Review

Brix Mk2 Complete Review - Australian Hi-Fi - Australia

01 Oct 2002

One of Krix’s best-selling designs has always been its aptly named ‘Brix’ (and I say ‘apt’ because they aren’t that much bigger than a couple of bricks.) One reason is because they’re Krix’s entry-level model, at a shade under $400 per pair, but the other reason is that they sound so damned good. So why has Krix re-designed what was already a winning formula? It turns out it was mainly update the cabinet cosmetics, but Krix’s designers took the opportunity of the cabinet re-design to improve efficiency slightly and grab a little more at the bottom end.

The Equipment

It’s rare to find a high-quality bass/midrange driver in such small speakers, but Krix has bitten the bullet and gone with one from the famous Danish manufacturer Vifa. Rather than use a cheap pressed steel basket, the Vifa TC11 has a moulded ABS chassis that’s reinforced with fibre, for rigidity. Quality is evident in the voice-coil former, which is aluminium, and supports a full-size (25mm diameter) coil. They drive a doped paper cone suspended by a rubber roll-surround. Krix is to be commended for using rubber as a surround material instead of foam. In Australia’s harsh climate, foam has a nasty habit of disintegrating rather quickly! The driver’s large (it’s 72mm diameter and 15mm thick) magnet assembly is not shielded, but its external field is damped by the addition of a flux-bucking magnet.

The tweeter is a tiny, 19mm fabric dome device whose size belies its performance. One reason for the exceptional performance is the use of neodymium as a magnetic material and another the incorporation of ferrofluid to increase efficiency and improve power-handling capacity. Unlike many small speakers, there’s no detail-destroying positive temperature co-efficient resistor in series with the tweeter to protect it, but it’s crossed over at such a high frequency (approx. 5kHz) that it’s hardly likely to need protection anyway.

Look inside any budget speaker and in most cases you will discover the designer has skimped on crossover components, such as using electrolytic capacitors and ferrite-cored inductors (or, worse, no inductors at all!). Not Krix. The Brix Mk2 crossover is certainly simple, but it’s very well made with a single metallised polyester film capacitor, and air-cored inductor and 10 watt ceramic resistor.

Not that Krix hasn’t tried to cut costs. It has, but it’s done it in the one area where it’s possible to reduce costs without compromising sound quality. I am referring, of course, to the finish of the cabinet. My review pair of speakers had a standard black paint finish and as a result looked fairly ordinary. If you’d like your speakers to look a little classier, you can spring another $50 for an off-white paint finish, or another $100 to get a choice between several real timber veneers. The speakers will look a whole lot better as a result, but they’ll sound just the same! I must point out that I have visited Krix’s in-house paint facility, and can attest that it’s one of the best, most technically advanced in Australia, so the painted finish is actually excellent.

Just in case you need to know how much bigger a Brix is than a brick, the cabinet stands 256mm high, 155mm wide and 170mm deep, for an internal volume of approximately 3 litres. The inside volume is vented (yes, it’s a bass reflex enclosure!) by a tiny front-mounted port that’s 25mm in diameter and 63mm long. The front-firing port design means you can mount the speakers in a bookshelf, or with their backs directly against a wall without affecting the bass response – something you can’t do with a bookshelf speaker that has a bass reflex port on the rear baffle.

If there’s any criticism we could make of the Brix Mk2, it’s that the top of the cabinet projects forward over the top of the speaker baffle, providing an ‘early reflection’ surface for the tweeter. It would probably be better if this projection were cut back level with the grille.

Listening Sessions

Who was it who said that if you don’t get the midrange right, you might as well forget about the rest? (It was actually Harry Pearson, I think.) It’s true of course, because if the midrange doesn’t sound natural and musical, it doesn’t matter how great the bass is, or how extended and transparent the high frequencies, because the speaker is never going to sound right. Which is the long way of saying Krix has got it as right with the Brix Mk2 as it did with the original Brix. The midrange is beautifully flat and uncoloured, with none of the telltale signs that would indicate suck-outs or prominences.

I suggest you should prove this to yourself by listening to a selection of female vocalists. On Bonnie Jensen’s new CD, Lucky So and So her voice soars through a succession of standards, finishing with a terrific version of Cyndi Lauper’s Time after Time’. Listening via the Krix speakers, the intonation is rock-solid. Tone production is maintained irrespective of pitch and the level of detail is reminiscent of a studio monitor.

Bass response rolls of rather rapidly of course – you wouldn’t expect anything else from such a small cabinet – but we fancied that Krix has managed to squeeze a few more notes in than the original. Not many, mind you, but every little bit helps! If the speaker makes a low B rather than a low C, that’s certainly an improvement.

At the other end of the spectrum, I thought that the highs were nicely presented, but that the treble obviously benefited when the speakers were placed so the tweeters were at ear level and aimed at the listening position. What was simply stunning was the stereo imaging that’s possible with the Brix 2s, particularly if you stand-mount them around a metre out from a rear wall. With some careful positioning, I was rewarded by a sound field that was almost headphone-like in its spatial treatment of the two channels.

Conclusion

Krix’s Brix 2 will fit in just about anywhere. As entry-level stereo speakers in a main system, they’d be great. As a pair for a second bedroom, kitchen or workshop, they’d be fabulous. If you’re after a home theatre capability, you could put Brix in all channels (though the lack of magnetic shielding means you might have to be careful with the one you use as the centre channel).

And, of course, if you already have front-channel speakers, but are looking for a pair (or three) of rear channels, you won’t do better than the Brix 2s! Perhaps best of all, second time around, they’re just as good value as they were in the beginning. Highly recommended.

- Australian HiFi - Australia , Greg Borrowman

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