The BPT Prototype speaker displayed in room 9014 at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest was a huge success. The more we listened in the room, the more we became addicted to the sound! And from all the glowing reviews given by visitors to our room, I'd say we're on track with our impressions.

The first thing that immediately grabs you is the dynamics. The unique acoustical load given by the custom CNC'd waveguide allows the tweeter to reproduce dynamic peaks for more effectively, and more easily than a dome tweeter mounted on a typical flat baffle. BPT didn't invent the waveguide, far from it, this effort sprung from a partnership with SP Technology. But while the benefits of a properly designed waveguide are well known to most speaker designers, few tackle the challenge of implementing one.

Other innovations of the prototype are mounting the midrange driver in what's called an open baffle or dipole configuration. Seeing speakers in traditional boxes has just become so normal, that most people assume they must be in a box. But that simply isn't the truth, ALL boxes color the sound. Better boxes impart less coloration, but they still are a crutch on the overall sonic reproduction. What the lack of an enclosure does for midrange reproduction is something that must truly be heard to be appreciated - any number of overused industry adjectives would apply here.

A marble slab lined with sorbothane sheeting was used in the prototype to isolate the upper module from mechanical vibrations produced by the lower bass module. Overkill? Possibly, but to reach this level of performance requires attention to every possible variable.

Another innovation applied to this design is the use of a dual chamber bass loading, To our knowledge, a design such as this has never been used in a production speaker, and the results achieved thus far are promising. Furuther testing will be done before more information is given. But preliminary results indictae group delay and rolloff close to that of a sealed box, but the extension and output of a vented. Truly the best of both worlds!

Also in the final design expect diverse customization options - combinations of wood and automotive finishes, choices of different crossover voicings available by plug and play external crossover boxes, and the choice of a boxed bass chamber or a full-dipole bass module. We figure customers in this market are savvy enough to know what they want, and we want to be able to provide exactly that.

And here's the best part, the targeted price will be $3000 per pair!