Doug Schneider wrote about his trip to see Crystal Cable's
Arabesque loudspeakers in The Netherlands in the SoundStage!"Traveler"
column. Two videos were also made during that trip for SoundStage! V ("Part 1,""Part
2"). All that was a "sneak peek" at the product, but CES 2009 marked
its official debut. It's a unique speaker that retails for 45,000 euros per pair (about
$63,000 at the current exchange rate). [www.crystalcable.com]
The Arabesque's cabinet is made of cut glass,
and its name refers to its shape. Due to the speaker's complex shape, the company had to
recruit Finiglass of Germany to help make it. The bottom plinth, which also houses the
crossover, is stainless steel.
You can see through the Arabesque from every
side. It's a two-way design that uses three Scan-Speak Illuminator woofers running in
parallel along with a ribbon tweeter. Whereas the prototype Doug saw in The Netherlands
had a crossover point of 2300Hz, the design has been refined to cross over at 2000Hz.
Crystal Cable rates the Arabesque's sensitivity at 95dB.
The speaker's concept is the vision of Crystal
Cable president Gabi van der Kley. Her mandate for all Crystal Cable products is that they
be technically proficient, musically satisfying, and visually pleasing.
