Most beautiful speakers in the world ?

[MattHooper]

Inspired by a previous post in this thread, I've been playing with AI generated images. It's been helpful in looking at different material combinations for a speaker base I'm designing. But it's also great fun to plug in different material finish combos and see what type of loudspeakers the AI creates. I find a number of them beautiful, even if not always "best practice" engineering in design. The AI creates a particularly lustrous sense of light and materials. A bunch of examples:

 

[Doodski]

Inspired by a previous post in this thread, I've been playing with AI generated images. It's been helpful in looking at different material combinations for a speaker base I'm designing. But it's also great fun to plug in different material finish combos and see what type of loudspeakers the AI creates. I find a number of them beautiful, even if not always "best practice" engineering in design. The AI creates a particularly lustrous sense of light and materials. A bunch of examples:

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I like this one.>

 

[MattHooper]

I like this one.>

Same here. And the first one in my post (semi-circular design).

There's that sense of luxury and a sort of contemporary + mid-century sense of materials and design.

 

[Doodski]

Same here. And the first one in my post (semi-circular design).

There's that sense of luxury and a sort of contemporary + mid-century sense of materials and design.

With the woofer on top design it will make it like a Mission with the woofs on top of the tweeters. They sounded fine.

 

[Elgrosso]

Inspired by a previous post in this thread, I've been playing with AI generated images. It's been helpful in looking at different material combinations for a speaker base I'm designing. But it's also great fun to plug in different material finish combos and see what type of loudspeakers the AI creates. I find a number of them beautiful, even if not always "best practice" engineering in design. The AI creates a particularly lustrous sense of light and materials. A bunch of examples:


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Very impressive!
It seems that with a little more training on speakers constrains like driver placement, size and distribution, engineers and designers could be left out.
It's ironic, and a good thing that all these still need a very high level of handcrafting to be built (putting aside any machine/robotic help as being super expensive).

 

[Jochen]

Sunship Audio TAD 4001 and TAD 16 inch woofers. I like the auto paint and the CNC machined baltic birch horns.

Sunshipaudio

TAD TSM2, TAD 2402, TAD 2401, TAD TD-2001, TAD TD-4001, TAD TL-1601, TAD TH-4001, TAD TN2, Exclusive Pioneer, Jazz Kissa, Sunshipaudio,

www.sunshipaudio.com

I saw these ones. It's a one man project. This in itself is nothing to criticise, but for me they have a DIY look to it and the worst part is that he is charging a whooping 58,000€ for them.

 

[dedobot]

 

[Scott Lanterman]

I saw these ones. It's a one man project. This in itself is nothing to criticise, but for me they have a DIY look to it and the worst part is that he is charging a whooping 58,000€ for them.

Well this is not a thread about cost. I like the combination of machined plywood and paint, there is no accounting for taste and yes they do look like DIY in the way that a hot rod looks DIY. How did you like the sound of these?

 

[Achim1812]

Maybe its off-topic, but no speaker but the Mission 70, bought from my first self-earned money back in 1985 was more beautiful in my eyes. I never was after a design other than a shoebox. Since two years it are Forte IVs. My wife says they are ugly and banned the speakers from our living room. But for me its fine (and made it easy to claim a dedicated music-room for me).
Sorry for this excursus.

 

[Gringoaudio1]

Many of these high end speakers are not manufactured but fabricated in a low volume manner. Try to get a local cabinet maker to make some of these designs. The boxes alone would be thousands or tens and thousands. And that is without any acoustic research and speaker and crossover components. Look at the ridiculous price cabinetmakers charge for custom kitchens where the boxes and doors are maybe lovely but dead simple to build.

 

[subframe]

I saw these ones. It's a one man project. This in itself is nothing to criticise, but for me they have a DIY look to it and the worst part is that he is charging a whooping 58,000€ for them.

The 50-cent hex bolts and washers from the hardware store just kill the whole look for me. Anodized button head bolts or some other nice-looking screw seem reasonable to expect at that price point.

 

[Keith_W]

Many of these high end speakers are not manufactured but fabricated in a low volume manner. Try to get a local cabinet maker to make some of these designs. The boxes alone would be thousands or tens and thousands. And that is without any acoustic research and speaker and crossover components. Look at the ridiculous price cabinetmakers charge for custom kitchens where the boxes and doors are maybe lovely but dead simple to build.

Tell me about it.

I had a pair of custom subwoofers built. I designed the boxes, then sent it to a furniture maker. He got someone to do all the CNC, and he glued them up and veneered it. Cost for two boxes was $6000. The drivers and amps cost another $3000. And these were very simple boxes, they are literally boxes. Add in some compound curves, fancy finishing, exotic veneers, and the cost could easily double or maybe triple. On the plus side, I have a pair of very beautiful subwoofers.

 

[Cbdb2]

Personally, I'm attracted to the look of in-walls...
... or anything that's placed out of view behind an acoustically transparent screen (i.e. not seeing the speakers at all).

Or totally invisible.

https://www.stealthacoustics.com/

 

[Gringoaudio1]

Tell me about it.

I had a pair of custom subwoofers built. I designed the boxes, then sent it to a furniture maker. He got someone to do all the CNC, and he glued them up and veneered it. Cost for two boxes was $6000. The drivers and amps cost another $3000. And these were very simple boxes, they are literally boxes. Add in some compound curves, fancy finishing, exotic veneers, and the cost could easily double or maybe triple. On the plus side, I have a pair of very beautiful subwoofers.

Holy crap!

 

[Jochen]

Well this is not a thread about cost. I like the combination of machined plywood and paint, there is no accounting for taste and yes they do look like DIY in the way that a hot rod looks DIY. How did you like the sound of these?

Well, unfortunately I did not audition them, I came across them on the in the internet, became interested, researched a bit on the TAD drivers and old japanese vintage speakers, which are the origin of these kind of speakers and exchanged some messages with the guy. This conversation stopped when he finally, after some questioning, revealed the price.

 

[Jochen]

The 50-cent hex bolts and washers from the hardware store just kill the whole look for me. Anodized button head bolts or some other nice-looking screw seem reasonable to expect at that price point.

Yeah, the back really looks the worst, like a school project.

 

[Adi777]

It's curious - maybe only for me, that some companies use vintage woofers for the speakers? Weren't the newer ones better?

 

[Keith_W]

Holy crap!

Low run custom made furniture is expensive. I also commissioned my dining table, which is essentially a slab of wood with 4 legs in the style of brutalist architecture. Also $6000. If I were to buy a "luxury" dining table from a fine furniture shop, there are tables of the same size that cost twice that.

 

[Bleib]

Looks so nice you could get buried in them

 

[egellings]

Looks so nice you could get buried in them
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They definitely have that look. If they sound, good, who cares? Load up on Grateful Dead albums!