Loudspeakers

If you’ve been paying attention over the last few decades, you’ve probably heard of Yamaha’s legendary NS-1000M loudspeaker, which was first released in 1978. It had an unforgettable sound, thanks to highly inventive Beryllium midrange and treble dome drivers that were a tenth of the weight of standard designs, housed in a super-thick sealed cabinet […]

The Zu Druid, made in Ogden, Utah, is one of the more intriguing floorstanding loudspeakers I’ve seen. This specific fourth generation model, from 2006, is a fan favorite. The one-and-a-half-way speaker is equipped with a full-range driving unit and a super tweeter that eliminates the need for a crossover. The impedance quoted is 12 ohms

‘Retro’ was all the rage in the early years of the new millennium, and in hi-fi, the rebirth of the BBC LS3/5a loudspeaker was at the forefront of the trend. The shameful truth was that this iconic little mini-monitor was a terribly defective, if cute, design even back then. New drive units, cabinet technology, and

TDK’s Tremor ‘multimedia loudspeaker system’ (as they used to call them back then) was one of the most intriguing designs of the decade, in my opinion, when it was introduced in 2001. The Tremor S-150, S-60, and S-40 were the company’s original speaker systems, with a total of three available. Each had a powered subwoofer

The Videotone Minimax is a fantastic tiny loudspeaker that has been overlooked by history. The fact that Videotone was not British, unlike over ninety percent of speakers at the time, adds to the intrigue of the story. The UK importer, managed by former Mullard and Philips engineer Cliff Hardcastle, was known as “Videotone,” whereas the

Wharfedale is a well-known British loudspeaker brand that peaked in the 1970s, during the height of the British hi-fi boom, when it was controlled by the Rank Organization. The company, founded in 1932 by Gilbert Arthur Briggs in his Ilkley house in the Wharfe Valley, invented and constructed all of its own drive units, or

Most audiophiles thirty years ago believed that everything old was garbage and that all we needed to shape our brave new future was modern technology and fresh thoughts. Of course, this was only true up to a point, and now we’re rethinking previous assumptions as well. The new Wharfedale Linton Classic achieves exactly that; as

Wharfedale’s XP collection debuted in autumn 1975 and quickly gained a following since each model had a nice tone, was well-made, and was designed in an appealing manner. It was a great hit, quickly becoming the go-to brand for entry-level, cheap loudspeakers, appealing to those who couldn’t afford Mordaunt Short, Monitor Audio, Celestion, or KEF.

Back in 1977, Realistic described their Minimus-7 ‘Metal Cabinet Speaker System’ as “little simply in size, not in performance.” It’s still astonishingly capable and relevant in 2021, given how few micro speakers have been released in the last forty-five years or so. There’s not much to it — a simple 100mm ‘high compliance woofer’ –

We periodically see exciting new variations on the loudspeaker theme; manufacturers sometimes come up with better cone materials for their mid/bass units, and occasionally unique tweeters appear. Ribbons have recently regained popularity, although other types have also come and gone. One of the most intriguing to yours truly was the Linaeum ‘figure of eight’ dipole