The Cabasse Murano

The French speaker company, Cabasse, is probably best known for their huge spherical speaker (La Sphère—reviewed by Michael Fremer in September 2008) but they make a wide range of speakers, most of them more conventional-looking. Making its US debut at CES 2016 was the Murano, a 3-way bookshelf type with a coaxial tweeter. (Alas, I've lost the price information, and the email for the US distributor provided on the Cabasse website doesn't work, but I think the price is about $4500/pair.)

In a system with Esoteric K-03X SACD/CD player/DACm, $12,000, C-03Xs line stage preamp, 11,000, S-03 stereo power amp, $12,000— yes, I have all this info!—the sound was clean, with good focus, but with some harshness when the level was turned up a bit too high—a common problem at shows.

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