This system starts with a late year 2020 27" iMac with 40GB RAM, the most current macOS and Audirvana Origin as music optimizer engine and x 4 upsampler. My local library lives on its own 4TB USB3.0 SSD. Cloud files first see a LHY Audio SW8 network switch before entering. Upon exiting, local and cloudy files hit a Singxer SU-6 USB bridge under ultra-cap power. Still digital, that spits out reclocked AES/EBU to a Sonnet Pasithea DAC whose variable reference voltage is my remote volume control. This connects via 6m XLR to an icOn Gradient Box smart active crossover. Set to 80Hz on a 4th-order LR filter, high-passed signal hits a pair of 250-watt Kinki Studio EX-B7 monos then the speakers, typically a pair of €5'500/pr Qualio IQ. The low-passed signal hits a Goldmund/Job 225 stereo amp working as pure bass amp into a cardioid/Ripol 2 x 15-inch subwoofer from sound|kaos. By remote the Gradient Box can route incoming full-range signal straight to the main amps to bypass sub and filter. That's ultra convenient for seamless A/B.
On said score and in this room, VC's rear ports rode my higher room mode which like magic disappeared when I switched in the sub with its strategic 'super'-dipole dispersion pattern. On sufficient music to personally matter, the sub also categorically showed how in this larger room a good extra octave of low bandwidth made an appreciable difference. It's where for less money Qualio's direct-selling 9½" 3-way hits a legitimate 28Hz. That's virtual sub turf. Why I still run the sub is not really for reach or power but mostly for its room-mode cancellation across a good two octaves. That acoustic short circuit enforces higher amplitude linearity and superior time-domain behavior by causing less than half as much room resonance.
When VC first replaced IQ, my ear/brain registered an instantly brighter drier sound. Five different music tracks later, that 'aha' moment had already faded irretrievably. My hearing had auto calibrated to no longer get hung up on the difference. In my book that's typically a sign for inherent 'neutrality' being close enough to the golden mean to not trigger constant 'off' reminders. In this instance the difference was the IQ's 600Hz to 23kHz open-baffle dipole dispersion vs. VC's direct emissions. Halfway into the first session I thought that perhaps something really was just a bit off still. On a lark I checked and voilà, I'd inadvertently inverted VC's left/right scheme. Once I swapped them, I swallowed hard. Tonality filled out as though the tonal center sat half an octave lower. Was this due to how longer vs. shorter ports interacted with my side walls? I haven't a clue other than to say that rather than soundstaging, correcting the mistake improved tonality into something unexpectedly fleshier.
Back on soundstaging, VC hosted a syndicated rerun of upstairs. Versus the more billowy somewhat redolent IQ, its focus sharpness was still higher. That goosed up imaging suchness to lock all sounds to ultra-specific locations. Once more it invoked the image of crunchy layers of filo dough clustering tightly but in discrete sheets. Should we feel cute, we might say VC's religion is Crispianity. The one thing wrong with that pun is unintentional subtext of undue starkness as though a meal sat under infrared heat lights for a few minutes before being served. It inevitably dries out. I simply didn't hear that. If Crispianity becomes one of your takeaways, be sure to relate it to image focus not desiccated textures. That's the gist. It also parks VC in a rather different neighborhood than a Living Voice Auditorium or Spendor type; or our sound|kaos Vox3a for that matter. Meanwhile back on Stenheim, their 2 x 6½" Alumine 2.5 floorstander gets €23.5K so thrice more. Which leads to the obvious next point. Who is VC for?
