Vienna Acoustics have been making loudspeakers since 1989, and have produced a variety of often striking designs. None, though, have been as aesthetically jaw-dropping as the Schönberg range.

Created as a serious attempt to produce a 'designer' set of speakers with audiophile status, these dramatic models, made of aluminium and MDF, seem to be the perfect partner for a home theatre built around a high-end flatscreen.

A system for the discerning buyer

I suspect this speaker package, which utilises Schönbergs for left/right duties, and the tonally-matched Webern for centre and rear duties, is aimed squarely at the discerning buyer who has issues with traditional dog-coffins and wants 'pretty.'

Said buyer is also likely to want a nil-footprint solution in their room. A tall order, perhaps, and one that has been tried and failed in the past by manufacturers more keen on the pretty than the performance.

Of course, some designer speakers do manage to work quite well and still look gorgeous yet nothing I have come across to date has succeeded like these.

Extraordinary design

The Schönberg enclosures, available in either silver or piano-black lacquer, are extraordinary. Despite being really quite compressed front to back, they are wide, and, being oblate, do manage to contain a reasonable amount of air; enough to port the enclosure for better bass.

The Schönberg towers are weighty to the point that you will need help to unpack and definitely help to attach them to any wall brackets you might use.

They loudspeakers look smart and sexy, especially with the tweeters mounted seemingly in mid-air to the side of the speakers. Their cones are see-through, and look fabulous. The Schönbergs come with upright feet frames (they can be wall-mounted) while the three smaller Weberns are available with either a foot-stand or centre horizontal stand.

Quality build

The towers include spiked foot-stands but those for the smaller Weberns are sold separately. Assembling and fitting them feels a little like that bit in The Day Of The Jackal when Edward Fox makes his gun. Snick, click. Magnetic clasps, Allen-headed bolts and neat-but-weighty parts. In fact, the whole system speaks of quality. These are no me-too items.

One heft of the things and the Donald Gennaro rating - he's Jurassic Park's accountant who measures everything by mass - leaps out at you.