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"Getting these critical tweeter horn parts made, our prior research into yellow-metal foundries offshore and domestic sent us to the best of only three remaining such firms here in the UK. The involved precision necessary is mindboggling once you consider the settling and shrinkage of bronze during the cooling process. Each alloy formulation differs.
"To arrive at our specified dimensions in the absolutely flawless surface finish we required disqualified most all such foundries. Thankfully, not each and every secret handed down from one generation of craftsmen to the next has been exported to China yet. Being an English company, our hope was to build a wholly English product and with the exception of two Japanese drivers and some cabling, we have succeeded."
Early on Kevin decided that his flagship speaker had to perform impeccably in a wide range of unpredictable spaces to need a flexible semi-custom solution for the lower bass. The correct choice would depend on what kind of room a prospective Vox Olympian user had to work with– its size, layout and the number and nature of furnishings. To this end Kevin developed a lower bass horn named Vox Elysian. This can be used individually, in pairs or quartets. If used in pairs, it can be driven passively from the same amplifier that drives the Olympians. Other configurations would require bi-amping. Like the RW 24, this lower bass horn runs two paralleled bass drivers firing into a modified exponential development.
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The first production pair is to be unveiled in November and Living Voice will publish pictures and information upon completion. All internal hook-up wiring in the Vox Olympian and Vox Elysian is Kondo SPZ by the way, the costliest of all Kondo silver cables and a luxurious choice.
Stock finish is two-tone Wenge and Beech as previously shown. A pair is currently being built in Quilted New Forest Walnut and London Plane (Lacewood) and photographs thereof will appear on the Living Voice website in due time. Kevin and Lynn stand by for some eccentric and exotic custom requests with firms specialized in bespoke luxury. Who knows, perhaps a customer might want 200-year old Reindeer hide or 500-year old Bog Oak with Mother of Pearl inlays. This segues straight to the heart of the Olympian matter. |
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As Kevin put it: "A loudspeaker is a piece of furniture at all times. If it is not benign and domestically unobtrusive in appearance, it should be a sculptural centerpiece or a magnificent piece of timeless fine furniture. Stylistically we took pains to make it hard to date the Olympian. It could just as easily hail from the late 1800s, 1920s or 1950s as it does from 2009. To fit gracefully and seamlessly into the finest bespoke interiors in this sector of the market, it was my conviction that a loudspeaker should not be an overtly commercial or quantitatively produced ’product’. The Vox Olympian and Vox Elysian instead are made exclusively in the timeless tradition of fine furniture cabinet making using artisanal techniques and only the finest and noblest of materials. This speaker is at the pinnacle of refined, sophisticated and exclusive ‘through and through’ furniture design. Each pair is made to order and takes 650 man hours to build.''
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To perform credibly in what unabashedly is the exclusive luxury sector of the market, a customer should rightfully expect not to be shortchanged on even the smallest invisible matters.
Paying lip service to the notion of bespoke design and actually delivering on it are naturally two different things. Customers dealing one on one with the Scotts and their Definitive Audio operation have known for years the extent to which their customization services extend. Meanwhile the show-going and magazine-reading audiophile public outside the UK has likely not kept tabs on Living Voice beyond their fine but certainly not as ambitious Avatar loudspeaker speaker series.
The apparently out-of-the-blue appearance of the present Vox Olympian/Elysian project then would lack context and with it, credibility. As I learned, this latest assault at a state-of-the-art high-efficiency hornspeaker is actually the culmination of a rather long and well-oiled collaboration between Vitavox and Living Voice which includes driver customization to Kevin Scott's requirements. And, there are at least two other worthy examples of the one-up custom design art previously authored by the Scotts that deserve mention in this context.
We'll begin with the earlier referenced Cosmotron project.
This started out with an interior designer for an audiophile yacht owner who opined out loud that loudspeakers in the shape of rocket ships would really complement the decor to perfection. This led to the concept drawing at left which in turn led to a completely one-up custom creation whose development consumed two years and "plenty of blood, sweat and tears" as Lynn put it.
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These computer renderings show the progression from napkin sketch to accepted proposal.
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| The Cosmotron had to stay put during heavy seas and the launch pad system was integrated perfectly with the deliberately Flash Gordon or Jules Verne look of the entire structure. Much time was spent on proper scaling so that the final sculpture would be neither obtrusive nor cute but "just right". |
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Beyond the conceptual audacity which materialized successfully into this exclusive product, what's relevant from Cosmotron to Vox Olympian journey is what that experience taught Kevin Scott about the sonic virtues of gun-metal bronze. He also learned what specialists to pursue to have the precision parts made which he would need for their flagship hornspeaker. Finally, he'd already proven that when a design performed not only sonically but also as a complete artistic statement wherein logo and plaque were given the same attention as custom finish options and mounting hardware, there were customers of requisite means who pursued ownership of such items over anything that might be available from the portfolios of famous mainstream loudspeaker producers. It's simply surprising that a smaller company like Living Voice would show the sheer determination and resourcefulness required to compete at such an ambitious level.
There is another conceptual stop on the journey from Cosmotron to Vox Olympian - the G8 equipment table. Behind its certainly luxurious but also deceptively simple appearance hide engineering solutions than are not apparent to the eye.
"The LG2 bronze base plate provides a very low center of gravity. It is also effective at rejecting radio and high frequency energy. The rigid tri-level monocoque shelving assembly is decoupled from the main chassis to float freely as a unit on an adjustable three-axis elastomeric Sylomer suspension system. This dynamic suspension system is housed within the three purpose-cast hollow bronze box section uprights. Those ride/slide on equivalent receivers that protrude rigidly from the base but from which they are decoupled by Sylomer banding. Three top-mounted adjusters preload the elastomeric suspension system similar to motorcycle shock loading. When deployed in a nautical environment as originally conceived, there are excursion limiters and storm locks.
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"The
premium hardwood shelf perimeters are braced with a rigid steel latticework that can support 250 kilos of equipment at forces of up to 8Gs - hence the name G8. (High forces are encountered in roiling seas where a boat may plummet deeply between breakers while undergoing severe lateral torquing.) The three individual shelves are separately decoupled from the floating sub chassis on steel point contacts providing a further level of isolation. The bronze base and uprights can be force-patinated in a choice of finishes from rich chocolate through to burnt umber, fiery orange and verdegris. The shelving can be profiled to any shape of the client's choosing and from any premium hardwood." |
It seems fair to say that the studied investigations into resonance attenuation and the sonic contributions of specific noble materials exploited in the Living Voice Cosmotron and G8 creations found further expression in the Living Voice Vox Olympian/Elysian project. To wrap this narrative, music lovers will naturally want to know what this new four-way hornspeaker sounds like. Kevin confessed that to arrange for formal reviews will pose rather greater than customary challenges due to the exclusive nature of this product which is built to order. In all likelihood, initial attempts at satisfying performance curiosity will have to come from personal visits to the Living Voice/Definitive Audio facilities.
"We've already had a reviewer from a British print audio magazine visit. While we won't know the extent of his coverage nor its tenor until the relevant issue publishes, we believe it will be the first official sound commentary. Naturally our demonstration was conducted in situ in our facility so the reviewer was not only faced with an unfamiliar environment but also a complete front-to-back system he did not know. Those aren't customary conditions to conduct detailed performance reviews by. Yet for the time being, we're afraid it's the only practical solution at our disposal. We are naturally most happy to demonstrate our in-house pair to qualified inquirers on an appointment basis at any time."
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| So there you have - a bit of background on the company and a flighty overview on iterative design evolutions which led up to this latest hornspeaker creation from Living Voice.
Should the opportunity arise to travel to Derbyshire for a personal look-see, rest assured you'll learn all about in these pages. For now, the tease is on and curiosity honed to a fine pitch... |
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