CES 2007

Photographed by Jason Victor Serinus in the Sumiko room on the 35th floor of the Venetian Hotel, this is the prototype of a new flagship speaker from Vienna Acoustics. Its signature elements are an innovative coaxial midrange/tweeter with a flat, reinforced, flat diaphragm for the midrange to eliminate any horn effect on the tweeter dome and an ultra HF unit to optimize polar response in the upper range. Note that the upper enclosure can be aimed to improve imaging.

Jason Victor Serinus adds: The coaxial unit's midrange cone is composed of X3P, a plastic polymer that, when heated, cooks from the outside toward the center. The result is a plastic of uncommon rigidity that is said to lack the sound of plastic.

Not only is the entire speaker slanted backward at a 15° angle for time alignment, but the tweeter section can also move forward and to the left and right for further accuracy. While specs are not yet available, the speaker is due out this year. The goal of designer/company founder Peter Gansterer, who is based in Vienna, Austria, is to create an eminently listenable speaker that presents recorded detail without the highs becoming piercing.

I also spoke with Sumiko about the near omni-present REL subwoofer in their active Vienna Acoustics displays. The REL is meant solely to reinforce the lowest bass notes at the bottom of a speaker’s range, and is active in the upper teens through approximately 30Hz.