Factory Tour of Japanese Boutique Speaker Company

[a4eaudio]

Harman can invite 200 people and poll them if a design is ugly or not.

And develop a regression model to predict whether they are ugly and assign an Ugly Score.

 

[TLEDDY]

What so "oriental" about these speakers? I don't see any design cues that is of "oriental" culture with these speakers. They look like some random ugly speakers that could of came from anywhere.

de gustibus non disputandum est

 

[NotInYourHead]

Right off the bat, neutral sound was never an objective

 

[darna1999]

A dying breed in this modern age...

The speakers are probably fairly flattish. Design is a simple "full-range" with no need for crossovers. Although, I'd be more confident if we actually had measurements.

I'm fine with purchasing such a speaker if it really fit the room aesthetics, but still most definitely would be applying equalization.

somebody said they sound tinny which is probably true if they're not using any filtering to compensate for baffle step loss. filterless full range designs are a bit silly but man does their shop look nice. cool video.

 

[Rischa]

in case you were wondering: https://hasehiro-audio.com/

“Romantic healing sound.” Beautiful speakers, but I joined ASR to get away from this kind of nonsense, lol. Would have been all over these about a decade ago, though.

 

[Ste_S]

Beautiful speakers, but I joined ASR to get away from this kind of nonsense, lol.

 

[Rischa]

Both beauty and nonsense? I guess nonsense is better when it’s beautiful - great point.

 

[Ste_S]

Both beauty and nonsense? I guess nonsense is better when it’s beautiful - great point.

I really appreciate what Amir and this site have done for measuring Hi-Fi and debunking some of the myths around it. However, there is also a romantic, or emotional, part to Hi-Fi for me, as they are physical objects that take up space in my home. So I tend to appreciate something that is handmade, low-volume production, a bit different/risky or something that has a bit of history to it; whilst also keeping an eye on the measurable science behind it.

 

[somebodyelse]

Both beauty and nonsense? I guess nonsense is better when it’s beautiful - great point.

Within limits - I suppose there's a point where something that's nominally a speaker becomes a sculpture, because its appearance is worth something even if its audio reproduction isn't. But then I wouldn't be comparing with other speakers so much as other sculptures. I don't consider these to be good examples of either, but it's interesting to see how they do what they do.

 

[Rischa]

I really appreciate what Amir and this site have done for measuring Hi-Fi and debunking some of the myths around it. However, there is also a romantic, or emotional, part to Hi-Fi for me, as they are physical objects that take up space in my home. So I tend to appreciate something that is handmade, low-volume production, a bit different/risky or something that has a bit of history to it; whilst also keeping an eye on the measurable science behind it.

I agree! Lucky for us, there’s plenty of beautiful gear that also measures well. Aesthetics are an important factor to me when I choose gear. Fortunately, I think simple, understated, to-the-point industrial design is beautiful, so I have plenty of choices.