Audio engineers and their ilk have known about these for years. They've been out of production for a while now. I think they're great-sounding little single-driver speakers. It seems audio engineers have had a love/hate relationship with them (hence the common nickname "Horrortone"). Some say they're used as a "limited-bandwidth reference speaker" while others simply say "crappy-reference monitor". But love 'em or hate 'em, many consider them indispensable. For a while, buying Auratones on Ebay meant paying several hundred dollars. Ken Avant at Avantone has helped put a stop to the insanity with the Avantone Mixcubes (thanks, Ken!).
The Auratones pictured at the top belong to Douglas Ferguson over at The Still Recording Studio here in Austin (thanks, Doug!). The other pair seem to belong to Quincy Jones.
The Auratones and the Avantones certainly do "that single-driver thing". We have yet to actually put a pair of Avantones up against the original Auratones. Perhaps we'll ask Doug next time we see him.
Here's a link to the Avantone Mixcubes.
