You may remember these nice youngsters who introduced their "CUBE" speaker at the show last year, a steel enclosure with a Fostex full range driver, separate woofer, active filtering and integrated class D amps - one of my favourite products then, and still now... This year, Eden de Vismes and his partner Laure Kasparian are introducing a series of beautiful control and connector panels, building blocks for designing an elegant multiroom system or connecting local sources to an existing system. Also new, a range of "invisible" speakers fitted into light fittings, the result of a joint venture with Kreon, a famous Belgian lighting company. I was invited to their common showroom Place des Victoires after the show to experience these great sounding wonders. I am not sure the photos will help you figure out where the sound might come from, but it does sound exceptional good, considering that these speakers use primarily 2in drivers (5cm) A great "coup" for such a young and amiable team!
Vienna Acoustics
Vienna acoustics was once more one of the best sounding speakers around. The new KISS model - shown left - was amazingly demonstrated by DJ "extraordinaire" Martial Hernandez, who has spent the last couple of years transferring all his collection of CDs to a Sooloos system, now part of Meridian. Martial not only has one of the most extensive libraries of “dematerialised” music, as well as physical records and CDs, but also knows every track in details, down to where the musicians fit in the studio or live venue. He is like a living encyclopaedia of live jazz recordings and the like and his enthusiasm is infectious: it was funny to watch people ready to move to the next stand, and actually staying for hours on hand because Martial promised them to be blown away by the NEXT piece of music he was about to play – and I fell into his trap as well for my own delight! They are distributed in Australia by Audio Active.
Vicoustic
These acoustic panels, distributed in France by Axente and very recently in Australia by Radiance, are actually made in Portugal. Originally a professional product used extensively in recording studios and movie theaters and other similar venues, they are now becoming popular in Home Theater applications due to their performance obviously, but mainly because of their very high WAF index. architects and Interior Designers alike have no problem specifying them as they are 'invisible" enough, but highly effective in taming these reflexions, resonances and other "nasties' which can kill the performance of the best speakers.
Born in France, well travelled, relocated to Sydney in 1997. Loves to cook for family and friends from seasonal and local ingredients and listen to live and recorded music, the subject on hand here! I am an electronic engineer by trade, speaker designer of some fame in the mid 80s, now involved in technical and architectural products for the Building Industry. I also blog on food, wine and travel, focused on all things French: www.ourfrenchimpressions.com