TplusA Solitaire S 530, S 540 User Manual

: June 8, 2024
: TplusA

Table of Contents

TplusA Solitaire S 530, S 540
Safety notes
Scope of delivery
Assembling the loudspeakers
Speaker placement
Connection
Protection cover
Room correction
Environmental aspects
Maintenance
Technical Specifications
References
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TplusA Solitaire S 530, S 540

Welcome

We are delighted that you have decided to purchase a T+A product.
The new loudspeakers you have just purchased are Hi-Fi components of the finest quality, designed and produced to the very highest technological standards. Constant quality checking during the manufactu-ring process and the exclusive use of high-quality materials guarantee a top-quality product built to the highest standards of excellence. The products of our company are produced by qualified and trained specialist staff, and are not released until they have passed an extremely strict quality check procedure. Our loudspeakers are supplied as carefully matched, balanced pairs.
To ensure maximum enjoyment and avoid problems, please read through these instructions care-fully and observe the given recommendations.

T+A elektroakustik GmbH & Co KG

Safety notes

The operation instructions, the connection guidance and the safety notes are for your own good – please read them carefully and observe them at all times. The operating instructions are an integral part of this device. If you ever transfer the product to a new owner please be sure to pass them on to the purchaser to guard against incorrect operation and possible ha-zards.

The loudspeaker is extremely heavy – caution is required when unpacking and transporting it. Always lift and transport the device with two persons.
Legal requirements pertaining to the lifting of heavy loads prohibit the transport of the device by women.
Ensure that you have a firm, secure hold on the device. Do not let it fall. Wear safety footwear when moving the device. Take care not to stumble. Ensure an unobstruc-ted area of movement by removing obstac-les and possible hindrances from the route. Take care when lowering the device! To avo-id your fingers being crushed, ensure that they are not trapped between the device and the support surface.

The spikes have extremely sharp points which could cause injury; please handle them with great care, and keep them well away from children.
The spikes feature sharp points which may damage delicate surfaces (e. g. parquet flooring or tiles).

The device is designed to operate in a temperate climate and altitudes up to 2000 m above sea level. The range of permissible operating temperatures is +10 … +35°C.
This device is designed exclusively for reproducing sound and/or pictures in the domestic environment. It is to be used in a dry indoor room which meets all the recommendations stated in these instructions. Where the equipment is to be used for other purposes, especially in the medical field or any field in which safety is an issue, it is essential to establish the unit’s suitability for this purpose with the manufacturer, and to obtain prior written approval for this usage.
If the unit gets very cold (e. g. when being transported), condensation may form inside it. Please do not switch it on until it has had plenty of time to warm up to room temperature, so that any condensation evaporates completely.
If the device has to be stored, place it in its original packaging and store it in a dry, frost-free location. Storage temperature range 0…40 °C
If you need to clean your speaker cabinets, simply wipe the surfaces with a soft dry cloth.
Never use powerful cleaning agents or solvents! Before operating the unit again, make sure that there are no short circuits at the connection terminals and that all connections are correct.
Very loud continuous listening to program material via earphones, headphones and loudspeakers can lead to permanent loss of hearing. Prevent health risks and avoid permanent hearing at high volume.

The terminals (marked with the -symbol) can carry high voltages.

Always avoid touching terminals and sockets and the conductors of cables connected to them. Unless ready-made cables are used, all cables connected to these terminals and sockets must always be deployed by a trained person.

The only permissible method of disposing of this product is to take it to your local collec-tion centre for electrical waste.
Registration according to the EU directive “Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment” WEEE-Reg.-No.: DE 72473830W

In its original condition the loud speaker meets all currently valid European regulations. It is approved for use as stipulated within the EC.

By attaching the CE symbol to the unit T+A declares its conformity the EC directives and the national laws based on those directives. The declaration of confor-mity can be downloaded from www.ta-hifi.com/DoC. The original, unaltered factory serial number must be present on the outside of the unit and must be clearly legible! The serial number is a constituent part of our conformity declaration and therefore of the approval for operation of the device. The serial numbers on the unit and in the original T+A documentation supplied with it (in particular the inspection and guarantee certificates), must not be removed or modified, and must correspond.

Infringing any of these conditions invalidates T+A conformity and approval, and the unit may not be ope-rated within the EC. Improper use of the equipment makes the user liable to penalty under current EC and national laws.

Scope of delivery

TplusA Solitaire S 530, S 540 1

Solitaire S 540

2            Solitaire S 530 / S 540
2            Protection grilles
8            Spikes with locknut
8            Plastic washer for the locknut
8            Floor contact plate for spikes
2            Base plates

Solitaire S 530

8            M8 x 25 screws for the base plate
8            Transport castors
4            Gloves
2            Allen keys
1            User manual

Assembling the loudspeakers

General information
Carefully unpack the loudspeakers and store the original packing material carefully. The carton and packing are specially designed for this loudspeaker and will be needed again if you wish to move the equipment at any time. If you have to transport the loudspeaker, it must always be carried or sent in its original packaging in order to prevent damage and defects.

If the loudspeaker gets very cold (e. g. when being transported), condensation may form inside it. Please do not switch it on until it has had plenty of time to warm up to room temperature, so that any condensation evaporates completely.

To avoid damage, when setting up very heavy loudspeakers, please ask a friend to help you!

Unpacking

To unpack, place the cardboard box in an upright position.
Open the cardboard box vertically, as illustrated below, and remove the protective cardboard corners.
Then carefully pull the speaker out of the cardboard box while standing upright.
Place the speaker, including the foam moldings, on one of its sides. Place a carpet or a soft blanket underneath for protection.
Now, remove the upper and lower foam parts (X).

TplusA Solitaire S 530, S 540 2

Installing the base plate and castors

Place the foam parts (X) on the floor as shown below.
Position the loudspeaker with its textile protective cover on the foam parts.
Attach the base plate with 4 M8 x 25 screws as shown.
The transport castors can be screwed in by hand with no tools required. For this pur-pose, engage the brakes of the rollers. This locks the swivel joint.
When everything is correctly assembled, the speaker can be set upright.
To do this, align the castors inwards and lock all brakes.

Pay attention to the edges of the base plate when lifting up the loudspeaker. If necessary, place a piece of soft material underneath for protection.

TplusA Solitaire S 530, S 540 3

The illustration shows the Solitaire S 530. The Solitaire S 540 is assembled in the same way.

Fitting the spikes

First set up the speakers at their intended location. To determine the correct dis-tances (walls, listening position, etc.) and placement angle to the listening position, the Solitaire speakers can be easily moved and aligned with the assembled funiture castors.
Once the speakers are correctly aligned in their final position, the distances and an-gles should be noted or marked.
First of all pay attention that the brakes of the casters are firmly locked.
Install the front spikes first. One person will slightly tilt the speaker cabinet back-wards, while another person will remove the furniture castors and attach the spikes as shown below.
After the spikes are mounted, the floor contact plates must be positioned under the spikes on the floor.
Slowly lower the speaker until the spikes are on the floor contact plates. If necessary, correct the position of the floor contact plates again before completely removing the speakers.
The small recess in the floor contact plate centers the spike.
Now repeat the steps described above for the rear spikes.

TplusA Solitaire S 530, S 540 4

The spikes have extremely sharp points which could cause injury; please handle them with great care, and keep them well away from children.
The spikes feature sharp points which may damage delicate surfaces (e. g. parquet flooring or tiles). Always place the floor contact plate underneath the spikes for protection.
Take special care that the speaker does not slip away on the floor contact plates. Tilt the speaker only so far that the spikes can be mounted.
Make sure that the rollers are aligned straight and the brakes are locked.

Speaker placement

The loudspeakers are designed symmetrically. This means that there is a left and a right loudspeaker. To get the best possible sound quality the loudspeakers should be positio-ned with the magnetostatic tweeters at the outward facing side of the speakers.
It is also recommended to adjust the loudspeakers slightly angled inwards to your lis-tening seat.

The SOLITAIRE S 530 / S 540 loudspeakers are designed to act as Cylinder Wave Trans-ducers. The mid-range drivers form what is known as a Line Array, and the magnetostatic unit a Line Source, with the net result that the sound field is concentrated in the area between the top and bottom edges of the loudspeaker. Above the cabinet and in the downward direction the effective radiation of the speaker’s entire bass-mid-range and treble frequencies is low. This results in greatly reduced reflections from ceiling and floor, and the virtual elimination of the listening room’s influence on the sound image and the speaker’s imaging characteristics.

The speaker cabinets are inclined slightly to the rear, so that the cylinder wave rises as it moves into the listening space. The listener should therefore be positioned in the area in front of the speaker baffles, and certainly not higher than the cabinets.

The listening distance should be about 10% greater than the distance between the loud-speakers, and should be no less than 3.5 metres.
Please bear in mind that the bass level is increased by about 3 dB if you position the speakers against a wall, and by up to 6 dB if you place them in the corner of the room. To avoid excessive bass response it therefore makes sense to set up the speakers at least 0.5 metres from the side walls of the listening room; if at all possible they should be free-standing, i.e. unobstructed by other furniture etc.

TplusA Solitaire S 530, S 540 5

Connection

Amplifier
The SOLITAIRE speakers can be connected to any amplifier designed for a 4 Ohm speaker load. However, if you wish to exploit the full sound potential of these speakers, we recommend power amplifiers which are capable stable of supplying high currents.>10 Ampere.

Cables
The cables employed in any Hi-Fi system have a crucial influence on the sound of the system as a whole. For this reason T+A has developed its own range of cables which includes the ideal type for every application. These cables are designed to match the special characteristics of our loudspeakers. Please note that all the cables used should be the same length!

Standard wiring
In the standard wiring arrangement only one speaker cable is required for each loudspeaker. The linking bridges between Bass and Mid / High must be left in place.

TplusA Solitaire S 530, S 540 6

Bi-Wiring
Bi-wiring provides better sound by separating the bass (Bass) signal and mid-range/treble signals (Mid/High). Two speaker cables are required for each loudspeaker.
If your power amplifier has two loudspeaker outputs (A and B), the speakers are connected as shown in the illustration below; If the power amplifier has outputs for only one pair of loudspeakers, connect both cables to these outputs in parallel.

In bi-wiring arrangements the cables bridging of the woofer (Bass) and mid/high (Mid/High) input terminals must be removed!

TplusA Solitaire S 530, S 540 7

Bi-Amping

For bi-amping, the signal paths of the low and mid/high ranges are separated before the power amplifiers.
One stereo power amplifier takes over the amplification of the low frequency range for both channels while the other stereo power amplifier drives the mid/high frequency range of both channels.

In bi-amping arrangements the cables bridging of the woofer (Bass) and mid/high (Mid/High) input terminals must be removed!

TplusA Solitaire S 530, S 540 8

Protection cover

The covers included in the scope of delivery can be fitted to protect the loudspeaker drivers. The covers are acoustically optimized. For the best possible sound quality, we recommend that you remove the covers during playback.

The covers are fixed with integrated magnets. To attach, align the covers to the edges of the aluminium front plate and let them snap into place. To remove the covers, carefully pull them off towards the front.

TplusA Solitaire S 530, S 540 9

Level adjustment

The spikes can be turned in and out to achieve optimum height compensation on uneven surfaces.
The spikes must be adjusted in such a way that the loudspeaker has a solid contact to the ground and does not „tilt“.

TplusA Solitaire S 530, S 540 10

Room correction

Level adjustment

The SOLITAIRE S loudspeakers can easily be adjusted to suit the acoustic qualities of the listening room, or to particular conditions and speaker positions.
For example, it may well be necessary to reduce the bass range if the speakers are set up close to a wall.

To facilitate these adjustments you will find three switches (marked BASS, MID and TRE-BLE) on the rear terminal of the speaker cabinet; each switch has three positions: +1.5 dB, LIN and -1.5 dB.

BASS
If the loudspeakers are set up in a listening room a considerable distance from the walls (> 1.5 m) we recommend setting the switch to +1.5 dB.
If the loudspeakers are set up in a listening room close to the walls, in our experience the best results in terms of sound are obtained with the switch set to 0 dB.
If the loudspeakers are set up in one corner of the room, the result can be excessive bass emphasis. The 1.5 dB setting compensates for this effect.

MID / TREBLE
On the rear of each speaker you will also find two additional switches for adjusting the treble and mid-range response to suit the listening room. The default position for both switches is 0 dB.
These switches enable you to adjust the level by +/ 1.5 dB, and the adjustment is de-signed to compensate for very „hard“ (highly reflective) or very „soft“ (highly damped) rooms. For rooms which tend to echo, we recommend the 1.5 dB setting.

In contrast, a lift of 1.5 dB may be helpful in rooms which tend to damp sound down.

TplusA Solitaire S 530, S 540 11

Environmental aspects

In the development of SOLITAIRE loudspeakers we concentrate on innovative solutions to problems, and solid, well thought-out designs, but these are not our only concerns. We place equal importance on the maintenance of all German and European safety norms and standards.

We are able to guarantee that our products are of the highest quality, and meet all our specifications in full, because we carry out strict quality checking of all materials, employ painstaking production methods controlled by highly qualified staff, and carry out a fully automatic, computer-controlled final quality control procedure.
At the earliest stage of development we also emphasise the importance of avoiding environmentally harmful materials and methods of working.

For example, we avoid the use of materials which are injurious to health, such as chlorine-based solvents and CFCs.
We also aim to avoid the use of plastics in general, and PVC in particular, in the design of our products.
Instead we rely upon metals and other non-hazardous materials which are easy to recy-cle.

The sound-absorbent wadding used in our loudspeakers is made of 100 % polyester fibres, in conjunction with a binding fibre.
This material has been tested for harmful ingredients to Eco-Tex Standard 100; the same test is used for clothing, bedclothes, pillows, mattresses, household textiles etc.
The wadding we use has passed the test entitled ‚textiles tested for harmful materials‘ and fulfils the currently valid humane-ecological requirements. It has even successfully met the very exacting requirements of the standard test for baby clothing.

Maintenance

If you need to clean your speaker cabinets, simply wipe the surfaces with a soft dry cloth.
Never use powerful cleaning agents or solvents! If necessary, you can clean the front grille with a vacuum cleaner, but do take care!

Please note that the drive units of some loudspeakers are mounted immediately behind the grille. Don’t press too hard against the grille with the vacuum cleaner, otherwise you could damage the delicate speaker chassis.