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12 to 24 months !| << Back to main Living Voice page |
Living Voice Speakers Reviews |
Living Voice Magazine Reviews / Features |
Living Voice HiFi Show Feedback Sightings |
Living Voice Consumer Comments |
|
by Edward Barker |
Mystic Mat, Living Voice system
In Vinylo Veritas : Vignettes of Vinyl : Dec 2005
"Definitive is now the Kondo UK distributor and Kevin has a Kondo system
set up and playing through the latest iteration of his Living Voice OBXR
speakers. The sound is something else and something else again.
Unbelievable. Tonally, I found a richness there (and this was on CD) that
seemed like the difference between a real wood fire as opposed to everything
else I've heard coming across like a gas or electric. I went with a very
experienced audiophile who thought he had reached what he has always been
looking for with a Lindemann/Boulder/Mårten Design Coltrane system and when
he came away, realized he was going to start from square one all over again.
We've both been haunted ever since." "Leonard Cohen's In my secret life opens with a little guitar riff that has an extremely fast harmonic reverb echo effect in it that must be a couple of octaves above the fundamental. Most cartridges smear it pretty effectively so you'd hardly know it was there. With the Mystic Mat in place, the effect blooms spot on. I'm very impressed indeed. The Mystic Mat is going to be a permanent fixture on my turntables."
Read the full article, which includes other analogue-related products - scroll to the review of the Mystic Mat |
The Collection 2004
A very special edition dedicated to the world's finest hi-fi
by Jason Kennedy
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Living Voice Air Scout
"It is very rich tonally but because of its phenomenal speed and a complete absence of boxy colorations this is not a ponderous or thick richness - more a total evocation of the instruments and voices being reproduced. You quickly become accustomed to the openness and dynamics on offer - perhaps too quickly, in fact, as soon you'll be taking them for granted. But put on a pair of normal, direct-radiating speakers and it becomes blatantly obvious how clean, uncompressed and natural the Living Voice horns sound."
"The RW24 bass system has the uncanny ability to open up bass notes and reveal their tuning and colour - what previously sounded like amorphous blobs of bass turn into a pizzicato double bass with body and timbre."
"Nearly every disc or LP sounds better than you would imagine and truly great music genuinely shines. This combined with the beautiful veneers used to finish the cabinets makes this a large speaker system that will enhance any decent-sized listening room, not to mention enhancing your standard of living delivering the soul and energy of music at its finest." |
June - July 2004
by Scott Markwell & Roy Gregory
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Living Voice OBX-R2 and Crossover
"Little Speaker In the Big City"
" ... the Avatar OBX loudspeaker is both a reference quality domestic listening tool of the highest order, and a modern classic in terms of its simplicity and clean, almost stark physical design."
"... the OBXs evoke first and foremost a feeling of exceptional control and agility, both tonally and dynamically. Their basic tonal balance is at once instantly appealing and smacking of a definite "rightness". We have all listened to speaker systems that sounded phenomenally good in one respect or another: great imaging, soundstaging, bass impact, ethereal high-frequency reproduction, or a beguilingly sweet rendition of female vocalists. But so many otherwise fine loudspeakers are marred by what turns out in the end to be unacceptable levels of coloration. The OBXs simply do not have that vice. They may err slightly on the side of a lightness of tone, but never at the expense of overall tonal balance. Instead their ability to project energy and define micro-dynamic levels brings vivid, lifelike colour to instruments and voices. What I'm referring to as lightness is more to do with a deft agility and speed of response than any loss of harmonic energy. They're just not clogged or bloated like a lot of speakers that squeeze ever more bandwidth from overloaded cabinet volumes."
"... many of you will find the bass of these speakers to be more than adequate, certainly in terms of quality1. The steep transient attack and tactile feel and sound of a tuned bass drum is easily discerned, as is, almost more importantly, the decay of the note and the way that it resonates in the hall or room. Double basses have texture and air around them, helped by the speed and microdynamic1 precision of the speakers."
"Very few speakers can deliver the musical goods, but the Avatar OBX is definitely one of them."
"It occupies a reference position for both JK (Jason Kennedy) and myself (Roy Gregory) it has become a benchmark around here."
Email Us! or fill up our Enquiry Form for the full review.
1 Bass quality may not be easily noticed, especially to less experienced listeners, who may only be hearing the macro aspect (i.e. just the pounding). As we have done extensive comparisons before, for those interested, we have a simple method to help out. For example, Buddy Guy's CD "Blues Singer", a normal non-audiophile CD, can be heard at our showroom on the OBX-R2, and we'll ask listeners to listen to a certain acoustic bass passage (15 - 20 seconds only should be fine), concentrating on the timbre and texture of the bass instrument. Then we can lend this CD for the listener to go around the building and listen to other speakers. This way, one can have a reference point with regards to bass quality. This exercise is just our way of acknowledging the quality of Kevin Scott's design. We'll use a simple integrated and simple CD player, to be more impartial. |
