Aesthesis' Gramophone Speakers Now Looking for €60,000 Ears

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed)
Sep 5th 2009 at 9:01AM

With the exception of Bang & Olufsen, the Danes have mainly focused on creating the most compelling perpendiculars since perhaps Frank Lloyd. The Swedes, on the other hand, have been known to throw a few more curves into their design -- think IKEA vs. Abba. Enter Aesthesis, a Swedish audio loudspeaker company that is going even further than mere curves with its Gramophone line; we're talking waves of beauty here.

And to do it, they started with Swedish car maker Koenigsegg -- or at least, with some of their designers. Aesthesis procured the talents of Ergonomidesign, Eker Design, and Carbocomp which all provide services to the maker of million dollar automobiles.

They spent four years coming up with the Gramophone, which employs a custom developed, full-range coaxial driver to eliminate phase differences and reproduce sounds from 37-20,000 Hz. The curved horn amplifies the higher frequencies, the open cabinet amplifies the lower frequencies. The narrowing of the cabinet is for damping echoes.

The entire point of the Gramophone is to "bring more intriguing, avant garde and sensual products to the market without compromising with sound or picture quality." The handmade, carbon and stainless steel speaker is 1.2 meters (47.2 inches) high, and comes in black -- or any other Natural Color System hue you choose.

Which is to be expected when there will only be 100 pairs of Gramophones made, and each pair will go to the tune of €60,000, or $85,500 U.S., plus shipping. The question you should be asking is: are your ears good enough?

Gallery: Aesthesis Gramophone Speakers