AudioCircle
Audio/Video Gear and Systems => Low Wattage Systems => Topic started by: geowak on 28 Apr 2014, 07:57 pm
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Has anyone heard this speaker system? The engineer does a good demo before one hears the actual speaker in the second link. Looks and sounds nice too me!
http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/02/17/hello-goodbye-six-weeks-with-the-volti-audio-vittora/ (http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/02/17/hello-goodbye-six-weeks-with-the-volti-audio-vittora/)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8hU4tDnZ7I (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8hU4tDnZ7I)
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I heard them at CAF2013 for about 15 minutes
and was very impressed. PTA's review and
Art Dudley's review mirrored my brief time listening
to them. Although they are not cheap, I walked away
feeling the price was justified considering both their
sonics and build quality.
I have no affiliation with Volti - I just like what I heard.
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I've heard them at three different Capital Audio Fests. They have evolved a tremendous amount since they were first introduced. Each time they sound better, last time he said they were finito. Everybody I spoke with seems to like them very much, and some people really love them. I seem to be the only person who ever had a second thought. I think that's because my favorite genres don't usually lend themselves to horns. These are traditional, rectangular, PA style horns, keeping in the Klipsch tradition. They are not modern, symmetric, mathematically optimized horns like Geddes or Le Cleac'h. So the internal horn reflections do affect the tonal purity to some degree. For classic rock and jazz, you'll never notice the midhorn coloration, it's subtle. If you really care about absolute tone on piano, flute, double reeds, then you already know how hard it is to get those right on any horn. I remember Greg telling me that the compression drivers are very special and expensive to get the best mid tone possible. The bass horn works very well, great prat like all bass horns. Easy load, plays well with low-watt tube amps, but I'd use a SS amp to get the impedance down to get as much slam from that bass horn as possible. Overall balance is great, these are grown up speakers for music lovers.
The cabinet build quality could safely be described as the best available - molded, epoxy laminated hardwood ply shell, solid wood custom midhorns, perfect veneer. Same goes for the crossover design, build and parts quality. Amazing heirloom quality would be an understatement, these are the Bentleys of the speaker world. They look great, modern art furniture, WAF should be easy.
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2 years ago at RMAF 2012. Unfortunately they were in a small room and the setup was really bad. The sound was not cohesive between the 3 speakers (sub, woofer, and mid/highs), very disjointed.
Other Volti systems I have heard have been very good, I just chalk that one up to room/setup issues and I do think Volti speakers are worth considering. Quality of build looks great too.
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I've heard them at three different Capital Audio Fests. They have evolved a tremendous amount since they were first introduced. Each time they sound better, last time he said they were finito. Everybody I spoke with seems to like them very much, and some people really love them. I seem to be the only person who ever had a second thought. I think that's because my favorite genres don't usually lend themselves to horns. These are traditional, rectangular, PA style horns, keeping in the Klipsch tradition. They are not modern, symmetric, mathematically optimized horns like Geddes or Le Cleac'h. So the internal horn reflections do affect the tonal purity to some degree. For classic rock and jazz, you'll never notice the midhorn coloration, it's subtle. If you really care about absolute tone on piano, flute, double reeds, then you already know how hard it is to get those right on any horn. I remember Greg telling me that the compression drivers are very special and expensive to get the best mid tone possible. The bass horn works very well, great prat like all bass horns. Easy load, plays well with low-watt tube amps, but I'd use a SS amp to get the impedance down to get as much slam from that bass horn as possible. Overall balance is great, these are grown up speakers for music lovers.
The cabinet build quality could safely be described as the best available - molded, epoxy laminated hardwood ply shell, solid wood custom midhorns, perfect veneer. Same goes for the crossover design, build and parts quality. Amazing heirloom quality would be an understatement, these are the Bentleys of the speaker world. They look great, modern art furniture, WAF should be easy.
Great insight! I wish I would have had the chance to hear these speakers. I guess cone speakers, planars, horns...they all have limitations when trying to reproduce sounds like guitars, drums, horn instruments, the human voice, etc. Even the hybrid speakers cannot do these things. So your comments about the genre of music and limitations kinda make sense. I think I have speakers that do well with jazz and vocalist recordings, not so well on rock and pop. But boy they do look very nice!! I'd like to give them a try!
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I probably overstated my preferences as flaws, which they are not. Like you said, every speaker has its tonal personality and we all have our preferences. Anybody without a musician's sensitivity to tone quality would not notice or care about my concerns. But I am a jazzer at heart and I did consider buying the Vittora's when I first heard them. In person they are very tempting!!
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Best looking speakers ever. I think in the past year or so there was a large price increase on them.
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This is talk of them over here: http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/t.mpl?f=hug&m=169716
Sadurni is another I'd really like to hear. They seem to hit all the right points on building a "good" horn system. The Volti is very interesting too, but I'd probably need a good sub...actually I think I may have seen one in the photos.
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I've heard the Volti driver replacement and conversion kit on a pair of Klipshorns (at Triode Pete's). As I understand it, they are the same drivers and horns they use in their own speakers. Now, these Klipshes sounded very good to begin with, but after the Volti conversion they lost any forwardness and horniness that might have been there. The Volti's sound more like a very excellent box speaker but retain all of that horn dynamic and extension without compression or edginess that horns sometimes produce. Yes, there is now a soundstage with depth and a center image, again not something horns traditionally do well. But the Volti's do this very nicely.
Certainly well worth checking out.
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I heard the Vittora at the 2013 Capital Audiofest. I can only echo the positive comments registered above. It seems the 2” throat wooden, tractrix horn and mid driver help.
Forgive the digression, but my favorite horn speaker (so far) is the Classic Audio Loudspeakers Hartsfield heard at CAF 2013. With the proper room arrangement they had a big stage and were effortless. Of course, we are talking field coil drivers and Fostex super tweeters - $$. The fly in the ointment seems to be the traditional horn/lens – which should not sound good; but it does.
Has anyone heard both the Volti Vittora and Alura?
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Also have heard these at the last Capital Audiofests and they do sound amazing, particularly at the last CAF when he finally had equally good electronics behind them (sometimes at earlier shows these electronics were not up to the level of the speakers). The cabinetry build quality alone is very high end furniture grade. At the original $8k+ price they were a steal if you had the space. Now of course they are double that price, but I understand and agree with his marketing strategy - you need to be willing to sell even at a loss to get some speakers sold and get yourself known. Even at double the price, to me they actually seem worth the money - something I can't say is true of almost any other $10K+ pair of speakers Ive heard to date.
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Has anyone heard both the Volti Vittora and Alura?
The Alura was at RMAF 2013 and the setup and associated electronics were excellent and so was the sound... I totally forget which room it was but I left with a very favorable impression, and without hearing the Vittoras with an optimized setup I would say the Aluras blew them away. I also think I would prefer the 15" woofers/bass bins of the Aluras vs the horn loaded woofer in the Vittora, but would have to hear both in a similarly good setup to know for sure.
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In looking at Volti's site (Newsletter 26), the completed Aluras in inventory are priced at $15,900. When these are gone (likely near the end of 2014) the price will go up.
The Vittoras are currently $21,500 (without the subwoofer).
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I was in the room next door to Greg and his Volti Vittora's at RMAF 2013, and looks like we'll both be in the same rooms this year. Only got to pop into his room for a few minutes, but they sounded magnificent. In particular, Greg did an excellent job on the crossover. It's easy to design a crossover, but it's hard to design a really good one.
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I was in the room next door to Greg and his Volti Vittora's at RMAF 2013, and looks like we'll both be in the same rooms this year. Only got to pop into his room for a few minutes, but they sounded magnificent. In particular, Greg did an excellent job on the crossover. It's easy to design a crossover, but it's hard to design a really good one.
Coming from you Duke, that's high praise indeed. Will have to give these another listen at my next show. I wasn't too impressed from RMAF 2013 and felt the room was cramped.
Best,
Anand.
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I really liked these at THE SHOW. But the sub was next level too big.
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Has anyone heard this speaker system? The engineer does a good demo before one hears the actual speaker in the second link. Looks and sounds nice too me!
http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/02/17/hello-goodbye-six-weeks-with-the-volti-audio-vittora/ (http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/02/17/hello-goodbye-six-weeks-with-the-volti-audio-vittora/)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8hU4tDnZ7I (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8hU4tDnZ7I)
Caught the debut of Vittora's little brother, the "Rival", today at the Capitol Audio Fest. It was powered by Border Patrol Twin Set Tube Amp. Fantastic! I did not listen to everything (almost everything). My pick for Best Sound at the Show. I was thoroughly impressed. Only about a third of the cost of Vittora.