We’ve discovered that, when we come to Warsaw to cover the annual Audio Video Show, we must always spend our first day at the stadium location, PGE Narodowy. It’s just too busy there on the weekend. This year, we were expecting to be impressed with the new large exhibition rooms that have been added to the venue. When I looked in the London room shared by Spanish speaker maker Lorenzo Audio Labs and their local distributor ZenSati, I saw a pair of refrigerator-sized loudspeakers trimmed in a natural wood veneer that could only be described as “decadent.” Impressed? Yeah.
I spoke with Miguel Lorenzo Castro, Lorenzo Audio Labs’ founder and CEO (and, presumably, namesake). The imposing loudspeakers are Lorenzo’s flagship, the LM1. It retails for €215,000 per pair (prices hereafter will be given here in euros as well as in zlotys, when applicable). The company was debuting the LM1’s Mk2 iteration in Warsaw. Lorenzo Castro gladly shared all the details of the LM1 Mk2, but my first and most pressing question was about that striking wood exterior.
The two speakers here in Warsaw were finished primarily with a Macassar ebony veneer—a relief to hear, as the veneer on these speakers almost look like they’re of very-endangered Brazilian rosewood. The side panels are nonetheless huge, and they are covered fully in furniture-grade wood veneer. Some quick math reveals something like four or five square meters of veneer are required for just the side panels of this pair. Surrounding the edges of the speaker’s baffle is a walnut-root veneer, which has a stunningly holographic curly look. Lorenzo Castro made sure to point out that the narrow inlaid wooden strips that visually separate the panels from one another are made of sycamore. He told me the veneer work on the cabinets is done by a family who have made this craft their livelihood since 1888.
I was gobsmacked by the LM1’s beauty, but a similar level of attention was paid to its technology. A four-way design, the LM1 Mk2 uses a 16″ woofer, an 11″ midrange driver, a horn-loaded compression tweeter, and a super-tweeter. The phase-optimized crossover uses premium components from Duelund, Jupiter, PathAudio, and Mundorf. The midrange and tweeter are each located in their own sealed sections of the cabinet, though the woofer section is vented by way of two ports located around back. Lorenzo Castro notes that these port tubes are made of hand-turned special tonewood. Despite its old-school look and handcrafted feel, the LM1 Mk2 is not short on space-age construction techniques. The cabinet is cut using five-axis CNC technology, the panels are made using phenolic-laminated wood and elastomer in a constrained layer construction, and high-density Panzerholz pieces are used in strategic locations to stiffen and isolate the cabinet. To top it off, the LM1 Mk2 boasts a nominal impedance of 8 ohms and a claimed sensitivity of 96dB, and as such is quite friendly to tube amplification.
That’s not what powered the Spanish speakers here, though. ZenSati, which distributes Lorenzo Audio Labs in Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia, was here with a pair of MSB Technology M500 monoblocks, each putting out 500W. The ZenSati rep told me they cost €125,000 per pair, or zł500,000 in Poland. An MSB Metronome CD transport (now discontinued) and Pink Faun streamer were also in the system—the rep unfortunately couldn’t produce exact prices, but they must have been priced similarly to the MSB mono amps, as he claimed the total system cost, including roughly €500,000 worth of ZenSati cables, was circa €1,000,000. That works out to nearly zł4,250,000, by the way.
It’s all worthless if it sounds bad, right? Ah, but the Lorenzo and ZenSati room delivered. Despite their intimidating size, the speakers easily dissolved into a soundstage of excellent depth and height. The sonic signature of these giant statement speakers matched the luxury of their fit and finish, filling the room with a cozy sound that I found it easy to get lost in no matter what was playing. The room was large, and yet the Spanish loudspeakers had no difficulty filling it with full-range sound. I heard instruments like piano, bass guitar, and the all-important human voice reproduced with lifelike scale and dripping with a refined kind of warmth. Muy bien.
If neither the exorbitant price tag nor the destruction of the rainforest is enough to stop you, the Lorenzo LM1 Mk2 is a statement speaker worth getting your eyes and ears on. But, it isn’t without competition. We still have a lot of fantastically constructed (and priced) gear to cover here at Audio Video Show 2025.
Matt Bonaccio
Contributor, SoundStage!
