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As the vinyl record industry continues to see an immense revival in popularity, OMA Audio can’t be blamed for wanting to recapture another vintage aesthetic in its new Imperia Horn Series. Looking back to the conical horns of old gramophone players, the Imperia is a stunning four-way horn system built to provide a dapper level of acoustical purity. Designed by David D’Imperio, the horns come in a brilliant array of wood options (from black walnut to cherry or ash) that are a far cry from its metal forbearers, finished with hand-rubbed oil to let the wood’s natural colors shine. The wood sits comfortably in a sleek metallic frame, incorporated into a high tech system that includes a cogent field coil compression driver for the midrange horn, a high frequency horn cast from aluminum ally and an outboard crossover network coupled to the wood Imperia horns through a solid state patchboard. If this tech mumbo jumbo is too much to process, know that as a whole the system covers an impressive 100 to 20kHz, with two rear subwoofer horns handling 20 to 100Hz. The takeaway is that despite the nostalgic appeal of the skillfully crafted wooden horns, the Imperia Series delivers a sound to match any modern system, but does so with a love for design and an appreciation of history that can be hard to come by in the world of speakers.
Images courtesy of Cynthia van Elk.
