Living Voice OBX-R80 loudspeakers
Living Voice was born out of desire to make loudspeakers that were suitable for the valve/tube electronics. Founder Kevin Scott got his start with Definitive Audio selling tube amplifiers and a small range of speakers that were suited to their relatively low power, but when such models as he considered of sufficient quality disappeared he needed to find a replacement. That took the form of the Auditorium, a medium sized two-way with twin mid/bass drivers either side of a tweeter in a D’Appolito configuration. He has been making ever more sophisticated versions of this model for thirty years now but also branched out into horn loudspeakers which reached their zenith in the Vox Olympian, an elaborately built, no expense spared design that can be used with a partnering bass system for a full bandwidth, no compromise loudspeaker system par excellence.
The OBX-R80 was born out of a desire to combine the manageable scale and price of the Auditorium with the dynamic and bandwidth capabilities of the Vox Olympian horn speakers. They first appeared at the High End show in Munich in May 2019 but it has taken Scott five years to finalise the design so that it meets his standards. The OBX-R80 looks like an Auditorium that’s grown up into a fine fellow, it retains the D’Appolito driver arrangement but does this with larger eight inch bass/mid drivers from Scanspeak’s distinctive Ellipticor range, the 34mm tweeter is from the same source, as you can tell from its elliptical shape.
The Ellipticor drivers were selected because they “are the most advanced drivers they [Scanspeak] have yet designed. These use treated paper diaphragms for the bass/mid, and treated fabric diaphragms for the HF – all with elliptical voice coils, elliptical voice coil formers and elliptical magnet pole pieces. This is a challenging geometry, demanding the highest precision in production engineering execution. The goal is a significant reduction in interference modes on the diaphragm surface and a consequential reduction in harmonic and intermodulation distortions – even at high sound pressure levels. This translates into an easy resolution of dynamic contrasts and clean unobscured resolution of low-level harmonics. They have higher than average sensitivity (97dB for the HF unit) despite their wide operating bandwidth which is unusual. The massive HF unit has a low Fs ( resonance frequency) of 550Hz which is nearly three octaves below crossover; very nice. The bass/mid drivers work smoothly up to frequencies normally associated with smaller drivers, making light touch crossover design a realisable goal. These characteristics promise wide bandwidth and high sensitivity from a very grown up two-way and sidestep complications and compromises inherent in a three-way topology to achieve the same performance objectives.” According to Scott.
The OBX-R80s look fabulous in the high gloss santos finish supplied, I have rarely encountered woodwork of this calibre, the cabinets are a composite wood construction with veneer on the inside to balance that seen on the outside. They stand just over a metre high before you add the birch ply plinth which raises them by 60mm, and that’s without the rather nice stainless steel spikes which Living Voice recommend be left quite long. So you end up with a speaker that’s around 1.2m (4 foot) high that is quite chunky and very heavy; don’t try lifting it on your own. The crossovers on the OBX-R80 sit in their own equally glossy enclosures, each about the size of an amplifier, however they can be sat upright with the terminals facing upwards so don’t take up too much space. The speaker cables connect to one set of bi-wire terminals and a second shorter set are connected to the loudspeakers using blue, yellow, white and green colour coding to ensure correct hook up.
The terminals on crossover and cabinet are high quality WBT types and these hint at the quality of components and cabling inside the crossover cabinets which include Living Voice’s air core inductors, proprietary non inductive wire wound resistors and polypropylene capacitors. Many OBX-R80 components are given a deep cryogenic treatment for enhanced sound quality, this includes the terminals, internal wiring and select crossover components. No stone it, seems, has been left unturned. The reflex port is both unusually large with its 100mm bore but architectural in its bronze construction, I don’t think I have seen a more exotic example of the breed.
Sound quality
In order to get an idea of how the OBX-R80s sound in a typical Definitive Audio system they were supplied with tube amplification from SJS Electroacoustics, this took the form of Arcadia Model 6 MM phono amplifier, Model 4 linestage and a Model 5 single ended 300B power amplifier rated at 9 Watts per channel. An amp that requires plenty of sensitivity in the partnering speakers. The only other element was a Consolidated Audio step-up transformer that was used to match the low output of my Rega Aphelion 2 cartridge to the input on the Model 6. Quite a fancy system that costs more than the asking price of the speakers, however no speaker works alone and there is a lot to be said for having amplification that is well matched.
I used my own digital front end and experimented with my transistor power amplifier and passive preamplifier to get a rounded idea of what the OBX-R80s are capable of. I experimented with cables and ended up using both the William Eikos Ultra-Litz and some quite ancient Electrofluidics speaker cables which provide a lighter balance than my usual Townshend Fracta F1 and suited this system nicely.
Given these elements the system sounded as glorious as you would wish for, especially when playing decent recordings such as Anouar Brahem’s Astounding Eyes of Rita, this really took on a whole new sense of vitality and realism thanks to the immense levels of tonal and dynamic detail that the system delivers. Where there are nuances of playing to be discovered the OBX-R80s will let you hear it, and with great acoustic recordings like this there seems to be an awful lot of tone colour and timbral richness to enjoy that other systems fail to reveal. I should also mention the effortless fluency of this system, it manages to get out of the way and let the music flow into the room in a totally natural and relaxed fashion that encourages extended listening and much rifling through the record collection.
That’s record as in recording so encapsulates both vinyl and digital streaming, the latter proving to be very beguiling indeed with a range of material including Bill Frisell’s East/West album, I note that this was recorded live direct to two-track which explains the electric atmosphere and immediacy of the performance via this system. The sound escapes the cabinets and takes over the room without the need for high volume levels which is a very pleasant experience and something that is hard to achieve without high quality tube amplification. At no point did I feel that the power amplifier was under duress or that 9W was not enough for the job, which proves that you don’t need raw muscle to deliver remarkable results if you have the right speaker, the OBX-R80 is clearly such a speaker.
You also need a decent recording and I found a few that didn’t make the grade, a different side to tube amps is that they don’t disguise the use of compression or limiting and albums such as Sweetnighter by Weather Report have far too much of it, which makes them sound a little thin and squashed on this system. You don’t need audiophile material to make the OBX-R80s sing though, the new Jono McLeery release Reconcile has a surprisingly good vocal on it and the sound overall is large and open, the balance warm and inviting. It’s clearly been mixed to sound this way but works very well with this degree of exposure. I often shy away from brass heavy music because so many systems make trumpets and saxophones shout, that was not the case here where you get all the shape and tonal character of the instruments without the break up that so often accompanies it. It’s a deluxe sound that seems totally unvarnished and rich with detail.
The bass is rather juicy too, those big drivers really go low in a totally controlled and well defined fashion, I found unexpectedly appealing bass textures on a range of tracks including some by Vega Trails on their Tremors in the Static album. This is an album that can fail to connect on many systems, its subtleties are not always resolved well enough, however the tonal capabilities and fluency of the OBX-R80s makes it clear that the band paints a charming lyrical picture with double bass, flute and sax. It’s a pared back style of playing where the textures of the instruments provide the appeal and this system makes them very clear.
With the Icon 5 passive pre and Moor Amps Angel 6 150W power amp you do get more powerful bass as expected and results are equally as captivating but in a different fashion, the transistor power delivers quieter backgrounds but that is because it doesn’t reveal all the fine details that the 300B SJS uncovers. This combination of amp and speakers works a treat nonetheless, especially with Tord Gustavsen’s Seeingalbum which is particularly vibrant and has better dynamics than I have been hearing on other systems. The whole sound is convincingly live and real in the room. Voices remain entrancing as well, both those of Sidsel Endresen on Punkt Live Remixes vol.2 and Joan Osborne on Pensacola, the latter is very mid strong and emphasises the emotional power of the performance but the OBX-R80s make space for a great sounding guitar as well.
I missed the easy fluency of the SJS amp but managed to find plenty to enjoy with this distinctly more affordable pre/power combination. I also noticed big variations in the sound of vinyl records that had not been so clear in the past, one album being dark and thick while another was relatively bright and thin. In both cases however the music took centre stage and the less polished sound of Bill Evan’s Waltz for Debby retained all of its magic. The transistor amps produced excellent results with more up to date recordings but also extracted superb sounds from older pressings like Joni Mitchell’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns, this offered up lyrical details that I have not heard before thanks to the transparency of the OBX-R80s.
I also played some old trip hop favourites from Kid Loco’s Late Night Tales compilation where The Underwolves’ So Blue It’s Black really popped out of the speakers, but it couldn’t match the phenomenal trumpet sound that Roy Eldridge creates on Newport Rebels (Charles Mingus), the energy and exuberance that this system finds in this vintage live recording is extraordinary, they don’t make ‘em like that anymore and not many speakers lets that vivacity flow so effectively.
Conclusion
The Living Voice OBX-R80s have been a long time coming to fruition but it has been worth the wait. They combine the high musicality and ease of drive found in the brand’s Auditorium models with a degree of transparency and dynamic expression that few can match. And while they are undoubtedly extremely well suited to valve amplification I managed to get excellent results with glass free electronics of the relatively affordable variety. When you consider the lavish build and finish, the separate crossovers and the all-out gorgeousness of the sound the OBX-R80s make a very strong case for their asking price.