Soundkaos VOX 3f Loudspeakers

It is an aardvark; it is a platypus. That was my first impression when I took the Soundkaos VOX 3f speakers out of their shipping crate. First, these are small speakers, but they are a 3-way, four driver design. The bandwidth is rated (-6dB) 35Hz-35kHz. There are 13cm Galm Audio woofer drivers on the side of each speaker. There is a full range 10 cm Tang Band Bamboo fiber cone driver facing forward. There is a Raal ribbon super tweeter on top of the enclosure facing toward heaven, or your ceiling, whichever comes first. All of this in a beautiful enclosure 13.78H x 6.9W x 10.8D. Like I said, small speakers. With all those drivers in such a small box, I could not help being somewhat taken aback upon first viewing. Especially since I am used to listening to music through boxes of a simpler design flair. But, it all seems to work aesthetically, especially with the help of those beautiful and very solidly built enclosures. The likes of which I have rarely seen in speaker building.

I received the 3f model. There are two other models of this speaker, the Soundkaos VOX 3f with slightly different parts application, and a Vox 3afw with the exact specifications as the Vox 3a, but with Less Loss HF mechanical filters included. See Soundkaos for exact details.

These speakers are not meant to just sit on the floor or self-suspend in mid-air. As with the speakers, the stands are also a bit trick. The options are solid wood or aluminum for the upright stand. The top and bottom plates are aluminum. Sound Kaos states the wood pillar "has slightly more bass out-put" than its metal counterpart. The one made from aluminum brings out more of the "mid/HF detail." I believe that, your choice when you buy them. I was happy to receive the wood pillars for this review. Both pillars are superbly finished. The wood pillar looks to have the exact dimensions as a 2 x 4, albeit the most exquisitely crafted hard wood 2 x 4 I have ever seen. Four brass spikes for carpeted floors or thumb screws with felt pads for hardwood floors are available. The t-bracket itself mounts to the pillar with only two screws, the long part of the t facing toward the listener. There you will find two rubber knobs fixed to the t-bracket to support the front of the speaker. Hmm. Yes, it is kind of wobbly where the rubber meets the speaker, and you would not want to add too much stress to the screws holding the speakers to the t-bracket. But it works. In the back of my mind I kept wishing for the stand to be heavier than the speaker, it is not. This is not the kind of arrangement you would want your 300- pound brother-in-law leaning on while he reads one of your album's liner notes, but it does work. I had no trouble with them once in place. As long as I kept my brother-in-law from leaning on them.

A quick note on my set up. I used my Upgrade Sales modified Marantz PM15-S1 integrated amplifier, Marantz BD8002 Blue Ray Player hooked up to a Sophia Electric Magik Box (a great combo), a Margules Audio U280 SC SE 75^th Anniversary tube amplifier, Kuzma Stabi S/Stogi/ Clearaudio phono combo running into the Marantz's built-in phono preamp. Fritz Morel and Tonian Labs TL-D1 speakers, and an assortment of speaker and interconnect wire for this review. I write this due to the fact that it has been a while since I have updated my system info in PF.

Of all the electronics in our systems, it seems logical that new speakers need run in. What with all those mechanical moving parts such as surrounds and drivers. One might expect a change in sound due to the material these components are made of flexing and moving after hours of use. I ran the VOX 3f for over a week solid to break them in. Either they already had plenty of hours on them before I got them, or they require very little run in time. To me they have sounded the same from day one. Nice, nice, very nice!

I think as reviewers we are always conscience of the sound quality of the music we play when reviewing a component. Personally, I tend to shy away from the popular audiophile chanteuses, you know who they are. It's not an exaggeration to say that many of these artist's recordings have pretty good sound quality. So, they seem to be used by many reviewers, at least in many of the reviews I read. Far be it from me to dictate listening preferences. Be my guest. So, it was with some surprise that I found myself listening to a track by none other than Sara K to help evaluate the F3, and on the Stereophile Test CD 3 no less. Clicking through this CD to track 17 for the Bass Decade, I found myself listening to the musical tracks along the way. Now to be fair, I have listened to these tracks more than a few times. Mostly to see what all the fuss was about. Were these tracks killer recordings? In the past I have felt that they were okay. But through the Soundkaos VOX 3f speakers my opinion quickly changed. This is the best I have heard this Sara K track. The cymbal strikes sounded so whole, so realistic and hung and floated in the air like I have never heard before. Sara's vocals sounded clear and very distinct, yet organic and whole. The trumpet on this track, as with the cymbals, was richly floating in real space. Yes, it sounded as if one could walk around in the soundstage these speakers were displaying between the instruments. But it was the texture of the instruments, especially the cymbals, that conveys the most realism. I was flabbergasted.

Switching over to music that almost seems like it came from another planet compared to the music that was just spun, I played quite a few disks of the electronic persuasion. Robert Rich, Achilla, David and Steve Gordon were just some of the samples played in this quite interesting genre. Through the 3f I was treated to a panoply of rich electronic textures, some ethereal, always atmospheric. The dynamics and decay seem to go on forever on some tracks, such as "Memories of Wandering Part 1 and 2" from the Rich CD, Nest. It is an electronic soundstage, but a very good one especially with that somber flute floating dead center.

On the Gordon Brothers CD, Oneness from Sequoia Records, the cavalcading wash of notes on the first track, "Waves of Bliss Part 1," was spread out across the front of my room along with a solid foundation of bass with a pedal point riding throughout the song. On Achilla, which is more of an earthy recording, this CD gave the VOX 3f a workout from top to bottom. Vocals and percussion again hung in a very natural sounding soundstage, and sounded so realistic. This recording also featured an electric guitar whose notes snapped through the recording just under the vocals. Again, even with this type of music, I kept thinking organic texture and realism while listening.

Time to switch to analog. I spun the Slightly Stupid double album Chronchitis. Through the 3f I heard a cavernous soundstage, solid, quick dynamics, instrument bloom to die for, and natural vocals. Again, cymbals sounded very natural as on the bloom on the acoustic guitar on track 12, "Jimi." The bass was very solid without slowness or blur on track 13, "Breakbeat," featuring DJ Hellnaw. Bass on this album was recorded full and deep. I appreciated this fact, especially since most rock recordings are lacking in this regard. Nevertheless, the 3f reproduced this music in a well-balanced manner.

Next, I played an album that has been around my house for a long time, Steely Dan's Greatest Hits. I wanted to see if the 3f could pump fresh blood into this old war horse. I was not disappointed. I heard a three-dimensional reproduction of the music on these albums. Individual instruments were fleshed out and detailed, yet not overdone and integrated with the rest of the band. The chatter in the background of the song, "Show Biz Kid" sounded slightly more pronounced than when played through my speakers. The 3f brought out this little detail naturally. The song "Any Major Dude" opens with an acoustic guitar strummed so fine. Through these speakers, this part was directed straight to me, yet left no restrictions with its overtones floating around so freely. I would definitely say the 3f brought a fresh perspective to this music.

To check out the power and force of an electric band I next spun Charlie Musselwhite's, Times Getting Tougher Than Tough, (randomly picked I swear). This is a Direct to Disk recording on Crystal Clear Records. Wow, I haven't heard this baby in years. I had forgotten how good the recording was. On this record the dynamics sounded lively and solid. There was a tight circle of players that did not spread out too far from the center of my stereo rack. It was as if the band was packed tightly in a small stage, in a smoky bar, and playing their hearts out. I loved it. Again the little 3f' brought out the power and weight of this Blues Band with authority and control.

While playing my Marantz integrated, I kept getting the urge to switch to a tube amp. Not because the Marantz is thin sounding, far from it. But because 1, I have not used my tube amp in quite a while and 2, because I was itching to hook a tube amp to the 3f speakers. So, in went my Margules U280 SC. It is an ultra linear/triode 70-watt KT-88 tube driven powerhouse. The Marantz Margules combo is a sweet one. The Marantz preamplifier section can be used separately. I went through all of the music listed above again to see what changes if any tubes brought about.

As expected, the changes were quite apparent. For example, on the Achilla disk, there was slightly more texture and definition apparent. The lead vocals sounded slightly less flat. There was better depth to the Gregorian chant. On the Rich and Gordon discs, I was treated to the same broadening of dimension and spaciousness. Sounds faded out with greater detail and depth. The sound filled out slightly with tubes. The speakers were easily passing whatever signal was sent to it unadulterated. If neutrality was a priority in their design goals for this speaker, they achieved it quite competently.

The 3f speakers are rated down to 35Hz. I have not emphasized this part of the frequency range because the reproduction of the upper registers on this speaker are so compelling. That Raal ribbon tweeter doing its job quite nicely. This is partly due to the bass that is reproduced by this speaker is well behaved. There was no flabbiness, slowness, or bloat in the bass. Bass integrated with the rest of the music seamlessly. But it was there when the music demanded it. The drums in the Musselwhite LP sounded solid, taunt and full. On the Slightly Stupid LP, drums sounded tight, fast, and full but never overblown.

As is usual for me during a review, I play a lot of movies. My usual speakers, the Fritz Morels, have a pretty good output to 31Hz, and are very satisfying when watching movies as far as the lower frequencies are concerned. Watching movies through the Morels one gets a pretty satisfying bass output. Although hooking up my B&W ASW 300 subwoofer does add a solid thump to movies that a pair of stand mount speakers just cannot muster. The VOX 3f were no slouches when it came to movies. I felt through the VOX 3f, low end sounds in movies sounded a little tighter. The dynamics were there, but I was hearing tighter and faster with the VOX 3f compared to the fuller and warmer low-end sounds coming through the Morels. I did hear quite a drop in output at 40Hz. when I ran it through the little VOX 3f. But this is something to be investigated with an oscilloscope perhaps, which I am not set up for.

I really enjoyed playing music through the Soundkaos VOX 3f speakers. Especially electronic music. They have the ability to reproduce music with a very natural top end with no smearing or brightness through that Raal ribbon tweeter. My being used to a front firing speaker; the upward firing ribbon tweeter brought a whole other dimension in sound to me. They can reproduce dynamics and bass solidly with speed and agility. These speakers have dynamics, and presence and naturalness in spades. Although they have four drivers per speaker, they are seamlessly integrated. With all of this, my description might be misconstrued as them being perfect. I think it might be better to put them in a different context. If you have a small room in need of a stand mounted speaker that are almost full range and sound very good, no make that excellent, this speaker will give some very stiff competition to many contenders. One might also balk at the price. Considering their build quality, parts count and sound, one can start to understand the context of their cost. As with fine watches, it is the little details that cost. Start saving!