Cabasse has launched a new addition to its high-end (and we're talking quite an altitude) Artis line of speakers with L’Océan. Based on the same distinctive War of the Worlds-style spherical enclosure and using the same 3-way coaxial drive unit as the flagship La Sphére, the L’Océan can reach sound pressure levels approaching that of a jet engine – 117dB with no distortion!
The L’Océan is a collaboration between Cabasse and its parent company Canon, which provided expertise in digital signal processing.
Weighing 176 lbs (80 kg) and standing just under 4 feet high, the units feature a new 38cm honeycomb dome diaphragm woofer and 2,250 watts of digital amplification per speaker – 250 watts for the tweeter to 1000 watts for the woofer.
Digital amplification runs through optical SPDIF to the pre-amplifier and CRCS (Cabasse Room Compensation System) controller, which automatically adapts the loudspeakers’ response to the acoustics of the room (using the included measurement microphone). There's also 96kHz digital and analogue inputs and a phase linear digital filter which optimizes the frequency response to create "a true point source system" ... oh, and there's a remote control.
So what will this slice of audio excellence set you back? How does €80,000 sound (around US$105K at the time of publication).
Cabasse L’Océan will be available in Q2 2011.
L’Océan Specifications:
- Type: 4-WAY ACTIVE CO-AXIAL SYSTEM
- 4-way SCS (Spatially Coherent System) speakers
- Drive units: 1 x TC23 triaxial unit: low-mid, hi-mid, treble, 1 x 38ND 38 cm honeycomb dome woofer
- Amplifiers: 1000 W for LF, 500 W for LM, 500 W for HM, 250 W for HF
- Cross-over frequencies: 120 Hz – 900 Hz – 3,500 Hz
- Frequency response: 35 – 35,000 Hz
- Sound Pressure Level: 117 dB
- Dimensions H x W x D: 120 x 51 x 61 cm
- Weight: 80 kg
- CRCS controller: 5 x digital inputs: 2 x optical SPDIF, 2 x coaxial, 1 x AES-EBU
- 4 x analog inputs: 2 x RCA – 2 x symmetrical XLR
- Automatic detection of connected sources
- Output: optical SPDIF to the speakers
