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| The Absolute Sound’s Illustrated History of High-End Audio Volume 1: Loudspeakers Coffee Table Book |
One of my favorite Seinfeld episodes is when Kramer makes a coffee table book on, what else, coffee tables! There’s a classic scene at the end of the episode where he appears on Regis and Kathie Lee to talk about the coffee table book; and then he shows how the coffee table book on coffee table books also turns into… a coffee table!
I had a flashback to this episode when I read that The Absolute Sound will be publishing an illustrated guide to high end audio with the initial coffee table book volume to focus on speakers. I was hoping deep down inside that the coffee table book itself was secretly a speaker. That would be cool. You could have your friends over, show them the book, and then it could just start playing.
When I saw that there was no reference to it being a speaker I then held out my hopes that perhaps the back cover would double as an LP. At least then you are able to play something through your speakers! Alas, no included LP, no CD, no digital download.
For $129, I figured I’d at least be getting something extra–at least Kramer’s book became a piece of furniture!
But I guess if you really want the ocoffee table book then you’ll need to settle for just it’s text and photos.
The description says that the folks of The Absolute Sound, “take you on an exclusive tour of the birth of the high end’s most iconic loudspeaker companies and their products. Packed with fascinating detail—including many never-before-revealed stories and photos.”
The 320-page deluxe hardbound book is nearly the size of an LP cover, but doesn’t include an LP as it’s cover!
I’m not sure I’d classify a coffee table book as “riveting” but that’s how they describe it. “This riveting book” will include:
- The most significant loudspeaker designs of the last five decades
- Profiles of 44 of the high-end’s most influential loudspeaker manufacturers
- Exclusive new interviews with the founding fathers of the high-end loudspeaker industry
- Never-before-seen archival photos, many from the founders’ personal photo collections
- Richly illustrated timelines and commentary on landmark speakers and technologies
- Lavish photos of the most beautiful, state-of-the-art loudspeakers
- Classic and new TAS insights on the world’s most iconic loudspeakers
So if you are passionate about audio and want to have a coffee table book about speakers in your listening room then consider ordering a copy from The Absolute Sound’s preorder page https://store.theabsolutesound.com. If only it doubled as a speaker, then I would be ordering my copy too.
