Quarks/Voxel and Where to Go From There…

Quick update after almost 2 months of listening. They sound great. But starting to get curious about other speaker designs….

I still enjoy the Quarks/Voxel setup. Over time I adjusted the subwoofer settings: With my initial settings the system sounded a little boomy, which was particularly noticeable for male voices.

Fine Tuning The Setup

I have since lowered the crossover frequency setting from the 1 o’clock position to the 10 o’clock position, which I think comes out to around 80Hz , down from about 120Hz I think. I have also lowered the subwoofer gains setting from the 10 o’clock position to a little lower than 9 o’clock.

The whole setup now sounds very cohesive. Orchestral music seems well balanced with this setting and the “boominess” in male voices is gone.

I am also now buying into the idea that speakers need some break-in time. Hard to describe but the Quarks sound more pleasant somehow…

Also: The plate amp seems to be a little prone to picking up EM interference. There was some noise you could hear from the subwoofer but only when you were really close to it (not from the normal listening position). Turned out to be caused by a nearby WiFi access point. Moving them a couple of inches further apart from each other and rotating the plate amp resolved the problem.

Other Designs I am Curious About

I might have caught the Speaker Building Bug. Two other designs that have piqued my interest recently are quite different from the Quarks, but even more different from each other:

Vifantastisch

This is a very clever design that is simple to build and dirt cheap. It is what is called a “full range speaker”, which means that there is only a single driver and hence no crossover. (Subwoofer is still recommended.) The driver used in the design is only about USD 10 and the only other thing that is needed is some plywood.

The idea is to build a speaker that is only about 3″ thick and hang it on the wall like a painting.  This turns your wall into an infinite baffle, yet the speaker cabinet is vented.

Jeff Bagby’s Continuum

What I am starting to get really curious about are Jeff Bagby’s famous Continuum speakers. See the master himself talk about them here. A kit is available here. Definitely way more expensive than the Quarks and somewhat bigger, but I really want to know what they sound like. Design-wise the Continuums and the Vifantastisch couldn’t be further apart…

One More Strange Thing…

The odd side effect of having a decent speaker setup is that I seem to be developing an odd inclination to listen to electronic dance music. 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *