Напольная акустика — Volti Audio Razz

The Razz is a three-way hybrid horn and bass-reflex floorstanding loudspeaker from Volti Audio, a small American company that builds and sells its speakers direct. Its catalogue siblings are the Vittora, Rival and Lucera, and it is the most compact horn design of the group. The base price is USD 8,500 per pair with black stretch grilles, plus USD 500 for delivery east of the Rocky Mountains and up to USD 1,000 further west.

Key specs that matter

Volti uses a 12 inch high-sensitivity, high-power woofer in a reflex enclosure. The midrange is a large-format horn with a 2 inch throat and a wide-dispersion profile, driven by a compression driver with a 2 inch exit and a composite diaphragm, while a neodymium horn tweeter covers the highest frequencies. Volti gives a bandwidth of 35 Hz to 20 kHz, a sensitivity of 97 dB and a nominal impedance of 6 ohm, and advises using the 8 ohm taps on amplifiers that have them. Amplifier power should be at least 8 W per channel and no more than 80 W continuous. Each cabinet is 1,016 mm tall, 381 mm wide and 305 mm deep and weighs 40.8 kg, with a shipping weight of 48.5 kg per speaker. Further veneers include mahogany, American black cherry and maple, and upgraded finishes cost extra.

Engineering and use context

Cabinet walls are 25 mm Baltic Birch plywood, braced throughout and damped internally, carrying veneer on the top, sides and front edges in walnut, red gum and other woods. Grille frames are solid 13 mm Baltic Birch with concealed magnets, and the base black stretch cloth can be swapped for weaves in black, dark gray, tan mix, light beige or gray for a USD 500 upcharge. The crossover is wired by hand from metallized polypropylene capacitors, air-core inductors and precision resistors, with the high-frequency and low-frequency networks mounted on separate boards. Because the port faces forward, the speaker does not depend on a rear wall for its bass loading and can stand with more freedom in a 20 m2 room. The input plates carry bi-wire terminals with binding posts.

Pairing

The low minimum power figure means even a few watts from a single-ended triode or similar small valve design can drive the Razz, while the power ceiling sets a clear upper limit for solid-state units. The bi-wire plates also allow two runs of cable, one to each crossover network, from a single amplifier.

Alternatives

The Volti Audio Rival is a larger floorstanding horn model from the same maker for buyers who want more cabinet volume than the Razz offers.