SteinMusic Maestro Lacquer

Every surface in your system vibrates and colors the sound a little, whether it's a speaker cone, a turntable, or a circuit board. The Maestro Lacquer lets you change how a surface resonates. SteinMusic says that used on loudspeakers, cables, and electronics, it makes the sound more natural, open, refined, and colorful.

Change how a surface resonates, and the sound follows.

The Design

Maestro Lacquer is a natural resin lacquer with resonance-controlling properties, optimized for coating loudspeaker diaphragms and electronic music playback devices. SteinMusic points out that mechanical resonances in any object reflect at its interfaces. Applying the lacquer changes the top layer, which lets it pass its own sonic character to the part it coats. It's the same lacquer SteinMusic uses to impregnate the Japanese paper in its Perfect Interface turntable mat.

SteinMusic draws a clear line between this and damping. Damping can lower the amplitude of an unwanted resonance, but SteinMusic says it also changes the Q factor of the resonance peak and makes it broader, which it describes as an unpleasant acoustic effect. Maestro Lacquer changes the resonance behavior of the coated surface instead.

What You Hear

SteinMusic says the effect is easiest to hear on mechanical systems such as loudspeakers, turntables, and microphones, because their mechanical resonances influence the music signal directly. Those resonances make up the component's own sound, and coating it with Maestro Lacquer lets you steer that sound in a positive direction. SteinMusic says the same applies to active and passive electronic components, whose tiny parts also transmit their own sound, produced by mechanical vibration, into the music signal.

Where It Fits

Use it where you can reach a resonating surface: loudspeakers, cables, turntables, and electronics. Before you coat electronics or loudspeaker drivers, call us so we can go through what to treat and how. We can also point you to the Perfect Interface mat, which uses the lacquer on handmade paper.

Press Recognition

The Maestro Lacquer is a SteinMusic technology that the company also uses in the Perfect Interface mat, which has drawn coverage from Analog Planet, Positive Feedback, and An Aussie Audiophile. Reviews of the lacquer on its own are on the way.

Questions about what to treat first, or how to apply it? Give us a call.

Specifications

• Type: Natural resin lacquer with resonance-controlling properties
• Optimized for: Loudspeaker diaphragms and electronic music playback devices
• Use on: Loudspeakers, cables, turntables, microphones, and electronics
• Designer: Holger Stein, SteinMusic
• Maker: SteinMusic, Germany