May 29th, 2007
Want the ultimate audio? These speakers cost $150,000 a pair
So let’s just suppose you are a HDTV fanatic, and/or like to watch Internet tv on your huge- not just widescreen but huge- tv screen that’s the centerpiece of your home entertainment system.
And what if you want to squeeze every bit of quality audio you can out of your high-def.
Oh, one more thing. You also have $150,000 burning a hole in your pocket. Or have just come back from a news conference held for you by your state’s lottery commission.
Well, today we learn from TWICE (This Week in Consumer Electronics) magazine that French speaker maker Cabasse is shipping its big-ball La Sphere speakers by the pair at $150,000.
As you can see at the top of this post, La Sphere is the ultimate audio monster. I mean, we’ve sent probes to the outer planets that weren’t as large.
We’re talking speakers enclosed in a 27.6 inch sphere. The speakers feature a 22-inch woofer, an 8-inch low-midrange driver, a 5-inch midrange and a 1.2-inch dome tweeter. A four-way digital active crossover network included in the price provides “perfect time alignment and frequency response both on and off axis,” the company added. The speaker is also what is believed to be the world’s first coaxially mounted drivers. The goal of this: smooth off-axis response over a wide area.
The price also includes delivery and complete setup.
TWICE’s Greg Tarr writes that the enclosure is designed to enhance rigidity, eliminate internal standing waves and eliminate diffraction effects. They’re also said to be the world’s first coaxial point-source speaker that uses four coaxially mounted drivers to deliver smooth off-axis response over a wide area.
Don’t worry about additional installation costs. The $150,000 price also includes delivery and complete setup and room calibration by Cabasse engineers.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
