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Harman Kardon Makes Crystal Bling Speakers
Ok, we're over the crystal-bling craze, but crystal-bling-steampunk?! Yep. Hold onto your blowtorches n' chisels, design fans, the new Harman Kardon GLA-55 speakers are exactly that. Kurt Solland, the VP of ID at Harman and Core 77's very own 1HDC judge, gave us the low-down:
"The idea was to meld high-tech with craftsman styling and pushing 'Steam Punk' in an elegant way. For the technology side, there are integrated digital amplifiers with special drivers and a proprietary port to allow this to be your complete sound system. All you have to do is plug it in, throw away your old 'boxy' speakers and enjoy. For the design side, I balanced the outside, inside and refractive aesthetic. The outside surfaces had to work harmoniously with the inside surfaces which both had to combine with the refractive nature of the facets…whew! It a way it was kind of like painting with light by utilizing each individual interior as an art installation, it certainly was a very delicate 'chord' to balance just right."
And when you consider these are stuffed choc-full of treats like a 100-watt bi-amplified digital amplifier coupled with DSP equalization, Atlas AL drivers and woofers, PLUS a CMMD tweeter as well as optimisation for digital sound -- oof! -- these beauties won't stay quiet for long. To top it off, the faceted cut-glass enclosures house touch-sensitive volume controls. Yowzas.
Check out more pix after the jump...
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Comments
They look great and very well balanced in design, which is very difficult when working with crystal facets like this. So definitely an A+ for execution.
I do wonder if there was any inspiration taken from the "Crystal Vision" Designboom competition entry by Chun-ta Tsao posted on September 1st 2008. I know the development would be really amazingly quick, but still...
What do you think?
First Soundsticks, now these. They're beautiful, sure. Would look terrific on a shelf by themselves, but next to that square hunk of a Mac? Not so sure...