Major update to the Living Voice UK Avatar line now available

I received a note from the US importer for Living Voice UK that my beloved Avatars have received a robust reworking. Check it out:

The Living Voice Avatar Loudspeaker range has recently been updated to R3 specification following comprehensive re-engineering of the crossover and changes to the drive units and cabinets.

The new models retain the seamless integration, relaxed musicality and lively dynamics of their predecessors but now have richer, more lustrous tone and more natural timbre. 

The dramatic fall in the value of the UK Pound against the US Dollar means the new models are now significantly less expensive than before with price reductions of as much as $1650 on some models.

Part Time Audiophile is looking forward to receiving new spec OBX-RW3’s and will do a comparative review between R2 and R3 models soon.

Living Voice loudspeakers are imported by BorderPatrol in Maryland. Check out www.borderpatrol.net for more information.

So, apparently, I’m about to get some homework. Sweet! I love this kind of homework!

For the record, these speakers were devastatingly great. Many of you know Living Voice from their mega-speakers, the Vox Olympian and the newer, and only slightly less unobtaniumly priced, Vox Palladium. But it’s these unassuming MTM-driver array columns that I quite fancy, and dare I say, may well be some of the best-sounding loudspeakers currently available at any price.

I’ve never actually reviewed anything in the line (a clear oversight), but the OBX-RW have been serving me as a reference for almost as long as I’ve been interested in high-end audio. There’s just something about the image that these speakers throw, how texturally rich and how downright uncanny they sound. And did I mention I can drive the snot out of them with far less than with 20 watts?

I suspect that, on my first trip to the Munich High-End show, I may have babbled at owner/designer Kevin Scott. There may, or may not, have been drool involved. I will deny all the allegations and rumors about lifting him off the ground in a bear hug, however, and I most certainly did not lick him across the face. Such thoughts are entirely unseemly and will not be dignified with a response.

But I will say that I most definitely am a fan.

All new cabinets, custom and in-house made drivers, with upgraded crossovers, all say more “brand new speaker” than a mere or modest “upgrade”, but that is apparently how they’re being pitched. Prices are holding the line, but as the note above mentions, Brexit has done some rather remarkable things to the US-UK exchange rate, which is welcome news. Well, to those of us that live in the USA, at least.

Turns out that I’m getting a pair of OBX-RW3 ($11,500US/pair) in Santos Rosewood. I’ll be comparing them with the OBX-RW in Cherry. I have some BorderPatrol amplifiers here, as well as suite of others, so expect a photographic orgy sometime in the (surprisingly) near future.