Someone mentioned to me that we should get rid of the "I loved 'em so much I bought 'em" review. The idea is the bar is set too high and reviewer purchasing becomes the new standard over, oh, good sound.

In any case, a Stereo Times reviewer purchased the new $14,990 Escalante Design Fremont and gets the mad love on. Escalante is the pride and joy of Tierry Budge, a man whose credits include stints at some of the most controversial audio houses out there, namely Wilson and Talon (website down). If you have, you know, a life and don't slum in the audio forums, you wouldn't know that Wilson and Talon elicit screaming matches between hard core audiophiles. If the Fremont continues to gain press, it will surely cause some verbal sumo as well.

Now, what peaks much curiosity about the Fremont is the fact that it's a two way speaker using double piggyback 12" woofers for 18Hz to 50kHz at 93dB sensitivity. I don't know of any other don't-call-it-a-bookshelf with stats like that. The interesting part is the dust cap on the 12" acts as a 3" midrange. Other speaker companies use this quasi-midrange (like ATC) for good effect, but it's unique, as far as I know, in a 12" woofer.

A huge tech claim surely to stir the hornet's nest is the claim of 70uS "rise time" for the 12" woofers. To put this into English, rise time is how fast the woofer gets its game on. The Fremont's woofer is claimed to be faster than a 5" driver's 800-1000uS (like golf, lower is better). The idea is if your driver is slushing back and forth, then you get smear, the "attack" isn't as powerful, etc. Basically, your speaker goes to 11. While a lot of manufacturers tout High Excursion, we're seeing a trend from Escalante and others to push Low Excursion as the bee's knees.

Interestingly, Escalante has received some press in green online magazines for their use of bamboo and environmentally friendly manufacturing. Good to see one angle for non-audio traffic, even if language like "high excursion", "rise time" and "bass" confuses the heck out of normies.

Also, check out Greg Weaver's awesome Vegas coverage for more glowing comments and tech details about this wild design. He has a review in the works and if his initial impressions are any indication, expect another reviewer purchase.