Faithful to the music:
The goal has always been to create a speaker that offered an unheard-of level of faithfulness to the music. And since I like the sound of big speaker systems, but don't like their size and weight, the HB-1 is a speaker that sounds big, but is very small. Based on my decades of experience with live music recording and high-end audio, I know the HB-1 to be one of the most musical speakers I have ever heard, with less impact on the sound than nearly any other speaker that I can think of. From big classical orchestral works to small acoustic groups, the HB-1 lets music speak for itself.

	Toru Hara

	The Kiso Acoustic HB-1/HB-X1's Character The "HB-1/HB-X1" has been designed, hand-crafted, and voiced as a fusion of a musical instrument body with top quality speaker drivers and crossover network. The build-quality of this loudspeaker system is second to none, and it is a definete attempt at achiving state-of-the-art performance in any home audio environment from the smallest to the biggest listening rooms. Even though the "HB-1/HB-X1" is physically small, it has been created to act in the way expected by a much larger loudspeaker. This means it works the best in the far-field placed on rigid, solid stands (please consult with your audio retailer) positioned with good distance from the rear wall, and spaced as wide apart as your space allows (it is OK to go relatively close to side walls). It is recommended that you toe in the speakers so the focus point crosses right in front of the listener. The speakers come with elastic gel pieces that are recommended to be used between the base of each speaker and each stand. When you match the "HB-1/HB-X1" with other suitable high-end audio components and set it up well, it will result in an extremely large, but well defined sound-stage where the timbre and tonal qualities of each musical instrument and/or voice are clearly defined for "an illusion of being present at the original recording event" type of experience.
Kiso Acoustic HB-1/HB-X1 Specifications 2-way ported loudspeaker Woofer 10cm Tweeter 1.7cm ebony horn Impedance 8Ω Efficiency 85dB Dimensions Height 313mm Width 148mm Depth 224mm Weight 4.5Kg (HB-1) / 5.2Kg (HB-X1)