Where has the year gone? It’s already time to review the past 12 months and choose a few interesting audio products we’ve somehow managed to overlook that can make the at-home jazz experience just a little more satisfying. It’s certainly a mixed bag of holiday toys this year: One employs an old idea in an entirely new context, another struts cutting-edge technology, while a third takes a treasured format closer to its zenith.
The Onkyo (onkyousa.com) D-TK10 Guitar Speaker ($1995/pair; available only through Onkyo’s online store with a 30-day guarantee) was designed by Onkyo in conjunction with renowned guitar-maker Takamine, but don’t be misled: These are not intended to amplify a guitar. Rather, they are so named because the enclosure’s construction is more like an acoustic guitar than a typical speaker box. Instead of a thick, dense, acoustically dead cabinet, the Guitar Speakers sport thin mahogany walls, braced along the inside edges to provide strength-just as in guitar construction. According to Onkyo, the objective was to “reproduce the natural sound of an accomplished musical instrument.” The idea is that if an artisan-made guitar produces a desirable musicality and tone, then a speaker fashioned in a similar manner might produce music with similarly pleasing, organic musical qualities.
