They’re as French as wine and cheese and imbue everything suspected about these unique Europeans – their love of the supreme and very best in life – in everything.
And with that comes their speaker range which is about as high class as you can get on the market today, there is no exception to the rule.
Canon’s pet project ( the giant bought them out fully in 2006) has given this medium sized company who operate out of the Plouzane region of France an opportunity to gain the manufacturing and supply chain benefits attached to a large tech co while still maintaining their integrity as sound engineering experts.
“The synergy between the two is very important,” says CEO Christoph Cabasse who’s father founded the company in 1950. The Cabasse name is synonymous with sound delivery – their anscestors were makers of musical instruments.
Following a brief stint away from the Australian market, the French are back and want to fit out living spaces here with their “technological art.”
And fit out they will – well for their top end La Sphere speakers anyway – which retail for a cool $199,000, where CEO Christoph Cabasse is so endeared to his masterpieces that he will personally come to your living area and fit them out to ensure it does justice to the space.
And it seems he has made a few trips to Asia recently to do just that.
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However, for those that can’t reach the $199,000 pricetag there is an array of other speakers that within reach of the sound enthusiast.
Its been a busy spell for the French company says its CEO – who have launched a whopping 42 products between 2008 and 2010.
Several caught my eye at the launch in Melbourne last night which took place, naturally, in the Alliance Francais de Melbourne cultural centre, including the Riga and Baltic floorstanding series as well as several in-wall varieties.
The Riga floorstanding speakers are a 2 x way BC17 co-axial unit with 90-20,000 HZ, handling between 150 – 1000 W held up on a wood finish stand retails at $6,999 and comes in a range of colours while the Baltic with TC23 co-axial unit and a 2.8cm Kaldex dome tweeter sells for $9,999 and handles between 220-1540 W with a frequency of 80-25,000 Hz.
Like their big brother La Sphere, these models are both visually alluring and hard to ignore in a living room and have borrowed its absolute sound quality philosopy with its “spatially coherent system” to deliver top end music from all angles.
Cabasse’s other speakers many of which come in white, which is pretty rare, include the Archipel range of in-wall speakers which starts at around $499 and come with both round and square magnetic grilles and handle up to 320 W.
And one vital thing about Cabasse range that must be remembered – they are not just run of the mill black finished speakers that sit discreetly as a sideshow to the unit – the speakers take mainstage with their elegant design and colours.
Their iO2 sphere “speaker balls”, the smaller sister of La Sphere are like large golf balls which can be held in the palm of a hand, these round speakers are driven by the same
spatially coherent source driver technology to offer a fuller sound with its 1.1″ tweeter mounted coaxially in front of a 5″ woofer.
Distributed through International Dynamics for the Australian market, the range is available in over 40 countries and following their sabattical are anticipating great things for its line down under.
