Review

Phoenix Complete Review - Audio & Video Lifestyle Magazine - Australia

02 Nov 2007

Quite a lot has been happening at the Krix factory lately. The South Australian manufacturer, which also happens to be one of Australia’s oldest loudspeaker brands, has been revamping quite a few of its designs over the past 12 or so months. Now Krix isn’t a loudspeaker brand that’ll chop and change its range willy nilly – no, it thinks long and hard about such things before actually doing so.

Firstly, we saw the mark IV version of the budget Apex model and the Seismix 5 subwoofer received some additional design scrutiny, rejuvenated in mark II guise. The big Neuphonix and Epicentrix loudspeakers have been causing quite a sonic stir in the fronts of larger living rooms and Krix recently auctioned off the last ever pair of Esoterix 1 mk2’s on good old eBay. Krix was forced to remove the Esoterix after the source manufacturer ceased production, and the proceeds of the sale (the amount was $3,700.00), Krix donated to the Royal South Australian Deaf Society, which was nice.

Krix has a bit of history behind it and the company and brand was started back when flares and big mo’s were all the rage. Scott Krix started out in 1974, making loudspeakers for his mates in his garage. He later opened up a hi-fi shop in his native Adelaide, principally to showcase his own loudspeaker designs. Almost all loudspeakers in Australia up to that point were imported and the new shop was an important way to demonstrate to the public that locally made products could be just as good.

He was successful enough that he was invited to tender for the new loudspeaker system in the local cinema. He then went away and designed a completely new range of speakers which were housed inside a large wall. Krix dubbed his new invention the Infinite Baffle Wall and once installed in the cinema, his name as an innovative speaker designer was made.

An order for a complete speaker fit-out of the Greater Union in Adelaide soon followed, then orders for Brisbane and the George Street cinema complex in Sydney. The Hollywood invention of the movie blockbuster such as Jaws, E.T., and Top Gun, saw an explosion of cinema going in Australia and the construction of the first cinema multiplexes, for the most part fitted out with Krix loudspeakers.

Krix rode the cinema wave of the ‘80s before deciding to relaunch a line of domestic products in 1990. Success soon followed here too with an award the following year for the compact Superbrix design. Then in 1992, Krix achieved its first award for a floorstanding model when Audio & Video Lifestyle magazine bestowed its award upon the Lyrix.

The Lyrix is a model I am well familiar with having sold them for several years at the retail level. A dual 6.5-inch (165mm) 2-way model, the speaker’s main selling point was its near perfect performance to price ratio. In most any demonstration we set up, comparing a pair of Lyrix, to speakers under $1,000 and speakers up to say, $2,500, it was a pair of Lyrix that went out the door almost every time. I must have worked through a mountain of them in a couple of years.

With speakers both above and below it in the range, the original Lyrix remained perhaps the most iconic Krix speaker for the next 10 years, before it received a mid-life update, relaunching as the Lyrix Gold. In its Gold guise, the Lyrix picked up another AVL award in 2003 and continued to sell strongly. This year sees the deletion of the Lyrix name from the Krix range, replaced with the speaker for review this month; the Phoenix.

Although it has a new name, the heritage of the Phoenix is plain to see. The speaker remains a floorstanding, dual 6.5-inch (165mm) 2-way. There are however some changes, starting with the cosmetics. The cabinet is slimmer giving it a les obtrusive profile. The speaker grilles are now curved, producing less diffraction to the sound whilst being more acoustically transparent. The bass plinth is smaller and heavier and now comes powder-coated; a bump with a vacuum cleaner head should cause no problems, only requiring a wipe with a damp cloth to bring it back to as new appearance. The review pair came covered in a real timber veneer known as Atlantic Jarrah and I think is should prove popular. Other finishes are available or you can pocket some change by passing on the timber and opting for a vinyl wrap instead.

Internally, there is not a whole heap left over from the Lyrix. Bracing has been beefed up, placing triangular timber behind where the tweeter meets the bottom bass driver. This is where vibration is greatest and where structural resonance and internal standing waves can be eliminated.

Unsurprisingly, the Phoenix doesn’t use an Infinite Baffle enclosure (you’re a lucky person indeed if you have a listening room/home-theatre large enough to accommodate one) and instead is rear ported. The ports are flared at each end and have been tuned for tighter, more controlled bass response. I spoke to Krix Loudspeaker’s director of international marketing and sales Peter Lawson, and asked him about the provenance of the drivers (I find it easier to just ask the manufacturer what they’re using rather than pulling the review sample apart and having a look….I gather the manufacturer’s prefer this method also) and he told me they are specifically made to Krix’s own design.

Both the woofers and tweeter are the same as those used throughout much of the Krix range, so if you are mixing models in a surround installation, you can be assured of an integrated soundfield. The driver layout has been designed to maximise the listening sweet-spot (important feature for home theatre use) and raise them up to ear level. The crossover is a completely new design focusing on a balanced, full vocal sound. Close tolerance, polypropylene capacitors are used for high frequencies and cored inductors with low DC resistance for the bass. I always found the Lyrix to have a well-balanced sound, which was easily accessible right through the listening range. I was interested to see if the Phoenix retained this feature.

Before commencing my listening, I raised the speakers off the floor with the included spikes and removed the foam plugs from the bass ports. Frankly, I can’t see any use for the plugs unless you are installing in a broom closet or similarly small space; let the bass run free I say. I used single-shot copper wire from Nordost and found it suited the speakers quite well, but feel free to remove the bridging bars and bi-wire.

Commencing then with Pavarotti in the role of Lieutenant B. F Pinkerton in Decca’s 1974 recording of Madama Butterfly, the Phoenix gave tremendous body and depth to the tenor’s voice. In the upper register, the ‘King of the High C’ himself sounded assured and grain free through the Krix tweeters. The overall sound was full and satisfying with lovely amounts of tight bass. With the Miles Davis recording ‘Round About Midnight’, the Krix were open and transparent when playing Miles’ solos, yet bopped along with the rest of the band when the tempo picked up. The transparency could be put down to a couple of things, but I think it is the crossover which must take most of the credit here. I’m sure it was a process of careful listening and adjustment during the development phase.

The other point I’ll make here is just how well musically suited these loudspeakers are for small to medium sized ensembles such as the Miles Davis quintet. If you are really into your orchestral music then you might want to audition larger speakers if for no other reason than the sake of comparison, but you won’t be left wanting when playing more intimate recordings.

With a commercial cinema heritage such as Krix’s, it’s only natural that its domestic speakers are capable performers ‘in the round’. Inserting the speakers as the fronts in my home theatre system, I played Spider-man 2 to see what they were capable of. Effects such as explosions and the sound of traffic were rendered with impact and drama. They also had a sublime touch when action on the screen slowed down and brought out the film’s more subtle moments.

And what ever came of Krix’s range of cinema speakers? It’s bigger now than ever, with Krix fitting out cinemas right through Europe, America and Asia. How big? Next time you’re in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, be sure to stop by for a movie. The cinema there just had a Krix fit-out.

Rating:

Performance - * * * * *
Build Quality - * * * *
Compatibility - * * * *
Value for Money - * * * * *

- Audio & Video Lifestyle - Australia , Michael O'Connor

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