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Why Classic 98 Comes in Walnut
Walnut Says Vintage
The below text is a transcription of the video.
So, some people are gonna ask, why is it that if you’re developing this in a beautiful walnut veneer, why don’t you offer that finish across all of your products? And the answer is really simple. When you look at a vintage product, when you look at a retro reissue product, things like the KLH5s, that finish, that walnut finish speaks period, correct for mid-century modern, right? That’s generally the era from the sixties to the early eighties, and you could argue the fifties as well. So, when you look at those product lines, by far, the dominant finish that you see in those speakers, either of the past era or these modern retro recreations is wanted. This is a very specific product designed to support and serve that community. It is not our replacement for T/x. It doesn’t play as loud as a T/9x, it doesn’t go quite as deep.
It doesn’t hit as fast, it doesn’t have all the modern cues, the attack, the instantaneous square wave, and then all those little ripple decay patterns. This is not that, neither were 25-year-old RELs. They were soft, they were warm, they were pleasant, and they filled a room with lovely bass. So be very careful on this that you understand we’re not trying to confuse people. This is a niche piece designed specifically for the retro slash vintage market, the mid-century modern look that people are occasionally looking for. It’s kind of a thing right now in design, and I suspect it will be for the next 10 years or so. So this is for them. Now, the other pieces that’s very difficult to do, if we were to shift over to an image of the T/9x right now, what you’re gonna see is we’re using modern, very large radii all the way around the corners of the piece.
It has this curvature that is not fun to do at any kind of a reasonable price with a delicate veneer. Even when you steam it, it doesn’t want to take to that. It wants to lift, it wants to curl, it wants to cup. The finish on our modern Serie TXs is designed to match perfectly with about 98% of what’s out there. Piano black lacquer is by far the most popular finish out there. It allows things to be used in both home theater and high-end two channel. There’s a beauty to our piano black lacquer finish and our high gloss white. That is incredible. It’s just an almost universal good. If you’re a true modernist, the white that’s used in a lot of Apple products, we’ll seem very natural to you. As I said, the piano black lacquer either dies into a corner, into the shadow line of the room, or it complements the actual finish on many modern speakers. So, just some clarity around why we do what we do. This is a very specific, very targeted product for a very, very specific audience that we think we are just gonna love it.
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