Over 30 years ago at the first High End in Düsseldorf, if my memory doesn't deceive me, next to the Rabox, the fine and sumptuous Audioplan Kontrast made quite a splash. Volker Kühn packed a great deal of high quality and expensive parts into his two-way speaker, and in doing so, pushed the boundaries of expectation with regard to such devices. And as was par for the course back then, the product's greatness was purely down to the passion of its creator. In those days there was no market analysis and marketing-concepts, just someone driven by the desire to create better music reproduction. Not someone who sought to realise their goal by simply using bigger and bigger transducers – but on the contrary - using those that would fit in your average living room. Johannes Rickert, who runs Stereokonzept with a partner operating in the background, might be too young to remember the presentation of one of the first audiophile two-way speakers, but not too young to have occupied himself intensively for the last fifteen years as an amateur speaker builder. In the very beginning he was still active in the do-it-yourself scene, but it quickly became clear to him that almost all of these projects were at the more affordable end of the scale. He was sure however that “Cheap is not the objective.” Where such an approach can lead is illustrated vividly by the Modell 3.0: the superbly processed speaker with the clear lines is in the price list at €14800.

Seriously, instead of simple parts and drivers, Johannes Rickert would rather experiment with coils and capacitors from Mundorf and drivers from Accuton or Scan-Speak. There is no experimentation however when it comes to the number of ways: If you restrict yourself to two, Johannes is convinced you will be rewarded with great homogeneity of sound, very good spatial imaging and high coherence of reproduction. Hence, the development goal for the Modell 3.0 was simply to create one of the best two-way speakers ever made. Despite advancing into a price range where it is common to see more diaphragm surface area and larger cabinet size, Stereokonzept could not be dissuaded from their project. There are of course clear examples of two-way concepts that find their buyers in similar, or far higher price ranges than those of Stereokonzept, one only needs bring to mind the B&W Signature Diamond or the Kharma Exquisite Mini.