Brand: Urban Fidelity
Model: Duevel Planets
Origin: Germany
Price: $1,295 per pair
www.urbanfidelity.com
The Urban Fidelity Duevel Planets were designed by Markus Duevel as affordable loudspeakers that are "designed for hip music lovers, not tweaky audiophiles." The omni-directional Duevel Planets use their eye-catching chrome spheres to disperse music in a 360 degree pattern throughout the entire room. The loudspeakers also utilize a specialty short horn tweeter, a high efficiency 5.9" woofer and dual down-firing ports on the bottom of the enclosure.
Brand: Bang & Olufsen
Model: BeoLab5
Origin: Denmark
Price: $16,000 per pair
www.bang-olufsen.com
The Bang & Olufsen BeoLab5 loudspeakers are sort of an oddity as most people who see them for the first time probably don't even realize they are speakers. The BeoLab5's use aluminum for the enclosures and have the technology on the inside to back up their advanced look. The speakers use B&O's Acoustic Lens technology based on the shape of an ellipse to disperse the sound in a 180 degree pattern, allowing the listener to move around or sit in different places. The BeoLab5's also use B&O's Adaptive Bass Control to effectively tune themselves to the listening environment they are placed in. The loudspeakers are active and have B&O's very own ICEpower amplifier modules mounted inside the enclosures.
Brand: Acapella Audio Arts
Model: Spharon Excalibur
Origin: Germany
Price: $380,700 per pair
www.acapella.de
The Acapella Audio Arts Spharon Excalibur loudspeakers are quite a sight. I recently had the pleasure of hearing their little brothers (Triolon Excaliburs) in person at the 2007 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver. The Spharon Excalibur's stand just under 8ft. tall and weigh 1,364lbs each. Aside from the beautiful horns, one of the most unique features of the Spharon Excalibur's are the horn loaded Plasma Ion Tweeters that allow the speakers to reproduce frequencies up to 50kHz. Because there is no mass to the flame (or "arc") that plasma tweeters use to reproduce the sound, they theoretically should outperform conventional tweeters with metal or fabric domes and even low mass ribbons. All that can be seen of the plasma tweeters is a pinkish/purple glow coming from inside the golden horn surrounding the housing. The Spharon Excalibur's are the most expensive speakers on this list, and what other speakers have tweeters that can double as night lights?
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