May 23, 2009 - Part 2
All prices in euros (€) unless otherwise noted.
At time of report, 1 € is approximately 1.37 US dollars.

Von Schweikert Audio has created speakers in all shapes and sizes, but we've never seen the company use a coaxial driver before. The UniField Two is a stand-mounted three-way design that has what VSA calls a "heroically built cabinet" -- 75mm thick and constructed from three different materials. VSA rates the sensitivity at 91dB (1W/1m) and impedance at 4 ohms. The UniField Two is priced at 8990 € per pair.

Remember the glowing case in Pulp Fiction, the one whose contents you never got to see? Inside these cases were some brand-new statement-level cables from Germany's Silent Wire called Imperial, the most expensive we've ever seen. The Imperial speaker cable costs 33,000 € for a three-meter pair -- more than three times the price of the speakers above, and 50% more than the ones below!

Usually when you hear about "plasma" these days, it's in reference to a TV. In this case, plasma refers to the tweeter in Lansche's No.5 loudspeaker, a three-way design that, in addition to the tweeter, uses two 21mm fiberglass-cone woofers and a 75mm dome midrange driver. The No.5 can reportedly play to 115dB and is priced at 22,000 € per pair.

Germany's Canton debuted a new statement-level speaker called the Reference 1.2 DC (20,000 € per pair). This 96kg behemoth is rated to play down to 18Hz and all the way up to 40kHz. The Reference 1.2 DC is said to utilize a new tweeter in a configuration that Canton states allows it to operate in an omnidirectional fashion above 15kHz.

This distinctive-looking tweeter belongs to Germany's Quadral, which showed the new Platinum M5 loudspeaker priced at 2400 € per pair. The speaker is rated to play from 23Hz to 50kHz. If true, that's surprising extension from a relatively small loudspeaker.

Elac has dressed up its FS 247 loudspeaker by creating the Art Edition versions priced at 1098 € each. The photo shows the variety of decorative finishes available, including the Mondrian-influenced speaker in the middle.