Strange Speaker Designs

I once had some Empire speakers that were designed as end tables with marble tops, why I don't really know.

My cousin had these Design Acoustic huge 10 or 12 sided almost spherical shaped things that were very inefficient and could either be placed on top of pole like stands or hung from the ceiling.

Any of you have/had really strange or out of the ordinary speaker systems?

 

I don't own any but my favo(u)rite dealer sells Duevel loudspeakers from Germany - they are omni-directional and quite unusual



Also the German omni-directional MBL range are a little unusual looking

All the best - Andrew

 

I think this belongs over in the Science Fiction thread

I've heard the MBL systems.

 

I wasn't sure if it was going to be unusual enough to qualify for this thread

All the best - Andrew

 

Oh, unusual it be!

 

I seem to recall there being back in the late 80's a speaker that was a pyramid shape, don't remember what they were called, probably Pyramids. They were about 5 1/2' in height and were around $16,000.00 Can.$

 

The MBL's are less appealing visually for me and up there in the unusual stakes



I think the B&W Nautilus is a very attractive and unusual loudspeaker

All the best - Andrew

 

The MBL looks like an oil lamp. Where's the wick?

That Nautilus looks like it should be an extra in an episode of Spongebob.

The Dahlquist DQ10's always reminded me of seat cushions, as did some of those old Quad electrostatics.

Hey...those Duevels somehow remind me of those Ohm speakers. That company still around anymore?

In one of the speaker builder magazines (may have been Speaker Builder, AFAIK), someone had taken some large sheets of particle board, attached them to a room corner, and made a giant horn-loaded woofer out of it.

 

If you can view Quicktime there is an interesting little animation of the Duevels here

http://www.cd-konzert.de/Produkte/move/Jupiter-move.htm

&ru

 

One of the most unusual way but not so unusual speakers we used to listen to recorded music over were Leslie speakers that were used with Hammond B3 keyboards. Band members I used to know lived in rooming houses in the early parts of their careers and used these systems for playing back music. Never listen with pro musicians! Everyone elses stuff stinks as far as they're concerned.

 

Somehow I picture some dude sitting in an artsy chair in the MOMA wearing
a Movado watch and listening to the B&W Nautilus speakers. He wouldn't be eating Krispy Kremes though, and he would probably be drinking some kind of latte. I wonder what music he would be listening to?

 

Possibly Jackson Browne - Late for the Sky

&ru

 

A big oil lamp though...

This is good engineering and manufacturing, btw. The shape is dictated by its omnidirectional design. Three drivers on top of each other. (The woofer is in the socket)

 

The Nautilus looks like supercharged snail innerds on steroids!