Alberich²

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; Active filter: Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box 2; Power amplifiers: Kinki Studio EX-B7 monos & Gold Note monos on subwoofer; Headamp: Enleum AMP-23R; Phones: Raal 1995 Immanis, HifiMan Susvara; Loudspeakers: Qualio IQ [on loan] Cables: Kinki Studio Earth, Furutech; Power delivery: Vibex Granada/Alhambra on all source components, Vibex One 11R on amps, Furutech DPS-4.1 between wall and conditioners; 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 Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe; Preamp/filter: Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box 2; Amplifier: Kinki Studio EX-M7; Headamp: Cen.Grand Silver Fox; Loudspeakers: MonAcoustic SuperMon Mini + Dynaudio S18 sub; Power delivery: Furutech GTO 2D NCF, 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 Z230 work station Win10/64; USB bridge: Singxer SU-2; DAC: Sonnet Pasithea; Headamp: Kinki Studio THR-1; Speaker amp: Crayon CFA-1.2; Speakers: Acelec Model One Headphones: Final D-8000 & Sonorous X, Audeze LCD-XC, Raal-Requisite SR1a on Schiit Jotunheim R
Upstairs headfi system: FiiO R7, COS Engineering D1, Cen.Grand Silver Fox; Headphones: Raal 1995 Magna, Meze 109 Pro, Fiio FT3
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: €16'000/pr for Hagen² + Alberich² stack with AF-1.9 widebanders, Alnico AF-2A adds €2'000; €30'900 all metal build with Alnico widebanders

Not until the fat lady sings. It's shorthand for an interminable wait; just not as existential as waiting for Godot. It's also the operatic equivalent of not counting our chickens until they hatch. Wait and see. In Wagner's multi-generational Ring, the final aria at the end of Götterdämmerung is stout Brünhilde's in her Viking helmet. Given that a full performance of this operatic cycle takes four nights with an approximate runtime of 15 hours depending on the conductor's vigour, waiting for the lady is indeed a very sore act of numb ass. The ugly dwarf king Alberich fashions the ring from stolen gold. Subsequently the god Wotan steals the magical power object which Alberich now curses, later the hero Siegfried wears it then is slain by Alberich's son Hagen. Before committing suicide on his funeral pyre, Siegfried's lover, the valkyrie Brünhilde and Wotan's daughter, returns the ring to the Rhine maidens. Hagen is drowned, the gods and Valhalla destroyed. It's Germany's own Lords of the Ring. It's an early Nordic Game of Thrones with Fafner the dragon, lusty gods, demigods, gods becoming mortals, power politics, jealousy, revenge and magic. Hey, opera is when someone gets stabbed in the back and bursts out into loud song.

Today's 4-piece speaker system from Berlin brand Voxativ nods at this saga. It puts hero-slaying son Hagen on the shoulders of his woofer dad Alberich. That name for a narrow cardioid sub is fitting when the dwarf Alberich not only guards a vast subterranean treasure but owns the Tarnkappe, a magical invisibility cap. As a velocity converter not pressure generator, any RiPol sub so named for original patent holder Axel Ridthaler (Ridthaler dipole) operates fundamentally different than a typical box sub. With its asymmetrical 'super dipole' radiation pattern, it's acoustically less visible by triggering less room interaction, box talk and building in superior damping with a far lower resonant frequency for its woofer/s.

Hagen² with sound|kaos Gravitas 15 dual 15-inch RiPol sub in the middle.

With the Ridthaler patent long expired, it's been a matter of personal curiosity why unlike the equally expired Oskar Heil patent for the AMT, the RiPol bass system hasn't enjoyed broader adoption beyond rare sightings by Bastanis, recently Børresen, Cygnus, Ecobox, ModalAkustik, MP&S Klangwelten, sound|kaos & Voxativ. Where today Heil-inspired drivers are a dime a dozen, the RiPol principle remains super obscure. To hear Voxativ's next-gen iteration of a single-driver RiPol doubling as stand for their compact 5" wideband monitor, my fat lady would sing sooner than in Bayreuth. My review of Hagen² only dates back to September 2024 when Alberich² wasn't yet available to tell the full 2-up story in one act. Today then is Act II to save us all the foreplay. The only tickle left to tease are Alberich's full specs; and that like all proper strongmen, he can easily support this triple stack of Hagen for a widebander line source here shown with Voxativ's own SET.

Obviously this is no eventual tower of Pisa. It's properly trussed with a metal spine that locks this tall narrow stack together in the back. For my smaller room and appetite, we'll simply remain with a single point-source Hagen riding on Alberich's shoulder. We'll leave fire-breathing dragon slaying to more legendarily sized spaces and owners of heroic purses and SPL. We all know how Siegfried meets his end: murdered by Hagen. Death in triplicate? I'll go out singly, thank you. But with Marie Adler of Voxativ currently drawing inspiration from Teutonic myths, there's no telling what kind of juicy dramas future model names could conjure up. To trade operatic emotional excess for practical audiophile mentality, combining a high-eff unfiltered 5" widebander with adjustable active bass is a golden ticket for flea-watt amps. Those could be direct-heated triodes or single-stage transistors like the earlier 10-watt FirstWatt SIT1 monos behind a pair of piano-gloss white Hagen. How to milk taut low bass for much modern music from underdamped high-impedance valve amps driving low-impedance speakers through potentially half a mile of output transformer windings has always been a challenge. The Alberich short stack removes that question. It can all be done and over with long before the fat lady sings!

"The Hagen in this latest Alberich system differs from standalone Hagen you reviewed. I modified its short faceted rear horn to now cut off at 90Hz. This strengthened the 100-300Hz response. With Alberich's woofers added and eyes closed, you'd think big monster speakers were playing. Alberich gained a new paper-cone neodymium woofer mounted to a 6mm steel plate for optimal silence and even the 500-watt class D amp is new. So is the underhung Alnico widebander which adds more resolution without the sharpness of the AF-2B neodymium driver.

"At €6.9K/pr for standalone Hagen², a client complained that with this docked system I now want €10K for a pair of subs. My reply is that, a/ with the revised Hagen² it's now a purpose-tuned speaker system whose new acoustical line still improves the sound; /b one saves €1'800 on stands; c/ our RiPol subs are faster and better tuned than any other available subs. The standard Alberich finish is black or white, metal optional. Weight is 40kg, 96kg in metal. Dimensions are 20x30x101cm WxDxH, response is 20Hz to 33kHz. The plate amp offers line and speaker-level inputs with adjustable frequency, level and phase. The ideal subwoofer entry is line level, low pass at 85Hz, phase between 90-180° depending on room."

In the hotly contested value vein, Cube Audio's 2024 Nenuphar v2 commands €18.7K. That's virtually on par with Voxativ's upgraded 5er stack. Poland's contender is a classic 10" multi-whizzer single-driver affair in a TQWT cab 10cm wider. One sole transducer covers 28Hz-18kHz -6dB. Alberich assigns its bottom two octaves to an active 12" woofer, the remaining eight to an unfiltered small driver. That still adds a claimed 35kHz atop not because our hearing exceeds 20kHz but because extra reach—hello beryllium and diamond tweeters—minimizes phase shift and break-up in the audible treble.

On paper, Voxativ's compact double decker packs the aces on bandwidth, LF control and cosmetic footprint over Nenuphar whilst pricing head-on competitive. More aces are the physical separation of bass bin from light-coned main driver and having a dedicated bass volume control and adjustable filter hinge for our in-room tonal balance. In my book that makes 2025's Alberich² the most exciting prospect to join this niche genre in years.

To brush up on my rusty Wagnerian for the occasion, here's a quote attributed to the man: "Richard Wagner, a musician who wrote music which is better than it sounds." He also said "I wish I could score everything for horns" and "I have only a mind to live, to enjoy, to work as an artist, to produce my works – but not for the muddy brains of the common herd." That last one rather applies to our review subject. Its concept is unconventional and far off the mainstream. It's decidedly no herd-mentality darling. How about proper heard mentality?