Sometimes it seems as though Australia thinks of itself as a primary and tertiary producer, with little to offer in the secondary industries beyond cars. But a quick glance into the world of high fidelity shows more than a dozen world-class Australian equipment makers, not least VAF Research of South Australia.
Known largely for its direct-from-the-manufacturer marketing practices and its high value kit speakers (which can be purchased fully assembled at extra cost). VAF Research should also be noted for it’s Signature range of speakers which are arguably some of the most accurate speakers in the world, regardless of price. Not only are they accurate, they sound great!
EquipmentThe review system consisted of a pair of VAF Research’s Signature I-93 floorstanding speakers, and three of the relatively compact Signature I-91 speakers. The I-93 speakers are massive. Each weighs over 68kg and stands 270 x 1575 x 491mm (WHD). Expect to surrender quite a bit of floor space to these loudspeakers, especially as they sound best well forward from the wall.
The weight is due to the significant use of 25mm MDF in their construction, massive internal bracing and weighty drivers. At the back of each cabinet is a huge flared bass reflex port and three sets of heavy gold-plated terminals. Yep, these speakers can be tri-wired or tri-amped! These terminals pierce a huge 25mm slab of MDF, to the interior of which is affixed a massive crossover network. The components and wiring are so heavily constructed you wouldn’t be surprised to find them in the power room of a large building.
There are five drivers arranged in a three-way D’Appolito configuration (that is, the tweeter is at the middle of the five drivers, with a pair of midranges above and below it, and the two bass drivers set above and below those). The 25mm Sonotex dome tweeter is right at the lounge-seated ear level of 900mm from the floor. The middle frequencies are handle by a pair of 130mm magnesium dome drivers, and the bass by a pair of 210mm drivers.
The drivers are sourced from European manufacturers, with the designs tweaked to VAF’s specifications. For instance the bass drivers feature inductance rings at each end of the voice coil, significantly extending the linear travel of the cones. The drivers are mounted into the baffle and surrounded by large felt pads to control the dispersion of sound at different frequencies and to eliminate short-wavelength interference with sounds reflected from the baffle.
VAF Research rates the impedance of these speakers at a mere 3 ohms, the sensitivity at 89dB, the power handling at 500 watts and the frequency response at 21 – 19,000Hz +/1 1.2dB! VAF has paid particular attention to time alignment both in the driver locations and the crossover network, keeping the phase variation within plus or minus 5 degrees over most the frequency range.
The Signature I-91 speakers are of similarly solid construction to the I-93 speakers, but there thee similarities pretty much end. While the I-93s emulate a point-source by means of the vertically symmetrical driver layout, the I-91s achieve a true point source thanks to the concentric drivers.
The bass and midrange is handled by a 170mm unit, but this has a 25mm dome tweeter mounted right at its centre in place of the dust cap. This means that the dispersion of all frequencies remains identical, regardless of whether the speakers are placed horizontally or vertically. These speakers use similar sturdy gold-plated terminals and may be bi-wired. The bass reflex ports are at the front, facilitating the use of one of them as a centre channel (the badges are appropriately oriented on the centre and surround channels).
The enclosures of the I-91 speakers are, when standing upright, 220 x 440 x 360mm (WHD) and are a weighty 15kg. Their crossover networks are also mighty pieces of electronic construction. They share the liberal use of felt pads around the drivers.
VAF rates the impedance of thee I-91 speakers at 6 ohms, their power handling at 150 watts, sensitivity at 89dB and frequency response at 50 – 12,000Hz +/- 1.5dB (the high frequency output extends to 20,000 Hz). The I-91s also control phase shift to a remarkable plus or minus 15 degrees.
PerformanceIn a moment we’ll discuss the magnificent stereo performance of the floor-standers, but first let’s look at the system as a surround speakers system. There is something about this family of speakers that makes them work together as an amazingly cohesive whole. What could it be?
The I-91 and I-93 speakers share similar timbrel characteristics, but then so do the surround speakers from many other manufacturers. Yet they seem to offer something more than virtually all the speakers we have auditioned. Sure, surround is steered all the way around the room with the great precision of a well-designed surround speaker system, with the walk-around voice from the Video Essentials DVD being particularly impressive, but there’s more to it than that.
It isn’t just a matter of direction, but also of depth. Just as a wonderful stereo pair of audiophile speakers will reveal a deep stage behind, in front, and to the sides of themselves, so these surround speakers did the same in all directions. Things from the sides seemed to appear from a distance, or up close, according to the demands of the sound track. They offer precision and depth.
Likewise for height. A redeeming feature of the Gus Van Sant remake of Psycho is the scene where the doomed dame arrives at Bates house of horrors. She pauses in the car for a moment as the rain patters on its roof. Its roof? With this I-93/I-93 package, it sounded just like our roof. Well, not really. It sounded like we were in a car with the rain falling on its roof. Not just splats of rain in the centre of the roof, but here, there, spread as it is in real life. Aurally we were transported.
In the end we attributed this surround performance, which is better than most almost in kind rather than level, to two things. The speakers all manage a remarkably wide dispersion of mid and high frequencies, and they all manage to deliver noticeably more micro-dynamic detail than all other speakers we have used lately. It is these tiny subtleties that most speakers smear over and hide away, that steps this performance up to a whole new level of realism.
On stereo, things just get better still. The I-91 speakers are lovely, but the I-93 speakers are even lovelier!
These speakers create a shimmering, holographic sense of reality across their sound stage. That, in turn, is wide, deep and provides tangible instrument and vocals that you feel you could reach out and grasp. If there is something on the CD, that something is revealed by these speakers. Nothing is smeared, hidden away by inaccuracies, so in that sense they can be a trifle unforgiving of poorly recorded CDs. But other CDs that we had thought to be poorly recorded were brought to life by the I-93 speakers – that immediacy and disclosure, once again, of the entire contents of the signal rather than a superficial representation of it. Simply extraordinary!
Then, there is the I-93 speaker’s extraordinary bass performance. If you have even been in a quandary about whether to set your front stereo speakers’ size to ‘small’ or ‘large’ in a home theatre receiver, rest assured that with these speakers there is no question that they are ‘large’. Indeed, to obtain a subwoofer that exceeds their bass extension, be prepared to spend upwards of $2,500.
We measured the in-room bass response of the Signature I-93 speakers to be 3dB down at 22Hz and 6dB down at 18Hz. Such figures are unheard of. Just as importantly, the bass was controlled, tuneful and fast across the entire range. We also measured the sensitivity at 88dB using bandwidth limited (500 – 2,000Hz) pink noise averaging 2.83 volts.
ConclusionWhether you want the highest quality stereo performance, or the highest quality surround performance, these Australian speakers will deliver.
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