Cabasse is a brand that occasionally visits our inbox. Readers ask us whether we know the brand, whether there are reviews of their products. Because on the one hand it is a familiar name and on the other hand it is not very common in the Netherlands, we went looking for it.
Georges Cabasse, doctor and luthier (builder of stringed instruments), founded Cabasse in 1950 in Brittany. The history of the luthierfamile Cabasse dates back to 1740; there are still violins made by Cabasse from this period!
Georges Cabasse founded the first Cinemascope cinema in Paris (Rex) and continued to develop the coaxial speaker concept (woofer and tweeter in 1). For at home, in the car, custom installation (hotels etc). In France, Cabasse is a household name. Enter any family hotel and you will see dark brown Cabasse enceintes hanging in the corners of the Salle à manger. Many Renault is standard equipped with Cabasse speakers.
Coaxial
Cabasse is similar to the British Tannoy and KEF who also make coaxial speakers, but French. As early as 1959, Cabasse in Brest built an anechoic space that was one of the largest in the world (2,000 m2 no less!). And a year earlier they built an active speaker with multiple built-in amplifiers. For that time an absolutely unique one; the standard in those days were the solid tube radios on legs. In 2018-2019 Cabasse speaks for itself with spherical speakers with built-in amplifier and streamer so you can use them throughout the house. And still the coaxial design (single point) is the starting point in many Cabasse products. The top models are without exception eccentric in design and dimensions. Take a look at the new models La Sphère and Géode.
Cabasse was Japanese owned between 2006 and 2014 by the Canon organisation. Cabasse returned to French hands at the end of 2014. Streaming company AwoX is the current owner of Cabasse and it is therefore not surprising that the Cabasse product line has been strengthened on this point. They also equipped the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle with speakers as well as the City Hall of Paris, the Cathedral of Chartres and the Palace of the King of Morocco.
In the Netherlands the Cabasse harvest is unfortunately less flamboyant. We don’t know what audio system the Orangemen have. In fact, there is currently no importer of Cabasse in the Netherlands..
