“Oh, those are cute!” I'm actually not used to hearing such statements from my better half; at least not regarding hi-fi. For me at least, the Chiara design actually seemed more like an american stealth jet. First impressions aside, this loudspeaker truly represents more than meets the eye.

“Let's try them out” is what I heard next. Apparently the aural curiosity brought forth by the visual design was so great that I was suddenly handed a CD by Dusty Springfield, the English lady with the “afro-voice” which would have gone down well in any Motown production. She probably would have gladly sung for this label, but due to her white skin it would have been difficult in those days. So I put on The Windmills Of Your Mind. To put it lightly, the technical aspects of this recording are really no sensation. But the feeling that is conveyed is in fact very sensational. The seasoned reader among us who remembers this time period will likely relate to this. With the Chiara, the weaknesses of this recording don't reduce the pleasures of listening to the music. True, the mistakes are of course plainly obvious, but they don't diminish the pleasure of listening. One thing has become clear right from the start with this recording: the Chiara is an excellent reproducer of sonic images! What an impressive start!

The Chiara comes delivered in a professional flight case. Standing it up vertically, one could probably use it as a walk-in closet. Well, almost. And let's not forget that the Chiara is merely the lightweight of the three available Kawero! loudspeakers. For the transportation of the largest model, called Classic, might it be wise to have available the contact information for four trained coffin carriers.

First a few words about Kaiser Acoustics. This company has somehow been incredibly successful at keeping the name Kawero! secret from the german hi-fi scene. Why are they always flying under the radar... could it really be 'stealth' technology in action? Kaiser Acoustics is in no way a newcomer, but has been visibly operative in the realm of professional acoustics, optimizing studios and concert halls. For example, just as the Chiara was being delivered to us, the studios of the Bavarian Radio were being restructured. This company's factory, located in Untergriesbach, Germany, has highly advanced wood processing and shaping capabilities. They are not like a typical large carpenter's workshop, but a high tech facility which really can shape wood and wood-based materials into any imaginable 3D form possible. A conventional woodworking shop would quickly give up upon even a glance at the extravagant form of the Chiara.

Of course, woodworking expertise alone, regardless of how precise it is carried out, isn't enough to elevate a loudspeaker to any higher than average. Technical development is therefore provided by another professional, Rainer Weber. (The first two letters of his last name make up the middle syllable of the portmanteau “Kawero!”.) When one lifts the Chiara in order to place it, one must wonder where the little rascal gets all that weight from. The thing weighs in at 75 pounds! The explanation comes from Untergriesbach: the housing is manufactured from Panzerholz (tankwood). Not to be confused with the wood from the Panzerbaum tree (Arctostaphylos Saileii), in this case it is a wood-based artificial laminate material. Thin layers of beechwood are formed into a monolithic phenolic laminate board under great pressure and heat. The end result has only 60 percent of the original wood's thickness.

The manufacturer calls it a Phenolic wood laminate/dense rubber/fiberglass sandwich. I can definitely vouch for the “dense” part. With this construction the material gains a strength similar to that of metal. A side effect of this is that the Chiara is practically bullet proof! Well, you never know. The form of the Chiara is not only meant to be an eye catcher, but is a purposely engineered solution to avoid parallel walls. In this way, standing waves within the housing are meant to be avoided. In addition, much thought and effort was put into separating vibration and resonance from the speaker drivers themselves. If one does this with damping material alone, one not only dampens the resonances, but loses acoustical energy as well. A better idea therefore would be to conduct or to drain the resonance similar to the way a lightning rod (arrester) drains the charge of a lightning bolt into the earth. The manufacturer constructed the speaker in such a way that the bulk of the resonance is drained into the stand's foot. Three acoustical labyrinths are integrated invisibly into the loudspeaker's foot. This technology was mutually developed between Kaiser Acoustics and Vertex AQ from England. This approach also results in less damping material being needed inside the housing itself.