We know a good-looking pair of speakers when we see them. And though they’re no KEF Muon or Harmon Kardon GLA-55, Emerald Physics’ new CS3 loudspeakers make an impression.
From the front, they’re just giant wooden slabs with drivers up top, but spin them around, and you’ll realize there’s no cabinet to these speakers at all, just two arcing spine to prevent that table-like-front from dropping backward. This type of open-baffle design can produce more accurate sound because it doesn’t have a box to “color” the sound.
That driver up top is a monster – a 12-inch point-source unit with a compression tweeter mounted directly in the middle. According to Emerald, this coaxial design is responsible for the speaker’s realism – a characteristic the company is already known for from its early forays into open-baffled designs with the previous CS1 and CS2.3. This model will also be notably cheaper than those models, and you’ll be able to drive it with a single amp, rather than bi-amping.
Emerald debuted the CS3 at AKFest 2009 – an exhibition for audiophile equipment. The company now offers the speakers for $2,995 in a black wood finish, or $3,295 in cherry or maple. Both configurations included the necessary DSP equalizer. More information can be found at Emerald Physics.
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Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.