French Speakers
Filed Under: Gadgets
French company, Waterfall Audio has just announced two examples of its spectacular glass loudspeaker enclosures – and they are coming to the U.S. The speakers are named after two famous waterfalls in Africa and South America, the Victoria EVO and Iguasçu EVO. They consist of slender, hand-crafted glass towers designed to convey the impression of floating speakers with internal “stretched” driver wiring utilized to keep heavy speaker-cabling at floor level for a clean, elegant look.
The Victoria EVO measures 40 inches x 10 inches andis designed with a three-way/four-driver system that includes Waterfall’s proprietary, down-firing, 8-1/2-inch passive woofer.
The Iguasçu is slightly shorter at 34 inches x 10 inches but uses the same drivers, including the passive woofer, in a two-way/three-driver arrangement.
Both models use Waterfall’s ADT (Acoustic Damping Tube) technology - designed to achieve near-total damping of mid- and low-frequency “back-wave” artifacts, along with precise damping control of midrange reflections which allows the speakers to produce accurate, high-end performance.
The designs also feature low-distortion, custom-alloy-diaphragm drivers designed and manufactured by French partner Atohm.
The drivers and base are crafted from precision-machined cast aluminum with solid-metal multi-way connectors integrated into the floor-level base of each speaker and optional grilles individual to each driver.
How much and when? You may ask - $5,400 for the Victoria, and $3,900 for the Iguasçu. Early 2008 is all I know at the moment. Who says French ingenuity is dead?
