I am actually a little late to post this as I am living with this setup for for almost 4 months now, but none the less it deserves to be posted here.
Dream Setup finally complete along with dedicated listening space & a bit of room treatment. Setup in the picture.
Intel i7 13700K + 32GB DDR5 RAM on Windows 10 (SSD + TIDAL) -> Roon -> HQplayer (Upsampling everything to DSD 256) -> Merging NADAC (connected directly via ethernet cat 8 cable + Pink Faun LAN isolator + External LPS + AfterDark Master Clock) -> Bakoon Amp 13R -> Soundkaos Vox 3afw (on Soundkaos stands + ISO Acoustics Gaia III feet). Cables are mix of Neotech (Speaker + BNC) & chinese Copper, SPC & Silver cables as power cables, Interconnects & DC Cable
I have had numerous conversations with Martin who is the owner and designer. I will try to state the exact words as he had said.
The design principle followed by SoundKaos (henceforth I will refer to it as SK) is there should be no crossover in the most sensitive part of human hearing, hence all SK speakers utilise full range drivers along with Tweeters and or woofers having crossover frequencies outside the most sensitive part which is 300/400 Hz to 7-8 Khz. In Vox since the side mounted base drivers are smaller the crossover is at around 250 Hz and at the top the roll off is very gentle which starts at around 10KHz which goes all the way up to 15Khz. RAAL ribbon is situated at the top which acts as an ambient driver as well makes use of reflection from the ceiling. Coupled with side firing woofers it creates a halo kind of effect making the sound stage wider yet retaining pinpoint imaging at the same time. The earlier model of the Vox has ribbon tweeter on the front, but moving the tweeter on the top retained the same effect at the same time making speakers look even more aesthetically beautiful.
I will add my experience to his words. When I was searching for the speakers I noticed that some of the companies use ambience retrieval drivers in the form of ribbon and even midrange drivers in the design of the speakers costing in 6 digit (USD) classic examples would be Higher tier models of Von Schweikert Audio, Sonus Faber Aida etc.
In my search I did not find any single speaker which was designed in this way, still receiving very high praise from reviewers as well as the users.
Sound Impressions of the entire system :-
I can use all the adjectives which are used by reviewers to describe the sound, but I will restrict to songs and its aspects that are highlight of it.
1. Tenet Movie - Rainy night in Tallinn :- this track is filled with crazy amount of dynamics & the system is able to convey them with ease. Besides there is a lot going on throughout the track & I can pick out individual sounds/instruments with ease while locating the sound easily with precision wthin soundstage.
2. Fink - Wheels Turn Beneath my feet - Trouble what you're in - this is a live recording containing lot of reverb, especially to the voice of Fink. System is beautifully recreating those reverbs giving me the feeling of being there at the concert feeling.
3. Allan Taylor - Hotels & Dreamers - The Beat Hotel - This is fantastic track to ases male vocals with Allan having a lot of weight to his voice. System is able to reproduce his voice with weight at the same time making his voice sound very intimate.
4. Holly Cole - Temptation - Take Me Home - This is a fantastic track to test detail retrieval, imaging accuracy, intimacy & of course female vocals. The system is able to fabulously recreate everything. sounds just outstanding.
5. Haelos - Full Circle - Full Circle - This is am electronic track with lot of things going on & full of sub-bass which is very very deep. While system is able to resolve everything very well, it falls short on producing that sub-bass. I think its a bit too much to expect this level of deep bass from such a tiny speakers, but none the less whatever bass is there, its very tight & surprisingly extended in its reach given its size.
6. Sophie Zelmani - Soul - All about you - this track is a good test for strings and female vocals, system is able to recreate strings with unbelievable clarity & sophie's voice is also mesmerizing.
7. Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun - Flugufrelsarinn - This track is a test for tweeters, if the tweeter is not extended or harsh then treble on the track especially at some passage can sound grating and sometimes can sound disorted, but not on the system. That top mounted Raal Ribbon is very special...treble is unbelievable..need to listen to understan what I am trying to convey
8. Mark nauseef - With Space In Mind - Entire album is filled with insane levels on reverbs, drums & percussions...I have never heard this album sound like it does on he system..crazy.
9. Kiyoshi Yoshida - Warriors - Warriors - This is a fantastic track to test dynamics and bass as it has lots of Japnese drums, though it has good amount of sub bass and mid bass, it's not abyssal electronic bass of Haelos Full circle. Here the system is surprisingly able to re-create the bass to satisfactory levels with bass being very fast and tight.
In short these are mindboggling tiny speakers with very unique construction which seems to be working really well. If you have small space then these can very well be the only speakers you will need. No wonder Lukas Fikus of Lampizator was mighty impressed with these little monsters & publicly praised these while having no affiliation with soundkaos.
Dream Setup finally complete along with dedicated listening space & a bit of room treatment. Setup in the picture.
Intel i7 13700K + 32GB DDR5 RAM on Windows 10 (SSD + TIDAL) -> Roon -> HQplayer (Upsampling everything to DSD 256) -> Merging NADAC (connected directly via ethernet cat 8 cable + Pink Faun LAN isolator + External LPS + AfterDark Master Clock) -> Bakoon Amp 13R -> Soundkaos Vox 3afw (on Soundkaos stands + ISO Acoustics Gaia III feet). Cables are mix of Neotech (Speaker + BNC) & chinese Copper, SPC & Silver cables as power cables, Interconnects & DC Cable
I have had numerous conversations with Martin who is the owner and designer. I will try to state the exact words as he had said.
The design principle followed by SoundKaos (henceforth I will refer to it as SK) is there should be no crossover in the most sensitive part of human hearing, hence all SK speakers utilise full range drivers along with Tweeters and or woofers having crossover frequencies outside the most sensitive part which is 300/400 Hz to 7-8 Khz. In Vox since the side mounted base drivers are smaller the crossover is at around 250 Hz and at the top the roll off is very gentle which starts at around 10KHz which goes all the way up to 15Khz. RAAL ribbon is situated at the top which acts as an ambient driver as well makes use of reflection from the ceiling. Coupled with side firing woofers it creates a halo kind of effect making the sound stage wider yet retaining pinpoint imaging at the same time. The earlier model of the Vox has ribbon tweeter on the front, but moving the tweeter on the top retained the same effect at the same time making speakers look even more aesthetically beautiful.
I will add my experience to his words. When I was searching for the speakers I noticed that some of the companies use ambience retrieval drivers in the form of ribbon and even midrange drivers in the design of the speakers costing in 6 digit (USD) classic examples would be Higher tier models of Von Schweikert Audio, Sonus Faber Aida etc.
In my search I did not find any single speaker which was designed in this way, still receiving very high praise from reviewers as well as the users.
Sound Impressions of the entire system :-
I can use all the adjectives which are used by reviewers to describe the sound, but I will restrict to songs and its aspects that are highlight of it.
1. Tenet Movie - Rainy night in Tallinn :- this track is filled with crazy amount of dynamics & the system is able to convey them with ease. Besides there is a lot going on throughout the track & I can pick out individual sounds/instruments with ease while locating the sound easily with precision wthin soundstage.
2. Fink - Wheels Turn Beneath my feet - Trouble what you're in - this is a live recording containing lot of reverb, especially to the voice of Fink. System is beautifully recreating those reverbs giving me the feeling of being there at the concert feeling.
3. Allan Taylor - Hotels & Dreamers - The Beat Hotel - This is fantastic track to ases male vocals with Allan having a lot of weight to his voice. System is able to reproduce his voice with weight at the same time making his voice sound very intimate.
4. Holly Cole - Temptation - Take Me Home - This is a fantastic track to test detail retrieval, imaging accuracy, intimacy & of course female vocals. The system is able to fabulously recreate everything. sounds just outstanding.
5. Haelos - Full Circle - Full Circle - This is am electronic track with lot of things going on & full of sub-bass which is very very deep. While system is able to resolve everything very well, it falls short on producing that sub-bass. I think its a bit too much to expect this level of deep bass from such a tiny speakers, but none the less whatever bass is there, its very tight & surprisingly extended in its reach given its size.
6. Sophie Zelmani - Soul - All about you - this track is a good test for strings and female vocals, system is able to recreate strings with unbelievable clarity & sophie's voice is also mesmerizing.
7. Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun - Flugufrelsarinn - This track is a test for tweeters, if the tweeter is not extended or harsh then treble on the track especially at some passage can sound grating and sometimes can sound disorted, but not on the system. That top mounted Raal Ribbon is very special...treble is unbelievable..need to listen to understan what I am trying to convey
8. Mark nauseef - With Space In Mind - Entire album is filled with insane levels on reverbs, drums & percussions...I have never heard this album sound like it does on he system..crazy.
9. Kiyoshi Yoshida - Warriors - Warriors - This is a fantastic track to test dynamics and bass as it has lots of Japnese drums, though it has good amount of sub bass and mid bass, it's not abyssal electronic bass of Haelos Full circle. Here the system is surprisingly able to re-create the bass to satisfactory levels with bass being very fast and tight.
In short these are mindboggling tiny speakers with very unique construction which seems to be working really well. If you have small space then these can very well be the only speakers you will need. No wonder Lukas Fikus of Lampizator was mighty impressed with these little monsters & publicly praised these while having no affiliation with soundkaos.
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