Need Impressions of SoundKaos Vox
@freediver thanks for the info. IMO Comparing a floor stander to bookshelf won't be a fair comparison. I had heard some Olympica floor stander at a show which was driven by some McIntosh integrated amp. Good sounding speaker, perfect for jazz or other relaxed music. But it had treble roll off for my taste (sparkle was missing on some of test tracks that I use for treble extension/harshness). |
I saw this loudspeaker at the audio show 2 years ago, so I can’t tell you more than I liked it and felt it was one of the better loudspeakers at the show in terms of tonal balance. It was small and very expensive for what it was, but then being a boutique item, I can understand how they’d have to charge that much for it given a small production run. I’m a mid-range freak. For me the most important thing in a loudspeaker that the mid-range do a good job on voices and acoustic instruments. The demo recordings I bring are voices and instruments I know well. I still think a DIY project using that Tang-Band full-range driver could be a lot of bang for the buck, especially if you add in a good DSP EQ like the miniDSP DDRC-24. There are a couple of things you could do with this driver. One would be to use it as the heart of an open baffle system. The other would be to get enough of them to make up an open baffle line array. That could be loads of fun. One more thing. If you're really thinking of spending the $6700 they were asking for that loudspeaker at the show, I think this used pair of the Avalon Opus would be a much better value. They are my own "wet-dream" loudspeaker. |
@russbutton Thanks a lot for your input. I already had the idea that it would be very difficult to remember how one speaker sounded from a show two years back. But thank you for replying. Since you liked it then I am assuming that it did good job with midrange as that’s the area you focus most in a speaker (courtesy full range tang band driver). I agree that these are on expensive side but you also got it right that this is going to be the case given the fact that these are from a small boutique manufacturer based out of Switzerland & manufacturing (or assembling) speakers in Switzerland (not made in China for reducing cost or increasing profits). I have a liking towards ribbon & amt tweeters, hence this design intrigued very much. I think its a very clever design by using full range driver for 200 to 10K Hz and then using Raal tweeter for highs above 10K and dual opposite side mounted bass drivers for duty below 200 Hz along with the folded transmission line to give really nice bottom end for a tiny stand mounter. That Avalon Opus surely looks great but getting it here in India is going to be one major headache (due to weight for shipping and custom duties), besides I have a very small room, so having floor-stander is going to be challenging from space perspective as well as I fear it would be an overkill. I know I can get a cheaper system using similar full range driver, but unfortunately I am not a DIY person. So I will have to rely on the manufacturers for a quality speakers. Regards,Saurabh |
A note of Avalon speakers. These use the older generations of Accuton ceramic drivers. I have heard a lot of speakers using these Accuton drivers. The result is extremely clean audio, but in my opinion these Accuton drivers are too controlled and don't have enough dynamics and excitement. The newer models of Accuton are better, but I still feel that they are not yet as dynamic sounding as other speakers. If you have not heard these directly, I think it would be really hard to make a decision on them. |
