Floorstanding loudspeakers — Voxativ AMPEGGIO DUE

The AMPEGGIO DUE is a wide, shallow folded-horn loudspeaker from Voxativ of Zossen near Berlin, built around a single full-range field-coil driver per channel. Voxativ lists it from EUR 99,000 per pair, with USD 99,000 asked in the USA. Besides black or white piano lacquer, it is offered as a Glass Edition in transparent acrylic and as an Art Edition decorated by the Berlin artist Gabriele Schlesselmann in gold leaf over oil and acrylic paint.

Key specs that matter

Voxativ rates the system from 25 Hz to 20 kHz with an efficiency of 110 dB at 1 W and 1 m and a capacity of 50 W sine. The cabinet is 120 cm wide, 140 cm high and only 19 cm deep, and each one weighs 80 kg. The fitted AC-XHB driver has an impedance of 10.5 ohm, an outer diameter of 19 cm, a mounting depth of 16.5 cm and a weight of 13 kg on its own. Its Qts is 0.30 when the field coil runs at 12 V, the operating point for which the maker quotes its efficiency. Assembly after payment takes about two weeks.

Engineering and use context

The AC-XHB is a hybrid motor. An internal neodymium ring gives a fixed magnetic base, and an electrically powered field coil adds a controlled electromagnet on top of it, together reaching 24,000 gauss in the gap. A field coil needs its own DC supply, so the speaker has to be powered as well as driven by the amplifier. The cone is hand-finished from aged tone wood of the kind used for violins and is held by a goat leather surround. Sold separately, this driver costs EUR 69,000, which accounts for most of the speaker's price. As with other Voxativ models there is no crossover, so the amplifier output reaches the voice coil without any filter parts. The rear wave travels through a folded horn inside the broad, flat enclosure, with the horn openings facing downward. Voxativ says the wide cabinet is there for acoustic as well as visual reasons, since it gives the folded horn the path it needs for bass extension. The driver itself is rated for 100 W on short music peaks.

Pairing

With such high efficiency a single watt is enough, so single-ended valve amplifiers of one to a few watts are the obvious match, and the moderately high impedance is a comfortable load for their output transformers.

Alternatives

The Voxativ AMPEGGIO is the narrower back-loaded horn tower with non-field-coil drivers.