Music of the spheres

As the Monty Python team was fond of telling us, now for something completely different. David Vivian steps back in time

With a template including a large box, broad baffle and big juicy bass driver, today's retro or heritage' loudspeaker releases have become something of a market cliché. That authentic old-timer sound might be mildly conjured by the cabinet and driver dimensions, but the driver and crossover tech will inevitably be daisy fresh and, whisper it, rather better than any original effort. Then again, I suppose the reliability of the stereotype very much depends on the heritage that's being relived.

Delve into French brand Elipson's distant back catalogue and it reveals a penchant for quirky spherical designs - for sound acoustical reasons, of course. But none was more 'out there' than 1953's BS50, which looked more like a stylised barbecue than a speaker. The original BS50 (stands for Boule en Staff de 50cm de diameter) was first seen at the 'sound and light' shows of the Château de Chambord, its USP to bring: "the precise broadcasting of sound from the studios at the Maison de la Radio" to the discerning ears of the most demanding, show-attending audiophiles in a form far removed from the ordinary. What was far from ordinary 70 years ago is perhaps less surprising today judged against the 'anything goes' aesthetic sensibilities of the uber high end. Still, if Elipson was going to do a proper retro number rather than the sketchier 'inspired by' kind, a big white ball with three spindly legs and an oversized open 'lid' (all right, reflector) does make a refreshing change from the shrunken-wardrobe with-jumbo-woofer heritage norm. The BS50 Tribute faithfully adheres to the radical acoustic design of the original, but the materials and driver tech are much more of this century.