Greg's next email had 2-inch fangs; and a lovely chip on its shoulder. Or should that be scales? "I laser-engraved the 6mm stainless steel plates on Monday and your samples are assembled breaking in." And what a confident back plate it has become, secured with 18 (!) bolts. He clearly anticipates beaucoup internal pressurization. The engraving also puts us all on notice.

The filter parts attached are pure Mundorf issue. That's unmistakably high end. To Greg's ears, it's simply not high-end nonsense. "Okay" you say. "Brilliant. But until he bites us with the price, that's very easy for his machine to engrave. Will Viper put my wallet in the grave? I can already see its headstone. Hear lies Woulda, poisoned prematurely by sonic ambition." Since Greg's email hadn't mentioned it, I asked. Cuanto zloty? "It's complicated. I'll announce it on the webpage before you receive the samples." He'd already suggested that Viper's parts cost wasn't far off IQ's which starts at €6'900. How much savings could there possibly be on 3D cab printing and lower ship fees? Complicated indeed against common reactions to size, imagined performance and price. IQ had many victory laps through the global press and top marks for high value. Should Viper cost somewhat less but nowhere near proportionate to how it shrinks cubic volume¹, how would the greater public react? Not my problem. A reviewer only calls them as he hears them. Leave sales & marketing to others. It returns 'complicated' to its maker as a sliced curve ball. Might his extreme sonic ambitions have overegged this recipe? Greg being fluent in extreme doesn't guarantee that his prospective buyers are. The only potential cost-cutting measure I saw was making the lower high-pass optional. Regardless, I sure was glad that it wasn't me having to crunch that final number!
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¹ Applying rudimentary math, IQ's bass bin at 32 x 38 x 72cm represents 87'552cm³ measured from the outside. I don't know its panel thickness. 1 litre equals 1'000cm³. Divide 87 litres for IQ by 7 litres for Viper. We see that 12.4 little cabs would fit into one IQ bass bin. If we subtract for the latter's actual volume, calling it 10 x bigger seems realistic. Obviously being ten times bigger can't mean that Viper could cost 10 times less. But to sheer perception, how much less seems fair when we put the two side by side and ask people off the street? "It's complicated."

I've seen costly monitors with rather less premium filter parts. It bears repeating. Viper isn't cutting corners just to woo our wallets or because the Vibron footers are so affordable. Viper's focus is pushing the 7-litre envelope like a hot-rod racer. That's not about street-legal niceties but ultimate speed on the track. How badly do we want in on small but deadly? That's what my mind threw up whilst waiting on the official sticker's reveal; and what "without high-end nonsense" might mean in this context. Just then a reader asked about Virtual's connection to Cube and Qualio. The first two brands resulted from a collaboration between Greg and his friend Marek Kostrzinski who also works with Poland's Pylon Audio. Virtual is Greg's solo venture. The connection is simply his prior and ongoing involvement with the other two brands. It's part of his CV and how prior experience can't help but influence his current work. The poncy term is design DNA. Where we've been and what we've learnt informs what we do next. For Virtual, Grzegorz was already busy with two new projects. "I remember when worldwide Cube Audio sales dropped after Peter and Terry from AVShowrooms passed away. Their enthusiasm for Nenuphar did an excellent job promoting the speaker, praising it in every video as their daily transducer. That's when I realized the power of YouTube and social media and knew that I needed to leverage it. I'm still working towards my goals but even now, at least 60% of Qualio clients mention my videos. With Virtual Hifi I want to build a small company with minimal running costs, reduce reliance on audio shows and create an environment where employees are well compensated and excited to come to work." Show attendance is costly. As a business expense, it's ultimately buyers who cover it as part of their purchase. If self-produced YouTube videos can eventually replace shows, that expense may back out of the retail tariffs without hurting the manufacturer.

"I recorded Viper in my 40m² studio with Laiv Harmony GaN monos, T+A DAC 200 as DAC and preamp and cables I hope to send soon for review, solid-core silver and gold at its very best. Every 15 seconds the recording switches between Viper solo and two SVS 12" subwoofers. With a headphone setup, your readers should get a real sneak peek into what Viper can do."

What comes after Viper?

"Its Dayton driver has an 180mm brother which sounds fabulous, too. Because they're just 83dB and I like big sound and ultimate scale, it was obvious that I'd need two per side. The passive radiators not only add volume but bass tuning so I can squeeze one 7" driver and three passive radiators into a 9-litre box. Now stack two of those per channel and voilà, in stereo we have four 7-inch mid/woofers and 12 passive radiators in monitors sized just 20cm wide, 40cm high and 30cm deep which do –6dB @ 25Hz! The dipole Mundorf AMT goes to the twice-sized model which also allows for a lower crossover point. This has become Cobra which is basically ready now. You may mention it in the Viper review as I've already had plenty of Viper inquiries. Viper is an extremely capable mini monitor, Cobra a full-size higher performance/priced model. I wouldn't want someone to order Viper and later discover that an even bigger bolder option exists. Here is a quick video with early Cobra prototypes running off €1'000/pr Topping B200 monos."

With the same email Greg included a tracking number for my Viper samples. The shipment facts had package dims at 50x40x32m, weight at 23.3kg. Time to get slithering and flick a forked tongue. Snakes move on the ground with their whole body so are supposedly super sensitive to seismic activity. Did I feel a tremor coming on whose epicentre was Poznan, Poland? For that I had to consult a map. I figured you might have to, too. Let's call Poznan the first big Polish city straight east of Berlin to remember its location. Warsaw is twice the distance from the old German capital.

Delivery was by temporary carton to skip over a delay otherwise caused by waiting on production packaging. To protect the exposed tweeters, Greg had packed them separately. It takes just two bolts per speaker to fix their 3D-printed elastomeric brackets to the threaded receivers on top then connect the posh WBT RCA plug to its male receiver. On the flat underside hide four bigger threaded inlets to mount the included small Vibron isolators. Then it's off to the races; or wherever snakes go to show off.