Between 2005 and 2006 Cabasse released a couple of AES papers describing multiple co-axial driver speaker systems. The first real world application of those studies was the “Sphere” and the slightly smaller version “L’Ocean” followed right up. Now, when I say “real world” I mean that you can buy them, at least in theory. That is if you have $100.000 for the “smaller” one. What you get is a four driver active system with all four units arranged in co-axial mode. Each driver is served by a dedicated amplifier with 1000 Watts for the 15 inch woofer, 500 Watts for the mid-woofer, another 500 for the mid and a mere 250 Watts for the tweeter. That’s 4500 Watts for the two speakers combined.
Along with the speakers, Cabasse provides a pre-amplifier which connects with the power amps and besides the input selection provides room correction for perfect frequency response. All you need is a source and during the show PS Audio provided them; a Perfect Wave Memory player and Direct Stream DAC, along with the P10 Power Plant for clean AC.
Aesthetically, the top Cabasse speakers are unique. I will not go into details trying to describe something so “out of the box”; please check the photos as they speak for themselves.
In such a huge hall it is difficult to judge a system but one thing was more than obvious, the disappearing act performed by the Oceans. Shelby Lynne literally vanished and left only her majestic voice with acoustic guitar accompaniment to keep us company.
