I've always found it hard to walk by a hi-fi shop, even when I'm 10 minutes into a quarter-hour parking spot. So when I came by one in a back street in Geelong I snuck in, intending to sneak back out two minutes later to liberate the car. But immediately I saw strangeness. It wasn't just the design of these speakers, two separate cabinets atop L-shaped stands, there was oddity here on multiple counts.

First, the top speaker cabinet, carrying tweeter and mid, was on a pivot and could be swung around independent of the fixed woofer cabinet immediately below it. And not just swung, it could be angled up and down, meaning perfect on-axis listening is possible no matter where you may be seated. Neat idea this.

Second, the cones were plastic. Special plastic admittedly – a compound of several thermal polymers with added glass fibres and reinforcing ribbing radiating out from the centre, making it strong and lightweight – but plastic nevertheless. And clear plastic at that, I could see right through them to the spiders beneath.

Third, the cone of the mid-range driver wasn't a cone at all,  but a flat disc, so it would have to work like a piston rather than a cone. One brave speaker designer, I figured.

These were made by a brand one doesn't often see locally, Vienna Acoustics. It has been kicking around since the 1990s and it's hard to find. If you live in Sydney, the only dealer is in Parramatta. Vienna Acoustics is not one to manufacture in China, but at home in Austria, with Italian cabinets. There are cheaper models than the $15,000 pair I was looking at, called Kiss, but there are more expensive ones, too. My parking spot was mere seconds from illegality, but I had to have a listen.

An enthusiastic guy named Ken talked me through the company, its history and philosophy, its designs, its range and the Kisses specifically, and only after that did he let them rip. At my request he dialled up Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man on Tidal. It throws just about everything at a speaker in the first six minutes, handy when you're playing chicken with a parking inspector. Crank up the volume and lesser speakers get confused by everything that happens here, but the Kisses cruised through it.

The definition was sharp, the soundstage was generously wide, and the music was crisp, full and rich. But what grabbed me was that it was richly involving and exciting. With eyes closed I was immersed. The clarity, spaciousness and sheer power of the Kisses made it thoroughly emotional and involving. No argument, through great equipment this piece is breathtaking.

And yet the rest of the equipment was hardly over the top. When I finally opened my eyes I discovered it was all being driven by a $2500 mid-range integrated amplifier by Yamaha, pumping 160 watts per channel into these four-ohm speakers and taking the signal from a MusicCast WXC50 streamer. Call that $3000. Nor were the cables or connections anything out of the ordinary. The Kisses weren't even on spikes.

So, premium speakers that give a great result without the same again being spent on amplification and sources. I loved 'em. Aesthetically, however, my better half is undecided. More work required for Ken here, I think.