Status Acoustics announced their new flagship tower loudspeaker, model 8T, which incorporate a two-piece design that places the midrange and treble cabinet floating above the bass cabinet. “With the 8T, function follows form,” said Status Acoustics Technical Director Shane Rich of the company’s new design. “One of our goals was to minimize cabinet resonances that color sound. With the 8T’s two-cabinet design, the low and mid frequency enclosures are effectively isolated from each other, nearly eliminating cabinet resonance in the speaker system.” The 8T’s upper cabinet is held in place by a custom bracket which also inconspicuously carries the wiring from the lower cabinet to the upper cabinet. Due to their design and the complete absence of parallel internal walls, both upper and lower cabinets are exempt from standing waves, thereby increasing performance.
Status Acoustics’ engineers designed the 8T around the company’s proprietary 10-inch aluminum cone subwoofers, 6.5-inch Beryllium alloy cone mid-woofers and 1-inch Scan-Speak pure Beryllium dome tweeters. Status Acoustics claims it uses Beryllium because of its high stiffness and superior acoustic properties.
Another unique aspect of the 8T is its method of cabinet construction involving the bonding of multiple layers of material together. This expensive process gives the 8T its unique look while also allowing the cabinet wall thickness to be varied without the limits typically imposed by traditional panel construction, and also grants more extensive internal bracing. The end result of this method is cabinets that are acoustically inert for optimum sound quality.
Price and Availability
Status Acoustics offers the 8T in any of 30 different wood-grain veneers, and has placed the price of the towers at $50,000 per pair. Orders for the 8T are being taken now, with the first production models slated to ship spring 2012.
About Status Acoustics
A Utah-based company, Status Acoustics is privately owned and operated by the founder, Roger B. Hassing. Status Acoustics was created in 1998 by Mr. Hassing as the high-end division of RBH Sound, with the goal of developing cost-no-object ultra high performance audio products. Since 1976, Mr. Hassing and his staff have been designing, engineering and crafting high performance speakers and custom audio products.
