Review

Lyrix Complete Review - Australian Hi-Fi - Australia

01 May 1999

Australian audiophiles have a lot for which to thank our near-neighbours to the north. Since Australian manufacturers started exporting to SE Asia and Japan in earnest, the quality of local loudspeaker cabinets has improved dramatically, and pricing has become increasingly competitive. Cabinet quality has risen because audiophiles in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan demand absolutely flawless finishes and require manufacturing tolerances to be held at micron accuracy. Prices have become more competitive simply because Australian manufacturers are no longer just producing for the relatively small local market – they’re now exporting container-load after container-load out of the country, which means they can pass on the benefits of mass production (better buying prices on raw materials, increased cost efficiencies and so on).

Also, some State governments have woken up to the fact that the Australian loudspeaker industry is now earning big export dollars for the country (and, therefore, the State in which they’re based!), and have come up with incentives to encourage local speaker manufacturers. The South Australian government, in particular, has been very generous…and this is reflected in the fact that four of Australia’s largest loudspeaker manufacturers – Duntech, Krix, Sonique and VAF – are domiciled there, along with a raft of smaller companies. To give you an idea of the level of political interest that is shown in speaker manufacturing, Krix’s newest factory, in Hackham, was officially opened by the premier of South Australia, Dean Brown.

The Equipment

Krix’s Lyrix should need no introduction. It was the Consumer Electronics Supplier’s Associations’ (CESA) “Loudspeaker of the Year” in 1994 (sub-$2000 category), with judges from Sound & Image magazine reported as saying “Well above average sound quality for its class, the Lyrix is a well thought-out design that presents very well, with a beautiful timber finish that marries form with function.” It also picked up a ‘Best Buy’ award from AVL in 1992. Scott Krix says the Lyrix was “designed to offer high efficiency whilst maintaining true high fidelity, low distortion and excellent bass extension.”

Krix has achieved this by putting two ‘nominal’ 170mm diameter polypropylene-coned woofers into a floorstanding, 40-litre cabinet and crossing them over to a 27mm fabric dome tweeter. As you can see, the array is D’Appolito format (MTM), with the tweeter positioned midway between the bass / midrange units.

The bass driver’s polypropylene cone is suspended from an oddly-profiled reverse roll surround that’s made from an unusually soft and stretchy rubber…quite different from the butyl rubbers we’re used to seeing.

The reason Krix rates the 170mm diameter it states in the specifications as ‘nominal’ is because the mounting hole spacing is actually 172mm, and the width of the cone plus roll surround is considerably smaller, at just 139mm. However, the crucial measurement for determining bass output (and cabinet alignment) is the cone diameter, which is 116mm, for an effective cone are (ECA) of 106cm2. However, because there are two drivers covering the same frequency range, the effective area doubles to 212cm2. (To provide this same area from a single cone, Krix would need to use a driver with a cone diameter or 164mm, and thus a ‘nominal’ dimension of around 210mm.) The driver itself uses a pressed steel frame and a fairly hefty magnet, that’s 85mmØ by 15mm. Identified by the code 16T85DR-01HW 712D2B, the driver carries no manufacturer markings and is not vented, either through the soft plastic dustcap, or via the centre of the magnet at the rear. The suspension (spider) is a conventional full circumference design and the 25mm voice coil is wound on an aluminium former.

The tweeter is a Seas unit (H831-6?) manufactured in Norway. As stated earlier, it has a fabric dome (pre-coated in Norway) and the voice coil is immersed in ferro-fluid.

Both drivers are linked back to the crossover by multi-strand wire. Terminations to the drivers are made via slip-on spade connectors, but at the crossover network, the wires are soldered directly to the crossover. All three drivers are fixed to the front baffle using standard particleboard screws.

The crossover is constructed on the rear of the rear-terminal plate, with all the components being epoxied to either the plastic from which the plate is made, or of other components in the crossover. The crossover is a nine-element type, with two cross-mounted inductors (one of which is ferrite-cored), four capacitors (three of which are bipolar electrolytics) and four five watt wire-wound ceramic resistors, which combine to give a nominal crossover point of 1.8kHz. There’s also an X050 polyswitch fitted to protect the tweeter against excessive current. This particular device (the X050) is one of the smallest positive temperature coefficient (PTC) resistors made, and has a hold current of approximately 500mA. The crossover is a bi-wirable type, and external connections are colour coded gold-plated multi-way types.

The cabinet is constructed of 17mm MDF and is not internally braced, nor are fillets used at the corners. Five of the six internal walls are covered with 25mm thick sheets of non-allergenic open-cell foam. (The one that isn’t covered is the front baffle.) The enclosure is a bass-reflex design, with the port venting to the rear of the cabinet. The port itself is 124mm long and 74mm in diameter, with a curved outside section. The inner end of the port is blocked off by a small section of plastic grille, presumably to deter small rodents from making their homes inside the loudspeakers – always a good idea in the wilds of Australia. The exterior of our review sample was finished in a superb Australian Jarrah veneer. The speakers are 945mm high, 210mm wide and 310mm deep and come with an integral plinth that is threaded to take spikes.

Listening Sessions

Obviously, because of the rear-firing port, you can’t just shove the Lyrix up against a rear wall. Nor, for that matter would you want to, because they’re attractive in their own right as furniture pieces. Krix recommends a minimum distance of 100mm from a rear wall – a figure with which I would agree. (Note, however, that you can improve imaging dramatically by operating the speakers at least two metres form any walls, though you will lose a little bass extension and level if you follow this advice).

For the most part, I followed Krix’s positioning advice and operated the Lyrix more than 100mm from a rear wall as recommended (150mm to be precise) and angled them towards the listening position. Positioned this way, the sound was attractively realistic, with a well-defined bass region that was obviously extended, and was not prone to the dreaded ‘mid-bass bloom’ and a very controlled and balanced midrange. The high frequencies were very obviously extended, and did not have any annoying ‘tizz’ to them that’s usually caused by a peakiness in the upper treble.

The result of all these sonic characteristics was that the Krix Lyrixs sounded…well, unspectacular – but it’s important to realise that I intend this comment as high praise, not criticism. In the course of sounding ‘unspectacular’, these Krix speakers just let musical sounds flow through unaffected, and do not paint their own ‘flavours’ over the musicians’ and producers’ intentions. In other words, they do exactly what a speaker is supposed to do – reproduce music, plain and unadorned. I tried my usual battery of test recordings to try and unsettle the Lyrix, but try as I might, they remained completely unfazed, reproducing free jazz, orchestral works, heavy metal…even country music with equal ease and precision.

No matter whether it was the tympani in an orchestral work, or the kick drum in a rock band, bass response was controlled and deep. The Krix is a fine all-round loudspeaker. Becoming increasingly desperate to find a chink in the Lyrix’s armour, I switched to a test CD (Prosonus Studio Reference) and, during an 88-note piano run, finally found a small hiccup in volume and tone production at around D below middle C. Using this same disc, I also discovered the very top octave of the keyboard was ever so slightly ‘soft-sounding’. However, when I then played a number of solo piano pieces where the pianist played the D below middle C repeatedly, both in the middle of runs and in chords, I found I could not detect the same differences during real performances as easily. However, it was possible to hear the very slight softness around the upper harmonics…but the effect was slight. This softness was not as apparent when I tried to identify it with electrified instruments, (such as electric guitar lead breaks) as with unamplified acoustic instruments.

Conclusion

The Krix Lyrix is a great all-rounder, fully deserving of all the praise and accolades that have been showered on it over the years.

- Australian HiFi - Australia , Greg Borrowman

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