The members of the FinkTeam have been forming a sworn unit for many years and work – without being in the headlights themselves – for many well-known manufacturers in the hi-fi and automotive industry. For decades they have been among the leading European developers of loudspeakers in all price ranges. They make their know-how, their experience and their well-equipped simulation and measuring facilities available to numerous customers. And only if the customer wants it, the team appears in public.
For a long time they have wanted to develop their own loudspeakers for themselves – from scratch and without cost restrictions. On the one hand, these should demonstrate their technical skills as developers, on the other hand, they should serve as internal listening references. It was not planned at all to sell the very first FinkTeam loudspeaker. They are developers at heart and not manufacturers – at least until the FinkTeam was launched.
But events took an unexpected turn: When Ken Ishiwata, brand ambassador for Marantz Europe, heard an early prototype of our internal reference loudspeaker, he persuaded FinkTeam to complete a final version to demonstrate their latest electronic developments. This loudspeaker, the WM-3, was designed by industrial designer Kieron Dunk of IDA in England and was presented at the High End 2016 trade fair in Munich. It was so well received that the plans had to be reconsidered. Just like a car manufacturer showing a concept car that is then presented to the press and public, everyone was surprised by the unexpectedly high demand.
So FinkTeam turned the World Cup 3 into a “real” product – a process that meant far more work than starting a small production line. A few more essential improvements were decided upon: the already very good but not perfect woofer was replaced by a proprietary development, the midrange was further optimised and another Air Motion Transformer (AMT) was chosen for the tweeter – so the cabinet and the crossover had to be adapted.
