Review

Equinox Complete Review - Absolute Sound - USA

01 Jul 2000

Seven Liters of Sensational Sound

Krix Loudspeakers of Adelaide, South Australia, has been producing systems for movie theaters and homes for over 25 years. A family-run operation headed by Scott Krix, its consumer line includes speakers for both home theater and High End audio, with floor-standers, subwoofers, and center-channel speakers. The Equinox is their smallest, a two-way, bass-reflex design about 12 inches high. Its rear venting and 88dB sensitivity makes it an easy load to drive. It uses a one-inch Ferrofluid-cooled tweeter with a doped-fabric dome and a five-inch doped-paper cone woofer with a cast magnesium basket, a one-inch voice coil, and an aluminum former. The crossover point is 1.9kHz with a third-order (18dB per octave) slope. Impedance is a nominal 6 ohms. A dual pair of five-way binding posts are in back. The cabinet material is 17mm custom board with a lacquered wood veneer.

The sonic character of the Equinox is a mostly neutral blend of midrange richness and mellowness, an impressively deep, slightly soft mid-bass, with upper-frequency detail that avoids artificial etching (an attribute that might be convincing during an audition but fatiguing over the long-term). The bass is warm, with good pitch-definition, and gives the impression of having perceptible response to a little above 50Hz. There seems to be a slight plumpness in the mid-bass, not uncommon for speakers of this dimension, but it’s a subtle one that doesn’t encroach on an overall impression of frequency spectrum in balance.

In keeping with its movie-theater heritage, the Equinox handles dynamics and fairly extreme volume levels with ease. Attaining ear splitting crescendos was so easy, you should proceed with caution. (Owners of the fabled Rogers LS3-%a, produced under license from the BBC, might remember how it easy it was to pin the little woofer to its basket). The Equinox is a small speaker that likes to be challenged. And it got one when I cued up Audra McDonald’s debut album (Audra McDonald, Columbia), “A Tragic Story” is spare on instrumentation, but long on dynamics and transients. The thunderous staccato bursts from the piano match note for note McDonald’s powerful mezzo. The Krix delivered a stunning portion of the lower register weight and impact of the concert grand. McDonald’s voice is at full throttle when she delivers the song’s final note. Generally I reduce the volume until I understand a speaker’s capacities, but this time it was too late. Fortunately, my fear of frying an Equinox driver was unfounded. The speaker sailed through with minimal compression and just a trace of peaky behavior and sibilance in the treble.

The equally challenging CD Clark Terry, One on One (Chesky) features trumpet player Clark Terry and various piano greats aboard a Bösendorfer concert grand playing jazz classics. On an exquisite interpretation of “Misty”, the Equinox excelled in its reproduction of the demanding lower octaves, clear swift transients, and warm, full bodied decay characteristics. This difficult octave range sometimes grew a little thicker and lost some pitch precision as the piano’s energy attempted to overpower the ability of the port to control its output. Treble arpeggios in Billy Taylor’s solo were clean, but a bit harder and cooler in character in the octaves below middle C. The general image placement was more forward than my reference ATC loudspeaker, consistent with a tweeter that is not overly extended and lacks air. The Equinox was impressive on this track in the way it delineated the warmer, more golden sound of the flugelhorn from the brighter, punchier trumpet on some of the others. It reproduced well the acoustic halo around Taylor’s piano and the lower-level dynamic gradations.

Naturally if you push the Krix too hard on orchestral or organ passages, it will reach its limits. Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack for Gladiator has cues that will certainly tax smaller speakers. On such occasions, the Equinox gently compressed dynamics. Images smeared slightly and soundstaging suffered a loss of focus, if only to a modest degree. All in all, terrific performance underscored by surprising dynamics and balanced middle range.

- Absolute Sound - USA , Neil Gader

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