause trouble.
Breathing new life into the MG3.6R Restoring a pair of MG3.6Rs is more than worth your time. The sound is still top-notch, and replacement parts, along with – admittedly very succinct – restoration guides, are still available directly from the manufacturer. In our online shop, you can choose from a wide range of acoustic fabrics to refresh your speakers’ look. With a bit of time and DIY effort, you can bring back that magical Magnepan sound on a budget. There are amazingly detailed step-by-step guides online, including video tutorials on YouTube, that show how to reattach or replace the wiring. Once that’s done, covering them with new speaker fabric is a simple finishing touch.
Restoration of an MG3.6R: Cleaned Mylar film with conductor wires.
From MG3.6R to 3.7: A restoration success story Take it from Guillaume Schmidt, a customer from Castelnau de Medoc near Bordeaux in France. He recently restored his MG3.6R and shared the process with us—many thanks, Guillaume! Not only did he revive the sound, but he also gave the speakers a visual update, swapping the somewhat dated natural wood and beige fabric design for a sleek, timelessly elegant look based on the current 3.7i with black speaker cloth and corresponding wooden elements. Now his speakers don’t just sound fantastic—they look the part too. Hats off!
Covered with new speaker cloth and almost finished:
One of the MG3.6Rs restored by Guillaume Schmidt.
Why our new custom-printed speaker fabrics can complete your audiovisual experience.
Remember that holiday in your favourite country, where almost everything was perfect? Even the simplest dishes were at least twice as delicious as usual, right
No wonder. We know from numerous scientific studies that an experience such as a meal is always influenced by all our senses, especially visual perception. “You eat with your eyes, “ as a German proverb goes, meaning that food is more enjoyable when it is attractively presented and served in an appealing setting.
It’s all about the setting – even when it comes to listening pleasure And guess what: The same applies to our listening experience. Strangely enough, things sound subjectively better to a certain extent in an acoustically-questionable but impressively furnished baroque hall that smells of precious wood and fresh roses than in an acoustically optimised, but smelly and shabbily furnished room.
Believe it or not, perfect musical enjoyment is not so far from the perfect dinner: every detail matters. Needless to say that the performance of each element in the audio signal chain needs to be flawless, but the aesthetics of your setup and even the interior design of your listening environment also play a crucial role in creating a truly immersive experience.
That’s where our custom-printed speaker grille fabrics come into play, offering you the perfect blend of design flexibility and uncompromising acoustic performance.
Whether photo, graphic, or individual colour: Our individually printed speaker fabric opens up completely new design possibilities for you.
Customisation without limits At Akustikstoff.com, we understand that creative vision knows almost no bounds. And we do everything we can to support you in implementing your individual creative vision.
Whether you require a custom color,photo, graphic, or logo printed on our speaker cloth, we’ve got you covered. Our fabrics along with our new printing service allow you to create a unique product that sets you apart from the crowd. From high-end loudspeakers to acoustic panels and beyond, our fabrics enable you to unleash your design ideas and make a lasting impression.
Unmatched quality, unbeatable value As you may already know, we never compromise when it comes to quality. Our speaker fabrics are crafted using premium materials that ensure exceptional sound transparency, perfect workability, and stand the test of time.
With more than 2,000 colors readily available and the ability to reproduce any other color within the CMYK color space, the design possibilities are endless. Plus, our state-of-the-art printing technology ensures unparalleled image rendition, bringing your designs to life with stunning clarity and vibrancy.
Simple and easy ordering Obtaining your personalised acoustic cloth is easier than ever. Simply follow a straightforward process: select your desired fabric and size, define your color preferences using our color charts or by providing a sample, and approve the proof before production begins. And if you need assistance along the way, our dedicated team is always here to help.
Customised printing on acoustic cloth creates new creative scope in countless applications, for example for acoustic panels, loudspeaker design, and room decoration.
Stay ahead of the curve! While other sellers may offer custom-printed speaker fabrics, they can hardly match the level of quality and value that we provide, because they usually don’t have the entire production chain from fabric manufacture all the way to printing in their own hands.
As a discerning audiophile, a passionate home theater enthusiast, or a design-conscious professional, you already know that our fabrics offer an unbeatable price-performance ratio – a philosophy we continue with our printed products. With countless possibilities for personalisation and flawless sound transparency, our fabrics empower you to elevate audiovisual experience like never before.
Whether you’re looking to personalise speakers, acoustic panels, furniture, or rooms, our fabrics offer the perfect solution. Embrace the power of customisation with our custom-printed sound-transparent fabrics and take your audiovisual experience to the next level. Don’t hesitate to order free fabric samples through our online sample service.
Why we don’t deliver our speaker fabric to all countries and why it’s becoming fewer.
A few days ago, I once again found an incredibly cheap flight ticket promising to take me to the destination of my next dream vacation for a mere 29 euros from an airport near me. But, of course, upon closer inspection, it was anything but a bargain: Various service fees, flight safety charges, fuel surcharges, insurance costs, airport fees – and of course, hefty additional costs for any luggage larger than a lunchbox drove the actual ticket price up to a hefty triple-digit amount.
You’re wondering what this has to do with speaker fabric? Quite simply: as an operator of an online shop for speaker fabric, you can experience similar surprises on your shipping service providers‘ monthly invoices – with the fine but unpleasant difference that all additional costs are incurred long after the shipment has been dispatched. Once a package is on its way, there’s no turning back. Especially for deliveries abroad, this can quickly spoil your entire budgeting, with surcharges for islands, peculiar extra fees for deliveries to »remote areas«, or exorbitant return costs for undeliverable shipments. If a shipment is returned from a non-EU country, you’ll also be charged double customs duties for export and re-import. And all of this is rarely foreseeable when you ship an order.
So, you’ll do everything in your power to prevent such surprises from getting out of hand: First, you rely exclusively on shipping service providers that are proven to be reliable, work as transparently as possible, and whose delivery drivers don’t return every other shipment as undeliverable. Next, you choose only shipping methods that allow for precise tracking, and you tweak your IT systems so that your customers receive an automatic email with the tracking number of their shipment in advance. Then, you exclude countries for which there are no clearly calculable shipping costs from the option for easy online ordering. And, after the third undeliverable shipment returned from outside the EU, you decide to serve only private customers within the EU.
All of this, of course, contradicts the spontaneous impulse to make all customers around the world happy with your high-quality speaker fabric. It means additional effort and potentially loss of revenue, so it initially hurts. However, it contributes to the long-term survival of your business because it puts an end to pointlessly burning significant amounts of money every month on shipping your speaker fabrics. With this in mind, you can easily brush off occasional remarks from prospective customers in countries you don’t deliver to, as well as the complaints of some penny-pinchers who argue that shipping as an (unfortunately untraceable) merchandise shipment would be much cheaper. Knowing that it is ultimately your free choice to whom you sell, you finally lean back and think that everything is now well sorted.
However, your sense of contentment doesn’t last long because you didn’t account for the endless ingenuity of administrative bureaucracy. It keeps coming up with new antics, especially in the national implementation of EU directives. The latest example is the so-called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). This term encompasses, among other things, the obligations for environmentally responsible collection and recycling of sales and shipping packaging and the recyclability of products.
As an end customer, you have little to do with EPR. You simply dispose of all packaging and products according to the instructions in the designated collection containers and, if necessary, at the recycling center. You may occasionally be annoyed that products with a certain recycling system marking have become slightly more expensive because manufacturers and retailers pass on the costs of mandatory participation in the corresponding recycling programs to the products.
In principle, extended producer responsibility is, in our opinion, an important and welcome development – especially since at Akustikstoff.com, we have been actively working to continuously reduce the ecological footprint in the production and shipping of speaker fabric for years. However, each EU member state develops its own procedures based on the very broadly defined EPR guidelines of the EU, and that’s where the bureaucratic madness begins.
In some EU countries, realistic small-scale limits keep the costs for licensing and the effort for reporting the packaging placed on the market low. In other countries, however, there are no such small-scale limits. In such cases, full-scale contribution to a national recycling system is mandatory even for a single delivery to that country, with costs regularly amounting to several hundred euros per year. And the documentation requirements create considerable internal costs on top of that. Even people with pronounced difficulty in math can easily imagine that, for our business not to become completely uneconomical, we’d have to deliver nearly absurd quantities of speaker fabric to these countries. The beneficiaries of such models are at best internationally operating large companies, which have probably also conducted intensive lobbying efforts beforehand. And unlike small businesses, they can afford such lobbying.
But that’s not all. Some other countries now even require a national representative and notarization on-site to register with their respective recycling systems. It’s hard to imagine a better example of protectionism through the back door and the deliberate undermining of the idea of EU-wide free trade.
Smaller, specialised online retailers are increasingly being pushed out of some national markets due to such constructs around EPR, because violations of the requirements can lead to significant fines and penalties. A single delivery in improperly licensed packaging already constitutes such a violation. Some companies are currently taking this risk, probably in ignorance of the authorities‘ resourcefulness. Since the introduction of the so-called One-Stop Shop (OSS) for EU VAT reporting, it has become easy to identify shipments to every single EU country. And we don’t want to be criminalised and penalised. So, regretfully, we can’t deliver our speaker fabric to several EU states any longer, as frustrating as this may be for both our customers and ourselves.
A few years ago, I was in Malta at this time of year. One day I visited the Gaia Foundation and their Peace Grove above Għajn Tuffieħa Bay. It was a windy day, and the gentle rustling of leaves in the wind could be heard all around, while the bright, already somewhat warm sun made everything feel more alive. I noticed several beautiful olive trees standing in the midst of all the greenery. The vibrant green hue of the leaves caught my attention, and I couldn’t help but think how great this colour would look in our acoustic fabrics.
And now, it gives me great pleasure to announce the introduction of the new colour Olive to our extensive range of standard colours for acoustic fabrics. Olive is a warm, inviting colour that exudes a sense of calmness and serenity while adding new, spring-fresh Mediterranean accents.
Olive trees at the Gaia Foundation Peace Grove ner Għajn Tuffieħa, Malta
We’ve carefully crafted Olive to perfectly complement a wide variety of other colours. It pairs well with wood and with earthy tones such as browns and beiges, and it also goes well with lighter shades such as blues and greys. It also creates a beautiful and harmonious contrast when combined with black. This versatility makes our sound-transparent fabric in Olive an ideal choice for designers and architects looking for a colour that can work with almost any palette.
Inspired by the natural beauty of the olive tree, our Olive colour captures the essence of the qualities associated with this tree: it’s beautiful to look at, enormously adaptable, and stands for timeless elegance in our fast-moving world. The olive tree is a symbol of peace, prosperity, and growth, and the richness of the colour adds a touch of sophistication to any space and is a perfect representation of the modern aesthetic.
Mediterranean freshness: Akustikstoff.com speaker cloth in Olive
With the introduction of the new olive colour, we are excited to offer our clients our speaker fabrics in a new colour that opens up new aesthetic opportunities. Whether you are looking for a bold statement or a subtle accent, Akustikstoff.com speaker cloth in Olive will help you achieve your desired look. So, why not embrace the natural beauty of olive and give your creations a fresh new look with a calming yet aesthetically sophisticated aura? Olive is available as Standard Acoustic Cloth, as water-repellent Acoustic Cloth 2.0, and as nonflammable Acoustic Cloth FR. Best use our individual sample service to obtain samples of the new colour right away.
Surprisingly compact, powerful, audiophile, and almost limitlessly scalable: the "Pixi" speaker developed by Dutch company HornAudio with black speaker fabric from Akustikstoff.com
Stage performers such as musicians, cabaret artists, readers, and lecturers are usually confronted with a fundamental question before any live performance: Will the PA system provided on site meet the requirements? At the end of the day, the PA system is key to the success of a live event – even in the long run. Poor sound prevents the proverbial spark from striking during the performance, no matter how hard an artist tries on stage. Much more serious, however, is the fact that audiences usually blame poor live sound on the artists themselves, which means that inadequate PA systems can be a real career obstacle.
To minimise this risk, most performing artists rely on a so-called tech rider, a contract addendum that specifies the required features and performance data of the PA system and the lighting equipment. But in daily practice, even precise specifications in a tech rider do not protect artists from unpleasant surprises, and hardly any artist will cancel a show shortly before the venue opens because the PA system does not meet the agreed specifications.
That’s why the Dutch band Rapalje takes a completely different approach: The famous Celtic folk artists are usually using their own PA system, which is tailored exactly to their requirements and delivers excellent sound. Even at festivals, Rapalje like to set up their own system instead of the equipment available on site. This provides the musicians with the invaluable advantage of being able to fully focus on their performance because they can be be sure that the audience can hear exactly what is happening on stage.
The Dutch Celtic folk band Rapalje at the Zomerfolk Festival 2022 in Groningen.
However, there is a secret behind Rapalje’s excellent sound: The PA system does not consist of off-the-shelf components but is custom-built and optimally balanced in terms of acoustic behaviour. Undoubtedly, not every band can afford this luxury, because profound knowledge of acoustics and loudspeaker technology is required to design such a high-performance PA system. It’s precisely this knowledge that Maceál, one of the founding members of Rapalje, brings to the table. The multi-instrumentalist, not without reason called „Inspector Gadget“ by his band mates, is a born tinkerer with everything that has to do with music. In addition to harmonicas with completely new tunings and the gitouki, an instrument that adds a unique flavour to the Rapalje sound, Maceál developed the band’s proprietary headset microphones as well as the entire PA system, which he continues to optimise with great attention to detail. In his home province of Groningen and beyond, Maceál is a highly coveted expert in all matters of sound reinforcement technology. His company HornAudio, which has now been in existence for ten years, installs and rents out sound reinforcement systems of all sizes – all of them, of course, developed and manufactured in-house.
Sound tinkerer Maceál in his studio determining the acoustic behaviour of a „Pixi“ prototype.
As for most artists and stagecraft suppliers, the onset of the Corona pandemic initially heralded difficult economic times for HornAudio and for Rapalje due to the almost complete collapse of the event business. But surrendering to fate has never been Maceál’s thing. Instead, he used the free time he suddenly had to push his loudspeaker developments in a completely different direction: He used the principles of PA technology and his experience to develop extremely compact systems that offer true high-end sound with minimal space requirements. HornAudio breaks completely new ground with these systems that consist of a class D amplifier, a very compact subwoofer, and surprisingly small satellite speakers called „Pixies“, whose main parts are 3D-printed, acoustically optimised housings and flat membrane speakers. During development, special attention was paid to the avoidance of partial oscillations as well as to the prevention of phase cancellations through sophisticated housing and the front grille design.
A feature taken directly from the PA sector – and an extraordinary property in the hi-fi segment – is the scalability of the HornAudio system. While array configurations that can be adapted to the respective power requirements and on-site conditions are common state of the art in professional sound reinforcement technology, similar flexibility isn’t common for hi-fi and high-end loudspeakers. Maceál has created this possibility with his new development: Just like the speakers of a full-blown PA system, the „Pixi“ satellites can be configured as an array, if more power and an extended coverage angle adapted to the spatial conditions of a room are required. Arrays with four or eight „Pixi“ satellites per side can be easily realised to meet the requirements of large living rooms, public spaces, or a restaurant, for instance. Thanks to the runtime-corrected design of the speakers, the audio image remains linear in such array setups. Dreaded phase cancellations are avoided, so the sound isn’t compromised regardless of the listener’s position.
For the aesthetic design of the loudspeaker fronts, Maceál chose speaker fabrics from Akustikstoff.com. Despite good visual opacity, these high-quality fabrics offer maximum sound transparency and don’t impair the excellent sound of the system. Moreover, the extensive range of available colours allows the speakers to be visually matched to almost any conceivable room design and to meet any customer requirement.
The sophisticated development is convincing all along the line: Even the smallest configuration, which consists of two weatherproof „Pixies“ measuring only 7 x 7 x 7 cm and a 28 x 28 x 16.4 cm subwoofer that also houses the amplifier, renders a surprisingly voluminous and detailed sound. Its almost linear frequency response from 38 all the way to 21,000 Hz and the excellent spatial imaging raise the bar for small speakers with big sound, which has so far been defined mainly by Sonos systems.
Array configurations of four or eight satellites per side plus a correspondingly powerful subwoofer further extended the frequency response, bring even more sound pressure and sound volume to the table, and provide outstandingly fine detail regardless of volume. In fact, such an array with its linear reproduction behaviour outshines many established studio monitors in a direct listening comparison. In terms of acoustics, it is on a par with high-end loudspeakers that change hands for five-figure sums per unit.
The wide range of connection options leaves nothing to be desired. The system can play back audio directly via Bluetooth, and it can be integrated into a multi-room system via WLAN. In addition, there’s an RJ45 socket for wired connection to a LAN, a 3.5 mm jack socket to connect analogue audio sources, and a USB interface to play back audio content directly from USB data carriers.
The smallest configuration of the new HornAudio system, marketed as „Rapalje Sound System“.
A first series of the smallest configuration has now been launched as a special „Rapalje Sound System„. It can be ordered from Rapalje’s online shop together with a USB stick containing the band’s complete repertoire. There is a choice of five different colours for the speaker fabric from Akustikstoff.com that covers the speaker front: Customers can either choose neutral black or one of the band’s four typical colours, which are green, red, blue, and brown.
Active tracking of your shipment from Akustikstoff.com is more important than you may think.
Is your order from our online shop already on its way to you? If so, you will have received a shipment notification email with a tracking number. Use this number to actively track your shipment. It’s worth the effort.
Now and then we receive emails and calls from customers who report problems with the delivery of their shipment and ask us for help. Apart from a few exceptions, however, there is very little we can do in such cases. The parcel services’ operations are completely beyond our control, especially outside Germany. Nevertheless, there are several things you can do in advance to avoid much of the typical hassle with parcel services.
This article illustrates how to set the course for the smooth delivery of your order. Let’s start with a look at what causes the vast majority of problems, because, as always, understanding the origin of problems makes it easier to avoid them right from the outset.
Overworked delivery staff
Are you still expecting several delivery attempts to be made before a shipment is considered undeliverable and returned to the sender? Well, time to say farewell to this idea. Today, delivery services are amazingly quick when it comes to returning a shipment because of an insignificant address error, a missing door code for a building, or simply because the reception desk in an office building is unoccupied during the very minute a delivery driver appeared and disappeared again.
You can also bid farewell to the hope that drivers will actually phone, text, or email you, no matter how many contact options may be printed on the address label of a shipment. According to our experience, phone contact is only made for express items nowadays. In all other cases, the delivery driver, in all likelihood a prime example of an overworked, underpaid gig worker anyway, will try to get the shipment out of that delivery van clogged with far too many Amazon parcels as quickly as possible. Quite frankly, working conditions don’t leave space for even the least bit of additional service. So don’t blame the driver.
The volume of parcels is continuously increasing and most delivery drivers are terribly overworked. Please make it as easy as possible for them to deliver your Akustikstoff.com order effortlessly.
Do not expect notifications
In the meantime, items are often deposited for collection at a depot (UPS Access Point, post office, etc.) after a single delivery attempt. And, in many countries, you better not bet on a corresponding notification to land in your letterbox. In the worst case, your fervently awaited speaker cloth will be returned to us without any further notification after about 10 days in the depot.
Much in the same way, items are more and more often „delivered“ at a random place somewhere on the plot or in the immediate vicinity of the delivery address. And, again, the expected notification card might be missing. In such cases, the item is flagged as “delivered” in the parcel service’s database, but it can be almost impossible to identify its actual location or to collect it. This can be particularly annoying for business customers who are urgently waiting for our speaker fabric to keep their production running.
Moreover, the vast majority of parcel services still perform „contactless delivery“ as a protection measure against Covid-19. This can make it even more complicated to find out the whereabouts of an item and the person who has accepted the shipment.
Keep a constant eye on the shipment process of your speaker cloth
Once you’re aware of all this, you can do appropriate steps to ensure that your shipment from Akustikstoff.com arrives at the desired destination on time and reliably. We do everything we can to make this possible. That’s why we ship all orders with a shipment ID that enables seamless tracking of the item.
If you’ve placed an order in our online shop, you will automatically receive a shipping confirmation with a clickable shipment ID enabling you to track the shipment directly on the parcel service’s website. You can monitor the entire shipment process and usually also see all delivery address details stored by the parcel service.
Actively facilitate a smooth delivery of your speaker fabric
First check this address data for correctness and completeness. Should you discover an error, please contact the parcel service provider immediately and have it corrected. In most cases, this can be done directly online. However, some providers will require you to create a customer account first.
Then take a look at the scheduled delivery date. Ideally, you should arrange for someone to be present at the delivery address on that day. If this isn’t possible, best change the delivery date or address way in advance. Alternatively, you can issue a one-time drop-off authorisation for a specific location with almost all parcel services.
Personal delivery of a shipment has become rare in the wake of Covid-19.
We’ve also heard that drivers simply skip deliveries that would require them to ascend several floors and simply send parcels straight to a depot for collection. While that’s surely not nice, there’s not much anyone can do about it, and it seems to happen quite often nowadays, especially in cities. With the help of the shipment ID, however, you can at least find out immediately whether your shipment has been made available for collection at a depot near you.
As you can see, the shipment ID in our shipping confirmation email is your key to a smooth delivery. Take advantage of this opportunity!
Stay on the ball
It is very important to track the shipment closely until you have received it. After all, the vast majority of problems occur on the proverbial last mile. Consistent tracking keeps you aware of whether the item is still on its way or has already been delivered, deposited in a depot or delivered to another address. In most cases, proof of delivery with the relevant details is also provided. These can help you to get possession of your parcel as quickly as possible.
Please remember: time is short once your shipment has been sent to a depot. Items that are not collected within a maximum period of two weeks (rather less) will be returned – which is a disadvantage for either side, as you will not obtain the speaker cloth while we get charged exorbitant return fees.
Don’t forget to check your spam folder
If you have placed an order with us online, our system generates an order confirmation email immediately. Should you not have received this email, please check the spam folder of your email programme – and continue to do so, because it is very likely that the shipping confirmation with the shipment ID will also end up there.
The simple remedy for future cases: put the domain akustikstoff.com on your whitelist. Don’t worry, we never send advertising emails and prevent our systems from spreading spam.
Avoid problems even before placing your order
Please make sure to check the following simple points before sending your online order. This greatly helps to ensure the quick and smooth delivery of your shipment:
• Did you enter your e-mail address correctly and without typos when placing your order?
• Is the indicated shipping address correct, complete, and accurate?
• When ordering via Paypal Express: Is your correct delivery address on file with Paypal?
• Have you entered your telephone number for queries? A telephone number is always required for express shipments, but it can also be extremely helpful in other cases.
• Do you have a clearly legible bell plate or a company sign bearing the name in the shipping address? If not, delivery is almost sure to fail.
• Is your letterbox easy to find and clearly labelled? This is the only way of enabling the driver to leave you a message if necessary.
Additional information from Shipcloud
We process almost all our shipments with the help of Shipcloud, and our customers will also receive a message from Shipcloud if problems with the shipment are reported by the parcel service.
If you receive such an email, please contact the relevant parcel service immediately to resolve the problem. Please remember that it doesn’t help to contact us. We do not have any information beyond the tracking information and are not entitled to act on your behalf in relation to the local delivery service. We can only help you if the shipment is lost or completely misdelivered, and, of course, we’ll be happy to do so. But fingers crossed that this won’t be necessary once you’ve taken all the precautions described above.
The white-bellied frog (geocrinia alba) is an extremely tiny species that only lives in an equally tiny area. Scientists have found that total area the extremely endangered frogs occupy is less than 2 square kilometres of swampy patches in the Margaret River region in southwest Western Australia. Such an endemic species naturally attracts the interest of scientists.
Biologists at the University of Western Australia wanted to record the frogs’ distinctive noises to to gain further insight into the behaviour of the animals. But in a wet environment, this poses particular challenges. So they got in Touch with Soundlabs Group in Mittagong, Australia, our distribution partner for the Asia / Pacific region.
“My application is probably a bit unconventional,” wrote Emily Hoffmann, PhD Candidate at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Western Australia. “I am working with critically endangered frogs in Western Australia, and we are trying to monitor their calling behaviour remotely by using audio recorders that we can deploy into the field. I have made some water-resistant cases for the audio recorders, but I need to cover the holes for the microphones with something water resistant that won’t interfere with the recording ability.“
Leon Gross, the owner of Soundlabs Group, was more than happy to help. He provided the biologists with some of our liquid-repellent Acoustic Cloth 2.0. The specially treated cloth, which has already proven its special qualities in numerous applications such as outdoor loudspeakers or in yacht building, now covers the section where the microphone is located, so any rain or drops of water just run off while neither the technology within the cases nor the quality of the recordings are affected.
One of the recording devices equipped with Acoustic Cloth 2.0 by Akustikstoff.com. The devices are used to monitor white-bellied frogs in Western Australia.
To learn more about the white-bellied frog and the research project, which is supported by several foundations and associations, read this article, which was published by „The Naked Scientists“.
Philippe Guènerie’s from the French town of Blois specialises in exclusive retro design and impressive high-quality horn systems. The hi-fi tinkerer has been building loudspeakers and amplifiers for a long time. He also refurbishes historical amplifiers and radios. Whenever speaker fabric is required for a project, he relies on the products of Akustikstoff.com. „You have beautiful things on offer,“ he praises the range.
Impressive: Philippe Guènerie specialises in high-end horn systems.
Nothing is more pleasing than satisfied customers – and we’re especially pleased when we exceed our customers‘ expectations. We did so again, this time with our Metallic-Line speaker fabric , which will now even appear on British television. A few days ago, we received a message from Paul Golledge, who lives with his partner Emma Newton-Gunn in the Château de Montvason, a lovely castle in Normandy. The couple is among the protagonists of the British Channel 4 series „Escape to the Chateau DIY„.
Paul writes: »Hello, I ordered your copper acoustic cloth for a project I have. We are once again filming for U.K. channel four ‘chateau diy’ and I have built a large pair of Art Deco speakers for my French Mouthful O’ Jam vintage 78 record DJ kit. The old kit was filmed for a German Arte documentary called Shellack. After having trouble with my staple gun I finally managed to fit the cloth and I’m incredibly pleased with the look. I chose copper because I thought it would look OK but to my surprise it is incredible and the deco speakers are superb. I will be ordering more as I need to build the Art Deco bass speaker units. I’m sure that on television it will look incredible. What an amazing surprise. Well done and keep up the good work. All the best, Paul, Château de Montvason.«
You’re not one hundred percent sure which of our 42 standard colours best suits your project? You don’t trust the colour reproduction of your computer screen because you know about the pitfalls of colour reproduction within digital systems that are not consistently calibrated? Or you’d like to receive speaker fabric samples in order to get a hands-on impression of our various types of acoustic cloth before you place an order?
It always makes sense to take a close look at the original product before making a purchase decision. But this doesn’t always require a complete sample set. That’s why we’ve decided to provide the opportunity to order individual samples directly in our online shop.
Choose up to 15 different speaker fabric samples
Select up to 15 different speaker cloth samples of your choice. Combine different fabrics, such as standard, 2.0 and FR, and different colours according to your particular requirements. This opportunity is the perfect basis for an informed decision. Click here to discover our new individual sample service.
Of course, you can still order our sample sets. They are unbeatable as a source of inspiration and remain the perfect reference for all resellers.
Our international distribution network keeps growing – much to the benefit of our customers, as it makes our products increasingly available in non-EU countries.
Cinemart in Natanya, Israel, is a boutique company specializing in the planning, supervision, sale, and installation of audio-video systems, home theatre rooms, control and monitoring, smart electricity, and computer communication networks. Cinemart is a member of Cedia and leads the global scene of tailor-made private screening rooms and advanced audio-video calibration methods. With our products also attracting increasing interest in Israel, our new Israeli distribution partner Cinemart is now making them easily and conveniently available to all customers in Israel.
The number of complex ultrasonic applications is increasing. The range extends from distance measurement and the identification of obstacles to non-destructive material testing with phased arrays for air-coupled ultrasound. So-called 3D-printed waveguides are currently being developed for such technically complex applications. So far, adequate protection of the equipment against water and dust has been a problem, however, as many practical applications require the equipment to function even under extremely demanding environmental conditions.
The Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany has now addressed this problem in a research project and carried out tests with our liquid and dirt-repellent Acoustic Cloth 2.0, among other things. The results presented by Professor Mario Kupnik’s research team in September 2020 during the 2020 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS) in Las Vegas* demonstrate the high suitability of acoustic material 2.0 for protecting waveguides. „We (…) demonstrate that the protection via hydrophobic fabric works excellent, i.e. without any significant drawbacks. Beam steering stays fully functional and the reduction of sound pressure level is only in the order of 1.5 dB. However, now the array can be used in real world applications,“ the researchers conclude.
Acoustic Cloth 2.0 as a protection layer for air-coupled waveguide ultrasonic phased arrays
* M. Rutsch, G. Allevato, J. Hinrichs and M. Kupnik, „Protection layer for air-coupled waveguide ultrasonic phased arrays,“ 2020 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS), Las Vegas, NV, USA, 2020, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/IUS46767.2020.9251728.
It doesn’t happen too often that people decide to optimize the acoustics of their living room. But true audiophiles are of a special breed. Marcel from Almere in the Netherlands is one of them.
Marcel and his wife designed the room interior and commissioned Mutrox, a renowned Dutch acoustics specialist and studio builder, to develop and deliver the required acoustically active elements.
The main goal was to acoustically optimise the room while retaining the look and feel like a living room. The second and more demanding aim was to provide the opportunity to adjust the reverberation of the room, in this way giving the residents the opportunity to fine-tune the room acoustics at their discretion whenever they like.
Marcel and his wife finally opted for the use of false walls, acoustic curtains, and an acoustically active suspended ceiling. While the suspended ceiling is fixed due to the limited height of the room, the side walls and the front wall are made of various movable boxes that contain acoustically active elements such as absorbers and panel resonators.
These boxes, as well as the suspended ceiling, are covered with acoustic cloth from Akustikstoff.com.
Individual wall sections were also clad with strategically placed strips of wood, which meet the aesthetic criteria of the residents and also work as diffusors. »They render more ambience to the room. We find wood a great product to work with, it has character and it benefits the sound«, explains Marcel.
With a base reverberation of 0.41 seconds and a rather natural decay as well as with an almost linear frequency response with a slight dip around 55 Hz and a peak around 130Hz, the optimised living room boasts next to neutral audio reproduction with great balance, focus, and range of audibility. It perfectly suits the requirements for high-quality audio reproduction.
»It was a lot of work and we did it all ourselves. After all, the effort paid off: The room looks cosy and it’s nice to be in there«, says Marcel. »We are satisfied with the fabric. It was great to work with, has a fine-meshed structure, and, as you can see in the pictures, it looks fantastic when installed. I highly recommend it.«
The field of application for our sound transparent fabrics is surprisingly broad. They also play an important role in organ building, for instance. It is quite possible that you will come across products from Akustikstoff.com when visiting a church, for example in Ahaus in northwest Germany.
The pipe organ, whose roots reach back to antiquity, has played a central role in Christian liturgy since the Middle Ages. Elaborately designed organs are special treasures of numerous churches and impress with their enormous sound variety. Mozart once called the pipe organ the „king of instruments“. Like other instruments, however, organs need regular professional care and occasional restoration. For many parishes such a restoration project is a welcome opportunity to expand and redesign the instrument in order to broaden its musical range and move it closer to modern sound ideals.
One example is the widely known Church of St. Mary’s Assumption in Ahaus: The local Catholic parish commissioned the old-established organ builder Orgelbau Fleitner from nearby Münster with extensive restoration and extension work. The task was to clean the old parts of the church organ, reassemble them, and make reasonable additions.
A particular challenge for organ builder and voicer Eberhard Hilse, one of the owners of Orgelbau Fleitner, was to harmoniously adapt the appearance of the instrument to the church interior, which dates from the mid-1960s. Hilse chose our acoustic fabric to implement a visually appealing design without compromising its sound and acoustics.
Completed in February 2018, the three-manual instrument is 9.35 meters high and boasts the impressive total of 2,520 pipes: The swell at the top has 772 pipes, the grand organ in the middle has 840 pipes, the positive behind the console 728 pipes. In addition, there is the pedal with over 180 pipes. The largest pipes belong to the principal 16′, which can be seen at the front of the organ and is assigned to the pedal. The largest of these pipes in the front left with a total length of 664 cm has a diameter of 250 mm and weighs about 105 kg.
A couple of days ago we received an email from Casper, a customer from Denmark: »Shouldn’t the fixing tape I received consist of two parts – one for the fabric and one for the cabinet?« To get straight to the point, his assumption was wrong. But Casper was completely happy with the product after we’d emailed him a few explanatory lines and a link to our video tutorial. So, what’s the secret of our fastening tape?
Just like Casper, most people are under the false impression that hook fastener tapes always consist of two components, a strip with tiny hooks and another one with soft loops. This is true indeed for the classic »velcro« as we know it from numerous everyday applications, which is called a »hook and loop fastener« (there’s even a lengthy article on Wikipedia for those who are interested). In our case, however, you won’t find a single hook under the magnifying glass. Have a look at the closeup photo and you’ll find that the upper side of the fixation tape is covered with small stalks that have a mushroom-like top.
To mount the speaker cloth, simply press the fabric onto the tape. Best protect your fingers with a robust glove or use something like a wallpaper roller, as the little heads are quite hard and edgy. They will penetrate the mesh and keep the speaker fabric in place tightly. Our video tutorial on Youtube provides you with more detail.
The great advantage of this mounting method is that the speaker cloth can be detached again if you ever feel like giving it a wash or replacing it with a new piece of Acoustic Cloth in another colour.
