Sony SS-GR1

The original (and only) R1 loudspeaker : massive yet extremely refined.

Refined because hidden at the back of the top horn load is a Bio-Cellulose super-tweeter ; the tweeter and mid drivers are based on silicon carbide (SiC) as used in the x-rare SS-G777ES while the woofer and mid drivers are based on a carefully matched mix of polyamide fibers and pulp, as first used in the abovementioned G777ES.

SiC was btw really first used by Sony on the SH-500 extra-rare cartridge headshell in 1981.

Bio-Cellulose is an extremly thin material with superior stiffness and a resonance peak placed extremmely high above its frequency range of use. It is technically better than Beryllium or anything else.
Bio-Cellulose is threaded by bacteriae and was originally used in the SS-A5 (1989), the ultimate SS-G55 series as well as in the MDR-R10 reference headphones.

The three CD horns (Constant Direcivity) are directly carved into the multi-layer enclosure ; the shape of the horns was calculated from the driver's radiating specs : laterally to reduce outward pressure and listening rooms' reflections, vertically to reduce interference between drivers.

The enclosure is a two-in-one : a basic rectangular frame making the sides, top and bottom supports the real enclosure made of carved multi-layer wood

In fact the GR1 can be seen as the cost-no-object result of the efforts spent on the late 1980s Voce and "G" series. Unfortunately, at 2,200,000¥, a pair of SS-GR1 was a luxury only the outrageously rich could afford.
The only ones spotted outside Japan bear the #200 043 and #200 044 serial numbers - these are Sony Japan serials. There is another pair (B-stock) which was sold to an employee in France for a few hundred euros ; it is supposed to have spent the past ten years rotting away in a damp cellar around Paris...

It took the engineers almost four years to finish the GR1.
And then it got a Golden Sound Coty Award, the highest in Japan, alongwith the Yamaha GF-1.

Although I have a preference for sealed designs (acoustic suspension à la AR-3a or NS-10M), the SS-GR1 is my dream loudspeaker.

But I do own a pair of SS-A5S so I'm halfway there :)