Review: Living Voice R80 OB-X Floorstanding Loudspeakers

On the face of it, a tower speaker that reaches down into the mid-20Hz region and needs only a few Watts to come alive sounds like a dream come true.

On paper and in appearance, the Living Voice R80 OB-X manifest that dream. But the all important question remains—How do they sound?

If you look at the drivers, 3 in all, in the Living Voice R80, you’ll notice something a bit unusual, namely their shape as Kevin Scott of Living Voice has opted to use Ellipticor drivers from Denmark’s Scan-Speak.

From Scan-Speak:

With the Ellipticor family we have broken away from the traditional circular motor structures and resolved their inherent breakup behavior.

Perhaps not surprisingly judging by the name, Ellipticor’s key features are an elliptical shaped voice coil and magnet gap. Combined with our powerful SD AirCirc principle the Ellipticor transducers have high sensitivity, very low distortion, and have an extremely fast response to transients. In particular the sonic performance of the midrange and treble is outstanding. The sound is clean, transparent and has amazing transient behavior. There is absolutely nothing that´s introverted about these drivers.

The specific drivers in play in the R80 are the Ellipticor 34mm Dome tweeter and a pair of Ellipticor 21cm mid-woofers mounted over and under the tweeter MTM style. I mention this level of detail with some amount of trepidation because some audiophiles have a tendency to latch onto a part of a piece of hifi gear, like a driver or DAC chip, as if that part is 100% responsible for the sonic outcome. Something we all know to be false, i.e. not true, since a few drivers swinging freely in air or a DAC chip on a piece of toast have no sound at all. Living Voice rates the R80’s frequency response as 25Hz – 20kHz with a 92dB efficiency (2.83v @1M) and a 6 Ohm nominal impedance (4.2 Ohm minimal/9 Ohm max impedance). An easy load.

The R80 cabinet is made from a 1 1/2” thick hardwood composite covered in an eye enticing Gloss Ebony veneer (other finishes available). The cabinet proper sits on the included plinth and there are a total of 16 magnets in the cabinet and plinth to help guide the speakers to “achieve accurate registration” according to the manual. A few dabs of included ‘Blue Tack’ on each corner of the plinth help secure things and I have to admit that this detail strikes me as less than ideal in a speaker of the R80’s price and otherwise top notch build quality. It’s also worth noting that the cabinets weigh about 100 lbs a piece so setting them on their plinth is ideally a two person job.

The R80 OB-X version in for review includes the optional outboard crossovers which are not designed for bi-amping as stated in the accompanying documentation. Wrapped in a matching veneer, the OB-X outboard crossovers allow for bi-wiring but I chose to run with a single pair of AudioQuest Robin Hood speaker cables for the review. Kevin Scott states that the crossovers are custom made and include proprietary polypropylene capacitors and wire-wound resistors as well as premium parts including numerous sets of gold WBT binding posts. The manual also shares that the binding posts, internal wiring, and select crossover parts have received “deep cryogenic treatment”, a process that may raise an eyebrow for those people who don’t understand what the process is or actually does.

The rear reflex ports on the OB-X, one per side, are finished in gold-colored metal trim. Overall, the R80 OB-X have a stately appearance and the high gloss finish in the review pair reflect their surroundings like a mirror. Standing 47” tall on their plinths and 16” deep, the R80 are not a small speaker but they looked right at home on the Barn’s B-Side that measures roughly 21’ wide by 35’ deep. Plenty of room to breathe.

I drove the Living Voice R80s during their 2 month+ Barn stay with the recently reviewed BorderPatrol S20EXD Parallel Single-Ended Amplifier (review) that puts out 18 Watts of power from a quad of Western Electric 300Bs as well as the review Octave Audio V 70 Class A Integrated Amplifier (more info) equipped with a quad of KT 88-S4A-Carbon Beam Power Tetrodes that put out about 30 Watts. Front end duties came courtesy of the Barn resident Mola Mola Tambaqui (review) with all cabling from AudioQuest (see full Barn and system details).

If you attended Capital Audiofest in 2023, you may have heard this very same BorderPatrol / Living Voice combination in action and if you plan to attend CAF this year, I understand you’ll have another chance so you can check my work (wink).

Here’s part of what I said in my show coverage:

I recently reviewed the Living Voice Auditorium R25A about which I concluded, “I enjoyed, relished, our time together and just remember that when it comes to listening to music on the hifi, there’s nothing wrong with pure pleasure.” These bigger brothers sing with a similar but, you guessed it, more authoritative voice driven by the robust 16 Watts on offer from the Border Patrol S20EXD amp.

The Living Voice R25A (pictured above in Barn) spent some here last summer and here’s something I wrote about them in that review:

What I’m after, what I crave, is the ability to fall into music as the bottomless pit of enveloping beauty it is without the mechanics of reproduction or the voice of the gear getting in the way. The Living Voice Auditorium R25A offer a fast pass to just this kind of experience and their easy to drive load means you have a big wide world of wonderful amps to choose from.

As you might expect adding all of this information up, the Living Voice R80 OB-X are even dreamier.

Keeley Forsthy’s The Hollow, released earlier this year on FatCat records, continues to entice with its other worldly eeriness. Organ blasts introduce some songs and this kind of visceral physicality is one of the things the R80 seem made to do and to do exceedingly well. It’s not just about SPL, it’s about force and texture and tone and speed all combined and meant to capture our complete attention, or so I imagine, shaking us out of the daily stupor in order to focus on the musical matters at hand. Coltrane employed similar blasts of nearly cacophonous energy as opener in some of his later work for what I like to believe were similar reasons. Here, on The Hollow, Forsyth is accompanied by Colin Stetson, among others, and his circular breathing horn technique, it’s own kind of force/tone/texture, and the Living Voice created an immense and rich sound image, like a dreamscape, that unfolded in Barn with real world force. Think rich, dark, and foreboding, qualities Forsthy was clearly after here and the R80 were more than capable of recreating.

Mabe Fratti’s Sentir que no sabes (Feel like you don’t know), released on Tin Angel Records in June, opens with a heavy synth bass blob of sound, a startling event through the Living Voice R80 due to their very capable speed and slam. This album unfolds like a tropical jungle delight with cello, piano, synths, trumpet, bass, drums and Fratti’s vocals rising over the top of layered soundscapes rooted as much in latin music as jazz, classical, and edgy pop. The R80’s ability to reproduce body, tone, and texture make Fratti’s cello on “Pantalla Azul” sound perfectly buoyant and bouncy, a kind of elastic entry into the complex patterns to come. With the BorderPatrol amp doing the driving, this music was conveyed in striking, vivid color combined with real snap, precision, and weight that perfectly emphasized Fratti’s lush composition. Piano rings out amid stuttering strings and the space of this spacious recording was laid out in Barn with speaker-defying size. While I’ve heard speakers do a better job defining each element in space, offering a more finely resolved sound image, the Living Voice seem to revel in the bigger picture and each element’s full voice and body. The R80, in this way, appeal to the body more than the intellect.

In terms of comparisons, the recently reviewed Qln Reference 9 Loudspeakers (review) overlapped for a good amount of time with the R80 and spent their Barn time on the A-Side. I recommend reading that review, but in brief the Qln at $42k/pair are a 3-way design that offer a 91dB sensitivity (SPL 2.83V 1m, 100-10kHz) with a 4 Ohm impedance and low frequency performance reaching down to 25Hz (-3dB). I would say the Qln prefer more power as compared to the R80 but they also paired very nicely with the Octave V 70 amp. To my way of hearing, the Qln offer a more refined sound as compared to the Living Voice, a refinement conveyed by a better defined sound image on both a macro and micro level, while offering a similar kind of ease and lack of etch. Or to put it another way, the Living Voice sound bigger and richer than the Qln, with more emphasis on body and weight than resolution.

While it’s not the kind of thing some readers want to hear, a number of speakers I’ve reviewed in and around this price including the Rockport Atria II (review) and Vivid G3 Series 2 (review) all have their own sound and strengths that make picking a winner a very personal matter, imo. My personal preferences have me leaning toward the Rockports for their all-around completely captivating set of full range strengths but they demand real power, think at least 50 Watts, to make them sing.

Getting back to the Living Voice R80 OB-X, and with all that being said, I can certainly see why some people would prefer them to any of the speakers I’ve mentioned. While it may seem a bit of a reach, the R80’s strengths align more closely with horns and vinyl lovers than any of the other speakers mentioned, as they offer a related kind of in-room energy that is more about body, tone, and texture than it is concerned with resolution and nuance. It’s worth noting that Living Voice’s flagship speaker is the Vox Olympian Horn Loudspeaker and designer Kevin Scott shares that one goal of the R80 was to “offer the lyricism and visceral thrill of the Vox Olympian” in the R80. It’s been my experience that high(er) efficiency speakers have their own sets of skills that less efficient speakers can rarely match and when those skills align with one’s preferences, happiness ensues.

New York-born and Tamil Nadu-raised vocalist Ganavya’s recently released Like the Sky, I’ve Been Too Quiet, produced by Shabaka Hutchings and released on Native Rebel Recordings in March, enlists producer Floating Points and multi-instrumentalist Leafcutter John as accompanists in this dreamy beauty of a record. But Ganavya’s vocals are the real star of this show and the R80’s liquid and lush sound reproduce her physical form in space and with the Octave amp in charge a lovely visceral, muscular, physicality. I keep getting back to the mind/body thing, admittedly a favorite duality, largely because the Living Voice speakers have a kind of earthy appeal, a sound that is so rich you feel as if you can very nearly smell it like damp earth after a fall shower. And this physicality acted as an open door, a wide open entrance into this spirit-rich music.

With all of the music I sent their way during their 2-month+ Barn stay, the R80 sang with authority, weight, and a deep, rich voice while sounding light on their feet, nimble, with a silky smooth resolution that offers a clear view into music’s finer workings without ever sounding etched or overly lit up. And this voice remained consistent with the two amplifiers I paired them with although each amp, the BorderPatrol and Octave, brought with them their own sonic attributes in subtle but important ways. In a general sense, the 300B-endowed BorderPatrol / Living Voice combination offered up a huge, lush, and richly textured sound ripe with tone that created a nearly overwhelming sense of beauty in sound. The Octave amp imparted a bit more muscle combined with more sheen, sparkle and energy while still throwing out a huge and layered sound image that filled the Barn’s rather large space with effortless music power. If I had to pick a favorite, I’d pick both.

In many ways, the Living Voice R80 OB-X are a dream come true, combining a rich earthy full range voice with real in-room impact and grace without the need for gobs of power. A combination of strengths that offers a deep physical connection to our cherished music.

Living Voice R80 OBX Floorstanding Loudspeakers
Price: $54,250/pair in Gloss Ebony as reviewed
Company Website: Living Voice
US Dealer: BorderPatrol

Technical Summary

Benign impedance characteristic
High sensitivity wide dispersion MTM topology
36mm dense hardwood composite enclosure. Interior lined with maple veneer.
Stiff internal triple bracing
Living Voice proprietary hand-wound air core inductors
Optimised crossover layout, mechanically isolated with star earthing
Crystal oriented internal wiring harness
Proprietary non-inductive wire-wound resistors
Proprietary Living Voice polypropylene capacitors
Gold WBT binding posts

Specifications

HF Drivers: Scanspeak Ellipticor 34mm Dome tweeter 4ohm. Elliptical Voice coil. Neo AirCirc 120mm
Bass/Mid Drivers: Scanspeak Ellipticor 21cm Midwoofer 8ohm. Paper cone. Elliptical Voice Coil. Neo AirCirc
Deep Cryogenic Treatment: Applied to WBTs, internal wiring harness and select crossover components
Sensitivity: 92dB (2.83v @1m)
Nominal Impedance: 6 Ohms
Minimum Impedance: 4.5 Ohms
Loading: Reflex port to rear of cabinet.
Frequency Response: 25Hz–20kHz
Power Handling: 100 Watts
Cabinet Dimensions: W 310mm × D 423mm × H 1090mm
Plinth: 490mm wide at the front, tapering to 430mm wide at the rear, × 423mm D × 60mm H. Black satin finish.
Included Accessories: Accessory Box with 8 pcs of spikes, floor protectors and 2 spanners enabling easy height adjustment of the loudspeaker in-situ: 1 spanner for rotating the spike and 1 for locking it.
Available Finishes: Cabinets made in premium furniture grade, book-matched veneers. Outboard crossovers (where supplied) finished in matching book matched veneers. Glossy Ebony or Satin Ebony / Glossy Santos or Satin Santos / Pippy Oak. Other finishes & RAL by special order.
Gross Weight: