I've heard some of the worlds best speaker systems in my years involved in hi-fi. Many are quite good in one area or another but rarely can package all the desired traits in one package such as; detail retrieval, imaging, dynamics, high efficiency, lack of coloration, low distortion, warmth, presence, realism, frequency extension and most importantly communication of the soul of the performers. If we could have all these traits in one package it would make a truly exceptional speaker system.

Enter the Latour field coil speaker system.

In my experience the Latour is the first speaker to get everything truly right. Midrange performance and top to bottom coherence like a Quad 57, dynamics like a Altec theater system, scale of a live performance and detail retrieval like nothing else I've heard. A friend of mine said it best when hearing the Latour for the first time "These speakers have a way of sorting out the information in a laid back, non fatiguing, detailed and musically coherent way" I could go on and on about it's virtues but you know all the adjectives and yes it does them all! Hearing the Latour is a true revelation... goose bump factor is off the charts.

In searching for the best speaker I wound up with eight (yes eight!) pairs of speakers (horns, dual concentric, electrostatics, dynamic, ribbon, mini monitors, full range drivers and open baffles) trying to find the best speaker for each sonic attribute I enjoy. Well they're all being sold, or have been sold, now that the Latour has arrived. The Latour bested each one of my reference speakers in one package.

The Latour is a two way design with a compression driver on a horn for the mid/high and a 15" stiff paper, short throw woofer for the lows. Two way designs generally integrate in a way a three way design can't.

Compression drivers are very expensive and thus almost never used outside of commercial designs. The use of compression drivers is as important or maybe more important than the use of a field coil. Its all a matter of distortion.... cone drivers distort much, much more than compression drivers. A compression driver is designed to produce maximum sound pressure from minimal excursion. Minimal excursion = lower distortion. Lower distortion = better sound. Cones have to move much farther to produce the same output. The farther the travel of the driver, the much less linear the response. Most consumer horn systems use cone drivers with front horn loading, which are not nearly as linear as compression driver based speakers. As with many design decisions in modern audio, this is evidence of cost cutting.

The Latour is a tube friendly 100db efficient and 16ohms flat impedance. It features an adjustable woofer/tweeter level for room placement/matching optimization.

The cabinet on the Latour is tuned by ear just like a musical instrument using real wood. There's no MDF to muddy the sound. Why use glue and wood fiber for a speaker system? It's inexpensive and easy to CNC. Why use real wood? Because it sounds better. It's much harder to make a "tuned" speaker sound really good, when it's done right... it is the best.

The Latour is Ken Shindo's statement speaker, it is a special order product built by hand in any finish you desire (within reason). Currently they're back ordered but we expect to have some orders shipping in the next month or so. It's available in two versions; one with a field coil midrange/high frequency driver and Alnico woofer, or as an upgrade option the woofer can be specified as a field coil.

Also available is a smaller version featuring a 12" woofer with field coil or Alnico magnets and a smaller field coil compression driver for the mid/high. Which one is right for you depends on the room dimensions.

The sound quality of the Latour is beyond anything you have dreamed of. Finally a high efficiency horn speaker without the "honk" so many of the lesser designs have.

read more information about field coil technology

Photos (c) Matthew Rotunda