Eyes for Hearing

Well, it's another thing in front of which I feel like scratching the back of my head in a total „not knowing what to do"- manner; again, one more proof (anyway, I stopped counting) of innovation and research pushed way beyond usual boundaries, in a realm of semi-real technology. The Sphere from the French hi-tech company Cabasee seems to be a totally new approach to never ending issues like stationary waves, in-box damping, volume and sound linearity. How can such old matters be addressed in a completely new manner? Read below!

First of all, La Sphere has a completely unconventional design about which its name says it all: the "box" is not quite that box-y since it is actually a sphere – yep, beloved readers, a spherical speaker. Now, there were spherical speakers before, you might say and be right. But La Sphere is different because it has made this shape a perfect one: no parallel walls – no stationary waves, a very strong design (the exact shape of the "box") - a lesser need for bracing and reinforcements while the inner symmetry of the speaker housing ensures zero sound diffraction effects on the full range.

What makes La Sphere so innovative is the drive-combo. A co-axial 4 way full range driver delivers sound in the most complex and definite way you can imagine... and you could not have imagined until now but in the Bowers and Wilkins Nautilus speakers, maybe.

All-in-one design, the driver (or should I say the drivers combo) are placed in front of a 22" woofer which attacks the 20-150 Hz range and consists of an 8" duocell ring for the 150-600Hz frequency span, in front of which a 5' P2C ring will deliver sound in the 600-3800Hz while the tip-piece, a 1,1" small dome will fill out the air with shimmering 3800-22,000 Hz waves. Adding the levels for each range we get a total amount of 2300W as follows: 1000 for the woofer, 1000 for the low mids and 300 for high mids and highs. Pumping a serious 96dB SPL, La Sphere seems like a real force among its peers.

Digital filtering with 70dB per octave, together with the inherent features of this new sound system such as single-point audio source, no variation within the 60 degrees cone in the audible area and a very even and linear response make La Sphere one really cool audiophile unit.

What's quite interesting is the special design of La Sphere's stand: built after a huge pile of sketches was drawn, the stand is a fluid shape in perfect harmony with the roundness of the sphere abov, yet it has required a lot of thought given to it as it had to withstand the exigencies of the Cabasse team and at the same time it needed to respond in the optimal way to the extreme solicitations of the forces deployed by the 22" bass-driver.

The stand is actually a single piece bending and twisting in a whole new way (for a speaker stand, at least); it guarantees no uncontrolled tremors/vibrations and no bad influence on the sound above it so the purity is unaltered.

The roundness of the La Sphere's sound will thus remain whole as Christopher Cabasse, the inventor and owner of the company, stated it should. The eye-shaped hi-end speakers will soon equip movie theaters, in combination with a surround system and pre-amped and sourced by Bel Canto gear, as demoed few days ago.

It seems like a new path has been cleared and will actually be walked a lot, at least by the audiophiles and theaters who want and can afford to spend $75.000 on La Sphere system. I feel I have to end my article in a funny way and say that apart from the quality of the sound, La Sphere is a "don't set it loud"-type of gear. If you care for your windows and household.

Photocredits to Christopher Cabasse

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