Amsterdam Prototype
Inspiration, Imitation… or a bit of both?
While exploring designs for a pair of speakers to be used in a friend’s new living room remodel, inspiration came again in the form of architectural imitation. When looking at the existing living room (pre-demolition), I recommended that the new pair of Heinsenfolg amplified speakers should flank the large screen TV which is to be wall-mounted in the center of the front wall. I not only was looking for a shape that would accommodate the necessary speaker drivers for the home theater & music listening use cases, but I wanted a design that was simple & elegant to look at, while not taking the movie viewer’s attention away from what’s on the screen.
Canal Houses in Amsterdam
The core of the cabinet base should fit squarely & tidily into the narrow built-in shelving units that will be adjacent to the TV, but I knew something dynamic, yet subtle, could be done on top that contrasted the slew of perpendicular elements surrounding the speakers. I imagined a series of architectural roof-tops starting with a common 45º sloping gable often used with “Attic” style trusses. From there, I would pull down a slenderish cabinet front to house the 3 speaker driver array including a 1” tweeter + dual 6” mid-ranges providing plenty of bass for home theater applications. As you can see below, the first shape reminded me of the Amsterdam canal houses— one of the most visibly iconic symbols of that amazing city. This stripped down imitation in its simplest form pushed me to explore additional profiles inspired by other gable & roof styles. After a bit of photo research, I keyed in on a few classics: the “Gothic” style” gable which has a bit steeper slope at 60º, the common “Flat” style roof, and a modified “Mansard” style gable which is defined by a narrow flat top with angled “hips” on the sides. The front & back panels are also highlighted by exaggerated 1/4” wide channels that wrap around the sides— another nod to many of the canal houses which feature facades as part of their design language.
The More the Merrier
When designing a new speaker, I often go through dozens of variations during an iterative creative process where the one final design gets noodled around for days, weeks and sometimes months before it makes it into custom production. For the Amsterdam Collection, I honestly couldn’t decide— and why should I? These timeless architectural roof styles all have wonderful design qualities in regard to proportion, tension & balance. And heck, when was the last time you saw a speaker offered in 4 different profile shapes anyways!
