Ever since its founding in 1926, German speaker maker Elac—short for Electroacustic—has never been one to rest on its laurels. Its engineers continue to improve the company's already well-regarded speakers with refinements and innovations that push the performance envelope. Take, for example, the FS 609 CE, Elac's flagship tower speaker that packs a lot of advanced technology into a slender form factor.

When Lars Engström built his first first amplifier at age 12 in his native Sweden, he could hardly have foreseen where it would take him. But his passion and talent for audio engineering eventually led him to found Engström & Engström in 2009 with his nephew Timo, an industrial designer whose skills complement those of Lars perfectly.

When I first saw a photo of this speaker, it reminded me of a Mexican chiminea, a free-standing clay fireplace with a bulbous lower body and tall, thin smokestack. But the only heat generated by this bad boy is of the sonic variety. Born of a collaboration between Serbian ribbon-speaker specialist RAAL and American pro-audio designer Requisite Audio, the RAAL Requisite Eternity is the world's only speaker with a cast-bronze woofer enclosure.