Piega’s New Premium 801 Steps Up as Gen2 Flagship

While it sits below the Coax line, the Premium 801 draws heavily from that engineering playbook, blending Piega’s trademark ribbon technology with a newly developed horn system aimed at delivering greater efficiency, scale and dynamic reach.

The cabinet itself sets the tone. Like the Coax 611, the Premium 801 uses an extruded aluminium profile formed under more than 5,000 tonnes of pressure. This industrial process, Piega says, is almost unique in the loudspeaker manufacturing industry. The result is a rigid, low-resonance enclosure with the clean, tapered silhouette the Premium range has become known for. Internally, Piega has added longitudinal bracing, an additional damping layer and a new wooden reinforcement matrix to suppress unwanted resonances. The midrange driver is housed in its own sealed chamber, while the bass section utilises a four-woofer reflex system to deliver greater power handling and dynamic authority.

The most significant development, however, sits at the top of the driver array. The Premium 801 debuts the new SSD (Super Symmetric Drive) RM 01-24 ribbon tweeter in this configuration, a unit first shown in the smaller Premium 301 and 701 Gen2 models. With a moving mass of just 0.03 grams, the SSD ribbon is designed to deliver ultra-fast transient response and fine detail resolution. For the first time in the Premium series, Piega has paired it with a specially engineered horn. According to the company, the horn almost doubles the tweeter’s efficiency, lowers the crossover point to around 2.7 kHz and broadens its presence in the overall acoustic output.

Roger Kessler, Piega’s Head of Development, says this combination produces a much smoother handover to the midrange:

Optimised dispersion, the lower crossover frequency and the recessed position of the SSD tweeter create an exceptionally coherent transition to the midrange – resulting in a particularly seamless and natural soundstage.

The midrange itself uses Piega’s FSD (Full Symmetric Drive) technology, where the voice coil is positioned symmetrically within the magnetic gap, which the company says ensures linear motion and a more relaxed, natural tonality. The four bass drivers also employ FSD principles and deliver roughly 6.5 dB higher maximum SPL than the Premium 701 Gen2. Piega adds that this gives the Premium 801 the sort of low-frequency authority typically reserved for larger enclosures.

From a specifications point of view, the new flagship reads as a balancing act between studio-monitor neutrality and a more expressive, dynamic presentation. The extremely low-mass ribbon promises speed and delicacy, while the horn assembly introduces a hint of pro-audio directivity and punch. Piega claims the result is a sound that approaches the immediacy of a live concert, with clarity at low levels and composure at higher ones. The company also emphasises horizontal dispersion, suggesting the speaker has been tuned to maintain tonal consistency across a broad listening area.

While the aluminium cabinet gives the Premium 801 its rigidity, it also contributes to the speaker’s lifestyle positioning. Piega is offering multiple finishes and different base options, ranging from a slim round plinth to a spiked plate system allowing the model to blend into contemporary living spaces more easily than some rival full-range designs.

The Premium 801 is available for ordering now with pricing starting at £9,200 per pair.

For more information visit Piega