Gear Lust: When Dr Seuss Strikes

Vivid Audio Giya ... Horton hears a Who ... or
just some fantastic sounding speakers?

We both are suckers for unusual design, and organic shapes.  As we continue our tortuous path towards new speakers, this desire keeps cropping up again and again.  We find in recent years, while manufacturing improvements have allowed more curving shapes, most speaker designs are still quite conservative, sometimes even a bit phallic - and it does not have to be so!  In fact, we think audio manufacturers have become less adventurous as volumes sank and prices rose - making solid looking speakers, but perhaps a shade or two more boring looking than they would have to be... but of course, not all of them!

Shahinian Acoustics founded in the 1970s' - still made today, but a different
more adventurous approach to sound dispersion than a regular box
- using the walls and ceiling to recreate the feel of a concert hall - the
midrange and tweeters are all angled towards the ceiling!  And this
arrangement was radical c1980 given the nature of cabinetry and manufacturing

I have to be clear, though, we are absolutely 100% "sound first" when we review or buy anything.  The function always comes first!  But, if you look back 30 years ago, when audio was a lot cheaper, and consumers/companies more adventurous and experimentally  innovative, you will see a variety of styles and designs - and some outrageous designs, too (of course limited by the manufacturing techniques available).  A common link between then and now, is these shapes were all done not just to be different, but because they were trying to solve a particular problem with sound reproduction!

Now ... look at your stereo.  I mean really look at it.  If it is inexpensive, it'll be a pile of black boxes with a couple more black boxes (speakers) producing sound.  If it is expensive, the pile of boxes might have some pretty casework, silky smooth knob-feel, tube amplifiers might want to show off the tubes so can look a bit like a laboratory prototype, and some box-or-column-shaped speakers wrapped in a lovely wood veneer (or if you are lucky enough to have a panel speaker ... it will have a flat or curved plain panel wrapped in fabric with wood or metal framing).  All of it pleasant to look at, but very ... geometric, and a little ... conventional.

So this article of "Gear Lust" is underlining the speakers that have broken free of the staid and plain in favor of adventure, organic shapes, but never one being a strange design for design sake only - they all sound spectacular and do really solve the problems they are meant to solve.  These are definitely up to audiophile quality and are most definitely worthy of consideration even without their cool forms.

Gradient Helsinki 1.5's  Sending the sound right to your ears
if you can set the bass cone up right, you will be in for a treat

First up, is the Finnish Gradient Helsinki.  A 3 way speaker that is built into a artfully shaped slab of wood with a glass ridge out the back.  Controversial in performance and with mixed reviews - it requires a very specific setup to sound it's best, but in essence it is meant to deliver the music to the listener with minimal room interaction (and the sweet spot is wide enough to have a couch in front of it with people seated or standing), and as long as you can set up the bass cone right with respect to walls, you will get good, smooth bass down to about 40Hz - though it won't have the slam and impact of a conventional box speaker, the response will be ruler flat down to that lower limit.  It can be a real challenge to get that right (some reviews here, here and here showing the difficulty and the rewards when you nail it), since it breaks a lot of rules about conventional speaker placement (up against the wall, toed in about 45 degrees to start - and then futzing around to get the bass response in tonal balance with the mids and highs).  It is a love it or hate it proposition for both the design and performance - and from our experience at the NY Audio Show, instead of recreating the venue in front of you, you are transported to the venue itself - it sounds like a subtle difference, but it is an important distinction.  If you close your eyes, you realize how much of normal speaker sound is reverberation off of the walls of the room - because this really doesn't have any of that - and you are hearing the recording in a very pure form - the sense of space and placement is realistic and clearly nothing to do with your room.  And oh, yes, I would have a pair in a New York minute if I felt I could get them to work, and wouldn't have a family revolt in losing some bass slam, because they are that cool.

B&W Nautilus - Using the principles of the Nautilus Shell
to make the sound better.  H R Geiger eat your heart out!

Next up is the B&W Nautilus - the flagship of B&W's lineup, whose cabinet is mimicking the taper and shape of a Nautilus shell.  The benefits purportedly is an inherently non-resonant shape that won't allow standing waves to form causing the "boxiness" you get with some speakers.  They are smaller than the picture looks, but still impressive.  You will need a pile of amps to drive them (each driver needs its own amplification - so a total of 8 channel are needed), and if you can afford their mid five-figure price, I suspect suitable amplification won't be an issue.  They carry some of the lessons of that in their diamond speaker range which is unusual in looks, but not as radical in looks and price.  The Diamond Range is very popular with recording studios and movie soundtrack mastering facilities.  B&W is a high enough volume producer that most of their speakers tend to be relative values compared to similarly priced competitors, which allows their Nautilus to "only" cost in the region of $60,000.  If you consider that any other maker, providing they can actually muster the technical know how, would likely have to charge 2-3x that to make it worth it to make it is one of those "You know Rolex is a great Value" moment.  Value does not always mean cheap.

The Kef "Muon" ... organic
shape in Chrome for 6 figures!

The Kef "Blade"
available in festive colors.

Third on our list is a double-entry from the venerable firm Kef.  They seem to have several "flagship" designs, all of which are still for sale (Puzzling since a flagship is supposed to be a single item ... but whatever, it's their company). One released last year is a very popular speaker: The Blade ($30k for those taking notes) which was done to show off a new driver they have developed with even tonal balance at a wide angle, the cabinet shape serves this goal, and has enough volume to get sufficient bass extension from the side-mounted Woofer cones. They can be had in nearly any color you can imagine - for an up-charge, naturally.  The Blade sounds great, with a nice, wide sweet spot without a lot of room interactions (not as good as the Helsinki's, but very very good none-the-less) - plenty wide for listeners.  It's nearly the height of an average person, and we suspect placement can be tricky due to the side firing woofers, so it isn't for small rooms.  There is an earlier speaker with a look of a softly crumpled cylinder chromed out to look almost like a "liquid metal" speaker (Terminator 2?).  It is aptly called the Muon.  I have not heard it, so can't comment on the sound, but the sucker is big, and very different in appearance.  We almost didn't include it because when you look for pictures of it, a lot of times they have scantily clad models draped all over it - so you just gotta wonder, but given it's 6 figure price, it simply may be the nature of the beast in that rarefied air.

Vivid's "Oval" line.  While less radical than the Giya,
Still radical compared to most speakers

Clocking in last but definitely not least, our current favorite speaker company, Vivid Audio! Mrs Mancave commented upon seeing the Giya for the first time "looks like Dr Seuss designed them" - and we absolutely love the look and sound!  They sounded big and precise while at the same time delicately layered, and throwing an enormous soundstage (again the NY Audio Show), and they are available in a variety of colors.  Their more-than-passing resemblance to the Nautilus speakers by B&W is not by accident, the speaker designer that made the B&W beauties, Laurence Dickie, went on to found the company that makes these speakers.  And fun fact:  They are manufactured in South Africa.  The Oval Line, while not as radical has won nearly every award for good sound that is available, and gets remarkable bass extension despite a relatively small size.  The Giya Line has a growing fan base, but the price tag ($30k-60k) will likely keep them from gracing too many living rooms.

Laurence Dickie, proud Papa of the Giya

I am sure there are many more unusual designs for speakers, but these are the ones that combine great sound, and a more organic shape that the typical, panel, tower, or box that dominates the stereo world.  While I would say a good speaker, is a good speaker, these yield nothing in performance - and in some areas will have superior performance, and their looks are mind-blowing, though none are inexpensive.

Check them out!