I have had owned lots of speakers from Lowthers to Klipsch but I have recently got a pair of used Auditoriums and am loving them

I use my LV's with just 8w of 300b amplifier and due to their 94dB sensitivity the 300b drives them perfectly

The Auditoriums are so different than any other speaker I have owned

I think I may have found my final speaker, apart from possibly moving up the LV range! ; )

They do so much right and are such an 'easy' listen; they have no high frequency nasties so they are kind on your ears and have enough bass for me

You can listen to these speakers for hours on end with absolutely no listener fatigue at all

They probably don't express the very last bit of detail but I think a speaker that does is normally very difficult to listen to for hours and hours

I love these LV's and will be keeping them for ages

I bought Living Voice OBX-R (with external crossover) in second hand. Current system consists of: DIY Dual Mono SET EL34 amp (8W), heavily tweaked Exposure 2010s CDP.
When you have a low power SET in your system sensitive and good speakers are must – of course if you plan some serious listening.

Speakers are not state of the art in terms of design. But simplicity and straight lines make them as a good partner for any environment. Personal choices are supported with different finishes. When reading different reviews about those speakers you will find both pro and cons and also there are numerous discussions about amp power needed to drive those speakers. Sometimes less is more….

Placement:
First of all those speakers are not so sensitive to corner placement. You can really place them anywhere in your room but some guidelines should be followed. Room size is the first parameter you should consider – 12 square meters is probably minimal area. Still you need to have at least 2-2.5m between left and right speaker. Distance from the back or side walls should be established during the listening sessions. If you have low power amp (<12W) placing them near the back wall will provide more bass but at the same time you will loose kind of definition between bass, mid and vocal. Sound will become more compact. On the other side placing them away from back wall you will lose some bass but definition and openness will be superb. This situation can be heard when listening on low volumes. Distance between listener and speakers should be at least as distance between left and right speakers. Speakers should be rotated towards the listener – listener should see only front panel or small parts of both left and right inner speaker walls.
In my current setup they are placed on longer side in room 4.5x3.5m. They are placed 1.5m from back wall and 0.5m from side walls. Such position leave 2.5m between speakers and listening position is almost 3m from speakers.

Bass:
This speaker is kind of what you have – you will hear. If you have chance to listen Audio Note AnE/Spe HE you will not get such dramatic bass. Still, Living voice will provide you stable and clear bass. Also you should take into consideration that Living Voice goes down to 35Hz! So some frequency is missing in comparison to speaker which goes down to 20Hz. Anyhow bass is fully harmonized with other areas and in that sense will provide in overall pleasant and smooth sound.

Middle and vocals:
Strings are strings, lips are lips. Clear and transparent. Amazing will be enough. Different instruments are separated well and can be clearly heard. Soundstage is well formed – depth, distance, position. Everything is there - balanced and neutral.

Equipment:
What you have – you will hear. Connect them with fine equipment and you will be rewarded with amazing sound. When it comes to speaker cables you can use typical wiring from amp to crossover (add jumpers on crossovers) but from crossover to speakers you need to bi-wire.

Musical, involving , small footprint ,big sound...understated...resolution...detail , but, not in a bad way.

Extra bire wire speaker cables needed , so , if you are using premium cables it is twice as expensive.

One of the most involving speakers I have owned. Very transparent and dynamic and organic.. The Avatar obx may not be the best that I have had. but it is the best match for my current system. The mid-range is magical and it is one of the most musical speakers that have graced my listening room. I am enjoying them more than speakers 5x their retail price.
they replaced a $45,000 Westlake tower speakers that was a great speaker but way too large for my room. I have also had Sonus Faber Amatis,which , I have equally enjoyed and Tannoy Churchills that were magical. All these speakers are considered world class speakers . The obx certainly belong with them . Don't let there smaller footprint fool you , they are capable of filling a room with full sound. They can be powered with low powered amps...I am using Jadis 300B mono Blocks that has 10 watts !! Coupled with Western Electric 300B tubes the mid range is unequalled. They benefit from top quality associated gear. The best bang for the dollar by far...for my limited experienced. If you have the opportunity try them , well worth your extra effort (double wiring required due to outboard x-over) you will be rewarded , as I have.

Similar Products Used:

Proac.2.5 3.5, Sonus Faber Amatis ,and amators ...Churchills , Westlakes...opera quintas b&w various...on and on and on....

none,can't tell with one driver is not working

all,because of the terrible service,terrible components,terrible warranty.

Just bought a demo pair of Living Voice Auditorium.But after I received the speakers,the upper woofer of the left speaker is not working properly,it makes some static noisy.I contacted the distributor Bluebird Audio,but he said it won't be covered by the warranty,because he said it might course that problem during the shipping.But I don't see any damage at all on the driver.And he told me to contact the local dealer to replace it.And it cost me BIG $300 canadian for just one driver.I am so disappointed with the feedback.I am the first owner,and the speakers have 4 yr warranty,but they won't replace it.So,if you are on the market and looking for a Living Voice.Think twice before you buy,they might give you some excuses not to response for any defected items.And the parts will cost you arms and legs.
I wish there is a minus rating star.

Astounding soundstaging and harmonics. Relatively compact. Nimble with any kind of music. Beautiful appearance.

Positioning matters and they need some room between them and the rear and side walls. You NEVER want these close to a rear wall for you will get unwanted bass resonance if you do.

This actually a 2004 product, and it's the Living Voice Auditorium Avatar. I actually had the opportunity to taste test the Avatar vs. Wilson-Benesch ARCs vs my Paradigm Studio 100 v.2s on the same weekend in my own home. I use AR tube equipment (VS55 amp, SP16 pre). The Paradigms were quickly eliminated from the competition: they aren't in the same league. Both the ARCs and the Avatars have huge soundstages, which I love. Both are incredibly detailled. Both have specs that show their bass rolloff at around 35MHz. The ARC ports downwards, the Avatars to the rear. About the ARC: This is a remarkable speaker. It's small, but I found the bass to be very good. I tried them with my REL Strata III sub on and off and found I did prefer them with the sub on. With the sub off they beat AVs on bass, but not by much. With the sub on, they were equals. I did find the ARCs to be very airy and boxless. Great harmonics and transients. The treble was very detailled and they didn't need a lot of fussing around with placement to produce great rock, jazz and classical. The vertical soundstage was excellent. Which is important because my wife and I like to dance from time to time. Now the downsides: The ARCs seemed a bit dry and bright to me, though not unpleasingly so. They wanted more power than the Avatars, but nothing excessive. I didn't find them all that great at lower volume levels. They were much better at moderate volume, and very comfortable with the volume up. And, while I could see where some people would just adore their highly detailled sound, in the end it wasn't my cup of tea, especially at higher volume, because of the slight dryness in the mids and treble. The Avatars don't sound radically different than the ARCs, but there were some differences that mattered a lot to me. They have a bigger soundstage than the ARCs, a major plus for me, and it felt like there was more air around instruments. Once they are positioned right (about 2.5 feet from the rear wall for me) the bass is quite good (though not as tight as the ARCs) and with the sub on they were wonderful. Like the ARCs they seem at their very best with the volume up. They are great at moderate listening levels, but like the ARCs, they aren't impressive at low volume. Frankly, I think the Paradigms were better than both at low volume. But since I rarely listen to anything at low volume, it's a non issue for me. The Avatars are definitely a warmer speaker, fantastic with vocals and guitars or strings. The harmonics are superb, so much so that sometimes it sounds like the music is coming from slightly behind me! A touch less as detailled than the WBs in the upper end, but their spacious sound more than made up for that. And the Avatars definitely produced something more easily than the WBs: toe tapping. These speakers are vivacious. It's the only term I can think of to connote what they did in my room. They seem to have been made for tube gear, and they were. Now that I've owned them for a few weeks, I find that as they break in they are even more spacious and detailled. They handle all music well, from Zeppelin to Bach to Jazz. I look forward to full break-in, which I'm advised takes an long time, like 400 hours. If that's true it's hard to imagine just how awesome these speakers will be.

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch, Paradigm Studio 100 v.2s, Wilson-Benesch ARCs

Detailed uncoloured smooth unfatiguing but detailed sound, good imaging and soundstage

You got me, need room to breathe, not the deepest base available, but a very clean base

I supplied an earlier review for the bottom of the range Auditorium and have now moved up to the Avatar. I thought an update was in order. I still love the philosophy and detailed, but laid back sound of the whole range and have carefully listened to all 3, Auditorium, Avatar and Avatar OBX. They all have a "house sound", for want of a better word and that is quite different from many other speaker ranges. Am I the only person to find most modern speakers harsh and fatiguing, step forward BandW. Superficially exciting after a prolonged listen I feel my ears are being assaulted. But each to there own and I am not criticising other ranges, I am merely reporting the LV's easy to live with. Laid back, but not bland, the Avatars image well with a deep rather than forward soundstage.They do'nt seem to favour any particular style of music. Accurate across the frequency range, the junior version, the Auditoriums do have a slightly muddled base. The 2 Avatars are clearly the better speakers and I would urge you to go for either of the Avatars, I have to say I did'nt find a great difference in quality between them. The sound was different, the OBX have a bigger soundstage and better base, but am I the only one to hear a slight upper midbase lift on the OBX. Plus , where do you put those external Xovers. So I am a fan of the Avatars and see no reason to change, they need room to breathe and they have such potential, they deserve decent ancillaries. As you may know, Kevin Scott their designer is a bit of a tube fetishist, thus there high sensitivity. I think they deserve tube power amps or high quality Class A solid state such as Monarchy Audio or Sugden. I use them with Pass lab Aleph 3's a magical combination. Any Aleph users out there looking for new speakers, look no further. System: Shanling CDT100 Creek T43 tuner Linn LP12/Origin Live Silver Taper/Ortofon Kontrapuknt B Graff WFB pre Pass Labs Aleph 3 power Living Voice Avatar Acoustic Zen Matrix/Silver Ref/Hologram cables

Similar Products Used:

Quad 57, Monitor Audio, Dynaudio, LV Auditorium

Everything -Genuinely!

Locating external x-over boxes

Model OBX-R2.These are simply the best speakers I have owned and heard in my 20 plus years of trying to get a sound I could be completely happy with.They are incredibly musical.Unbelievably dynamic- something no other speaker that Ive owned has been able to acheive.The mids are beautiful,so effortlessly real to life .The top end is the best Ive had ,including ribbons.The Scan speak revelator tweeter is way better than the Dynaudio Esotar,revealing loads more detail with incredible decay.This tweeter adds realism to the voice ,with no sibilance.The bass is transparent -again something Ive never experienced before.Its a shock when you hear bass as it should be for the first time,with real weight and scale,and none of the usual overhang.Speed and timing is impeccable.I owned the Merlin VSM Millenium with battery B.A.M for a year ,with reference JPS cables /Audio Aero cd/M.F NuVista amp and couldnt have been more underwhelmed -Harsh ,thin ,poor transparency,limited bass,dark on the vocal presentation-never palpable.These Living Voice speakers are so many leagues above the Merlins ,its plain embarrassing. Im using a Sugden class A Masterclass integrated amp, 32 W.P.C(£3200),with the Audio Aero Capitole CD and once agin JPS speaker cables in and out of the external x-over boxes,and I couldnt be more happy with the sound .The sound is alive,and involving .The closest Ive come to this sort of sound before is with the Triangle Antals-But they had far too many short comings for genuine comparison .Get to hear a pair -You will end up saving youself alot of time and money.

Similar Products Used:

Wilson Benesch Act one .B&W Nautilus 803/Nautilus 805 Signature.Proac Future 0.5. Melin VSM Millenium inc B.A.M. Proac 2.5. Mordaunt Short Performance 860.etc etc

got me enthusiastic about music again

None

Having spent a year trying to find a significant speaker upgrade and nearly given up on the idea I auditioned the Auditorium Avatars....These will do me for a decade...If you have tried all the big names like Dynaudio, B&W etc and have not been convinced to part with your cash then find a pair of these and give them a try (preferably at home so you can hear their qualities rather than spending time tuning your ear in to the sound of a particular dem room). The sound? How much time have you got? Suffice to say these speakers deliver subtleties that I didn't know were in the recording along with spooky imaging and atmosphere. I get this reassuring feeling that this speaker is just delivering what is possible from my system and very little of its own character - it turns out my system can deliver lots but I wasn't hearing it with my old speakers. Beck, Bjork, Basement Jaxx or Bach it doesn't seem to matter. Minute changes in positioning have an effect so its worth moving them around a bit and they prefer low to medium levels to let all that detail out (but will play loud if required). For info the other bits these speakers have to work with are a Primear 30.1 and a Cyrus CD7Q stuck together with chord anthem and odyssey cables.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio 1.8, Monitor Audio gr20 and 60, Audio Physic virgo , tempo, Kef, Loth X ion3, BKS107, Proac 1.5

Musical, balanced, large sound stage.

This speaker is excellent! Living Voice Avatar OBX-R is not another too bright speaker, but has very good tonal balance. Intruments are reproduced with their true character, e.g. cello and guitar sounded very realistic. Voice is as good as it gets. As with any other good speaker, you sometimes get disappointed with recordings, but I dont think this speaker is difficult to match with other equipment. There is no need to use special cables etc. to get a decent high-frequency range. They are easy to drive, my 45 w tube amp is sufficient. Chamber music works well, and the Avatar OBX is also able to deal with full orchestra works. Sufficiently deep bass and ablity to resolve complex music. Although very clear in the top its not as "lightheaded" as Audio Physic Avanti III. Avanti III lacks the bass capability of Avatar OBX, but both have a very coherent sound. Avatar OBX is to my taste a much more involving speaker, especially with jazz and modern music. Sound stage and dynamics is top class. However, Im sure you can find a more analyzing speaker, if thats what you want. I prefer the music. Conservative design, not visually "screaming". Negative: The front must be removed, it destroys the sound. The external filter is messy and you need extra cables.

Similar Products Used:

Totem Mani-2, Audio Physic Avanti III, vonSchweikert VR5

Dynamic,tonally accurate and sensitive,they are incredibly unboxy with a wide and deep soundstage.

You've got me,but they do take careful positioning

May I agree with your other reviewers.I listened to a number of speakers in the price range,Spendor Dynaudio,BW.None approached the Auditoriums dynamics,accuracy and truth to the music.I am sure I am not the only person to find a flabby base as the main defect in even mid price floorstanders.I'd rather have no base at all. The entry level Auditoriums I bought are as tight as good stand mounts,but as deep as you could reasonably ask. As a small tip,they sound even better on a Mana sound base,but then most speakers would.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio contour 1.8