Axis of beauty & music. I placed the VoiceBox S on reasonably solid and spiked Atacama Nexus 6i triple column sand-filled stands in the main rig. Signal was fed via AMR’s superb CD-77.1 disc spinner feeding my long-serving but recently updated to DHT mode Supratek Reference which in turn fed a Musical Fidelity kW750 and then, towards the latter part of the review after a trade-in, the astoundingly good Parasound Halo JC 1 mono blocks. Cabling was via the remarkable ZenSati Seraphim interconnect and speaker marvels. You may question the compatibility, or partnering likelihood, of a speaker at this price with such high-end gear. But the heights these tiny speakers reached with gear of such quality remains a subject of wonderment to this writer and speaks volumes on the integrity and excellence of the design. For the sake of orthodoxy, I also tried them with much more modest ancillaries like an upper-tier Onkyo receiver for one. Outcome? These speakers drew the best from such modest electronics even if totally outclassing them. So, off they went back to the main rig. Indeed this is a bona fide high-end design.

I’d have to start by getting one aspect across as succinctly as possible: these speakers sound far far bigger than their stature would suggest. At the outset I wanted to test the VoiceBox S’ dynamic and overall power capabilities. The Tony Dagradi Trio’s Live at the Columns is a purist live recording that has been spared the ravages of compressors and the sort of post-production manipulation that strangulates the life out of most recordings. A more immediate dynamic recording you won’t find. The VoiceBox S punched the sax and drum solos on "Limbo Jazz" with such dynamic power that I found myself questioning the form of crossover and driver trickery our wizards Reilly and Serhan had pulled. In fact I was for the first time in quite a while somewhat dumbfounded by an audio component’s performance. These mini monitors sounded as big and more dynamic than many a small floorstander. But they loved and thrived on lots of power. They’ll still more than impress in this regard with a 50-75 watts amplifier but hook them to a 150 to 200 watts powerhouse and look out!


Mating a very fast true ribbon tweeter to a dynamic midrange driver whilst maintaining soundfield cohesiveness and frequency response uniformity demands a thoroughly well-engineered crossover. And that requires very patient astute ears over prolonged listening sessions. Again, the VoiceBox S exhibits the fruit of such directives. Whilst a ribbon can be a somewhat overt transducer, in the hands of Gandalf The Grey and The White aka Reilly and Serhan, what could have turned into a splashy treble fest of conspicuous energy has been compliantly manipulated to provide a resolute and beautifully detailed presentation that seamlessly integrates with the very fast mid/woofer. Said ribbon shows its mettle with micro-dynamic detail. Any low-level incidental information—the stuff that audiophiles love such as metal string detail, spitty vocal inflections, drum brushes etc—as the minor threads in the tapestry of the music are depicted with astonishing precision. And this is important: the VoiceBox S renders such detail in a way that informs and integrates with the music. It forms part of it without dissection as a fundamental part of the musical communication.

Another strength is the way the VoiceBox S throws a soundstage. The speakers recreate a soundfield with tremendous width, reasonable depth and accurate image placement. Given an appropriate recording, lateral layers are defined and independent of each other whilst depth is not as dramatically profound as our much more expensive reference. The mix of drivers—as acutely integrated as they are—do throw the soundstage a tad forward but only minimally so. This is actually a presentation which many audiophiles enjoy as it can provide a heightened sense of immediacy. Just as it does here, these speakers can create an extraordinary sense of being there. So whack on any vocal, male or female of suitable quality, and you’ll be astonished at the verisimilitude. Be it Chris Jones, Diana Krall or indeed any of the ‘showroom session’ suspects and you’ll have them pretty much in your room as far as current transducer technology allows. The deed reflects the name.