Cabasse makes a comeback in the UK

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The company, which is based in Plouzané, just outside the Brittany town of Brest, is going to sell its products direct to retailers rather than taking a conventional distribution route – and that will see the arrival here of speakers such as the amazing La Sphére, the company flagship.

La Sphére may look like a dinky tabletop speaker in the picture, but you begin to get an idea of the size of the thing when you realise it uses a 55cm woofer for the bass.

This is mounted behind a three-way coaxial driver, the TC23, in what the company calls its Spacially Coherent System, turning the four drivers into an effective point source.

As well as this coaxial mounting, the drivers are, the company says, "digitally controlled to provide the worlds only true point-source 4 way speaker, with one acoustic centre, absolute linear phase, optimum impulse response and perfect spatial coherency." The speakers weigh 100kg ech, and stand 1.4m tall.

Also in the new range are the little EOLE 2 satellite speakers, which again are spherical and use coaxial drive units, and partner with the Santorin 21 subwoofer.

Meanwhile those after slightly more conventional speakers are catered for with the MC40 range, which kicks off with the compact standmount Minorca, and goes up through Java and Majorca floorstanders.

Matching those are the Cabrera centre speaker, Formentera surrounds and Mercure subwoofer.

Cabasse was founded in 1950 by Georges Cabasse, who can trace his ancestry back to Mirecourt, in the Vosges mountains, where five generations of his family made violins, violas and cellos.

The first violin signed Cabasse was made in 1740, and many of the original instruments are still used by orchestral players. Cabasse is now owned by Japanese company Canon.