Voxativ 9.87 Loudspeaker

I might as well start at the finish: The surprisingly compact, two-piece (main speaker and sub) Voxativ 9.87 is a great loudspeaker system that I could easily and happily live with until I’m carted out of my listening room feet first, which at my advanced age may not seem like a ringing endorsement, though it’s meant to be. The interesting part is why I think it’s such a great speaker, which I’ll try to explain in the next few paragraphs.

To begin with, above 80–150Hz, depending on where you cross over the 9.87’s dedicated, powered (by a 250W Class AB Voxativ amplifier), dipolar, dual-driver Pi-Bass woofer/subwoofer to the Pi Monitor that sits atop it in a separate enclosure, the 9.87 uses a single folded-horn-loaded transducer (either the AC-PiND neodymium, the more powerful AC-4D neodymium, or the ultimate AC-Xp field-coil) to reproduce everything that it is fed. Near-full-range, folded-horn-loaded, single-driver cone loudspeakers are relatively rare nowadays (or any days), though their distinguished progenitor—the Voight/Lowther speaker—has been around since the 1930s, is still being made, and has a surprising number of fans.

What is the advantage of using a single driver for everything above the lowest bass? Well, that should be obvious: You don’t need crossovers full of inductors, capacitors, resistors, and other electrical parts to stitch woofers, midranges, and tweeters together; in fact, you don’t need woofers, midranges, and tweeters, which because of their different material compositions, different directivity patterns, different sensitivities, different passbands, and different distortion profiles and breakup modes, not to mention the different resonant/reflective cabinets these drivers are housed in, are hard to make cohere into what sounds like a point source with a uniform sonic character from top to bottom. The old analogy, so often applied to digital components, of attempting to turn chopped beef back into beefsteak could just as easily be applied to multiway speakers, which divide the passband into different segments, sometimes handing off the fundamentals to one driver with a specific material coloration, sensitivity, distortion profile, and directional pattern, and the harmonics to an entirely different driver with a different material coloration, sensitivity, distortion profile, and directional pattern.

Now, I’ll admit that in spite of these inherent problems I’ve heard several multiway cone speakers that don’t suffer markedly from “crossover-itis” (most recently the superb Magico M3 and M6). This said, neither of the Magicos (or the three-way Maggie 30.7, or the four-way MBL 101 E MK. II, or any other speaker with crossovers and drivers of different sizes and different types, for that matter) sounds like the Voxativ 9.87. The difference isn’t a matter of linearity (where I’d be willing to bet the two Magicos far exceed the Voxativ) or of distortion (ditto). And it is not as if the two Magicos or the MBLs don’t sound “of a piece” from top to bottom. They just don’t sound as much “of a piece” as the single-driver 9.87.

Rather like a digital camera equipped with a Bayer sensor and an optical low-pass (anti-aliasing) filter, multiway cone loudspeakers with crossovers are just a little softer, fuzzier, less crisply detailed, and three-dimensionally solid than a single-driver, crossoverless speaker like the Voxativ, which, to continue the analogy, is closer in presentation to something like a Sigma Foveon camera, which has a single dedicated lens, no Bayer array, and no low-pass filter. Moreover, thanks to horn-loading, the Voxativ 9.87 (which approaches 105dB in sensitivity) has sensational dynamic range, making those clearer, crisper, more finely detailed and solidly imaged musicians spring to life, even with single-digit-power SET amplification. The sonic result, with much program material, is a blur-free “thereness” that has to be heard to be appreciated. On voices and acoustic instruments, the Voxativ 9.87s can be about as realistic as transducers—direct-radiator, planar, or omni—get.

Just put on a superior LP—say the late great David Wilson’s recording of Enescu’s Sonata No. 3 with David Abel playing a Guarnerius violin and Julie Steinberg a 9-foot Hamburg Steinway Model D concert grand—and you’ll immediately hear what I’m raving about. Through multiway speakers, both the violin and the piano will likely be set back a fair distance from the front plane of the speakers. Although this recession adds a sense of depth to the presentation, neither instrument was, in fact, set back that far from the spaced pair of Schoeps microphones (hooked up via a line-level vacuum-tube amplifier to Wilson’s highly modified Revox A77). Indeed, Wilson himself says in the liner notes: “The sonic image of the violin should originate just to the right of the inside edge of the left speaker”—and not to the rear of it. Nor should the images of these instruments “drift” even farther back with changes in pitch, as they often do with multiways. Though this drift can add a beguiling softness and sweetness to notes sounded in the upper registers (and roundedness to the bottom ones), it is not the way a violin or a piano sounds in real life. In the real world, both instruments image three-dimensionally from a single point (or in a single plane), no matter which notes they’re playing, though they can seem to move forward or back with changes in dynamics (i.e., with changes in the forcefulness with which notes are being sounded). This near-physical sense of being rooted in space is part of what makes instruments and voices seem “there” on a great recording or a great stereo, and the Voxativ 9.87 captures it as well as any speaker I’ve heard. On the Wilson LP, for instance, the violin is imaged precisely where David Wilson said it ought to be, and it stays there, with no drift.

While the Voxativ’s unwavering focus creates a presence and immediacy that help make the two instruments seem as if they’re in the room with you, that violin and piano would not seem as lifelike were their fundamentals and harmonics not also being accurately reproduced. The Voxativ has enough timbral realism (on both instruments) to maintain the illusion of “thereness,” and thanks to the speaker’s truly remarkable dynamic range and exceptional resolution to capture the way both violin and piano are being played with a fineness of expression that is only rivaled by ’stats or other horns. This superb resolution also extends to aspects of the recording setup and the recording venue. For instance, through the 9.87 you can hear, unmistakably, the way the sound of the piano is occasionally being captured by the violin’s mic in Wilson’s spaced-pair arrangement, making its top octaves sound a bit closer to the left speaker than to the right. You can also hear the slight dryness engendered by the close mic’ing and by the acoustic of the Mills College Concert Hall. This is fidelity of a very high order.

If that were the whole story, we’d all be using horn-loaded single-driver Voxativ loudspeakers. The fact that we aren’t, indeed that most of us are using one of the Voxativ’s multiway competitors, isn’t accidental. Just as is the case with a Sigma Foveon camera, the Voxativ’s blurless clarity, sensational recovery of detail, realistically solid imaging, terrific dynamic range, and remarkably lifelike presence come at a price. In the case of the 9.87 speaker, it is linearity, a touch of horn coloration, and (in spite of its virtues, which I will come to) aspects of the Pi-Bass.

First, linearity. Let me be very clear, lest you get the wrong impression: In frequency response, the Pi Monitor is much different than a Lowther of yore. Indeed, the Voxativ-designed-and-manufactured AC-4D driver (which is what I’m using in the Pi Monitor at the moment) is a far cry from something like a vintage Lowther cone. The Voxativ’s neodymium magnetic engine is considerably stronger and more uniform in its strength, its ultra-lightweight wood diaphragm considerably stiffer and more linear in response, and its ingeniously designed AST cabinets (see my interview with Voxativ’s owner and chief engineer Holger Adler below for more on AST) far more invisible than the Lowther’s Alnico magnet, twin paper cone, and DIY enclosure. Indeed, for a horn-loaded loudspeaker, the Pi Monitor is quite respectably flat throughout most of its range.

You might expect the Pi’s whizzer tweeter (see the interview with Holger Adler for details on this device) to roll off from the mid-treble on out, but it doesn’t. It is quite linear and extended. Where the speaker has its chief audible issue is in the upper mids—from about 1kHz to 4kHz. The Pi Monitor is not elevated by much in this area, which in itself wouldn’t make it very different than many multiway loudspeakers; however, the Pi Monitor is a horn-loaded loudspeaker, and there’s the rub.

The trouble with horns is that they amplify everything—from dynamics to noise to nonlinearities. As a result, this slight irregularity in frequency response is turned (by the horn) into a touch of “cupped-hands” coloration on some program material. While you won’t hear this trace of shoutiness on the majority of acoustic instruments, you may notice it on some vocals. Chet Baker on Chet Baker Sings, for example, sounds just a bit like he’s warbling into a megaphone on certain notes within his (limited) range.

Now you might think this frequency/horn glitch would be a disqualifying flaw. But it isn’t. The problem simply isn’t large enough or pervasive enough to matter that much. (And I’ve discovered that it vanishes almost completely with Voxativ’s own 805 integrated amp, which has been voiced expressly for the 9.87.) Compared to what I’ve heard from every other horn speaker, this is a smooth, neutral driver in a superior horn enclosure. Moreover, the Voxativ’s smidgeon of cupped-hands coloration in the upper mids is more than counterbalanced (as already noted) by the terrific dynamic energy and astonishingly high resolution of detail the speaker brings to every kind of acoustic music. The 9.87 makes instrumentalists (including Chet Baker, whom the Voxativ—and the Voxativ alone—tells me was recorded by a separate mic on vocals) sound so alive and present, so “there,” that I’m perfectly willing to forgive it its slight touch of, uh, horniness.

You may have noticed that I keep talking about how well the 9.87 performs with acoustic music. This isn’t to say that it won’t rock—just that it won’t rock like, oh, a Magico M3/M6 mated up with a pair of JL Audio Gothams or Magico Q/M subs. Why? Because the Pi-Bass’ two 12″ dipole drivers can’t move air like Gotham’s direct-firing twin 13.5″ cones or the Q Sub’s twin 15-inchers do. The slight reduction in slam on Fender bass and rock drumkit notwithstanding, the Pi-Bass modules are models of woofer/subwoofer excellence—very deep-reaching (down into the 20Hz range), very low in distortion, very linear, very detailed, and, best of all, when properly adjusted, nearly seamless matches to the Pi Monitors. They fill in the low end (from 120Hz down, which is where I cross over) almost as if the Pi Monitors themselves are doing the heavy lifting. As a result, when you hook up the Pi’s to these critters, you won’t give up midband resolution to subwoofer-masking the way you do with most other subs.

Sonically, this past year has been good to me. In it, I’ve heard the finest planar loudspeaker (the Maggie 30.7), the finest dynamic loudspeakers (the Magico M3 and M6), and one of the finest omnidirectional loudspeakers (the MBL 101 E MK. II) it’s been my pleasure to audition. The Voxativ 9.87 (which is “pi” squared, in case you’ve been wondering—a whimsical way of describing the improvement that adding the Pi-Bass modules makes to the Pi Monitors) is far and away the best folded-horn single-driver loudspeaker I’ve ever heard. For those of you who listen primarily to acoustic music, who like their dynamics untrammeled, and who want their detail, both musical and recording, as high as that of an electrostat without any electrostatic-like loss of color or body, it comes with my top recommendation. If you’re also a fan of SETs or relatively low-powered tube or solid-state amplifiers, the Voxativ 9.87 becomes a veritable one and only top recommendation. Which, come to think of it, is precisely what it is for the right kind of listener—a reference product.

Specs & Pricing

Type: Single-driver horn-loaded loudspeaker with dedicated, powered (250W) subwoofer
Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz
Driver: Voxativ AC-PiNd or others
Sensitivity: 98dB–110dB/1W/1m maximum (driver dependent)
Recommended amplifier power: 50W
Dimensions: 16″ x 47″ x 16″
Weight: 150 lbs.
Price: $39,900–$69,990 depending on driver ($49,990 as reviewed)

VOXATIV GMBH
Ringbahnstraße 16-20
D12099 Berlin
+493021005662
voxativ.com

JV’s Reference System
Loudspeakers: Magico M Project, Magico M3, Avantgarde Acoustics Zero 1, MartinLogan CLX, MBL 101 E MK. II, Magnepan 1.7 and 30.7
Subwoofers: JL Audio Gotham (pair), Magico QSub 15 (pair)
Linestage preamplifiers: Soulution 725, Constellation Altair II, Siltech SAGA System C1, Air Tight ATE-2001 Reference
Phonostage preamplifiers: Walker Proscenium V, Soulution 755, Constellation Perseus, Audio Consulting Silver Rock Toroidal
Power amplifiers: Soulution 711, Constellation Hercules II Stereo, Air Tight 3211, Air Tight ATM-2001, Zanden Audio Systems Model 9600, Siltech SAGA System V1/P1, Odyssey Audio Stratos, Voxativ Integrated 805
Analog sources: Acoustic Signature Invictus Jr./T-9000 tonearm, Walker Audio Proscenium Black Diamond Mk V, TW Acustic Black Knight/TW Raven 10.5, AMG Viella 12
Tape deck: United Home Audio Ultimate 1 OPS
Phono cartridges: Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement, Air Tight Opus 1, Ortofon MC Anna, Ortofon MC A90
Digital sources: MSB Reference DAC, Berkeley Alpha DAC 2
Cables and interconnects: Crystal Cable Absolute Dream, Synergistic Research Galileo UEF, Ansuz Acoustics Diamond
Power cords: Crystal Cable Absolute Dream, Synergistic Research Galileo UEF, Ansuz Acoustics Diamond
Power conditioners: AudioQuest Niagara 5000 (two), Synergistic Research Galileo UEF, Technical Brain
Support systems: Critical Mass Systems MAXXUM and QXK equipment racks and amp stands
Room treatments: Stein Music H2 Harmonizer system, Synergistic Research UEF Acoustic Panels/Atmosphere XL4/UEF Acoustic Dot system, Synergistic Research ART system, Shakti Hallographs (6), Zanden Audio Acoustic panels, A/V Room Services Metu acoustic panels and traps, ASC Tube Traps
Accessories: Symposium Isis and Ultra equipment platforms, Symposium Rollerblocks and Fat Padz, Walker Prologue Reference equipment and amp stands, Walker Valid Points and Resonance Control discs, Clearaudio Double Matrix Professional Sonic record cleaner, Synergistic Research RED Quantum fuses, HiFi-Tuning silver/gold fuses