Friends,
We're going to do something very strange next week: launch a non-traditional speaker line.
It's strange for many reasons... among them that:
- many of our partners make speakers (and we would rather not compete with them)
- we're about to refresh our electronics line
- our warehouse is mostly shut-down
But sometimes you don't choose opportunity; opportunity chooses you.
Here's a bit of history.
As many of you know, Danny Richie was a "hired gun" for AV123 who really put their speakers on the map. When AV123 did its belly-flop, suppliers around the world were sitting on some great "Rocket" drivers and knowing how to use them right, Danny bought up excess inventory. Around the same time, our trusted supplier Jeff Keyes at Lucid Acoustics (he made all the exotic tops for Sensation/Piano) let me know that his wood-shop had extra capacity. In fact, he had started to make caskets (yes) just to keep the CNC spinning.
Despite wasting a small fortune trying to build speakers in 2005-2008 (we still have piles of drivers), I called Danny and asked if we could team up to produce something unusual that would offer a virtuous value proposition and which we could use as a vehicle for putting those drivers to work and keeping Jeff's shop busy. Jeff did not want to be in sales and Danny prefers the "arms dealer" business model to finished speakers... it would be my job to sell and warranty these things.
We had talked about line arrays before (I had prototyped a 14 driver "Alexander Grand" in 2006 and Danny liquidated our Eminence 12" drivers) and Danny was excited about the omni concept that AV123 had prototyped but failed to put into production. We settled on a 3-speaker line anchored by an unusual "omni" MtM and flanked by a more flexible bookshelf and a multi-use, acoustic suspension "center" channel having line-array dynamics. I knocked out some two-tone CAD drawings and we started refining the design.
A year later, here they are.
The line looks and sounds better than expected. They're great in piano finish but we decided to launch with black matte to keep costs down.
We're calling them "Lucid" because they're made by Jeff of Lucid Acoustics", "White" which is the color of the "rocket" cones, and then the driver configuration... Mt, MtM, and MMtMM. I might give them cooler names later on. Remember, these are mid/high-frequency speakers that trade low-end for compactness and fast mid-bass. MtM is an omni design that wants to be placed well AWAY from walls. Danny will elaborate.
Lucid White Mt and MMtMM
Lucid White MtM
The MMtMM has been designed for use at nearly any angle - floor, corner, under TV, ceiling, etc. although you will need to screw in serious hardware to float it off the ground. The speaker is incredibly heavy. You can buy one or two of these speakers; most people will use it as a center-channel.
Although this is very much a partnership and group-effort, they will be sold by Virtue, drop-shipped by Jeff. Customer will pay shipping.
These speakers are heavy. Shipping will be expensive and by ground. Build time will be around 1 week unless otherwise noted.
Until we run out of drivers, pricing will be very aggressive. Our mutual customers have many pairs of speakers and we want to enable everyone two own at least one pair.
Center MMtMM $600/pair or $350 for one + shipping
MtM Omni $450/pair + shipping
Mt Omni $300/pair + shipping
ALSO, the first 20 customers will get 20% off. Please PM me to get a discount code to apply next week when we list the speakers for sale at
http://www.virtueaudio.com.
We'll allow you to specify exotic finishes but let me say up-front, each will be a custom build and it will be expensive (around $100-$200 per speaker). Alternatively, we will sell unpainted speakers at a slight discount ($50/pair) so you can finish them yourself.
Shipping would be more expensive than the speakers themselves and these things are so heavy we cannot risk damage. So with regrets, we will not accept international orders today.
Please use this thread to ask questions for Danny (and/or Jeff). We'll post performance information below.
Seth
