Hifi Pig Advertising Promotion

Hifi Pig brings you a series of promotional articles about our Great British Brands exhibiting at High End Munich 2017. We let them tell you all about their philosophy and products.

This year at Munich high-end 2017 Living Voice will be showing two loudspeaker systems, both with a Kondo M77 pre-amplifier and a pair of Gakuoh push-pull power amplifiers, fitted with Living Voice 300B power valves. The main system will be set up on two of our new (yet to be named), equipment tables, developed in conjunction with UK based Natural Audio Structures.

The main system features the Vox Palladian and Palladian Basso horn loudspeaker system. Weighing in at 800kgs this is a 5-way fully horn loaded design, housed in two pairs of enclosures with a bandwidth of 20Hz to 45kHz. The Palladian Basso Bass bass system is a folded exponential horn driven by a pair of long throw high power drivers with reinforced paper diaphragms. These drivers are powered by a 500watt MOSFET bass amplifier with 36dB/octave low pass filtering and modest EQ covering the frequency range 20-70Hz, where it crosses over to the Vox Palladian. The Vox Palladian covers the lions share of the frequency range, operating from 70Hz upwards with a sensitivity of 105dB/w @1m. 

The Low frequency drive unit is the Vitavox 151. This is a massively constructed 15″ bass driver designed specifically for horn loading. It uses a 2.1kg AlNiCo magnet to focus 1.4 Tesla onto the small 57mm diameter voice coil. This motor system drives a very light (45gm) straight sided paper pulp diaphragm with extreme precision. The driver is loaded into the folded exponential horn geometry through a phase correction plug that ensures that the integrity of the pressure wave at the diaphragm is preserved at the mouth of the horn. This mid bass system operates from 70Hz to 400Hz.  

The mid frequency drive unit is the Vitavox S2 compression driver with proprietary diaphragm of chemically hardened aluminium, also made by Vitavox. Its 1.4 Tesla AlNiCo magnet drives a featherweight 3″ diameter aluminium diaphragm of just 50 microns thickness. This driver is coupled to a radial exponential horn development through a complex phase correction plug. This driver system operates between 400Hz and 5kHz with dispersion at crossover of 90 degrees horizontally, and 120 degrees vertically.

The high Frequency drive unit is a Living Voice modified TAD TD-2002. This employs a 48mm Beryllium diaphragm formed by a process of high purity vacuum evaporation that weighs only 0.13 of a g. This driver uses a power ALNiCo magnet that produces a flux density of 19.5K Gauss. It is loaded to a unique proprietary Living Voice horn geometry that is machined from LG2 bronze. The high frequency system is operating 5 kHz and 15kHz.

Ultra High frequency drive unit is the Vitavox T9: It uses a 1kg AlNiCo magnet with 1.4 Tesla to energise a tiny 30 micron thick aluminium ring. It uses a symmetrical exponential horn with bullet shaped phase plug providing output from 15kHz to 40 kHz with 30 degrees of horizontal and vertical dispersion. This unit has been developed specifically for the Living Voice Vox Palladian loudspeaker system in conjunction with Vitavox.

The cabinets are constructed from  a custom made sub-straight comprised of calibrated laminations of beech hardwood, a material chosen through a process of iterative development due to its natural sound and geometric stability. The cabinets are finished in an open grain English Walnut and laid to a striking sunburst motif.  All of the bronze work is finished in a rich mottled chocolate through an artisanal process of hand patination and Carnauba wax.  

The second system features our classic 2-way MTM floor standing loudspeaker; the OBX-RW3. A design that has evolved progressively over the past 25 years and is now in its third iteration. It now features proprietary drive units throughout that are made for us by Scanspeak, including a new HF unit made specifically for Living Voice on their Revelator chassis, a significantly improved cabinet, a redesigned crossover filter with revised crossover points, and new capacitor technology. The new OBX-RW3 retains its high 94 db/w sensitivity and exceedingly benign impedance characteristic to deliver all of the classic virtues of the original RW, but with greater scale, energy and freedom. The performance in both musical terms and strict sound quality terms is a major step forward on what was already a celebrated design. The electronics in the OBX-RW3 system will be set up on the Living Voice G8 equipment table.

Living Voice – E220 Atrium 4.

Still to come in our Great British Brands At Munich 2017 series are articles from The Funk Firm, Quadraspire and The Chord Company.