New York welcomes a new high-end restaurant later this month with the grand opening of Sao, an upscale lounge and Brazilian eatery located in heart of the city’s Washington Heights neighborhood, with lively music served up through loudspeakers from VUE Audiotechnik.
With a goal to perfectly balance sound quality and aesthetics, Sao’s owners reached out to restaurant and club designer Kenny Fiesta, with whom they’d collaborated previously on two successful establishments in the Washington Heights area.
“When I first saw Sao’s beautiful and detailed interior, I knew instantly why the owners were so adamant about selecting a loudspeaker system that would integrate with the room’s decor,” explains Fiesta. “But they were also planning to host DJs, so in addition to being compact, the system needed to be capable of exceptional output and dynamic range as well.”
Fiesta arranged for the owners to audition compact offerings from a variety of different manufacturers. Among the options were a selection of two-way systems and subwoofers from VUE Audiotechnik’s i-Class range.
“I had just attended a VUE demo several weeks earlier,” says Fiesta. “And while I was personally blown away by what I heard, this was the first time I put the VUE speakers in front of a customer against some very recognizable competition.”
Fiesta continues, “We listened to about five different brands over the course of several hours, and ultimately Sao’s owners heard exactly what I heard. In terms of sound quality and output for their size, absolutely nothing could touch the VUE.”
Six VUE i-6 powered two-way systems were mounted at ceiling height throughout the main dining and lounge areas utilizing the supplied mounting hardware. For additional low frequency support, three VUE is-26a powered subwoofers were discreetly installed inside custom housings underneath the booth seating.
“The results are simply amazing,” concludes Fiesta. “The VUE systems take almost anything we can throw without ever breaking apart sonically. And the is-26a is easily the most capable compact sub I’ve found yet. It even holds its own with our resident DJ.”
Sao officially opens its doors on May 8.