As a fan of the ol’ hi-fi, you’re probably no stranger to the occasional jaw-droppingly steep price tag. And it would seem that speakers are always the products that fetch the highest prices. There are several manufacturers who bost the ‘most expensive loudspeakers in the world, but at a sharp £190,000 per pair estimated price, these deliciously bespoke and made to order horn speakers must be among the highest of the high. These are the Living Voice Vox Olympians.
But what makes that mad yet oddly alluring speaker as astonishingly pricey as it is?
It might have something to do with…
– 15-inch paper-cone woofer
– Modified, handmade exponential-compound horn of beech
– 3-inch compression driver in an exponential horn of beech
– 1-inch beryllium-dome compression tweeter
– Modified exponential horn made of cast bronze
– Dispersive compression super-tweeter with a beryllium diaphragm
All of this beech, bronze and beryllium (…we wonder if the alliteration were deliberate. It’s the kind of thing we wonder) makes for some incredibly sensitive speakers. How sensitive? 105dB/W/m. That means it barely needs any amplification to play loud, proud and detailed sound.