Cement, sand, water – ingredients for perfect sound

Concrete Audio at HIGH END in Munich

“Dynamic, authentic, vibrant”, these are the attributes Weimar-based startup company Concrete Audio – who is presenting itself for the first time to an international audience at mHIGH END in Munich – uses to describe its loudspeaker system that’s hand-made from cement, sand, water and high-tech in a limited edition. Following the official launch of its concrete loudspeakers in July 2013 at Weimar, the presentation at the leading trade fair in the segment of high-quality consumer electronics aims to raise the Weimar-based loudspeaker factory’s profile on the national and international stage.

Frank Nebel, who founded the loudspeaker factory in 2010 at Weimar, combines high-tech, craftsmanship and practical design to create an audiophile loudspeaker system. Having studied music and mechanical engineering, he has the theoretical background to know how music, in its pristine form, needs to sound in an acoustic panorama to get audio connoisseurs excited.

The idea of a housing made of concrete came about during a conversation on the ultimate sound for loudspeakers. The result: concrete as the perfect material, but one that’s hard to tame. “That was the beginning of an elaborate and equally passionate experiment, borne by craftsmanship and attention to detail”, Frank Nebel says. This was followed by several years of development work and numerous test runs to find the ideal solution for mould, construction and material combination. This process culminated in the founding of the Concrete Audio Loudspeaker Factory which, in the summer of 2013, presented the N1 model in the classical city of Weimar.

The presentation at HIGH END is focusing on the N1 loudspeaker system. Concrete Audio will also be showing a flat panel loudspeaker in the form of a study developed in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology, IDMT. The creative design demonstrates that concrete can also show a delicate side without neglecting the key role in plays in terms of sound and design. For the concept, Fraunhofer IDMT’s flat panel loudspeaker technology was combined with Concrete Audio’s material design philosophy.