Bright, cheerful and colourful. These loudspeakers will make you smile before you’ve even heard them.
Colour isn’t usually a good attribute to have in a loudspeaker. It implies harmonic distortion or, at the very least, an imbalance to the frequency response. However, this new loudspeaker from furniture designer Archie Hands has colour in abundance and on this occasion, it’s a good thing.
Archie first got in touch a year ago and purchased a pair of Eikonas. He went quiet for a while and then a few weeks ago came back with these photographs of his Eikona MLTL38 loudspeakers. We think they look great and are particularly pleased to see that he’s made each speaker in the pair a different colour. It’s bold, fun and unusual.
The MLTL38 is a mass-loaded transmission line (in reality, it’s like a cross between a reflex and a transmission line but the name has stuck). It gives a good output to below 30 Hz and you can find the plans on our website here.
Archie has built the cabinets from Valchromat, a development of MDF with some unique properties; not least the fact that the colour is built into the material. No need for paint or veneer and the colour is not affected by dents or scratches.
So how do they sound? Archie comments:
“They sound absolutely brilliant, and delivered so stylishly. The soundstage achieved with them is enchanting, and as such they have become surprisingly useful for playing competitive videogames. I’m continually astounded by the level of bass response they can produce from such relatively small drivers, and all while maintaining such a clean level of clarity. Definitely a pair I’m going to hold dear to my heart for the rest of my life.”
You can find the plans for the Eikona MLTL38 loudspeakers here.
Archie is a professional furniture maker and is open to commissions from anyone interested in having a pair of loudspeakers built by him. Contact him via his website here.
PS The pink feet shown below didn’t make it to the final versions …
