Bright Star Audio, Altair Speaker System - Magnificently Odd

Bright Star Audio, a relative newcomer to the high-end loudspeaker market in 1989, was founded by Barry Kohan, who after 14 years managing a chain of high-end audio salons in the Los Angeles area, decided to go into business for himself. Kohan's previous background as a professional musician and part-time loudspeaker designer prepared him well for this endeavor. His early love of the involving sound produced by dipole-based speakers such as the old ESS AMT 1, which utilized the Heil Air Motion Transformer, challenged him to design a reasonable size, moderate-price, direct-radiator dipole system that would exhibit some of the excellent qualities he remembered. Kohan started out by selecting a good midrange driver and then working out a unique hidden behind-the-panel mounting scheme that provides a rounded sound-radiating aperture to minimize interference and diffraction. The de sired dipole nature of the system dictated that the back of the midrange be open to radiate freely to the rear