Volti Audio Vittora

joeinid

joeinid

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Has anybody heard these?

http://www.voltiaudio.com/vittora.shtml

​

Volti Audio Vittora
Made in the U.S.A. - Built by Greg Roberts
vittora2.jpg

[SIZE=-1]Bosse Cedar, medium-rubbed lacquer, black cloth
[/SIZE]




The Vittora is a fully horn-loaded, three-way, high-efficiency speaker system that delivers wide dynamic range, high output, and extremely low distortion. It IS a horn speaker, and it gives us everything we like about horns while minimizing the problems that plague some other horn designs. The Vittora strikes a balance between the sound of a high-end, smooth, audiophile speaker, and the in-your-face, lively, dynamic sound of a big horn system. It is unmistakably true to the all-horn format, but polite enough to be taken seriously by any audiophile.




tiamavittora24.jpg

[SIZE=-1]Tiama, medium-rubbed lacquer, black cloth
For a quick note about my photos - click HERE
The Vittora utilizes a 15" woofer in a folded horn to produce solid, accurate bass. Even at high output levels, the distortion from this horn is undetectable, and the result is a quickness and definition that you can only get with a horn design. There's no ported bass sound with this horn speaker! You get tight, accurate bass, a correct sounding mid-bass, and perfect integration between the bass and mid.
The Vittora uses a large wooden midrange horn with a tractrix flare that I build myself. The horn has a 2" throat and uses a large-format midrange compression driver with a 3-1/2" voice coil. This combination of large, solidly built wooden horn with a large throat and huge midrange compression driver results in a midrange sound that is effortless and easy to listen to. There is no constriction of the sound through a tiny throat, there is no edginess, graininess, or honky sound that so many other horn designs suffer from. The Vittora midrange is smooth and articulate, dynamic and uncolored. The midrange is truly the heart of this loudspeaker, and the listener is rewarded with a musicality from this midrange horn that is very rare in this industry, at any price.
The tweeter was carefully chosen to provide the same sensitivity and dynamics as the rest of the system, and the high end is crisp, yet lush.
vittora7.jpg

[/SIZE]
 
BlueMcIntosh said:
hmmm..it kind of looks like the K-horns. I would love to hear them as well.
Click to expand...

Vittora Quick Specs:

Frequency response is 50Hz to 20Khz
Power handling is 100watts RMS
Sensitivity is 104db 1W/1M
32" wide at the front, 15" wide at the rear, 27" deep, 40" tall
The bass horns weigh @127lbs. each, and the upper horns weigh @60lbs. each

[FONT=times new roman, times, serif] [SIZE=+2]Design Notes
I am an audiophile and I like horn speakers, and those two things often do not mesh well with one another. It's no secret that in the audiophile community, horns are often looked down upon, and I understand why. The Vittora is designed to be a break-through product that minimizes and/or eliminates the problems that some audiophiles identify with horn speakers, while maintaining the elements that I have enjoyed listening to my whole life.
The Vittora speakers provide all of the wonderful attributes of horn-loading throughout the entire musical spectrum, in a relatively compact package, and they do so with all the dynamic range and life-like realism that we expect from a horn speaker. The Vittoras also can be described as smooth, uncolored, tonally accurate, and sweet, which are words that are often not associated with horn speakers. In fact, after listening to the Vittoras, many people comment to me that if I hadn't told them, they would never have guessed these were horn speakers. But of course they had to be, because what other topology can reach out and demand your attention the way an all-horn system can?
This unique combination of dynamic realism and smoothness is a result of hundreds of hours of design, prototyping, and building to develop this speaker.
There are relatively few speakers with bass horns available for sale, probably because of the difficulty in producing one that can go deep enough and also sound good through the mid-bass. Also, bass horns tend to be very large and complicated to build, which drives up cost and limits the marketability. As a result, most horn speakers are built with bass-reflex cabinets, with the only horns being the midrange and/or tweeters.
While this type of format (horns for the upper end and vented bass for the low end) is fine for some people, and designers feel comfortable calling them horn speakers (even though I think they should be called partial horn speakers), for me it's a compromise that I didn't want to make with the Vittora. I wanted fully horn-loaded sound for this speaker. Not even a back-loaded horn would do, it had to be a folded horn.
The overall size of the Vittora folded bass horn is relatively small, compared to other folded bass horns, and the size does limit the low-end extension of the Vittora to about 50Hz (in-room measurements with in-room gain). This was a known compromise that was accepted early in the design. There's a balance here, between the size of the cabinet and the low-end extension that was considered during the design phase, as it relates to the sound quality of the mid-bass, the desire to have the system be fully horn-loaded, and the marketability of the system. It's a balance that is rare in this industry.
tiamavittora32.jpg

[/SIZE][/FONT]
 
joeinid said:


Has anybody heard these?

http://www.voltiaudio.com/vittora.shtml

​

Volti Audio Vittora
Made in the U.S.A. - Built by Greg Roberts
vittora2.jpg

[SIZE=-1]Bosse Cedar, medium-rubbed lacquer, black cloth
[/SIZE]




The Vittora is a fully horn-loaded, three-way, high-efficiency speaker system that delivers wide dynamic range, high output, and extremely low distortion. It IS a horn speaker, and it gives us everything we like about horns while minimizing the problems that plague some other horn designs. The Vittora strikes a balance between the sound of a high-end, smooth, audiophile speaker, and the in-your-face, lively, dynamic sound of a big horn system. It is unmistakably true to the all-horn format, but polite enough to be taken seriously by any audiophile.




tiamavittora24.jpg

[SIZE=-1]Tiama, medium-rubbed lacquer, black cloth
For a quick note about my photos - click HERE
The Vittora utilizes a 15" woofer in a folded horn to produce solid, accurate bass. Even at high output levels, the distortion from this horn is undetectable, and the result is a quickness and definition that you can only get with a horn design. There's no ported bass sound with this horn speaker! You get tight, accurate bass, a correct sounding mid-bass, and perfect integration between the bass and mid.
The Vittora uses a large wooden midrange horn with a tractrix flare that I build myself. The horn has a 2" throat and uses a large-format midrange compression driver with a 3-1/2" voice coil. This combination of large, solidly built wooden horn with a large throat and huge midrange compression driver results in a midrange sound that is effortless and easy to listen to. There is no constriction of the sound through a tiny throat, there is no edginess, graininess, or honky sound that so many other horn designs suffer from. The Vittora midrange is smooth and articulate, dynamic and uncolored. The midrange is truly the heart of this loudspeaker, and the listener is rewarded with a musicality from this midrange horn that is very rare in this industry, at any price.
The tweeter was carefully chosen to provide the same sensitivity and dynamics as the rest of the system, and the high end is crisp, yet lush.
vittora7.jpg

[/SIZE]
Click to expand...

Great looking speakers Joe. At 104db 1w/1m, bring on the SET tube amps. A match made in heaven I would imagine.
 
The speakers look just gorgeous and I bet they sound as nice as they look. I just wish he used a solid sheet of veneer on top instead of multiple sheets.
 
Last edited:
CR141 said:
Great looking speakers Joe. At 104db 1w/1m, bring on the SET tube amps. A match made in heaven I would imagine.
Click to expand...

That's what I am thinking. I'd really love to hear these for myself. I bet they are wonderful.

Audioseduction said:
The speakers look just gorgeous! I just wish he used a solid sheet of veneer on top instead of multiple sheets.
Click to expand...

Amen to that.

Welcome Audioseduction! (George) Thanks for joining.
 
Last edited:
Joe,

If I have to look elsewhere besides Klipsch, this is it. In fact, I was planning a retirement system, not too expensive with this pair of speakers in mind, driven by Leben CS300XS integrated and a simple Thorens TD125MKII. Also, repair, replacement wont cost a bomb. In fact, some CD players alone costs way more than this entire combo. Wont be the best there is, but I dont think it would be much far behind too. Price point, something I am willing to fork out instead of crazy price for HiFi masterpieces today.

Oops, age must be catching up ... retirement, saving money for other things ... records .... Eeeew, better stop here. Seriously, I would ponder on this combo IF one day I so decide to abandon my current system.

Cheers!
 
Thanks Jerry.

I am starting to play around with some lower powered amps and these seem like they'd be wonderful but still a fantasy.
 
Joe, I helped Scot set them up at his place, along with Gary from Border Patrol. They are bigger in person than in pix, extremely well packed, beautiful, need their matching subs. Explosively dynamic and alive, sensational with live recordings, not enough horn sound to be objectionable, the smallest amp will do, SET tubes or SIT from Pass are perfect matches. Gary Dewes from BP also had them for a while and absolutely loved them, he commented most speakers have some aspect initially that impresses him, but in 2 to 3 weeks something else bugs him so bad he tires of them. The Vittora's never got to him and he hated to send them back, his BP kit sounded great with them.
 
KLH007 said:
Joe, At 104 db, the Carver Black Magic will be a powerhouse!
Click to expand...

Kemper,

Thank you for the vote of confidence. I am sure they are wonderful. I am going through some speaker envy and not sure where I will end up. I know I'd love to have a pair of these speakers but having enough room might be a problem. I agree the sub would probably be necessary.

I love my Cornwalls and can imagine the Vittora would be on a higher level.
 
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