ESD Acoustic
Amplifiers
CD Players
DACs
Headphones
Best Known For
Speakers
/
Tweeter: Horn
Used Products
0
 Available
Average Price
$20,001-$40,000
Brand Popularity
619
 of 900+
Products Listed
14
Review Count
0
Founding Year
2017
Headquarters
China
ESD Acoustic
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What's unique about the brand

ESD Acoustic is a Chinese maker of all-horn speaker systems, founded by David Dai and developed with American engineers Bruce Edgar and Sam Saye. Its round horns are made of carbon fiber, and the drivers use field coil magnets. Beryllium diaphragms handle the midrange. The company also makes its own electronics, including Class-A amplifiers housed in cases built with Chinese mortise and tenon joints to reduce vibration. ESD says the horns' high sensitivity and high share of direct sound widen the sweet spot into a sweet zone, so several people can listen at once.

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

From Julian's interview with
.

Products overview

ESD builds speakers around field coil magnets and beryllium diaphragms, and high sensitivity lets several people share one good seat. Aviator is active with amplification built in, so a desk needs nothing else. Panda Plus adds two 8 inch titanium sandwich bass units, giving a living room fuller bass. Dragon reaches 18Hz with a 10 inch horn loaded bass driver, so a large room gets full scale low notes. The DAC, CD Transport and amplifiers pair with them.

  • Start here. Choose Aviator if you want hifi from a desk or small room without buying separate amplifiers.
  • Sweet spot. Panda Plus suits a listener who wants a field coil horn-era sound from a single pair of cabinets, with higher sensitivity than Aviator so the same amplifier drives it louder and easier.
  • All in. Dragon is a statement system priced far above everything else, and its extra drivers and active crossover give a collector the widest, most extended sound of the range, from 18Hz to 52,000Hz.
Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi Writer

What reviewers are saying

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Used

ESD Acoustic

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Similar

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brands

Known For
Speakers
/
Tweeter: Horn
Average Price
$20,001-$40,000
Used Products
0
 Available
Brand Popularity
435
 of 900+
Headquarters
United States

About the brand

Fleetwood Sound Company is an American loudspeaker maker that builds its speakers by hand in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania. The cabinets are solid hardwood with hand-rubbed oil and wax finishes, and the Deville uses torrefied Pennsylvania ash. The designs pair conical horns with professional drivers like those used in studios and concert halls, and are built for high efficiency. The Deville is a compact two-way speaker for small and medium rooms, offered in custom finishes, and it is on our Best Speakers for Tube Amps list. The range also includes a subwoofer, audio racks and furniture.

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
Brand Page
Known For
Speakers
/
Tweeter: Horn
Average Price
$20,001-$40,000
Used Products
5
 Available
Brand Popularity
471
 of 900+
Headquarters
United Kingdom

About the brand

Lowther is a British maker of full-range drive units and horn-loaded speakers, whose designs grew from the horns of Paul Voigt. Every speaker is built to order by hand in Great Britain. The drivers cover the full range with no crossover, and horn loading gives them high efficiency, so a few watts is usually enough and low-power tube amplifiers are a natural match. The compact Edilia brings room-tunable bass to smaller spaces, and the Hegeman flagship uses a field-coil driver in a curved composite horn. Lowther also supplies drive units and plans to home builders.

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

We have an exemplary reputation for producing single-range drivers that do not use crossovers. We have been in business since the 1930s. Many other companies have copied us, but none are our equal.

What's your approach to customer support?

We do not use conventional distribution/retail models. The majority of our products are manufactured to order. We use a number of trade representatives and what we term as boutique dealers for countries outside of the UK. We would normally ask a customer to refer themselves to our local representative in the first instance, as they can then ascertain what assistance the customer may require before they go to any unnecessary expense. Support, however, is controlled via our UK operation. For example, we may issue replacement products directly, supply our representatives with OEM parts for them to fit locally, or generally offer advice.

We pride ourselves that having purchased Lowthers in 2018, we have worked very hard on customer support with a no-quibble warranty. We have re-introduced the Lowther for Life scheme. Once you are a Lowther customer, we will do our level best to ensure that you remain a Lowther customer for the rest of your life.

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

Spanish Harlem – Rebecca Pidgeon (Chesky) – voice accuracy, instrument placement, depth of soundstage.

Wallace – Drive-By Truckers – dynamic range, visceral power.

Segue in C / bdb – Basie/Ellington (The First Time) – Duke on the left, Count on the right, spacious CBS studio recording.

What other products pair best with yours?

Lowther 'total sound philosophy' – matched with PX4 and our interconnects. Well set-up Lowthers will reveal weaknesses in the 'front end,' so phono/digital source should be carefully set up. Likewise, interconnects will vary tonal balance greatly.

Veracity Chrysalis pre-amp/DAC (if you can find one).

Raspberry Pi (Allo Digi hat, or similar) digital endpoint from server/file storage, JRiver library management. 

Clean, modestly powered 'push-pull' amp: EL34 Howes / Leak S20.

Big REL subwoofer.

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
Brand Page
Known For
Speakers
/
Tweeter: Horn
Average Price
$10,001-$20,000
Used Products
0
 Available
Brand Popularity
495
 of 900+
Headquarters
Greece

About the brand

Tune Audio is a Greek maker of horn loudspeakers. It designs each horn first and then picks drivers to suit it, sourcing from European and Japanese makers and modifying them in-house. The Marvel and Prime pair a wide-range driver with a bass horn, and the Prime is built for rooms where space is tight. The Anima combines a tall floor-firing bass horn, a side midrange horn and a top high-frequency horn, with the bass and midrange horns made from Baltic birch plywood. The Epitome is a trickle-down of the flagship for mid-sized and larger rooms.

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
Brand Page
Known For
Speakers
/
Tweeter: Horn
Average Price
$10,001-$20,000
Used Products
0
 Available
Brand Popularity
316
 of 900+
Headquarters
United States

About the brand

Volti Audio is an American maker of high-sensitivity horn speakers run by Greg Roberts, whose background in custom home building shows in the thick Baltic birch plywood cabinets and internal bracing. The midrange horns use a 2-inch throat instead of the usual 0.75 to 1 inch, which reviewers hear as a bigger, less colored sound. Owners can set the tweeter and midrange levels by swapping resistors on the rear panel. The Razz uses a 12-inch woofer and the Lucera and Rival use 15-inch woofers. The flagship Vittora is fully horn loaded, with bass to 20Hz.

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
Brand Page
Known For
Speakers
/
Tweeter: Horn
Average Price
$10,001-$20,000
Used Products
1
 Available
Brand Popularity
512
 of 900+
Headquarters
Germany

About the brand

Odeon Audio is a German maker of horn loudspeakers, developed and hand-assembled in Haltern am See. Its Kugelwellenhorn, a spherical-wave horn, is made from solid blocks of layered birch plywood, and the company says it was the first to make horns this way in series. The shape is designed for linear response without peaks or resonances. Because the horn raises efficiency, the speakers are a natural match for low-power amplifiers. Drivers come from Audax, Scan Speak and Galm Audio Products, and each is hand-selected, measured and run in for at least 24 hours before assembly.

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
Brand Page
Known For
Speakers
/
Tweeter: Horn
Average Price
$40,001-$75,000
Used Products
6
 Available
Brand Popularity
387
 of 900+
Headquarters
Germany

About the brand

Avantgarde Acoustic is a German maker of horn loudspeakers, started by Holger Fromme and Matthias Ruff, who set out to build the best speakers in the world. Its speakers and amplifiers are made by hand in Reichenbach, near Darmstadt. Many designs horn-load the drivers across most of the frequency range for very high sensitivity, with powered subwoofers blended in through DSP. Owners can upgrade from passive crossovers to fully active iTRON current-drive amplification. The Uno SD brings the Duo design to smaller rooms, and the Trio G3 is the flagship three-way horn system.

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

Firstly: Most prominently, our spherical horn technology with its precisely calculated wave-launch accounts for a unique appearance, outstanding (typically 104+ dBs/W/m) efficiency, and a favorably controlled sound dispersion in any room and environment. This gives our speakers an objet d'art character and makes amplifier choice a straightforward task: it’s all about sound quality, not about wattage.

Secondly: With launching the G3 series speakers, the range is optionally available in fully active versions, with the horn section powered by a breakthrough innovation regarding the membranes' displacement control: the proprietary iTRON current-drive amplifier technology. Executed in single-ended push-pull, fully Class-A, and zero-feedback topology, iTRON is the ideal and logical choice for offering not just conveniently connectable powered speakers but to consequently provide a musical experience beyond what is possible with customary voltage amplifier technology.

What's your approach to customer support?

Our customer support consists of a network of stipulated regional service providers and a central coordinating office at the factory for prompting the most effective procedures. Standardly, our local instances will be the recommended and most effective support channel (e.g., because of a time zone offset to Germany), while in specific cases, e.g., with "vintage support," our own team of experienced specialists may of course be addressed for appropriate advice and servicing.

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

Showcasing the famous Allman Brothers Band in an astonishingly intimate frame, on stage in a rather small club (while filling stadiums, usually), is the track "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed" from the record An Evening With The Allman Brothers Band – 2nd Set, recorded live in LA around 1992. Listened to by a dynamically capable and highly resolving speaker like from our range, the skillful, fun-driven playing, the vibrant atmosphere, and the cheering public make a "be there" experience par excellence. Ten minutes and fifteen seconds that fly.

Leopold Stokowski's famous Rhapsodies collection from 1960 (on Living Stereo, recorded at Manhattan Center) still holds surprises! While considered to be a "nice recording" anyway by many, especially true for the Liszt "Hungarian Rhapsody No.2," listeners who become exposed to the recording through our speakers realize far greater "ebb and flow" contrast in the orchestra's fantastic playing. At realistic concert level? As you please!

Meraki's "La Fong" track has driven people to tears (of joy…) where one would never think that this is the kind of music they'd fancy. Powerhouse electronic music that combines thrilling dynamics with a wonderful sense of space that does not merely scatter sounds into thin air but makes them glitter. A special, almost limitless trip when listened to by the right set of speakers.

What other products pair best with yours?

Especially in combination with our iTRON amplifiers, the co-branding question does not need an "exclusive" answer. Rather, it deserves an "inclusive" answer, as the high degree of control over the musical result ensured by horns and current-drive has generated feedback from our network that attests many excellent (no matter if praised for a specific strength or for an overall sound balance) source components to make a truly "shining" contribution.

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
Brand Page

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