CES 2017

The Philharmonia loudspeaker ($50,000/pair), designed by Jean Nouvel and the French audio-engineering firm Amadeus, is the first consumer-level product from a company whose specialty is studio monitors. As it turns out, Jean Nouvel designed the 2400-seat Le Philharmonie de Paris, home of L'Orchestre de Paris. The speaker's electronics were designed by the orchestra's chief recording engineer.

Imported by Source Systems, these are active loudspeakers that include two 700W amplifiers per tower. The speaker, whose cabinet is made of 500 layers of birchwood, includes custom DSP software compatible with both Macs and PCs. Drivers and waveguides are proprietary, with the speaker hand-assembled in Paris. Note that the inputs are balanced only.

As with almost all the rooms I visited, there was not time for a sit-down listen. What I heard in the background, in a setup that also included Esprit cabling, sounded quite promising.