Living Voice Vox Olympian - Kevin Scott talking about the design (video)

Audiophile Bill said:

Morning, Rudolph.

Yes - I think you make a very astute point and I agree that this is likely the cause. It is a real shame that Kevin does not demonstrate at shows with his sme30/12 or Kuzma XL or a more neutral sounding DAC like the Trinity. I think you would most certainly love the Vox sound but I would not trade them out for your La Assoluta (not that you were thinking of doing such a thing!)

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Audiophile Bill said:

Hi David,

I have perhaps led people astray somewhat with my comments as there is absolutely no doubt that these do sound wonderful - it is just that they don't sound real - their presentation (in the context of the system I heard @ Munich) as I said in previous posts is just very rose-tinted. Strings don't always have that upper harmonic silky sheen that this system adds and trumpet is not always that sweet. Does it sound delightful to the ear - yes! Does this sound like real life - no. Anyway - personally I could not accept a system with low frequency extension to 40hz - I love orchestral, piano, and organ music with lots of content here. If you want the ultimate jazz club and female vocal speaker that you can smile at 24hrs per day (no fatigue ever) - perhaps this would be utopia. I can't comment on how this handles rock because they refused to play any rock material on the several hrs I listened to this over 2 days.

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Audiocrack said:

Fully understand what you are saying about the Kondo wires. They sound very nice but compared to my Tara cables they 'disguise' an awful lot of information and are not very dynamic. I have used only a few Kondo ic's in the past but I am not doing this anymore as I consider them to be too 'coloured' (if I may use this 'dangerous' word once more in this thread). However, to my ears the Kondo preamps and power amps are a completely different ballgame. But that is just me of course. I am glad that everybody can pick up his own 'coloured' or 'non coloured' equipment because (luckily?) one audio truth does not exist.

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853guy said:

I first discovered Kevin’s work in the IBX-RW. I lived with them for an extended season during which I began to investigate the virtues of higher-sensitivity speakers, lower-powered SET’s and vinyl, the results of which were mixed but instructive (for instance, the IBX-RW liked more power than its specs suggested). Nevertheless, although I liked them a lot - their coherence, self-effacing nature and tonal density - they never really captured me in the way the horn-loaded designs did that I was also exploring (though, that’s no fault of the IBX-RW), and so the importer suggested in order to hear them at their best, the Kondo speaker wires were mandatory.

I’ve never been a fan of Litz designs before, so perhaps I was biased from the get go but immediately noticable was that the energy spectrum centred around the midrange became more harmonically vibrant, which was initially quite attractive, and the low end filled out and became richer. Low-level listening in particular really benefitted, and there was greater timbral differentation between the same notes played on two similarly-voiced instruments (violin and viola for instance).

But the trade off was that the harmonics wouldn’t scale dynamically with the notes themselves, as if the harmonics had a life of their own inconsistent with the dynamic of the note itself. It wasn’t so much that certain notes would pop out, but the harmonics surrounding each note would pop, like suddenly during a passage of fingerwork a guitar would sound like it was strung with D’Addario’s for a couple of notes and then strung with a set of Martin’s - the fundamental would be consistent, but the harmonic structure would change. (Guitarists know what I’m talking about, right… right? Hello?)

Anyway, that’s a long-winded and overly-verbose way of saying I personally didn’t get on with the Kondo cables (admittedly, in a non-Kondo system), and all the usual caveats apply. I do think Kevin is a very credible designer, and for a small floorstander the compromises were nicely balanced and considered. I’m curious to hear the Vox Olympian, but only in the same way I’m curious about being Michael Fassbender, though more ripped in my abs.

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853guy said:

I first discovered Kevin’s work in the IBX-RW. I lived with them for an extended season during which I began to investigate the virtues of higher-sensitivity speakers, lower-powered SET’s and vinyl, the results of which were mixed but instructive (for instance, the IBX-RW liked more power than its specs suggested). Nevertheless, although I liked them a lot - their coherence, self-effacing nature and tonal density - they never really captured me in the way the horn-loaded designs did that I was also exploring (though, that’s no fault of the IBX-RW), and so the importer suggested in order to hear them at their best, the Kondo speaker wires were mandatory.

I’ve never been a fan of Litz designs before, so perhaps I was biased from the get go but immediately noticable was that the energy spectrum centred around the midrange became more harmonically vibrant, which was initially quite attractive, and the low end filled out and became richer. Low-level listening in particular really benefitted, and there was greater timbral differentation between the same notes played on two similarly-voiced instruments (violin and viola for instance).

But the trade off was that the harmonics wouldn’t scale dynamically with the notes themselves, as if the harmonics had a life of their own inconsistent with the dynamic of the note itself. It wasn’t so much that certain notes would pop out, but the harmonics surrounding each note would pop, like suddenly during a passage of fingerwork a guitar would sound like it was strung with D’Addario’s for a couple of notes and then strung with a set of Martin’s - the fundamental would be consistent, but the harmonic structure would change. (Guitarists know what I’m talking about, right… right? Hello?)

Anyway, that’s a long-winded and overly-verbose way of saying I personally didn’t get on with the Kondo cables (admittedly, in a non-Kondo system), and all the usual caveats apply. I do think Kevin is a very credible designer, and for a small floorstander the compromises were nicely balanced and considered. I’m curious to hear the Vox Olympian, but only in the same way I’m curious about being Michael Fassbender, though more ripped in my abs.

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User211 said:

Couple of vids I shot at Munich.

In all honesty (my opinion only), my custom built Apogee Duetta Interstellas beat the Vox on bass extension, resolution, speed and have broadly equivalent scale. Driver integration is also appreciably better. They may not sound as pleasant, but they definitely sound more realistic.

All the Kondo kit looks lovely but there is a definite smoothing of detail to achieve the sort of sound on offer.

Agree a Lampizator GG or even Big 7 (I own the later and have had the former in my system) would probably up the resolution.

Build quality is ace, though, see the close ups in the video. I tried to show as much of the build quality as I could.

Now if you are a billionaire non-audiophile with a yacht to match, these are almost certainly what you want to impress your mates with. They just look rich and they don't sound too bad. Probably all Kevin needs to make some sales. Good luck to him

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LL21 said:

User211,

thanks for posting...always great to read about unique experiences. I dont think that many of us have had the opportunity to actually hear these.

...in truth, i am actually even more interested in learning more about your custom-built Apogees. Mind taking some time to describe who built them...what makes them possibly different from the originals...and obviously describe their sound? Also, do you play them solo, or in conjunction with active subs, etc...thanks!!

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Audiocrack said:

Hi Bill,

I suppose it always depends on what kind of 'live' sound you try to achieve in your listening room. One of the reasons I like my Kondo equipment so much is that to my ears (and in my home environment) it resembles - to a certain degree of course - the sound I experience in "het concertgebouw" in Amsterdam. That hall has a very smooth and velvet sound presentation (some may even say a somewhat 'muffled' or indirect sound) that I like very much. So for me that is the 'live' sound to which I want to compare (the sound of) my audio set up. But of course there are also halls that are more straight in your face sounding - or if you want: less easy on the ears sounding - in which eg a trumpet sounds much more direct. So I suppose I want to say the following: in my view a lot of people on this forum use the words 'coloured sound' too easily because it depends to a large degree on the 'live' benchmark you choose. Taking my 'live' benchmark into account I would conclude that a lot of solid state amps that are highly regarded sound pretty 'coloured' to my ears. I hope this also makes some sense to you.

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Mike Lavigne said:

I'm enjoying the discussion about our personal sonic compasses.

personally I work hard to have a system which tells me differences, while being very listenable. so any coloration which minimizes differences I avoid. I suppose there is a fine line on both ends of that thinking; you can have too great a focus on minute differences to the point of fatiguing levels of detail, or too great a focus on listenability to the point of coloration and sameness.

in my opinion a speaker system with an inherent coloration is not an acceptable choice and it's hopeless to find balance....however glorious that coloration might be. but that is just my own viewpoint and no doubt many/most would love to have the choice of the Vox Olympians as their cross to bear.

I think the better approach is like Audiocrack's direction; where he has his Kondo tubes powering neutral transducers like the Genesis and the Tidals. a life-like balance is attainable.

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PeterA said:

Nice post. It supports my view that there is no "absolute sound". From your description, a trumpet in "het concertgebouw" does not sound like a trumpet in Boston Symphony Hall with which I am familiar.

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Audiocrack said:

Thanks PeterA. Yes I indeed believe that there is no "absolute sound". That said I would love to hear the sound in the Boston Symphony Hall. Is that not one of the finer sounding music halls in the USA? I have some of James Levine recordings with the BSO. I particularly like Ravels Daphnis recording but also the Brahms requiem.

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