Review
Equinox Complete Review - Positive Feedback Magazine - USA
01 Nov 2000
In the last couple decades there has been more than a little Australian cultural influx into the US. Everything from Fosters Beer to Crocodile Dundee and Outback Restaurants and numerous, by now somewhat hackneyed Australian colloquialisms such as “G’day Mate” and “Throw another shrimp on the barbie” have arrived on the shores. It was not until a little over a year ago at the 98 CES, however, that I became aware of the entrance of the continent “down under” into High-End audio when I met and briefly hung out with the Redgum amplifier guys who shared an exhibit room with Texas wildman, Bob Crump of TG Audio. It seems, however, that Krix Loudspeakers Pty. Ltd has been exhibiting at CES for several years now, even though I had not taken notice of them until this year, when the subject speakers were being powered by the Rogue 88 tube amplifier I was so impressed with and sounding very good indeed.
Even though the name Krix might sound suspiciously like something concocted by Madison avenue, it is the family name of the founder of the company, Scott Krix. The company, which was founded in 1974 and is essentially a family business in which four of the five brothers are employed by the company. The fifth brother, however, owns a company called “Krixover”, (clever) which makes all the crossover networks for Krix Loudspeakers. The present line of speakers ranges from the subject Equinox to the top of the line Esoterix, with the models such as Lyrix, Euphonix, Centrix and Seismix in between.
The Equinox is what would be referred to in the US as a min-monitor and is a rear ported, 2-way Bass Reflex design with the physical dimensions of only 6 15/16 W x 9 11/16 D x 11 11/16 H (17.5cm x 24.4cm x 29.5cm). The two drivers Are a ferro fluid cooled one inch doped fabric dome tweeter and a five inch doped paper cone bass driver in a cast magnesium basket with a one inch, high temperature voice coil. It is also heavily shielded for home theater use. The crossover is at 1.9kHz with “filters designed to exhibit 3rd order slopes”. (I had a crossover schematic FAX’ed to me and, hopefully without revealing any trade secrets here, it appears to be a rather original third order parallel design. But, of course, I could be wrong). The impedance is given as 6 ohms nominal and the efficiency as 88dB, but the performance would seem to indicate that the efficiency is actually somewhat higher. The frequency response is given as 45Hz to 20kHz and the weight is a bit over 13 pounds (6kg). There is a single pair of gold plated, 5-way binding posts on the rear panel.
Special mention should be made about the veneer finish, which is quite unique. It is of a native Australian wood called Jarrah Wood which can best be described as resembling a mahogany colored pine and is quite striking in appearance. My initial impression of these speakers during the burn-in period was that they simply had to be more efficient than the 88dB listed. I had to turn the volume control on my buffered passive preamp down about 20 degrees from that used for the Silverline SR-12’s of identical claimed efficiency for the same loudness level. I was also impressed during this period with the realism with which brass, and especially trumpets, were reproduced. The first CD I played was of the Vivaldi Concerto Grosso in C, RV 558, on Naxos. “The Red Priest” scored this particular concerto for everything but the kitchen sink, including pairs of chalumeaux, therorbos and mandolins. In this particular recording, however, trumpets are the predominant instrument and I have never before heard them reproduced so convincingly. Man, those trumpets were right there in the room with me!
Not long into the audition of these speakers, other really quite amazing aspects of performance became apparent. Foremost among these was the sheer size of the sound. These speakers simply did not sound “small”. The soundstage was the most expansive I have heard in my listening room for some time, both in width and depth. One can listen to Mahler or any other large scale symphonic works though the Equinoxes without feeling the least bit deprived, especially if they are coupled with a good subwoofer for the sub 45Hz frequencies. Beethoven’s 9th? No problem. Mahler’s 8th? No problem. These little devils provide a soundstage that is wider, deeper and generally more convincing than a couple full range, 3 foot plus high towers that come to mind. The reproduction of depth and recording venue ambience was marvelous and the width of the soundstage was often wider than the distance between the speakers.
Another aspect of performance that was delightfully surprising was the reproduction of impact or leading edge transients or, to use the term coined by J. Gordon Holt, the “Jump Factor”. Even in those instances when I knew a particularly potent bass drum or tympani whack was coming, I still experienced an involuntary jump. Much less dramatic, but equally important for the conveyance of musical realism, is the reproduction of such seemingly minor things as the simple impact laden “ting” of a triangle or the “clang” of an orchestral bell. These are devilishly difficult to reproduce convincingly, but the Equinoxes handled them with aplomb.
Although no frequency response measurements were made on these speakers, it is apparent that the response curve, at least in the midrange, must be quite flat, because musical instruments were reproduced with a timbral accuracy that was quite realistic. The only hint that there might be a slight deviation from linearity was a minor tendency toward stridency in the extreme highs on some recordings. However, one must be very careful about attributing this sort of distortion to a response deviation because of the multitude of other factors involved, and this apparent deviation from linearity or distortion was strictly relative to only the two other speakers of this review. Also, the stridency in the highs was only apparent on early CD’s, most notably from CBS (Sony) and DGG, which might also simply mean that they are more honest than other speakers and are not editorializing. It was also noted that this stridency was significantly decreased with the removable grille panels in place.
The reproduction of detail by these speakers is also superb, enabling one to hear way down into the mix and determine exactly what each section of an orchestra is playing. It is, therefore, somewhat baffling that the imaging of specific instruments is a bit vague, compared with the other two speakers of this review. It would be too easy to attribute this to the high order crossover (the other two speakers are first and second order), but that would not account for the noteworthy reproduction of detail and impact by these speakers. At any rate, this is a very minor caveat, and only meaningful to anal-retentives such as myself who value the entirely unrealistically precise positioning of a single instrument in an entire orchestra. As a matter of fact, some renowned recording engineers, such as Jack Renner of Telarc, believe this type of imaging is unnatural and is, accordingly, rarely heard on Telarc recordings. For smaller ensembles, such as a string quartet, or a folk or jazz ensemble, the imaging is more than adequate. Imaging is also improved by aiming the speaker facia directly at the listening position without sacrificing anything in soundstage width.
In regard to the performance of these speakers with tube vs. solid state amplification, although they sounded great with either, they were a bit more nuanced and even more spacious with tube amplification. But then, maybe I am not being objective, because this was how I first heard them demonstrated at CES.
Although I am definitely not an aficionado of modern headbanger rock or rap, it is not a stretch to conclude that the Equinox’s would reproduce this type of sound as well as they did classical, folk and jazz (and yes, country & western). In other words, these speakers would undoubtedly “rock” and are, therefore, as close to everyman speakers that one is likely to find at anywhere near this meager price. Accordingly, I would urge you to audition a pair at your earliest convenience. I know you will be impressed as I was.
- Positive Feedback Magazine - USA , Gerald Burt
Back to previous page
