Vandersteen Model Seven Loudspeakers

Richard Vandersteen has unveiled his most ambitious and expensive speaker to date: the Model Seven, a four-way design retailing for $45,000 per pair.

The grilles on the speaker at CES 2009 were not removable, but the company's literature says that the speaker has a 1" Scan-Speak Illuminator tweeter, a 4.5" "Vandersteen Patented" midrange driver with the company's proprietary carbon-fiber/balsa sandwich cone, a 7" Scan-Speak Illuminator woofer, and two 12" powered subwoofers with aluminum cones. Around back is a 3/4" ferrofluid-cooled dome tweeter.

The cabinet is unlike anything Vandersteen has used so far. It has five layers of "carbon-fiber constrained-layer-damped panels bonded to a carbon fiber skeletal structure." Each speaker weights 170 pounds. Like all of Vandersteen's designs, the Seven is a true time-and-phase accurate speaker with first-order crossovers and stepped baffles to preserve the timing accuracy of the musical signal.

Richard Vandersteen with his wife Eneke

What's also interesting about the Seven is the modularity of the design. According to the company, the drivers, crossover and amplifier modules can be easily removed to allow for upgrades. Obviously, the seven is designed to represent the state of the art now and in the future.