While many audiophile equipment manufacturers may wax poetic about their componentry deserving attention for their aesthetics, the OMA Ironic speaker designed by David D’Imperio truly merits the label of a working piece of art.
Crafted with the same type of iron exhibiting high graphite content and low resonance properties used to manufacture photolithography machines for silicon chip production, the OMA Ironic speaker’s sculptural bubble waffle arrangement is derived from “quadratic diffusers universally used in studio and broadcast applications”.
Because of the scale and complexity of the 52″ H x 35″ W design, OMA’s team had to look beyond traditional pattern making methods to realize their complex open baffle design. Molds were instead 3D-printed in sand, resulting in a single use lifespan per mold – requiring a costly combination of effort and material per speaker.
The special combination of transducers used in the Ironic- a 15″ electrodynamic or field coil woofer used in Juke Boxes from the 1930’s, of which we have 20 restored examples, and the bleeding edge custom ribbon tweeter, which is 110db at 10khz, 1m, combine to make an open baffle speaker of unprecedented efficiency, at least 104db across the majority of its passband.
OMA is limiting their production to only ten pairs of The Ironic, reflective of the attention and physical labor required to craft such enormous speakers of such scale, weight, and detail.
The Ironic is but one of numerous horn and loudspeakers, amps, turntables, and furniture OMA designs and sells, each outfitted with specs engineered to meet a high degree of acoustic integrity. For additional information and images, check out Oswald Mill Audio.
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