No doubt about it, the Cabasse Kara is a visually stunning speaker. Sensual curves abound, but they are not merely for show. Every design element, from the gracefully curved back to the spherical “head” on the top, adheres to Cabasse’s rigorous form-follows-function ethos.

At first blush, the Kara bears more than a passing resemblance to Bowers & Wilkins’ flagship speaker, the highly regarded Nautilus 800, but the Kara is dramatically more radical in its design. Comparing the Kara to the Nautilus is like comparing a Citroën-Maserati with a Mercedes sedan—but that is hardly a slight against the 800, as even the most advanced loudspeakers seem aesthetically conservative next to the Kara.

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The boldly designed Cabasse Kara generates an incomparable sound. (Click image to enlarge)

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Although the Cabasse family boasts a 150-year history as instrument makers, for the last 50 years or so they have applied their talents to reproducing music. They must be doing something right, as Cabasse is on the verge of becoming France’s largest speaker manufacturer. Enough preamble, though—let us explore Kara’s fascinating technology.

The speaker’s real genius is found directly on the front of its gray spherical head: Behold Cabasse’s TC22 Spatially Coherent Source three-way driver, which combines a woofer, a midrange driver and a tweeter in a single assembly. I am hardly overstating the case to declare the TC22 three-way driver the realization of an audiophile Holy Grail. Whereas nearly all speakers launch their sound from drivers mounted in various locations on the speaker enclosure, the TC22 radiates sound from a single point. Its bull’s-eye woofer, midrange and tweeter collectively produce almost the entire range of audio frequencies, from 100 Hz (the upper bass region) to 22 kHz (the high treble region).
The sphere itself is astonishingly quiet. Even while playing music at high volume, the ball does not resonate or “sing along.” Only the triaxial woofer, midrange and tweeter drivers move—place your hand on the sphere’s surface and you will feel absolutely no vibration or energy. The Kara also has a larger, 12-inch woofer directly below the TC22 driver so the low bass comes from the same general location as the rest of the sound, and the Spatially Coherent Source theme is maintained.

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This blown-up view shows the construction of the Kara’s TC22’s three-way driver, which combines the woofer, midrange and tweeter. Many two-way speakers mount a tweeter concentrically within a woofer, but we have seen only a few concentric three-way speakers designed for home use. (Click image to enlarge)

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Remember, too, that since most speakers mount their drivers in different places on the front baffle (and possibly on the side panels as well), each sits at a different distance from the listener. The resulting sound suffers from what I like to call the Humpty-Dumpty Effect, which I feel is one of the prime reasons speakers sound like speakers instead of like real musical instruments. Once the sound is broken up into different frequency ranges and fed to the variously placed drivers (treble to the tweeter, bass to the woofer, etc.), it is nearly impossible to get the different frequencies perfectly lined up again so they all reach your ears at the same time. Even worse, because of the staggered placement of the drivers, the sound coming from each will reflect differently from the floor, walls and ceiling, thus further discombobulating the music. In contrast, Kara’s precisely focused sound is more lifelike. Additionally, the speaker is relatively insensitive to room acoustics and markedly less fussy about its position in the room than are its competitors.
The TC22 is not the only fascinating design element of the Kara. The lower cabinet is built using Cabasse’s supremely rigid Global Dampening System. Cabasse builds the lower subwoofer enclosure from 16 layers of steam-curved wood. Inside the enclosure, heavy cross braces help prevent vibrations in the cabinet walls. The cabinet’s rounded backside somewhat resembles an old-fashioned bathtub; this shape helps minimize resonance inside the speaker because it does not have parallel walls.

Cabasse attaches the TC22 to the lower cabinet with soft, compliant material, which isolates the TC22 from the subwoofer in much the same manner as the shock absorbers in your car isolate you from minor bumps. Each speaker is lovingly hand-assembled; the wild cherry and Santos veneers are finished in a 12-hour operation. The speakers are “burned in” (played loud) for 12 hours, then each one is tested in Cabasse’s own anechoic chamber—a special laboratory so expensive to construct that only a few speaker companies possess them. Clearly, Cabasse means business.

The Kara creates a surprisingly lifelike soundstage. Play a CD of jazz virtuoso Milt Hinton’s sinewy upright bass, and the Kara will conjure a full-scale replica of the master’s 6-foot-tall, 200-year-old instrument. Through the Kara, well-recorded grand pianos possess a majesty normally heard only from the largest, most expensive speakers.

There is an overwhelming sense of immediacy to the sound. On the Sinatra at the Sands CD, I swear I can nearly see Ol’ Blue Eyes strutting across the stage. I hear an unprecedented amount of subtle ambience, which gives the sound a remarkable feeling of space and place. The Kara’s laser-sharp imaging deploys a vast soundstage, wrapping the music around my listening chair. But unlike most speakers that produce such a large soundstage, the Kara can also produce a highly focused sound—music from my older, monophonic recordings centers itself precisely between the two speakers.
One minor flaw of the Kara is dynamic limitation; it seems to compress the loudest sound peaks a bit. The Clash’s London Calling CD does not pin me to my chair as it should; the speakers I regularly use rock out with more conviction and verve. Also, I expected fuller, warmer bass, but the Kara’s leaner, more defined bass is probably more accurate than the big, fat bass produced by beefier speakers. In my large listening room, the Kara reaches down to the range of the second- or third-lowest note on a piano, and that is pretty low.

Other talents come to the fore as the Kara performs feats of home theater derring-do. Its incisive sonic detail is positively addicting, and my library of DVDs sounds brand new. I am not exaggerating—every disc sounds more immediate with a striking neutrality from the low bass to the highest treble. You could base a state-of-the-art Cabasse home theater around the Karas in concert with the Baltic II Murale (basically the TC22 on its own) in the center and surround positions, with the Cabasse Thor Artis II subwoofer to round out a full surround-sound speaker ensemble.

With its wide range of innovative speakers, and its new North American distributor, I expect Cabasse to become a major force on this side of the Atlantic. Time will tell, but this much I know for sure—the Kara is an unflinchingly honest and immensely satisfying speaker.

PRICE: $14,500/pair
CONTACT: 409.722.6727
www.cabasse.com