High End Munich 2025 Systems - Cessaro Horn Acoustics BEETHOVEN II horns!

A single watt is enough - Cessaro states plainly that the Beethoven II can be driven by a one-watt pentode amplifier, a claim that sounds implausible until you see the sensitivity figure behind it, 107dB, among the highest of any loudspeaker in this catalog. Weighing a full metric tonne and requiring a 70 square metre room to breathe properly, Hifiverse's own Munich 2025 verdict, "dynamic and lively sound even at low volume," captures exactly what that extreme efficiency is built to deliver.

The system at a glance

One component, a massive five-way German horn system built specifically to be, in its maker's own words, comparable only to live music. The Beethoven II was the centrepiece shown in Munich, Cessaro's flagship design rather than a documented multi-brand electronics chain.

Why these components work together

The Beethoven II's bass section alone runs four 16-inch TAD Alnico drivers loading a front-loaded horn, each pair powered by its own dedicated solid-state amplifier built with a substantial 1,200-watt transformer, meaning the demanding low-frequency section is actively driven and entirely self-contained instead of relying on whatever external amplifier feeds the rest of the system. Above that, the low-mid, midrange, treble and super-treble sections are all horn-loaded through Cessaro's spherical composite horns using exclusively Japanese TAD compression drivers, a papercone Alnico driver for low-mid, a 2-inch TD-4001 beryllium-diaphragm unit for midrange, and TAD's TD-2001 or TD-2002 beryllium compression drivers for treble, capped by a milled-brass super-treble horn using a modified TAD ET-703 with a cobalt magnet. Cessaro's own reasoning for choosing TAD drivers despite their considerable cost is specific - the company states there is simply no alternative capable of the acoustical performance its horn designs demand. With the bass section actively amplified and the upper four ways passively horn-loaded at extreme efficiency, the Beethoven II reaches a maximum sound pressure of 130dB while still being drivable, for its passive sections, by amplification as modest as a single-watt pentode design.

How it sounds

Cessaro's own claim, that the Beethoven II is "without peer" and comparable only to live music, reflects what a horn system built entirely around TAD's beryllium and Alnico driver technology, at extreme sensitivity, is engineered to achieve - dynamics and lifelike scale that stay fully intact even at low listening volumes, the "dynamic and lively sound even at low volume" Hifiverse's own Munich assessment highlights.