[UPDATED FEB 9 2021]
My main set of speakers was sounding awful and I discovered the foam surrounds had completely rotted and were sitting in a pile of debris behind the grilles. Naturally I decided to replace them with giant eyeballs! My research so far has found the following options. I will keep this page updated as I discover more.
Singer makes two styles of spherical speakers – a pair with 3.5″ drivers intended for home theaters and a pair with 1.5″ drivers intended as desktop speakers. Both look great in white. Singer will customize the paint job for you if desired and the smaller version is also available as a kit you paint yourself.
Proclaim Audioworks DMT-100
My dream speakers for sure, but for $26,000 a pair, I’ll buy a car, thank you. Those were not the most expensive, though. The company website proclaimaudioworks.com is now dead.
Fascinating and artsy, but for $150,000 a pair, I’ll buy a small house instead. They do have other models, such as the IO2 at just over $3000 a pair, but they aren’t quite as “grand” as the La Sphere. There are newer models available now.
Art deco at its finest. These beauties will set you back $19,000 per pair for the T1 and $33,000 per pair for the T2. The T2 units come with built-in subwoofers. There are newer models that are still spherical though not quite as artsy.
They have many models – all fabulous works of art. They have ignored my requests for a quote. Perhaps they figure if I have to ask, I can’t afford it. They’re probably right!
Classy art deco speakers made of hand-carved wood. They also have several other models in natural oak. They haven’t gotten back to me on price, but I can guess “hand carved” = “pretty expensive”.
Nicely done and not too expensive at $1350 for the pair. The wide base makes them best suited for bookshelves, though stands are available.
This 11″ French speaker runs about $1300 for the pair with floor stands (+$200 shipping because there is no US dealer). No need to put off buying a car or a house. I have a pair of these and they sound great. They also make a “Sound Tree” with 6 or 12 eyeballs hanging from the ceiling!
This one is designed to hang from the ceiling.
These 5″ speakers are mainly intended as ceiling or satellite speakers and would definitely need a subwoofer. I particularly like the curvy eye stalks, er, I mean floor stands for these. About $800 for a pair with stands. These are available in home theater kits, but their subwoofer is not spherical!
These are the most affordable by far. They sell direct, saving you money. A pair of Mod1s with stands runs only $460. You would likely want a subwoofer to go with them, but sadly Orb’s subwoofers are square! Go figure.
These vintage spheres can be found on ebay now and then. I have a pair and they sound better than expected for a brand not usually associated with audio gear.
Ferguson Hill FH007 Base Speaker
This is a non-powered woofer, not a subwoofer. A set of these transparent speakers includes separate components. Only the woofer is spherical – the main speakers are large oval dishes and the subwoofer is square. A missed opportunity. These aren’t terribly useful without their oval dish partners. A transparent spherical subwoofer would have been awesome.
Everything-But-The-Box SubTerranean
This is my favorite subwoofer. Unfortunately the price is as awesome as it looks at $5500 for the 200 watt version. This would go especially well with steam-punk decor. Sadly the company website everything-but-the-box.com is dead.
Bowers & Wilkins PV1 Subwoofer
More reasonably priced if not as fancy, this goes for about $1500 and the amp is 500 watts. B&W is a popular audiophile brand famous for their much more expensive speakers. The white ones are shown on the UK version of the web site, but not the US version, so they may be a little harder to get in the US. The PV1 has been replaced by the PV1D.
Available in three colors with power at 100 watts for the PSW8 and 200 watts for the PSW10.
Available in both wired and wireless versions with power at 200 watts. These are pretty easy to find on the web and in stores and typically run $900 for the wired and $1200 for the wireless. Available in silver and black. I wish they didn’t have that flat spot on top, but they’re still pretty cool.
This one is the most eyeball-like of all the subwoofers, though is only available in black. It is discontinued and thus may be hard to find. 70 watt, 8 inch, 4 ohm subwoofer.
The Ball with a set of “spikes” runs $600 on Amazon. At 60 watts with a long throw 6.5″ driver, it’s not as high-powered as the others.
Homemade subwoofer – from a pool filter!
This amazing custom eyeball subwoofer from Souly Solar goes all the way! Not just a white sphere but a genuine 3D eyeball! I’ll bet it sounds as amazing as it looks!
Homemade Subwoofer
Unfortunately, he never got around to posting his build logs and plans and now that the web page is down I don’t even know who he is. He made it to go with his Orb speakers. The webpage rezenerate.com/?p=5 is now dead. Unless you need a facial to go with your eyeballs.
There were many other “bullet-shaped” speakers that I did not include because they didn’t shout “EYEBALL” quite as loudly as the spheres. If I missed any speakers with “eyeball potential”, please let me know. Note that price data might be old and in some cases I have noted newer models are available since I originally wrote this article.