By Rafe Arnott
Holger Adler may not be easy for me to understand with his smooth German accent, but his Voxativ speakers need no translation for me to get what they’re driving at.
And really, Holger’s accent isn’t bad at all, turns out I just needed more coffee.
So it was I found myself first thing Friday morning at T.H.E. Show sitting down with Holger and Time Bandit amplifier designer Raymond Koonce to hear Holger’s Voxativ 100 dB efficient 9.87 System (Approx. $21,000 US) which consisted of Neodymium full-range drivers with a spruce cone and dual dipole 12″ bass drivers crossed over at 80 Hz paired with the Time Bandit SE 50, a single-ended, transformer coupled, Class-A triode integrated amplifier providing the juice and the French Total server ($5,000) and Total DAC ($10,000) units handling source duties.
The sound was very linear and cohesive with the single drivers giving pinpoint imaging and 3D-sound staging and the spruce cone and Japanese-paper whizzer lending a life-like timbre to strings and voices with tight, authoritative bass that never gave a hint of boominess or disconnect from the midrange.
For those looking for full range speakers without a crossover that can do mid-20Hz bottom end thanks to the dipole bass drivers, I think your journey ends here.
