I’ve been browsing through my social media feeds since I returned from the 2024 Florida International Audio Expo, and I keep catching something out of the corner or my eye, a large white monolith in a darkened room. I instantly recognize this as the $80K/pair Gershman Black Swan 30th Anniversary speakers and I think, “Did I already post my show report on this impressive room at FLAX?” No, it’s the proverbial buzz. This is what buzz feels like in the real world.
Words and Photos by Marc Phillips
I’m so happy that Gershman Acoustics is experiencing noteworthy success on the high-end audio show circuit over the last couple of years. I caught the fever last year when I reviewed the Gershman Studio XdB monitors ($12K/pair), and found them to be warm and embracing with bass fundamentals that stand out from the rest of the crowd. The Gershman Black Swan 30th Anniversary loudspeakers, however, have a top-to-bottom coherence that is simply astounding, especially when you consider how big that frequency range is (18Hz to 24 kHz) and how relatively compact these speakers truly are.
The Gershman Black Swan 30th Anniversary speakers aren’t brand new–they’re just the latest update of the Black Swans of yore. The secret to Gershman Acoustics speakers, however, is in the novel ways Eli Gershman designs the cabinets to extend that impressive bass. For the Studio XdBs, the so-called stands are fixed and open into the speaker enclosure. On the Avant Garde, the base is another compartment in the enclosure. For the Gershman Black Swan, however, Eli and Ofra Gershman have come up with a design even more ambitious–look closely, and you’ll see that each enclosure isn’t one box, but two boxes that are completely isolated from each other.
That, of course, keeps the energy of the massive subwoofer enclosure away from the other drivers. In a system with yet another VPI turntable–I can easily imagine Mat “Oprah” Weisfeld backing up an 18-wheeler into the loading dock at the venue and telling the other exhibitors, “YOU get a turntable! And YOU! And YOU!!!”–along with CAT amplification, Cardas cabling and a superb Aavik music streamer, the Gershman Black Swan 30th Anniversary held court, surrounded by stunned and yet happy attendees in a very crowded room.
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