Kudos Audio has unveiled a brand new member of its flagship Titan series of loudspeakers. Previewed at the 2018 Bristol Sound & Vision Show, the Titan 505 is a standmount model designed to deliver stunning, top-of-range performance to a wider reach of spaces and budgets.

At the top end of the Titan series is the 808. Launched in 2015 designer Derek Gilligan was then keen to extend its benefits to “a broader spectrum of music lovers”. Two further floorstanding Titans therefore followed in 2017: the 707 and 606, both featuring trickle-down technology from the 808, adapted for these smaller and more affordable models, the new Titan 505 standmount model takes that philosophy even further.

It’s something that Gilligan has been passionate about since his earlier career as a live sound engineer. “You have to know how to make the whole crowd go wild,” he says, “not just the guy in the front row.” Now, he translates that maxim into bringing the ‘go wild’ feeling to a wider range of music lovers at home, “because having a smaller space and/or budget shouldn’t mean you have to compromise on the sheer joy of your music.”

All four members of the Titan family feature drive units crafted exclusively for Kudos by renowned Norwegian manufacturer SEAS. In fact, all four share the same K3 tweeter, a unique SEAS-Kudos design. Based on SEAS’ legendary 29mm Crescendo K2 fabric dome tweeter, the K3 has features include an improved magnet system with copper shorting rings, a completely new resonance chamber and a new face-plate profile.

Like the 707 and 606 floorstanders, the 505 is a two-way design. Its twin mid-bass drivers are brand new, featuring double-coated hard paper cones. And, in common with the three Titan floorstanders, the 505 sports an isobaric arrangement in which the second mid-bass driver is positioned internally back-to-back with the first. Kudos’ trademark minimalist, low order crossover is a key feature. The cabinet incorporates the reflex port into the base panel in an adaptation of the Kudos fixed boundary design. All four models in the Kudos’ Titan series can be run either passively or actively. The crossovers are engineered such that they can be by-passed in order to enable active operation with selected systems including Linn Exakt and Devialet Expert.

An optional, dedicated, seven pillar stand has been specially designed for use with the Titan 505.  This stand allows six of the seven pillars to be filled with the listener’s choice of material to dampen resonance and tune the speaker’s performance to their individual taste and situation. The top plate of the stand incorporates constrained layer damping to reduce resonance and the stand is bolted directly to the base of the Titan 505. The Kudos team will be demonstrating the new Titan 505 at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in October, and at Audio Show East and The Hifi Show Live in November. The Titan 505 standmount loudspeaker is available now pricing ranging from £7000 to £8,450 depending on the finish and if you buy the stands.

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