Review

Tryptix, Seismix 1 Complete Review - Audio & Video Lifestyle Magazine - Australia

07 Mar 2008

Unfortunately, it’s still true that the vast majority of people go out and buy a shiny new flat panel TV, with little or no regard given to the sound system. I’ve heard from readers who when they put it to the salesman that they have a large lounge room to fill with surround sound, he’s replied with ‘oh, the TV’s speakers will be fine.’ Unless, you’re talking a bedroom or small lounge, this simply isn’t true and no TV speakers, no matter what they say, can give you sound that’s going to match the size and quality of the image.

So, with the TV’s taking up less living room depth and usable space by hanging them on the wall, it’s only logical for speaker designers to do the same and that’s what we’ve seen over the past few years – an explosion of on-wall and in the wall or ceiling speaker designs. Maximum sound from minimum living space is the goal.

The art of speaker concealment takes on many forms these days. They can hang and look like works of art on the lounge room wall, or hide out in the garden amongst the rockery.

But, let’s not digress too much from the path of convention. Krix isn’t one such loudspeaker manufacturer that would ever disguise its products as a soft toy, but it does hide them in other ways.

For years there has been two sides to Krix – one its commercial cinema, the other its domestic loudspeakers. If you’re sitting comfortably in your local multiplex, chances are the speakers will be Krix and you’ll certainly hear them but won’t necessarily see them. Domestically, its loudspeakers certainly draw on its commercial expertise, but the two divisions and products are still very separate entities. So, when you’re putting a home cinema system together, a different set of principals tend to govern the size, style, number and positioning of loudspeakers come into play.

This has changed even more so since the advent of flat panel TVs. Sitting either side and above or below the TV screen, on-wall loudspeakers are a great way of aesthetically matching the look of the screen as well as getting the speakers out of the way and off the floor. Being so close to the wall also means smaller loudspeakers will gain a bit of bass lift, so this can also help. But, Krix’s new Tryptix do not necessarily have to be wall mounted. Floor stands are available for $175 each and there’s a small stand ($100) available for the centre channel speaker. The review system came with two pairs of floor stands, a centre stand and the speakers finished in the high gloss black finish, while they also come in a high gloss white or silver finish as well.

Each Tryptix has a small bracket on the back which has a dual use for either wall or stand mounting. It’s clear that the designers have put a fair amount of thought into this little device to try and make mounting as simple as possible. The speaker cable is threaded through the speaker stands slim column, then you pass it through the bracket and finally into a pair of spring-loaded binding posts on the back recess of the speaker. All of this is well and good if your speaker cables aren’t too substantial. I found my fairly inflexible Axis Reference cables just a bit too much for the connections and threading through the stands, but after a little bit of persuasion I got them all hooked up. Smaller gauge, more flexible cables would make hook up a lot easier though.

So, with the fronts and surrounds positioned on their stands, they reach 1.1 metres in height and look fantastic. The stands’ base is a heavy lump of cast metal, finished in a high gloss with a textured inset top, which matches the black grilles. To help compliment the furnishings or colour of the TV screen, a spare alternative colour grille is also included with each Tryptix.

Removing said magnetic grille reveals twin 100mm bass drivers and a centrally-mounted 26mm ‘super’ tweeter. The cabinets are bass reflex loaded with two small ports top and bottom (or left and right for the centre). Like all of Krix’s domestic speakers, the Tryptix are a well made and solid little speaker, as are the stands. It took me a little while putting everything together and I popped the Tryptix in the space usually occupied by my resident KEF iQs, except for the surrounds that sat just behind and on either side of the sofa. As the Tryptix are available as a single speaker you can use as many (or little) as you like.

Partnering the five, Krix’s baby subwoofer, the Seismix 1 was included, also sporting the same high gloss black finish and Krix recommends it or the physically larger Seismix 3 to use with the Tryptix. The Seismix 1’s got some nice compact proportions, but still packs a 10-inch (250mm) forward firing woofer driven by an internal 200 watt amplifier. I Hadn’t heard the baby Seismix before, so was looking forward to hearing how well this system gelled as a whole.

To be honest, on-wall speakers usually mean some sort of sonic compromise. Compared to larger cabinets, they usually don’t have the bass weight or sound staging depth, but there are the odd exception and these are one on-wall design that sound anything but two-dimensional. I experimented with positioning and started out with the fronts and centre about a metre from the rear wall. The Tryptix were all fresh out of their numerous boxes, so I let them settle in for a few days before seriously listening. Taking an initial stock though, I made a mental note how smooth and refined they sounded straight from the off. The dual concentric, wave guide centre plugged tweeters looked familiar and on closer inspection, it was confirmed that they were a Vifa XT device, which would account for such initial high frequency evenness. This is a tweeter that only improves with use too and a fine choice by Krix to implement in the Tryptix.

For slim, small cabinets and tiny drivers, they’re not bass shy either. They do appreciate a bit of help from the rear wall in this regard, but in conjunction with the Seismix 1, they’re just fine in open space also. I spent most of the running in using music and stuck with a few CDs to hear what the Tryptix had to offer. For some strange reason I was in the mood for a bit of guitar-laden rock so popped The White Stripe’s Blue Orchid on and cranked the wick.

A simple track, it somehow blends big rock guitar riffs with a disco undertone, as only The White Stripes could. The track likes a big, ballsy speaker, but I was liking what I heard out of the small Tryptix system. There’s never any hint of harshness creeping into the top-end and like the Seismix 3, the 1 is a considerate bass performer and never lets things get out of hand. This isn’t the biggest of subs, nor does it sound it. What’s on offer though is ample punch for loud action moments and a subwoofer that’s a keen music performer, able to follow a fast, deep baseline or complex kick-drum pattern. As a musical combination, the system integrates very well. I tried listening using Pro-Logic II Music decoding, so all channels and speakers got in on the act, which proved to be quite a convincing one.

It puts in a nice movie performance also and despite their compactness, there’s no problem for the Tryptix to fill a fairly large space. They haven’t been designed as the most AV receiver friendly of speakers though with a 4 ohm impedance and average 88dB sensitivity. I found a bit of the volume nudge was needed on my Yamaha RX-V2700 to really get them on song. Once the current’s flowing, the Krix collection doesn’t hold back and I pushed them fairly hard without any sign of duress from satellite or subwoofer.

The term ‘lifestyle’ is used a lot these days with AV components and it can often mean a lot’s been put into the look rather than the performance. Krix’s new Tryptix addresses both in equal measure. They’ll look good on the wall or native stands next to a shiny Plasma or LCD flat panel, but more importantly these are ‘proper’ home theatre loudspeakers.

Rating:

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

- Audio & Video Lifestyle - Australia , Nic Tatham

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