CEDIA Discoveries—Waterfall Shows Loudspeakers Made of Glass
October 20th, 2009 -- by Chris Martens
Source: AVGuide
Source: AVGuide
.jpg "Waterfall Elora and Hurrican EVO on-wall models")
For years audio journalists have likened clarity of sound to the inherent clarity we experience when looking through a clean, pure sheet of glass, but the French firm Waterfall has taken that “see-through” analogy literally—by making its loudspeaker enclosures out of thick slabs of glass. At CEDIA Expo 2009 Waterfall exhibited three main tower-type loudspeaker models, a group of also glass-based center channel and surround speakers, and a fairly conventional group of powered subwoofers. All models in the Waterfall lineup are either named for famous waterfalls or with waterfall-related terminology.
After getting over the initial shock of seeing loudspeakers with transparent, see-through cabinets, the first question most people ask is, “Why glass.” A Waterfall representative explained that, apart from the material’s considerable visual appeal, glass has several desirable physical properties: it is rigid, extremely dense, and lends itself to precision machining. The only problem, of course, is that glass is a highly reflective material from a sonic standpoint. To work around this issue, Waterfall has developed compact and visually pleasing “damping pouches” that attach to the back side of drive units, eliminating the need to stuff the speaker enclosures with opaque foam or fiber-based stuffing materials.
Waterfall’s three main tower-type models are as follows:
Iguasçu EVO, 2-way, three-driver floorstander, $4500/pair
Victoria EVO, 3-way, four-driver, floorstander, $6000/pair
Niagara, 3-way, four-driver, floorstander with horn-loaded tweeter, where both the main enclosure and horn assembly are made form extremely costly “diamond glass,” $54,000/pair
According to Waterfall, each pair of Niagaras take 4+ man-days to assemble with a manufacturing process that, of necessity, must be spread over a period of several weeks.
All of Waterfall’s tower type models feature passive bass radiators cleverly concealed within the floor plinths of each speaker (as can be seen in some of the photos that accompany this article).
In addition, Waterfall offers Elora and Hurricane EVO LCR-type speakers, which can be stand or wall-mounted, plus a family of three subwoofers called the High Force 1, High Force 2, and High Force 3.
For more information, visit: www.waterfallaudiousa.com.
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The moment has finally arrived, when looking to increase the price of high end gear, a manufacturer goes to the simplest solution - use very expensive materials, that add little value, and a few suckers will bite... Next to the Diamond encrusted bottle for water advertised by P. Diddy a few years back, this is on my list of "expensive for nothing" products.
How sad to hear such comments without even hearing these superb speakers, which have wan several awards and recognition from highly experienced audiophiles :), talk can be cheap sometimes !!
Interesting and a great contribution to the WAF.
But green glass? Like from recycled bottles? That gives them a really cheap look.
Surely in this day and age it's no longer considered high-tech to make clear glass?
You are correct, I didn't hear the speakers. But I can read, think (and - akin to Napoleon - make assumptions - all at the same time). My assumption is that when diamond glass was designed it wasn't for its great audiophille properties. It probably looks good, has fewer imperfections than regular glass, might even look pretty. Whatever its "reason d'etre" might be, chances are that it is expensive - moving from the Victoria EVO to Niagra increases the cost 9 times.
Now, I can assume that diamond glass might sound a bit better, but I find it really hard to believe that the audio performance increase would be worth the money - which brings me to the very argument I made - just like the diamond water sold by P. Diddy, this dimond glass is likely to add very little to the end product itself (water in one case, and sound in another), but will manage to dramatically increase the cost - ergo, a high increase in price that is not associated with a corresponding increase in audio quality.
All the above notwithstanding, if the end user happens to have a fetish around cristal / diamonds (or be in the diamond glass manufacturing business), than I can see how the choice of Diamond glass will be fully justified for him/her...
Not $45,000 cool, and they probably would sound as good built from concrete sewer pipes. But they look way cool.