Vandersteen Audio has developed a version of their Quatro loudspeaker, clad in, of all things, wood veneer.

 

Stereophile gets the jump on everyone in their just-posted review of the Vandersteen Quatro Wood loudspeaker. As one would expect of a loudspeaker produced by Vandersteen, the Quatro Wood receives glowing praise from Stereophile. The Vandersteen Quatro Wood will set you back $10,700 a pair, a mere $3705 more than the cloth sock-wrapped version, but rest assured that the differences between the Quatro and Quatro Wood are more than skin deep. Richard Vandersteen's designs eschew traditional styling and looks to concentrate on what really matters: the sound. A veneer wrapped Vandersteen gets our attention because Richard's loudspeakers are mostly minimal-baffle designs that are wrapped in a cloth sock.

 

For those of you unfamiliar with Vandersteen, Richard Vandersteen is responsible for one of the most enduring designs in hi-fi, the Vandersteen 2. If you are anywhere near a Vandersteen dealer and haven't yet heard Richard's loudspeakers, make the effort to go do so. They may just end up on your Christmas list.

Anthony Gallo Acoustics has added a line source to their loudspeaker lineup, the Gallo Reference 5LS.

 

Utilizing seven of Gallo's proprietary CDT II tweeters mated with eight 4" carbon fiber midranges, each in their own 5" spherical housing, the slender 5LS is a mere seven inches wide and eleven inches deep. Twelve aluminum 4" woofers occupy a stainless steel enclosure on the back of the 5LS.  Gallo claims that configuration gives the surface area of a 15" driver, but with an order of magnitude faster response. Interestingly, the only crossover utilized in the 5LS is a first order on the bass drivers.

 

Expect more info on the statuesque, 78" tall Anthony Gallo Acoustics 5LS at CES in January.

British loudspeaker maker Harbeth will soon be unveiling an update to their hallowed Monitor 40 loudspeaker.

 

Loudspeaker design owes much to the work done at the BBC back in the day, and every audiophile is familiar with the term "BBC dip". When it comes to that tradition, no loudspeaker makers have a more undisputed BBC pedigree than Rogers, Spendor and Harbeth.  Harbeth was founded in 1977 by  a senior BBC research engineer.  Harbeth's largest customer in the UK is the BBC, if that says anything about their loudspeakers' faithfulness to that tradition. The Monitor 40.1 is to be shown at this January's CES in Las Vegas. The new flagship Harbeth's development was spurred by the discontinuation of the previous bass driver. The new 40.1 is said to be optimized for livelier reproduction in people's home environments, instead of the dry acoustics of the studio. No specifications on the freshened Monitor 40.1 at this time.

 

The original Monitor 40 was designed as a replacement for the legendary LS5/8, which died with Rogers. The Rogers name has been resurrected by a Chinese firm, but none of the loudspeakers have been produced in the UK since 1998.

AV123 is developing two new line source loudspeakers, the Focus LS6 and Focus LS9.

 

Pre-orders are being taken on these two new loudspeakers, and we do have some details for you. The Focus LS6 is a 2 way, 14 driver line source consisting of six customized Bohlender Graebener midrange/tweeter panels coupled with eight proprietary 6.5" XBL2 woofers. The Focus LS9 sports nine Bohlender Graebener midrange/tweeter panels mated to twelve of the custom 6.5" XBL2 woofers. The units will be assembled in Colorado, and will be available in rosewood, palisander natural satin, palisander rosa satin, moho natural satin, cherry and ebony. Pricing on the standard finish models is $4495 for th LS6 and $5995 for the LS9. In addition the two models will be available in piano black, piano rosewood, and piano bird's eye maple, for an additional $400 on the LS6 and $500 on the LS9.

 

No specifications or photos of finished models as yet.