Sunfire 'Cinema Ribbon' Speakers Could Revolutionise Compact Audio

Perhaps I'm easily led, but when I see a reviewer I trust say that a product is a "breakthrough design" I sit up and pay attention (or at least I slump further in the general direction of the news source).  So when Home Theatre's Steve Guttenberg tells me I really ought to be interested in the clever "ribbon" tweeter inside Sunfire's CRM-2 speakers, and that they "play really loud without duress, and the speaker projects an enormous soundstage, with remarkable width, depth and height," you know you're on to something special.  Neodymium magnets are just the icing on the cake.

Where your common or garden speaker has a normal, conical tweeter, the CRM-2 has a six-inch long strip of aluminium foil that's agitated by the aforementioned neodymium magnets.  Meanwhile, it's flanked by two 4.5-inch drivers that extend out the soundstage and help give that broadness that so caressed Steve's lovely head. 

At $1,600 a pair, they're not cheap – especially if you choose your speakers by size, in which case the 8.25-inch lacquered cases will prove less than impressive to you – but with a 95Hz to 45kHz frequency range and max power of 400W you'll be doing yourself a disservice ignoring them.

Steve's full review is in the May issue of Home Theatre, but there's a pdf version available at the Sunfire site: link

Sunfire CRM-2 [via Crave]