Напольная акустика — Wlm 300 B

The 300 B is a passive tower speaker from the Austrian firm WLM, short for Wiener Lautsprecher Manufaktur, whose development and production sit in Vienna while a second site in Innsbruck houses a listening studio and an assembly area. The name refers to the 300B triode valve, and WLM designed it specifically for low-powered valve amplifiers of that type. Its first showing was at the HIGH END Vienna 2026 fair, the year the company marked its 25th anniversary. Depending on finish and configuration, a pair is priced between EUR 28,000 and EUR 42,000.

Key specs that matter

The main speaker is a two-way design. A large air motion transformer (AMT) tweeter, loaded by a horn milled from a single block of solid wood, hands over at 900 Hz to a 12-inch mid/bass driver built with Tetracoil technology. Sensitivity is 96 dB, and WLM states that amplifiers delivering from 2 W per channel are enough to drive it. On its own the main cabinet reaches below 36 Hz with a linear response. An optional active bass extension with two 18-inch Tetracoil subwoofers takes the complete system down to 22 Hz, with the upper limit at 22 kHz. Impedance, dimensions and weight have not been published by WLM.

Engineering and use context

Setting the crossover point this low means the AMT and its wooden horn cover a large part of the midrange as well as the treble, so there is no filter transition inside the band where voices and most instruments sit. The 12-inch cone is left to work below that frequency. The enclosure is made of solid pearwood worked from the full material, with walls up to 7 cm thick, and WLM explains that this mass is there to reduce resonance and give the cabinet mechanical stability rather than for appearance. Each pair is produced in one of several versions and put together in consultation with its future owner, which accounts for the wide price span between the simplest and the most complete configuration. The launch placed the model at the ambitious end of the WLM catalogue, alongside the Franz S and Franz Ferdinand.

Pairing

The high sensitivity and the very low power requirement make single-ended triode amplifiers built around the 300B valve the intended partner, and other low-powered valve designs fall inside the same brief. Owners who add the subwoofer extension get bass drivers that carry their own amplification, so the valve amplifier is not asked to control the two 18-inch cones.

Alternatives

The Ferdinand is the passive reference floorstander from WLM, with two 8-inch Hexacon long-stroke bass drivers, a 9-inch papyrus woofer and a 12 cm AMT tweeter in a 120 cm tall solid wood cabinet.