From the assembly bench, here are a few guts'n'glory shots.

One spots some of the usual boutique parts from Nichicon, Jamicon, Mundorf and...

... Wima on the capacitor front, then beefy stand-offs for the massive 211 ceramic tube sockets and thick traces on the PCB.


Stay tuned as we wait for the second production run to drop and a review loaner to make its way from Berlin to Westport. Here are some photos from the Munich HighEnd show 2016, of Voxativ's exhibit when Trafomatic's 70-watt direct-heated triode Elysium monos were on brief loan from the Tune Audio exhibit...

... and the Blues Brothers of Holger Adler and Sasa Cokic looking cool in a hallway. Polish contributor Dawid Grzyb checked in post show with an enigmatic "...those Voxativ bass modules you wrote about a while ago? Damn, now I understand" which became more elaborate in his formal coverage. "The Voxativ/TotalDAC room was the most important for me this year. I had very high hopes regarding the sound... Knowing that Holger Adler would show new goods (Zeth floorstanders and Hagen monitors). things got even more interesting. When I got to the room, the latter model was in the spotlight yet supported by the active bass modules which with the Pi monitors create the 9.87 system. To some this might seem trickery as this combination is highly unlikely in real life. If someone is after the dipole woofers and able to do so financially ($19'900/pr), he’ll probably get the Pi ($23'800/pr) at some point to complete the 9.87. Yet the Hagen are really small compared to the rest of Voxativ's offering. Some help in the lower octaves was in order as the room was rather large... What I heard was amazing bass, no questions asked. I wouldn’t change a single thing. It was fast, thick, extremely well textured and very finely differentiated, not to mention that it could go very deep yet did so surprisingly effortlessly. As for the rest, it was my kind of performance, too. The sound was precise yet not clinical. The soundstage was spot on though I expected nothing less from a widebander. The texturing was impressive with no dryness at all. Vividness and detailing were there but the music was presented in a curious way. It wasn’t squeaky clean. Some grain was part of the whole but not to a point where this would cause any fatigue. Picture film grain in a mild amount. It’s visible yet instead of spoiling the view, it elevates the cinematic experience. Sound wise things were slightly on the soft though heavily involving side. The outcome simply made my day."

For a Voxativ show mention in our pages, Marja & Henk had this: "Voxativ are always a treat to listen to. A personal bonus was being able to listen to the 9.87 system for the first time. Driven by Voxativ and TotalDac electronics, the 9.87 system projected the music effortlessly into the room. The Pi loudspeaker, a widebander mounted in a cabinet that includes a short downfiring horn, was placed on the new active dipole woofer system. This is a folded open baffle with isobaric loading based on the Ripol design by Axel Ridtahler. The Berlin company further enhanced the Ripol scheme with their Acoustic Stealth Technology just like in the Pi. Unlike most other (sub)woofer manufacturers, Voxativ did not chose class-D amplification. Instead they went after a class A/B plate amp. All this made for a very fast bass system that did not give away its presence as a separate entity." Thus two separate parties—actually, three—expressed surprise by how well Voxativ's high-efficiency subwoofers performed. At 99dB, they're quite unusual indeed.

We still have no housings. After the dilemma we have changed the producer.
So now we are awaiting them in the next 4 weeks from the new one.

Finally it was good  to wait because in the meantime we made the amp much better than before.
Most influence has the replace of the Alps poti. We are using a 46 step attenuator with motor driven remote now.
This increases the sound wonderfully. Also the output transformers got another step.

So hopefully all will be finished end October.

Then I will send it and maybe a pair of matching Zeth speakers if you like. The amp had been developed together with the Zeth to give a powerful bass to a real fullrange based speaker.
On the Zeth  all ist new, inclusive the driver - at a reasonable price (€ 9.900.-). A wonderful match.
... to be continued...

Voxativ website
s