CEDIA Discoveries—Waterfall Shows Loudspeakers Made of Glass
- NEWS
- by Chris Martens
- Oct 20, 2009
For years audio journalists have likened clarity of sound to the inherent clarity we experience when looking through a clean, pure sheet of glass, but the French firm Waterfall has taken that “see-through” analogy literally—by making its loudspeaker enclosures out of thick slabs of glass. At CEDIA Expo 2009 Waterfall exhibited three main tower-type loudspeaker models, a group of also glass-based center channel and surround speakers, and a fairly conventional group of powered subwoofers. All models in the Waterfall lineup are either named for famous waterfalls or with waterfall-related terminology.
After getting over the initial shock of seeing loudspeakers with transparent, see-through cabinets, the first question most people ask is, “Why glass.” A Waterfall representative explained that, apart from the material’s considerable visual appeal, glass has several desirable physical properties: it is rigid, extremely dense, and lends itself to precision machining. The only problem, of course, is that glass is a highly reflective material from a sonic standpoint. To work around this issue, Waterfall has developed compact and visually pleasing “damping pouches” that attach to the back side of drive units, eliminating the need to stuff the speaker enclosures with opaque foam or fiber-based stuffing materials.
Waterfall’s three main tower-type models are as follows:
Iguasçu EVO, 2-way, three-driver floorstander, $4500/pair
Victoria EVO, 3-way, four-driver, floorstander, $6000/pair
Niagara, 3-way, four-driver, floorstander with horn-loaded tweeter, where both the main enclosure and horn assembly are made form extremely costly “diamond glass,” $54,000/pair
According to Waterfall, each pair of Niagaras take 4+ man-days to assemble with a manufacturing process that, of necessity, must be spread over a period of several weeks.
All of Waterfall’s tower type models feature passive bass radiators cleverly concealed within the floor plinths of each speaker (as can be seen in some of the photos that accompany this article).
In addition, Waterfall offers Elora and Hurricane EVO LCR-type speakers, which can be stand or wall-mounted, plus a family of three subwoofers called the High Force 1, High Force 2, and High Force 3.
For more information, visit: www.waterfallaudiousa.com.
Tags: LIST
By Chris Martens
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