Have you ever seen speakers look like this before?
Should we even be calling them speakers? According to their Los Angeles-based studio Oben Hi-Fi, the new brand “occupies a category that does not yet have a name”, and describes its designs as “sculptural sound works that function as reference-level high-fidelity listening systems.”
We might just call them speakers for the sake of convenience, mind you.
Oben’s debut collection consists of five distinct series, each using different materials and design philosophies to create a unique set of speakers unlike much else we’ve seen before.
The disc-shaped Jovian, for example, are described as monolithic towers “that anchor a room the way an artifact from another age would”.
Handcrafted from wood and boasting a large oblong design mounted on a tapered plinth, the new speakers house dual 30cm drivers surrounded by six 20cm units to deliver “exceptional performance” which reveals “nuance, dynamics, and spatial detail with immediacy and precision”.
If you want something even more out there, you might be drawn to the Arqos, a pair of hand-sculpted towers which, says Oben, “recall the arch, the portal, (and) the threshold”.
They put us in mind of a very large set of Teletubbies’ antennae, but maybe that’s just us. The new series is available in two sizes – the David and the Goliath – with the David housing a pair of 20cm drivers and the Goliath offering a pair of 38cm units.
Other colourful creations include the Mane speakers, which are described as “acoustic totems cloaked in lush tactile fibres that blur the line between the natural and the surreal,” and the Callisto, crafted from hardwood and featuring a distinctive pimpled surface.
There’s also the Korus, a pair of chunky wooden towers sculpted from solid wood with carved acoustic chambers, again split into the smaller David iteration and the larger, 152cm tall Goliath.
All of the speakers in Oben’s new series are available to buy, although stocks are limited and prices, as you’ll see below, are rather steep. They are as follows:
- Oben Mane: starting at $26,000
- Oben Callisto: starting at $78,000
- Oben Arqos: starting at $71,000
- Oben Korus: starting at $71,000
- Oben Jovian: starting at $125,000
MORE:
15 of the very first turntables from iconic hi-fi brands
These are our best floorstanding speakers: budget to premium
Pick of the Month: a shining star OLED TV, twin Sony turntable treats, five-star high-end hi-fi speakers and more, tested
