Transparent has announced its latest loudspeaker, the Brutalist Speaker, an homage to the esoteric architectural style that endures deep into the collective 21st-century subconscious.
The Stockholm-based audio brand – well-known for designing striking yet minimal speakers – has lent its signature style to its interpretation of what a brutalist speaker would look like, and the result is quite special.
Describing it "a monument of sound and design", Transparent has built its new speaker mostly from metal and has utilized 70% post-consumer recycled aluminum in the process – a testament to its ongoing mission "to become the first circular tech brand." Standing upright, the Brutalist Speaker has been designed to promote "optimal acoustical properties" with intentionally engineered features that lend themselves creating the speaker's immersive soundscape. These include dual three-inch tweeters that protrude outwards at a 90-degree angle from each other, the positioning of which is said to help deliver high-frequency sound in more detail, as well as its carefully considered bass drivers positioned in a way that results in clean and undistorted lows – bass the brand describes as "massive, yet effortless."
Standing tall at 23.2-inches high, the Brutalist Speaker is at once imposing and intriguing – it is as much an object to spark conversation as it is to listen to music. And it is as solid as it looks, too, weighing a not-so-light 23.2 lbs (12kg).
"It is exciting to bring this legendary architectural style into peoples' homes," says the brand's co-founder and creative director Per Brickstad, adding that the Brutalist Speaker exemplifies Transparent's vision "that audio objects can be both aesthetically striking [and] technically advanced, yet simple to use."
In terms of its technical specifications, the Brutalist Speaker has a frequency response of 32Hz - 20kHz and is capable of outputting hi-res audio at up to 192kHz and 24-bits. It supports a wide range of codecs (including MP3, FLAC, WAV and more) and is compatible with many of the most popular streaming platforms out of the box, such as Apple's AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect. It can also connect to your source devices wirelessly with support both for Bluetooth 5.2 and dual band WiFi (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz).
Founded in 2012 by Martin Willers, Per Brickstad and Magnus Wiberg, Transparent remains based in its home city of Stockholm – a cohort of sonic savants that have blended their audio expertise with a keen eye for design, creating an aesthetic that has become instantly recognizable in the world of speaker design.
The Brutalist Speaker is available now via Transparent's website in a choice of two finishes, 'Black' and 'Metal', priced at £3,200 GBP / €3,800 EUR / $4,000 USD.
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