Vox5

Reviewer: Srajan Ebaen
Financial interests: click here
Main system: Sources: Retina 5K 27" iMac (i5, 256GB SSD, 40GB RAM, Sonoma 14), 4TB external SSD with Thunderbolt 3, Audirvana Studio, Qobuz Sublime, Singxer SU-6 USB bridge, LHY Audio SW-8 & SW-6 switch, Laiv Audio Harmony and Sonnet Pasithea; Active filter: Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box 2; Power amplifiers: Kinki Studio EX-B7 monos & Gold Note monos on subwoofer; Headamp: Kinki Studio THR-1, Enleum AMP-23R, aune S17Pro Evo; Phones: Raal 1995 Immanis; Loudspeakers: Qualio IQ [on loan] Cables: Kinki Studio Fire, Furutech; Power delivery: Kinki/Vinshine Tai Hang on amps, Furutech GTO 2D NCF on low-level gear; Equipment rack: Artesanía Audio Exoteryc double-wide 3-tier with optional glass shelves, Exoteryc amp stands; Sundry accessories: Acoustic System resonators, LessLoss Firewall for loudspeakers, Furutech NCF Signal Boosters; Room: 6 x 8m with open door behind listening seat; Room treatment: 2 x PSI Audio AVAA C214 active bass traps
2nd system: Source: FiiO R7 into Soundaware D300Ref SD transport to COS Engineering D1 DAC/pre; Filter: Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box 2; Amplifier: Kinki Studio EX-M7; Headamp: Cen.Grand Silver Fox; Loudspeakers: MonAcoustic SuperMon Mini + Dynaudio S18 sub, sound|kaos Vox3awf, Albedo Aptica; Power delivery: Vibex Granada/Alhambra, Akiko Audio Corelli; Equipment rack: Hifistay Mythology Transform X-Frame [on extended loan]; Sundry accessories: Audioquest Fog Lifters; Furutech NFC Clear Lines; Room: ~3.5 x 8m
Desktop system: Source: HP Z2 work station Win10/64; USB bridge: Singxer SU-2; DAC: iFi Pro iDSD Signature; Speakers: DMAX P61; Headphones: Final D-8000 & aune SR7000 Audeze LCD-XC
Upstairs headfi system: FiiO R7; Headphones: Meze 109 Pro, Fiio FT3, Raal 1995 Magna, HiFiMan Susvara
2-channel video system: Source: Oppo BDP-105; All-in-One: Gold Note IS-1000 Deluxe; Loudspeakers: Zu Soul VI; Subwoofer: Zu Submission; Power delivery: Furutech eTP-8, Room: ~6x4m
Review component retail: €TBD

Think different. It applies to the upcoming sound|kaos Vox5 by Swiss auteur Martin Gateley. At 19.7cm across, it's only slightly wider than the existing 17cm Vox3 monitor. It even gets the Raal ribbon tweeter firing up and the signature 4" Enviée widebander. But in lieu of the monitor's sidefiring force-cancelling 5" carbon-fibre woofers loaded through a rear slot, there are two stacked 12" woofers. Their compound surface equals a single 17".

They load in RiPol config where a frontal slot releases the front wave, a rear slot the back wave. Like a classic dipole, this creates lateral anti-phase cancellation. Unlike a classic dipole, crammed spacing seriously lowers the woofers' resonant frequency. It also alters their radiation pattern for less output through the back than front slot. This more closely resembles a cardioid than classic figure-8 dipole pattern.

Technically such a bass array is a folded open baffle whose layout and modelling are based on an expired Axel Ridthaler patent. Hence the name RiPol for Ridthaler dipole. Whilst Martin's portfolio already has dual 12-inch and 15-inch standalone passive RiPol subs—and my main rig one of his big ones—the Vox5 replaces the monitor stand with a solid bass bin. We get true low stereo bass from neatly docked enclosures which look like two standard albeit stumpy 84cm tall speakers. That's a gold star for a sardine-can packing job!

On general visual status, the Vox5 acts like the vast majority of classic speakers. On details including Martin's award-winning wire-suspension isolators beneath the outriggers, it thinks different. But for any sound|kaos fence sitter who eyed a pair of Vox3 plus one or two Gravitas D12 subs, the conservative Swiss Vox5 smartly turns a hot'n'heavy foursome into a twosome and skips right over the saucy French ménage-à-trois. One imagines dealers and their clients beseeching our designer to help guard their domestic bliss by integrating stereo 2.1/2.2 performance into fewer pieces.

Unlike audiophile jihadists, normal households don't worship at the altar of hifi. In a living room doubling as listening den, less is more particularly with speakers. Just how much less that might be without sacrificing bandwidth appears to be the riddle our Swiss slivers have us ponder.

Desktop with Vox3awf. The Vox5 would take up no more space though otherwise be overkill for such nearfield use.

Prior experience knows that the aural sound|kaos aesthetic shares more with Ocellia, PHY and Supravox than AER, Cube, Lowther, Rethm and Voxativ. Keen observers know that Voxativ's Alberich2 is the conceptually closest competitor. It too combines a small widebander with RiPol bass albeit of the single 12" active sort. By omitting plate-amp electronics for the bass, the Vox5 relies on its owner to power the woofers like any other passive speaker would. As to acoustic consultancy, Martin collaborates with Christian Ellis who worked on Node Audio's radical spheroid Hylixa speaker and the popular Q Acoustics range. The signature sound|kaos woodwork comes from a wheelwright's custom shop in the Swiss Alps near Gstaad. We thus know better than expect Chinese MDF-based production costs. But from the renders and their webpage descriptions we do expect that the Vox5 head units decouple to avoid having Armin Galm's lightweight widebander cone share cubic volume with or mechanically talk to two highly pressurized woofers. Considering these ingredients, I'm impressed that Martin ended up with such friendly dimensions. Prior exposure to his work knows of bronze dispersion plates for the auxiliary ribbon tweeters, bronze baskets for the widebanders, Mundorf/Jantzen-calibre filter parts.

So we remember to think different. Martin does. "The bass cab is a bit of complex wood engineering but not beyond my usual man Simon Oehrli. It's an asymmetrical clam shell with a tapered joint front to back. Once the woofers are mounted to the wider half, the skinnier side goes on and gets fixed top and bottom and also centrally between the woofers to create a solid block. The top of the bin is covered by the floating mid/HF head which sits on another three Vibra isolators to decouple."

Visitors to the final HighEnd show in Munich—2026 shifts it to Vienna—will have a chance to meet the Vox5 at the parallel HiFi Deluxe show in the Marriot Hotel May 16-18th. "I'm finalizing details for the show system. It'll be the usual suspects of Enleum and Bibacord. Whilst we won't make a final DAC decision until May 5th, something promising is in the wind.

"Also, a US manufacturer has gone for my Vibra isolation tech in a big way and wants to make high-end racks. He's shipping the prototype I designed tomorrow. They are US importers of German Panzerholz and mainly into high-performance car-racing parts but have begun to make enclosure components for speaker brands and racks to dealers. These shelves will use a refined version of Panzerholz called Festholz¹ with linoleum facing. All the rack's metal parts will be bronze and six Vibra 68 sit on the base and four Vibra 30 under each shelf all suspended on 5mm steel cables." That's wire suspension in triplicate for floor decoupling, shelf suspension and shelf decoupling so multi-stage isolation across a three-tier double-wide platform with echoes of an earlier Stillpoints rack to which we must still add the Festholz and bronze contributions. Having reviewed and awarded the Vibra isolators, I was chuffed to see them recognized by an engineering firm and become part of a performance rack designed by Martin who seems to be a bit of a renaissance man comfortable in different disciplines.

At this stage of my narrative, 2025 Axpona in Chicago had just concluded. There Danish speaker brand Børresen had teased a €20'000 quad 8" active RiPol sub as the middle model of an upcoming range of three. The Axel Ridthaler bass concept was gaining visibility at the cost-no-issue end of our hobby.
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¹ This material impregnates Beech ply with hard resins under high pressure like Panzerholz whose literal translation of tankwood refers to its hardness which can stop bullets.