Transforming the Soundscape: Luxury Speakers

It’s Friday night and you’re relaxing in the comfort of your own home after a long day. You turn on the speaker to listen to the track that always has the power to move you and just like that, your night is changed. The right music can instantly lift your mood and the right home speakers mean you can enjoy these uplifting moments whenever you need them.

Whether you’re an audiophile or just someone who loves a good tune, we can all agree that the ubiquity of music permeates modern man’s life. Today with technology evolving faster than ever, the desire for innovation and creativity is increasing to create new and better ways to access and experience audio.

Existing in the form of high-end, luxurious speakers, they are able to completely change and transform the way you listen to music. From Devialet’s one-of-a-kind, patented Analog Digital Hybrid Intelligence in Bang & Olufsen’s meticulously designed statement, high fidelity (hi-fi) speakers, these luxury brand speakers allow the listener to take full control of their soundscape and immerse themselves in the audio.

But what differentiates a high end speaker from a budget model? And what are the main characteristics that make them unique?

Dedication To Craftsmanship And Design

There is an artistic aspect that exists within high-end speakers. Often, there is a triumph of form marrying function to create a product that is able to improve audio performance while enhancing the ambience of the space.

The Beolab 90 by Bang & Olufsen is a good example. After extensive research and design over three years, it features a 360-degree design with 8,200 watts and more than 10 speakers. An average speaker only handles 500-1,500 watts. The amount of wattage plays a large part in speaker volume, however, the challenge with higher speaker wattage is that it lacks a certain definition. Often, the sound comes out without clarity or sharpness. To combat this issue, the Bang & Olufsen speaker is equipped with 18 premium drivers, 14 channels of ICEpower amplifiers and 4 additional class D amplifiers. Amplifiers reduce the amount of distortion in the sound while premium drivers allow it to reach an impressive volume. From a visual aspect, nothing else stands out, its geometric and bold design is based on a complex aluminum cabinet with a solid stone structure and its curved base allows for easy placement anywhere inside your home, but it was not designed this way by chance. The casing and housing are set at angles calculated by acoustical engineers to provide the best possible performance. The frequency range is controlled by tweeters and midrange strategically placed in the tower to ensure an immersive sound delivery that is second to none.

Like this, Bowers and Wilkins’ Nautilus the speaker is packed with revolutionary design and technology. Early on, John Bowers, one of the company’s founders, recognized that the shape and structure of the loudspeaker cabinet had a significant influence on the overall sound of his loudspeaker designs. He wanted to create a loudspeaker that didn’t really sound like a loudspeaker — instead, it would deliver a performance so realistic that the listener would believe they were experiencing the live event itself, or the best possible recording of that event. That led to a lot of innovative thinking. Thus the Nautilus speaker was created. At a glance, the Nautilus is no ordinary speaker; shaped in an abstract and contemporary form, it features multiple spirals and tubes sitting atop a shell-shaped body. The long, tapered damping tubes have proven to be a revolution, allowing drive units to operate efficiently by gently absorbing stray energy, it absorbs stray energy and reduces resonance to the point of zero- value. To package the Nautilus tubes, their designers developed a striking, space-efficient, spiral form from which the speaker takes its name.

This fusion of design and functionality leads to one goal: the enhancement and creation of a fully immersive and customizable audio experience.

Rising Above the Noise With Technology and Innovation

Design aside, audio technology plays a big part in ensuring outstanding sound quality. Brands devote years of research to create software and systems that can deliver clarity, volume, customizability and power to their speakers.

Devialet is no stranger to inventing unique audio technology. With various patented formulas, they incorporate complex technologies to enhance their products. Known as equalizers, these allow users full control over certain frequencies found in audio. For example, if you prefer a heavier bass focus, the Devialet RAM® The technology allows you to adjust accordingly with unparalleled precision. With countless settings and full stereo compatibility, it’s able to customize the exact characteristics of your turntable or stereo, creating a completely personalized listening experience. Additionally, their ADH® Intelligence is the world’s first hybrid amplification technology. An industry-defining invention, it reduces distortion and utilizes the linearity of Analog amplification (Class A) while taking advantage of the compact nature and power of Digital amplification (Class D). It maintains the voltage generation function of analog amplifiers (to maintain their excellent audio performance levels), while entrusting the current generation function (and accordingly, the generation of power for the load) to an amplifier equipped with of excellent energy efficiency, maintaining the same performance despite the size of the stereo.

Another important aspect of audio technology is the ability to create spatial audio. Spatial audio has the ability to make sound feel like it’s coming from around you. While surround sound gave our music a sense of horizontal direction, spatial audio goes a step further by adding height cues to movie and music soundtracks. Along with extensive research in audio technology, hi-fi speaker brands have now accomplished this mission to create some of the most luxurious, complex sound systems.

Ross Lovegrove’s design for MUON by KEF spatial audio technology is perfectly integrated. Tasked with turning the best of acoustic engineering into the ultimate loudspeaker, the MUON is crafted from super-formed aluminum to deliver a smooth midrange, full and open sound. Its signature Uni-Q® drive unit array uses highly sophisticated CAD (computer-aided design) and CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) software to control, contain and emphasize its bass power. The use of CAD/CAM software allows for more variation and customization in a design. Because it is completely machined, it adds a level of precision and control to the speaker system, allowing KEF to deliver seamless imaging throughout the room, resulting in music with unparalleled three- dimensional presence.

In terms of customization and preference, Focal’s Aria 900 The speaker collection allows music lovers to choose their listening style. The Aria 926 focuses on a well-balanced listening experience while the Aria 948 focuses on emphasizing denser acoustics. If the user prefers more bass in their music, they can choose the Aria 936. This range marks the return of high fidelity that is expressive and accessible to everyone.

The amount of engineering precision, innovation, and craftsmanship that comes with high-end speakers is what sets them apart from their counterparts. With complex technology and units that look more like pieces of art than sound systems, the appeal of luxury sound systems has always been there — and these brands are setting high standards for innovation while pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved with audio engineering.

For more gadget reads, click here.