Напольная акустика — Vitavox TriStar

The TriStar is a three-way, full-range corner horn loudspeaker from the British company Vitavox, built around what the maker calls integrated directional and time domain control. Like the other Vitavox horn systems, it is designed to use the room corner as part of its bass horn, so the walls extend the effective size of the mouth and carry the response lower than the cabinet alone would allow.

Key specs that matter

The bass driver is a 15 inch Vitavox LGK151 with a bronze and alnico construction, which drives a folded horn of exponential profile from its front face. Midrange comes from a Vitavox S4 pressure unit, and treble from the TR32B, a slot-dispersive compression tweeter. Vitavox rates the system at 30 Hz to 21 kHz within 6 dB, with a sensitivity of 105 dB at 1 W and 1 m and an impedance of 15 ohms. Power handling is 100 W. Dispersion is 90 by 20 degrees in the midrange band and 120 by 40 degrees for the tweeter. Each cabinet is 1680 mm high, 925 mm wide and 725 mm deep, occupies about 4 square feet of floor and weighs 140 kg.

Engineering and use context

The mid and treble drivers sit in a T3 module that can be rotated relative to the cabinet within a range of plus or minus 10 degrees, so the horn axis can be aimed at the listener. The same module includes high-frequency time domain alignment between the drivers. Division between the three bands is done by an outboard Vitavox NW500X crossover housed outside the main enclosure, and the connections use Vitavox SC1 oxygen-free copper cable with VX4-B terminations. The cabinet is made of hardwood plywood throughout. Surfaces can be specified in solid hardwood with commercial veneers and inlay, and owners pick an acrylic PU lacquer applied in several coats or a hand-polished oil surface as the final coat. Vitavox first announced the TriStar in October 2025.

Pairing

With 105 dB from a single watt, the TriStar can be driven by very low-power amplifiers, among them single-ended triode amplifiers with only a handful of watts. A 15-ohm rating means the amplifier supplies less current than it would into typical 4 or 8 ohm speakers, and valve amplifiers offering a 16 ohm output tap are a natural match. Because the crossover is external, the cable between it and the cabinet is part of the system supplied by Vitavox.

Alternatives

The Vitavox CN-191 is the older two-way corner horn in the range, using an AK151 bass unit and an S2 pressure unit crossed over at 500 Hz.