Wow. When you said SOTA, you weren't exaggerating. I guess the 'subjective' report comes later?
Different people subjectively like different kinds of sonic presentations from loudspeakers. I have been a planar dipole person my entire audio life. I simply like -- especially for vocals -- the presentation of planar dipoles over the presentation of box speakers. So, to start with, loudspeakers like this are easy for me to like.
I believe very strongly that no loudspeaker is perfect. If one is being intellectually honest no loudspeaker does everything better than every other loudspeaker.
Despite controversy, I still hold my view that certain types of loudspeakers achieve a more convincing illusion of live music on certain types of music than other loudspeakers. For example I still think there is something about the way that horn loudspeakers move air and reproduce music that is consonant with the way that brass instruments themselves make their sounds. I continue to believe that if my primary musical genre interest were jazz, then I would have a horn loudspeaker (maybe Tune Audio Avaton (heard and loved) or Destination Audio Vista (never heard)).
Presently I think the Auditorium is, overall, for the sonic attributes I value most, the best (i) truly full-range, (ii) one-piece, (iii) planar dipole loudspeaker I have ever heard on a long audition in a private home.*
Perhaps the highest treble on cymbals isn't as 100% perfect to my ears as the Magnepan ribbon tweeter. (The Magnepan ribbon tweeter is my favorite tweeter of all time.)
Perhaps the lowest frequencies don't physically move as much air as a Gryphon tower of powered woofers. (I think those Gryphon woofer towers are absolutely brilliant, and I think they give me the best, or equal to the best, bass reproduction I've ever heard.) But these are cosmopolitan quibbles. And it's pretty wild to feel the kind of oomph and impact from mere panels that the Auditoriums deliver.
And these quibbles might prove in time to be incorrect, as I auditioned the speakers with digital, which is not my cup of tea, and with solid-state, which is not my cup of tea. So these quibbles might be overturned with an analog source and with tube electronics.
I thought piano sounded amazing. Piano sounded to me very much like how it sounds on big Magnepans (which is to say I think sounds very convincing), but faster and more impactful.
I have to think about image size of solo vocalists. I think that with wide planar dipoles one has to be careful not to lose a clearly-defined center image for a solo vocalist's head.
Cyrus wondered about putting the tweeter ribbons on the outside, rather than on the inside, to achieve a wider soundstage. I told him that theorizing is no substitute for experimenting in one's own room (good advice I should be better about taking for myself), but I think the diminution of a clearly-defined center image for a vocalist likely would exceed the gain from a slightly wider soundstage.
I stand by my very first initial impression from hearing Clarisys (the small Minuets) for the first time at AXPONA in April 2023 written here on WBF on April 20, 2023:
As a lifelong planar aficionado here is the key thing to understanding the achievement of Clarisys: people may love the transparency and openness and believability of planar loudspeakers, but there always has been a conscious and explicit compromise regarding dynamic oomph and impact. I love the transparency and openness of [Analysis Audio, Magnepans, Martin-Logans, etc.] but I am missing the dynamic oomph and impact of cones and the tonal density of cones in the upper bass to lower midrange region.
The achievement of Clarisys loudspeakers is to vanquish this previously unavoidable sonic compromise. Anyone who heard the Minuets at AXPONA will report convincing tonal density and texture in the upper bass to lower midrange region, as well as fully-impactful oomph and dynamics. For someone who likes the presentation of planar loudspeakers there no longer needs to be an excuse, a justification, a weighing of advantages and disadvantages, a rationalization for forfeiting dynamics and power in the low frequencies to enjoy those planar advantages. This loudspeaker design truly does it all.
* Please note: I have never heard an Alsyvox loudspeaker on a long audition in a private home. I am hoping to audition leisurely the Alsyvox either at Bob Vineyard's or a friend in the Netherlands. Alsyvox and Clarisys are the two new heavyweights in the planar loudspeaker world. Frankly, there's no way I am not going to like the Alsyvox as well. I have heard it briefly three times, and it, too, is amazing, especially for planar aficionados like me. But it will be very interesting to try to tease out any differences between them that I can discern.