August 2024

World Premiere Review!
Volti Audio Lucera Hybrid Horn / Bass-Reflex Loudspeaker Review
Taking a deep dive into the aural matrix.
Review By Paul Schumann

   What do I really want out of this hobby?

I'm sure all of us have asked that question. We start by listening to music we love on a system we possess. Then we hear that music on a better system and notice things we'd never heard before. That lights a fire in our belly. How can I hear that at home? We talk to other people, listen to other systems, and realize that not everyone hears the same things as we do. Then, we have that aha moment when we hear a system that touches our inner child. That happened to me when Dr. Day plopped me down in front of his homebrew SET system driving a pair of Altec A7s. From then on, I knew exactly what I wanted.

The next question became, how am I going to get there? Dr. Day spent years listening and soldering to get what tickled his fancy. My sensei David is on a similar journey. The late Sakuma built different systems to listen to various kinds of music. For all three of these seekers, the cornerstone of their quest was high efficiency-speakers.

Why high-efficiency speakers? Lower distortion. The amp doesn't have to produce much more than that magic first watt, and the speaker drivers don't have to move as much to produce sound. The tough part is building speakers who can perform this magic trick and meet the standards of discerning ears. Greg Roberts has always been a fan of high-efficiency loudspeakers. But he wanted more from the ones he had, so he started his very own quest. This started with modifying existing speakers and eventually led him to his designs and start Volti Audio.

When Greg set out to improve upon existing horn loudspeaker designs, his first focus was on the horn's geometry. Most midrange horns have a 1" diameter. After some experimentation, Greg discovered that doubling the diameter to 2", which quadruples the surface area, eliminates the colorations associated with traditional horns. Another area where Greg sought improvement was the crossovers. To start, crossovers for the Volti loudspeaker use top-quality parts. Solen 14-guage air-core inductors are used on the woofer filters, and Litz-wound inductors on the mid and tweeter filters. Jantzen capacitors and Lynk resistors are also used.

The crossovers are mounted on wood and arranged to reduce interference from the drivers. All of the connections are both crimped and soldered. Why? Because that sounded the best. Lastly, all Greg's speakers are constructed using 1"-thick Baltic Birch plywood instead of MDF. Baltic Birch plywood is valued for its tonal quality, strength, and durability. All of the panels are interlocking, and additional 1" bracing is used. Every one of these choices was made to make the Volti Audio speakers sound as good as possible.

The Lucera speakers are the mid-sized speakers in the Volti Audio lineup. They are substantial in size, measuring 40" tall, 18" wide, and 14" deep and each weighing 110 pounds. Before I inquired about a review, I got out the tape measure to make sure the Luceras were going to fit in my cramped listening space. They arrived via freight delivery strapped to a pallet. Unpacking them was surprisingly easy since Greg provided instructions. Once I carefully placed them, I took some time to admire their beauty. Greg provided the speakers with tiama veneers and black grill cloths. The grill cloths reach all the way to the floor, which is a nice stylistic touch. Powerful magnets secure the grills. Once I figured out how to pull from the bottom, I was able to snap one off to look at the drivers.

Each Volti Audio Lucera has a 15" high-power and high-sensitivity woofer in a ported bass reflex configuration, a large midrange horn with a 2" throat and a shallow wide-dispersion design, a high-quality 2" outlet midrange compression driver with a composite diaphragm, and a high-quality neodymium horn tweeter. Even with the grills off, the Luceras look amazing. The midrange horn appears to be cast iron and the fit with the driver is perfect. Two-thirds of the way down the back of the speaker is an input plate with two sets of binding posts connected by jumpers which can be removed for bi-wiring applications.

Up higher on the back is a Lexan-covered panel with four resistors that can be swapped out to provide different output levels of the midrange and tweeter for balancing the overall voicing of the system. I never had any desire to touch them, since the Volti Audio Lucera hybrid hornspeakers sounded perfectly balanced in my time with them.

Listening....
As soon as I started playing music through Volti Audio's Lucera speakers, I noticed how quiet they were. Not that they couldn't play loud. It was just between each note there was stillness and calm. This lowering of the noise floor had some interesting effects. Vinyl playback was quieter than I had ever experienced before. The surface noise, pops, and clicks were all less noticeable.

While listening to Carmina Burana [MFSL 1-506] the LSO & Chorus erupted from the darkness and transported me to Kingsway Hall. While the "Oh Fortuna" passage is famous for its full onslaught of the senses, many other passages in this piece are quite tranquil. The song "Chum Geselle Min" is set for female vocals in sotto voice, plucked strings, and flutes. The Luceras brought out the inner beauty of this gorgeous song while downplaying its vinyl source.

As you can imagine, I started having a lot of fun pulling out old vinyl with the Luceras in my system. Listening to Thomas Dolby's The Age of Wireless [Harvest ST-12203] I could hear details I'd never heard before. Dolby's vocals on "Weightless" were spooky in their presence. Dolby was a real synth pioneer. On the song "Leipzig" I could hear the myriad of clever keyboard settings he used on that song. In the opening of "Windpower", the opening keyboard line was practically menacing. On "Commercial Breakup", Thomas' solo is rich with more layers than I had imagined. I consider "Airwaves" the gem of this album.

This song casts a spell with its beautifully layered synthesizers and vocals. Dolby's singing of this wonderful melody is perfect with his unhurried delivery. I love the final song, "Cloudburst At Shingle Street", because of its three distinct parts. The drums in the third part surprised me with their intensity. I've had this album since it came out. I've always known it isn't what many would consider an audiophile disc. It was a revelation to get so much enjoyment out of it after all this time.

This improvement of old discs wasn't just for 1980s synth pop. On a whim, I put on Bernstein's and the NYPO's recording of Stravinsky's Piano Concerto and Pulcinella Suite [Columbia Masterworks – MS 6329]. This disc had never impressed me with its sonics, but I always loved the performances. Listening to the "Pulcinella Suite", I was stunned by the dynamics and orchestral textures. The strings were vivid but never harsh.  The woodwinds sang with delicacy. The brass bloomed. The reverberation in the hall was palatable. I could easily imagine Lenny performing histrionics in front of the NYPO to squeeze every last drop out of this wonderful performance.

What about some new vinyl? The pressing of Billie Eilish's Hit Me Hard And Soft [Interscope Records – 602465270525] has received a lot of chatter on the internet. I have two major complaints; the low level used to cut the lacquer and some surface noise. Despite these shortcomings, I enjoyed listening to this disc with the Luceras. Finneas knows that Billie's voice is always the star, so he never buries her in the mix. Her vocals lack any reverb or processing on the opening track "Skinny". The Luceras rendered her voice with such beauty that I felt she was there in the living room to sing to me that she still cries. "L'Amour De Ma Vie" is a wonderfully timeless song.

It starts with Billie singing a near whisper accompanied by an electric piano. Both increase in volume until a full ensemble kicks in. Then it winds back down to the simple arrangement from the beginning. This portrays perfectly the ebb and flow of a love affair that has petered out. The final song "Blue", is a masterpiece. Blending multiple musical styles, Billie and Finneas took me to that dark place where love dies. There are so many subtler sounds hidden in the mix that there were several occasions where I thought I was hearing things. The strings in the final section were filled with heartache. Listening to this album with the Luceras quite simply blew me away.

Recently, I was able to snag a good copy of Pat Methey's Bright Size Life [ECM Records – ECM 1073] and it has been on my turntable a lot since then. Pat's first solo album with Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses satisfies on many levels. Pat was brave enough to push jazz into the chromatic arena, but there is so much more than that. The interplay between the three musicians is sublime. On the track "Missouri Uncompromised", Jaco matches Pat lick-for-lick, and Bob propels the song forward with his high hat. This album is also beautifully recorded. On the track "Midwestern Nights Dream", Jaco effortlessly uses dynamics to flow from the background to the foreground. The sound of Bob's cymbals is pure, without ever sounding brittle or crunchy. Last but not least was the warm tone and articulation of Pat's Gibson 335 guitar.

Genesis' A Trick of the Tail [Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab – MFSL1-062] was a statement album for them after Peter‘s departure. Genesis fans shouldn't have worried because that trauma inspired them to produce one of their best albums. The opening song, "Dance on a Volcano" was meant to grab the listener by the throat. Even though Phil's vocals are buried deep in the mix, I could hear them more clearly than ever. While his vocals were located dead center, the ecco added was panned to the left and right channels to great effect.

On "Robbery, Assault, and Battery", the Luceras emphasized the forward momentum Phil's drums give this song. "Ripples" is my favorite song on the album. Steve Hackett's layered guitars and Tony Banks's piano were tactile in my living room. Listening to "A Trick of the Tail", I noticed for the first time that during the refrains Mike Rutherford's bass was mirroring Phil's vocals. On the final cut, "Los Endos", I was blown away by the band's musicianship. Sometimes we forget how good some of the bands of our youth were. Volti Audio's Lucera hornspeakers were a great reminder.

Listening Is Truly Special
As you can tell, I could go on about the Volti Audio Lucera hornspeakers. They made every piece of music I played through them sound better, not just the audiophile recordings. The timbre of instruments and voices was spot on, no matter the type of music. Many audiophiles would be hard-pressed to identify the Volti Audio Luceras as horn-type speakers with the grills on. I never had a wince moment with the Lucera speakers. They presented the music with such low distortion and effortless dynamics that I was spellbound every time I listened to music through them.

Horn loudspeakers are still out there in the audiophile world. I listened to quite a few when I went to Southwest Audio Fest 2024 show. Volti Audio's Lucera hybrid hornspeakers fit in cost-wise between vintage Altec gear and the more exotic horn systems. They also sound great in a normal listening space like my living room. Greg Roberts has achieved something special with his Volti Audio Lucera loudspeakers. They are the best speakers I've ever listened to in my home and they joyfully reminded me of why I love this hobby!

Specifications
Type: Three-way hybrid horn / bass reflex / ported loudspeaker
Frequency Response: 32Hz to 18kHz
Drivers: Neodymium horn tweeter
       2" outlet midrange compression driver with a composite diaphragm
       15" high-sensitivity woofer with 2" throat 
Crossover: Custom hand-wired with high quality components
Bi-wire at the input
Impedance: 8 Ohm (connect to 8 Ohm taps)
Sensitivity: 99db/W/m
Recommended Amplifier Power: 8 Wpc (min.), 80 Wpc continuous (max.)
Dimensions: 40" tall, 18" wide and 14" deep
Weight: 110 lbs. each
Price: $11,700 per pair

Company Information
Volti Audio
6100 Nashville Highway
Baxter, TN 38544

Voice: (207) 314-1937
E-mail: voltiaudio@gmail.com 
Website: VoltiAudio.com