Status Acoustics Voce Fina Bookshelf Speaker Introduction

We ’ve been reviewing RBH Sound speakers almost since the inception of Audioholics.com over 15 years ago. I’ve always been particularly fond of their top-of-the-line bookshelf speakers, namely their Status Acoustics Decimos which still remain our reference bookshelf speaker to this day. When RBH decided to resurrect the Status lineup, first with the flagship 8T Tower and now with the Voce Fina bookshelf speaker, I was definitely excited. The Status Acoustics Voce Fina bookshelf speaker is very similar in design to the Decimo but with a new cabinet and new 6.5” Beryllium-Aluminum bass-midrange driver.

When I first saw these speakers at CEDIA last year, they were being called the Element but that name didn’t stick because a competitor already was using it. Thus I suggested the name Stonehenge in tribute to Spinal Tap lovers around the world but RBH Sound decided on something with more elegance by going Italian with Voce Fina which means “fine voice.” While I still find the Stonehenge name more appealing, I believe RBH chose the right name for the product based on my listening experiences when I heard them at CEDIA last year.

I was eager to get these speakers in my own acoustical environment to engage in a more critical listen. Will the Voce Fina live up to the reputation of the Decimos? Read the review to find out.





Status Acoustics Voce Fina 2013 CEDIA Preview

Product Overview

The Status Voce Fina speaker showed up in a giant thick hard plastic case that looked like it was suitable to hold a nuclear weapon. All that was missing were the launch codes. This thing came with rollers for easy maneuverabside.JPGility because it certainly wasn’t manageable for lifting. Unfortunately since I received a prototype pair for review, not all of the details were carefully worked out on the packaging. The speakers didn’t have quite enough padding on the inside of the casing and were mishandled during transit. One of the speakers slapped hard against the other causing the cabinet to crack down the backside. I didn’t want to wait for Status to make up a new set for review so I sealed the crack with duct tape and ran a leakage test to ensure everything was airtight before proceeding with the review.

Build Quality

The build quality of the Status bookshelf speaker is second to none. Their cabinets are made of 2 cm solid granite and are extremely well-insulated with four separate layers of sound absorbing and wave blocking elastomeric-butyl material. Rapping on the cabinet will not only make your knuckles sore very quickly but will produce a consistent deadened thud sound no matter where you rap on it. You literally can’t feel any vibrations in the cabinet while playing back music. This is definitely the most inert speaker cabinet I’ve ever seen or heard.

The Beryllium-Aluminum Driver

The newly developed RBH proprietary 6½” Beryllium/Aluminum phase plug driver is used on this speaker system and the flagship 8T Tower. The driver basket is a high quality cast aluminum. Employing Beryllium improves on aluminum by offering a stiffer, lighter-weight cone with a less pronounced breakup mode that is shifted further beyond the bandwidth in which the driver is being used. Energy storage is reduced and stiffness is increased compared to the conventional aluminum cone, resulting in less cone flexing under stress. The Beryllium alloy cone also produces a more linear transition in the stopband for smoother integration between the drivers. The phase plug reduces moving mass and on-axis beaming and also serves as a heat sink and, to a smaller extent, offers venting for the voice coil. There is also a rubber stopper affixed to the cone to further reduce air turbulence through the gap. A lot of engineering went into this driver, which was thoroughly vetted originally on the Status 8T Tower and now on this speaker system too.

Status Acoustics 6.5" Beryllium-Aluminum Phase Plug Driver

The Tweeter ScanSpeak 9500

While the flagship Status 8T tower employs the new Scan-Speak Illuminator Model 6640 tweeter, RBH instead chose to stick with the classic 9500 as they felt it was a better match for the design goals of this two-way bookshelf speaker.

I simply love the ScanSpeak 9500 tweeter that most upper echelon RBH products have been using for well over a decade now. It has high power handling, a low resonant frequency (550Hz) and superb off axis response. This yields a smoother, more open and airy sound quality with less compression compared to lesser design dome tweeters. Because of a longer rear chamber, the ScanSpeak driver can play much lower than pretty much any 1” dome tweeter on the market. This takes the stress off of a midrange driver to produce frequencies it really can’t do effectively.

Hig h Quality Crossovers

Status uses nothing but the best inductors, high tolerance resistors and film caps in their crossovers. Their crossovers are designed to ensure optimal performance of each driver within its audible bandwidth, guaranteeing proper phase and frequency response of the speaker system. This is the same crossover design from their legendary Decimo speaker that this system now replaces. (Note the custom-built air core Inductors, film caps, and ceramic resistors)

All of the cables are 14AWG twisted pair to minimize signal loss and reduce crosstalk. Note the inductors are spaced apart to minimize magnetic coupling as per our Inductor Crosstalk Basics article.

I was curious to know why RBH Sound continues to use a 2.7kHz crossover frequency on this speaker design considering the tweeter has a very low Fs of 550Hz meaning it could be crossed over as low as 2kHz without any issues.

Editorial Note About Tweeter Crossover Point by Shane Rich, Technical Director of RBH Sound I generally don’t like crossing over a tweeter lower than 2,700Hz or a minimum of 2,500Hz for several reasons. First, is that power handling and output power (SPL) of the tweeter before onset of distortion is often limited to a less than ideal level at lower frequencies even if the Fs of the tweeter is more than an octave lower. In the case of a smaller two-way speaker it may not be as critical, but personally don’t like crossing over in the 1-2kHz range because I think the ear is more sensitive to “picking up” crossovers in that region. I also like to base the crossover frequency (at least with our metal cone drivers) on where the stop band begins with the midrange. I find we get better integration that way with the tweeter. Not every speaker system works best that way, but it seems to be ideal with our drivers. Also, remember that our 6.5” driver has an effective radiating diameter of 5” so the frequency that corresponds to a 5” wavelength is about 2,700Hz . The polar response of the speaker will speak for itself as you saw in your measurements.

Frontview

The Status Acoustics Voce Fina cabinet is so stunning it would make all but the most high-end kitchen countertops envious. Seriously, these things are a work of art. They demand attention and should be proudly displayed in even the most elegant of rooms. I can’t imagine anyone not regarding them as a piece of furniture. With that, I don’t believe you will find any furniture that offers this level of sound quality.



Status Voce Fina Front View (left pic) and back view (right pic)

Backview

The back of the Status Voce Fina speaker is almost as impressive as the front. I say almost because you don’t get to see the gorgeous drivers from the backside. Instead, you get a look at the machined aluminum port and speaker terminal cup, which I must say are the sexiest I’ve seen. The Status Voce Fina come as single wired but you can special order them with two pairs of binding posts if you care to bi-wire or bi-amp. Looking closer at the speaker terminal cup black background seems a bit pedestrian for such a posh product. I really wish they would have embossed the word Status Acoustics on it for a bit more flare.

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