The Soho Grand Hotel, Manhattan’s first luxury downtown boutique hotel, recently upgraded the sound system in their lobby salon. The new system continues with the hotels philosophy of providing the very best to their sophisticated guests.
Working closely with David Schwartz of Essential Communications, the hotel has created a high-end listening environment in the lobby salon utilizing Tannoy iSeries column loudspeakers.
The Salon, famously dubbed “SoHo’s Living Room,” features vaulted ceilings and masonry columns that soar over groupings of plush couches and oversized armchairs that facilitate conversation.
“The Soho Grand has always prided itself upon staying ahead of the audio curve – they wanted a warm hi-fi sound that would be more musical than the previous system,” explains Schwartz. “The Tannoy i9 column loudspeakers not only sound amazing, but because they are directional, they allow the sound to be focused in specific areas of the space without being overwhelming.”
Tall and slim, the i9 loudspeaker cabinets are equipped with direct radiating driver arrays arranged as a line source. Designed for use in areas where controlled coverage is required, the dispersion characteristics direct sound into the desired space while minimizing reflections from the ceiling or nearby walls. This made them ideal for the Soho Grand salon application.
The Salon, which is a long rectangular room off the lobby, features four columns dispersed throughout the space. Schwartz specified a total of ten Tannoy i9s for the room, bracket mounting a pair of i9s to each column – approximately 11 feet off the ground – and installing one in each of the two far corners of the room. The boxes were painted to match the décor and to keep them as unobtrusive as possible.
To add more low end, Schwartz installed a Definition Install iw210s in wall subwoofer at the base of each of the columns. The iw210s delivers powerful low frequency that rivals that of many cabinet based models.
“The hotel has a proprietary source system with music customized for the listening audience,” concludes Schwartz. “The new system completes the vision the owners had for upgrading the salon.”
