August 2003 Reviewed by Vince Hanada	Krix Loudspeakers KDX Home-Theater Speaker System

Description Model: KDX-M main and surround speakers Price: $999 USD per pair Dimensions: 17.125"H x 7.25"W x 11"D Weight: 17.6 pounds each Model: KDX-C center-channel Price: $575 USD Dimensions: 17.125"W x 7.25"H x 11"D Weight: 17.6 pounds Model: Seismix 3 subwoofer Price: $1550 USD Dimensions: 18.9"W x 17.75"H x 15.4"D Weight: 48.4 pounds System Price: $4123 USD Warranty: Five years parts and labor (one year on subwoofer electronics)

Features 1" doped fabric-dome tweeters 5" doped paper-cone woofers Cast-magnesium driver baskets Magnetically shielded Mounting brackets available Bass-reflex cabinets Lacquered-veneer finish 10" paper-cone woofer (Seismix 3) 100W amplifier (Seismix 3) Speaker-level and line-level inputs (Seismix 3) Adjustable crossover (Seismix 3) Phase switch (Seismix 3) Fuse-protected (Seismix 3)

Krix Loudspeakers has been an established Australian speaker manufacturer for some time, having begun operations in 1974. After much success in their domestic market, they made their North American debut in 1994, and made quite a splash with their highly regarded Lyrix speaker. Today, the Krix lineup includes not only many speaker models in all price ranges for consumer use, but speakers for commercial cinemas as well.

The subject of this review is the Krix KDX home-theater speaker system, which sits at the top of their "bookshelf" range. Krix also sent along the Seismix 3 subwoofer to complete the 5.1-channel package. The entire system lists for $4123.

Five nearly identical satellites

All of the speakers in the Krix KDX system look identical. These tall bookshelf designs measure just over 17" high, with a slim front profile -- each KDX-M main/surround is only 7.25" wide. The KDX-M has two 5" doped paper-cone woofers flanking a 1" doped fabric-dome tweeter in a classic midrange-tweeter-midrange configuration. The back of each speaker is fitted with a single set of five-way binding posts and a large 2.25"-diameter port. The cabinets are finished in a high-quality black-ash veneer laminated over 0.67"-thick MDF. (Australian Jarrah wood veneer is also available.) The KDX-M feels solid, and weighs 17.6 pounds. The speaker also seems to have good vibration damping -- a knock on its side resulted in only a bit of cabinet resonance and some sore knuckles.

The KDX-C center-channel speaker looks identical to the KDX-M but is designed to be placed on its side: it has a horizontal logo on its removable grille, and horizontally oriented binding posts. Krix has tweaked the KDX-C’s crossover slightly to compensate for a center-channel’s usual horizontal placement, in order to achieve a better timbral match with the system’s four KDX-Ms.

The KDX speakers have a rated sensitivity of 89dB/W/m. My two home-theater receivers, the Outlaw Model 1050 and the Sony STR-DA5ES, have rated powers of 65Wpc and 110Wpc, respectively, into 8 ohms. Throughout my auditioning, I found that the KDX system was an easy load for either receiver.

The Seismix 3 is a hefty subwoofer of average size; it weighs 48.4 pounds. Its 10" woofer is mounted conventionally, on the front, but the huge 3" flared port is, unusually, on the side. The finish on top and bottom is a beautiful 1"-thick slab of Jarrah wood that could make the Seismix 3 easily double as an attractive end table, if needed (though I don’t recommend it!). The Seismix has a 100W amplifier, with controls for crossover frequency (70-100Hz), volume level, a phase switch (0/180 degrees), and left/right line-level inputs. I would like to have seen a crossover-bypass input as well, which is handy when you use it with the LFE output from a home-theater receiver or processor. Krix has reportedly optimized the Seismix 3's output in the 40Hz range, rating its output at a colossal 102dB measured at 1m. Most movie soundtracks' LFE channels are centered around that frequency.

Setup

I set up the Krix KDX system in my new upstairs home theater, which features a front projector. The KDX-C center-channel was placed on a 2’ stand 1’ from the front wall and 9’ from my listening seat. I placed the front left and right KDX-Ms 9’ from my listening seat and 6’ apart, the surrounds 5’ from my listening seat at about a 110-degree angle from the center-channel, and the Seismix 3 subwoofer in the left front corner of the room.

Performance

I was immediately impressed with the Krix KDX system’s imaging capabilities -- it quickly became my favorite system for listening to five-channel music. On her Come Away with Me SACD [Blue Note 5 41747 2], Norah Jones’s voice is mixed in the left and right front, with bass and drums in the center channel. Because of the Krix KDX system’s incredibly precise imaging, Jones’s voice seemed to be coming from the center-channel speaker, with the bass and drums layered behind her.

To test the KDX-C center-channel, I next tried Diana Krall’s multichannel SACD The Look of Love [Verve 314 589 597-2]. On the first cut, "’S Wonderful," Krall’s voice is mixed in the center channel, and is slightly less prominent in the left and right front channels. I was amazed at how the front three speakers formed a coherent, natural soundstage. Krall’s voice sounded smooth and seductive -- a testament to the natural midrange reproduction of the Krixes. "Smooth and seductive" also describes the system’s tonality. On "Roxanne," from the Police’s Every Breath You Take: The Classics [A&M Chronicles 069 493 607-2], the guitar was never biting or harsh, but always sounded just right.

Watching DVDs proved to be a convincing experience! The Krix KDX system did justice to the harrowing fighting depicted in Black Hawk Down. This DVD makes aggressive use of the surround speakers, with helicopter flyovers and bullets whizzing. As surrounds, the KDX-Ms were able to provide an immersive experience, their excellent imaging keeping up with the nonstop action onscreen. Although I normally prefer bipolar surrounds, the KDX-Ms provided very good envelopment -- a great achievement for a monopole speaker, or for any speaker, for that matter.

The care that Krix has evidently taken in designing the KDX-C’s crossover was evident in the dialogue throughout Signs. Mel Gibson’s voice never sounded boxy or closed-in, which it does from most other center-channels. Dialogue intelligibility was excellent; I never had to strain to hear what the children in this film were saying. In the pans of convoys moving across the front soundstage in Black Hawk Down, the sound did not change in timbre as the Hummers moved from side to side -- a truly excellent performance!

I crossed over each speaker at 60Hz so that the brunt of the bass power was reproduced by the Seismix 3. And what a capable sub the Seismix 3 proved to be! As stated earlier, the Seismix is optimized for reproduction in the 40Hz range, and it shook my room with every bomb blast in Black Hawk Down. At no point did I hear the woofer bottom out; nor did I hear any port noise, even at very loud levels. At times there was a bit of overhang, but mostly the bass response was clean and powerful.

Comparison

Although I had other bookshelf speaker systems on hand, none was in the same price class as the Krix KDX. A comparably priced system that I did have is the Mirage OM-9, a tower speaker system with an omnidirectional dispersion pattern. This system retails for $3250, or $3750 with the OM-200 subwoofer (review coming), which I substituted for the Mirage LF-150 sub. The Mirage system consists of the OM-9 towers, OM-C2 center, OM-R2 surrounds, and the OM-200 sub.

The Mirage OM-9 imparted a greater sense of soundstage depth compared to the Krix KDX. I noticed this when watching Moulin Rouge!. When I watched chapters 5 and 6 of this DVD, which take place in the Moulin Rouge itself, the Mirage OM-9 seemed to expand the walls of my home theater, the crowd noise and singing enveloping me. The Krix KDX system, on the other hand, excelled at image precision. On "Don’t Know Why," from the Norah Jones SACD, her voice was precisely centered between the front speakers and slightly forward of them. The layering of the instruments in the front soundstage was more precisely placed as well. With the Mirage OM-9 system, the center image was slightly less precise and a bit recessed.

On two-channel recordings such as "Danny Boy," from the SACD of Jacintha’s superbly recorded Here’s to Ben: A Vocal Tribute to Ben Webster [Groove Note GRV1001-3], the vocals were firmly centered between the front left and right KDX-Ms. With the Mirage OM-9s, Jacintha’s voice was again less precisely placed, but had more of a three-dimensional quality. Those who value imaging excellence above all other speaker attributes will not be disappointed with the Krix KDX system.

Comparing center-channel speakers, both the Krix KDX-C and the Mirage OM-C2 did stellar jobs of reproducing dialogue in movies. The dialogue intelligibility in Moulin Rouge! was first-rate with both speakers, though each had a different way of going about it. The Mirage OM-C2 is an Omnipolar speaker, so voices through it had impressive depth -- nor was it always apparent that voices were emanating from the center-channel. With the Krix KDX-C, voices were firmly anchored in the center. The match the KDX-C made with the main left and right KDX-Ms was seamless, as was the match between the Mirage speakers.

The Krix Seismix 3 subwoofer is nearly the same size as the Mirage OM-200. The Seismix did a great job of shaking the walls of my room with every grenade thrown in Black Hawk Down. However, the Mirage OM-200 excelled at providing an even bass response in my room, with fewer peaks and valleys as I walked through my listening space. The OM-200 managed to reproduce the numerous explosions in this DVD more tightly, and with less overhang.

Conclusion

Krix Loudspeakers’ KDX system impressed me with its excellence in nearly all aspects important to home-theater sound reproduction. The system’s dialogue intelligibility, timbral matching between speakers, and imaging were all first-rate. Where the Krix KDX system stood out was in multichannel music reproduction. With near-identical speakers all around, I was drawn into the jazz vocal performances that I ended up listening to. The Krix KDX home-theater speaker system gets the all-important midrange right, which allows me to enthusiastically recommend this system, especially to lovers of multichannel music.

Manufacturer contact information:

Krix Loudspeakers
14 Chapman Road
Hackam, South Australia 5163
Phone: +61 8 8384-3433
Fax: +61 8 8384-3419

E-mail: krix@krix.com.au
Website: www.krix.com.au

North American distributor:
Full Compass
8001 Terrace Ave.
Middleton, WI 52562
Phone: (800) 828-0509
Fax: (608) 831-1890

Website: www.krixusa.com

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