The BMC (see next story), Ypsilon, and Lansche brands are distributed in the US by Aaudio Imports. Larry Greenhill has already described the new Ypsilon Aelius monoblock amplifier and I auditioned the amplifier in one of the two Aaudio rooms at the Venetian with the new Model No.7 speakers from Lansche ($100,000/pair in satin-veneer finish; $108,000/pair in high gloss).

The 69" tall, reflex-loaded speaker, shown here with English audio industry veteran Henry Dienn, who heads up Lansche-Asia, combines four 8.7" long-throw woofers and two Audio Technologies 4" midrange units with an ionic tweeter. An intense RF field heats the air in a quartz cell to the point where it becomes a plasma, and this almost massless plasma emits sound when that RF is modulated with the audio signal. The acoustic output is coupled to the world outside with a horn.

I am receiving a pair of the smaller Lansche Model No.5s in late February for a review to appear in Stereophile in the late spring.