The challenge was to design an acoustically efficient enclosure for a sizeable speaker whose driver configuration demanded large capacity at the upper portion, without looking at all bulky.

Initially, our team worked alongside Eric Chan of New York-based ECCO Design to create a distinctive visual identity for a speaker of such towering performance capabilities. As functional as they are beautiful, the resulting cabinets are like works of art in their own right - indeed, their form was inspired by Brancusi’s seminal Modernist masterpiece ‘Bird in Space’.

Tapering gracefully from top to bottom and from front to rear, the slim proportions made possible by the orientation of the bass drivers give the Blade a sculptural presence in its own right, with a single continuous keyline describing a taut, seamless curve along the back edge and over the top.

This award-winning form was dictated by acoustic considerations rather than mere styling: the gentle radius of the front face presents the sound with no discontinuity to mar its clarity. The cabinets are constructed from a glass-reinforced composite, an inert and exceptionally rigid material that lends itself to forming the complex parabolic curves that help to eliminate any internal standing waves that might otherwise blur the output.