"...solid state amp for the bass bins and a system that would be BETTER than the Sound Kaos rig. Now THAT would be fun!"
Only to you. For everyone else it would be torture."
Only to you. For everyone else it would be torture."
Anyone else attend the California Audio Show in Oakland?
I went yesterday 7/28, heard some really good stuff, including:
Old Forge Studios room. The Soundkaos Vox 3F standmounted 3 ways were incredible! My favorites of the show. Tiny boxes and 35Hz on the low end had many of us looking for a subwoofer. The Wand tt and PureAudio electronics were excellent.
Tidal Contriva speakers speakers were my 2nd choice as favorites. Just a bit more expensive than the Soundkaos at $65,000, they were beautiful to look at and gorgeous to listen to, or vice versa. Open and airy, great bass extension, with the equally fine Bricasti amps and preamp, they would surely be even better in a larger room.
Aurender streamers and dacs also pulled me in. I’m looking for new gear, and they have a great selection. The combo dacs and streamers start at around $3500 and run to $22,000 for the W22SE, which was playing in their room.
On on the down side:
Audio Vision SF Room
I didn’t care for the Naim/Rega/Focal gear. It sounded very shut in, muffled to me. Sibilance was not pronounced, and the Focal speakers sounded blurred.
Wyred4sound
I've never been a fan, so maybe I’m biased, but the new gear just didn’t add up to me. Disjointed is the word I come up with. The new W4S speakers were these hulking boxes, with drivers arranged in MTM configuration. The tweeters are ribbons, which I usually enjoy, but these sounded too laid back to me.
Any other attendee thoughts?
Old Forge Studios room. The Soundkaos Vox 3F standmounted 3 ways were incredible! My favorites of the show. Tiny boxes and 35Hz on the low end had many of us looking for a subwoofer. The Wand tt and PureAudio electronics were excellent.
Tidal Contriva speakers speakers were my 2nd choice as favorites. Just a bit more expensive than the Soundkaos at $65,000, they were beautiful to look at and gorgeous to listen to, or vice versa. Open and airy, great bass extension, with the equally fine Bricasti amps and preamp, they would surely be even better in a larger room.
Aurender streamers and dacs also pulled me in. I’m looking for new gear, and they have a great selection. The combo dacs and streamers start at around $3500 and run to $22,000 for the W22SE, which was playing in their room.
On on the down side:
Audio Vision SF Room
I didn’t care for the Naim/Rega/Focal gear. It sounded very shut in, muffled to me. Sibilance was not pronounced, and the Focal speakers sounded blurred.
Wyred4sound
I've never been a fan, so maybe I’m biased, but the new gear just didn’t add up to me. Disjointed is the word I come up with. The new W4S speakers were these hulking boxes, with drivers arranged in MTM configuration. The tweeters are ribbons, which I usually enjoy, but these sounded too laid back to me.
Any other attendee thoughts?
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- 26 posts total
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@auxinput @pumper24 @russbutton If you could post your detailed impressions of Vox 3F speakers then that would be of great help. I request you to put them on a separate thread that I have started at below link. https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/need-impressions-of-soundkaos-vox I would really appreciate your inputs as actual user impressions are a rarity for these speakers. Regads,Saurabh |
The Sound Kaos Vox speakers were very high resolution and very natural sounding with a a lot of texture. Very neutral and surprising amount of bass. The high frequencies were not bright/harsh which was unexpected due to the ribbon tweeter. The ribbon tweeter is mounted on the top of the speaker and fires upwards, which may help explain this. However, it does mean that your rear walls and ceiling cannot have any acoustic panels which would absorb a lot of this high frequency energy. The two woofers are only 5", so you will not be pushing a huge amount of bass or amplifier power. If you have a smallish to maybe medium size room and you want really nice sound but do not need a huge amount of bass, these are excellent choices. I cannot remember which model I actually heard (3F or 3A). They have different midrange drivers. |
@auxinput thanks for the your impressions. You have raised one very interesting point of not treating real walls and ceiling because of top mounted ribbon tweeter. This would make it even more interesting case for Indian small homes where treating the room is not always possible. Do you remember anything about it's imaging and soundstage capabilities? Regards,Saurabh |
- 26 posts total