Steven Wilson has launched a new music store featuring himself and other artists with most albums having a binaural track in addition to stereo and Dolby Atmos. I'm sure most of us are familiar with the incredible remastering work he has done and how great his own albums are with Porcupine Tree and his solo work.
The directional speaker shown below is available in different colors and textures. Due to the time involved, speakers are a custom build.
The rocket shape was chosen to minimize the floor space foot print and shipping cost. The cabinet consists of 4 sections with threads and collars that twist together.
The 4 inch mid tweeter driver is by Faital Pro. The woofer / mid range driver is 12 inches and is also by Faital Pro.
The crossover point is at 500 hz and is constructed with Mundorf silver / gold / oil capacitors and Mundorf inductors. Inductive and capacitive compensation is included. The lower -3db frequency is 33 hz.
Internal wiring is the same Argentium silver used in our speaker cables.
55 kilograms of filament and 1954 printing hours are required.
Enclosures dimensions are 13 by 84 inches.
Price $17,000 for the pair plus shipping.
Build time is 8 to 10 weeks once work begins
I was ordering the non BT/ANC M4U 1 for $79, apparently they were out of stock so they substituted them with M4U II which were $240 more for no extra charge. You can still use them wired without the BT/ANC. From all the reviews I have read these seem like decent headphones but I never hear anything about them on here. PSB makes some pretty good home speakers also,anyway I'll find out tomorrow.
22 ohms with 110dB sensitivity.
3d printed body and headband. Leather and alligator headband covers.
Explorer is designed for the listener that likes to explore tonality. The headphone back comes with a maple port and 3 body combinations.
Olive / Maple for tight bass with a tonality on the brighter side or neutral.
Spanish Cedar / Maple for increased bass on the darker side of neutral.
Olive / Maple / Spanish Cedar for maximum bass and scale.
Standard colors include blue, gold, green, purple, and silver.
Cables are colored to match.
Price $3000 for the pair.
Build time is 1 week once work begins.
"There's a whiff of Charlantisim to it all",he posited. "A lot of these problems, if they were cars, you'd get behind the wheel, and as soon as they hit 35 MPH, they'd fall apart and explode-and the company would be gone, out of business. At least when you build electronics, you need to know a little bit, because you can kill yourself with high voltage. But with speakers, people can build anything they want and sell it, no matter if it's a good idea from a physics or engineering point of view. And those companies stay in business despite putting out one product after another with serious problems." - From Stereophile April 2026
What do you guys think?
Maybe someone like Oratory 1990 can help me here but we always hear planars described as "fast' and they "stop and start faster " die to driver lightness. Shouldn't any good driver design do the same exact thing,I mean 2000hz is 2000hz regardless of the driver technology. Just want to learn some more info,FYI I prefer planar headphones.
Edit. Didn't check ,had a lot of grammatical errors in my original post.
I got this pair of IEMs just to listen to audiobooks and podcasts so I wasn't expecting much. I found them listed on some obscure IEM group on Facebook,they are a "bullet" IEM with a 8mm driver. I can't believe how good they sound. I just added a bass shelf and everything else was really nice and smooth. They definitely sound better than my Zero 1 and 2. The only other lower priced IEM I own is the TRN Starfish,which sounds horrible,imo. AZLA has a website and they seem to be based in Japan. Not sure if they are a new company or what but they are available on Amazon in the US.
This website is kind of difficult to navigate so I just went to Google and typed in 'world radio history' and it auto filled so enjoy. Popular Mexhanics is also listed,I have not checked for any others yet.