2/26/2017 - NL35

Hi everyone.

First, an update on the new Volti Audio workshop.  The workshop is the separate 2000sf building on the right in the picture below, where the woodworking and veneering part of the speaker building process happens.   It is separated from the "Big Building" via a breezeway.  This is an old picture - we have exterior doors installed now - still no siding on the exterior though.

The inside of the shop is nearly complete

As you can see, the shop is up and running!  I am now making products here in TN.  Working on a batch of midrange horns for the Rival speaker.

Things are still not complete in the shop however.  Next project is the HVAC in the shop, then finish off the balcony, and then some cabinets built under the balcony.

The inside wall finish is Maine white pine, 1 x 12 shiplap, painted.  This is a very durable product to use in a shop.  If you've ever seen a shop that has drywall, you might have noticed how beat up the walls get.

All the lighting is LED tubes (look like flourescent), even brighter than the nice lighting I had at the old shop.

You might notice a few things in the photos, like the new-to-me/used Maggi radial arm saw, which was an ebay find for only $350.  These are heavy-duty, super-accurate, Italian-made saws.  I've got it mounted in an alcove so that the bench can be back against the wall (usually there's a lot of wasted space between the back of the bench and the wall).

I cobbled together a stereo system for the shop (up on the balcony) so I can have tunes while I work.  MAJOR reflection problems - what a yucky sound with the speakers up there on the balcony.  I may need to rethink this setup.

The shop has a great bathroom - accessed through a storage room that has my movable shelf units for now.   Tile around the lower part of the wall for easy cleaning, and of course a urinal.  I put a shower in, but I don't think I'll ever use it.  But you never know, it may come in handy down the road.

Here's my veneer room, which is now being used mostly as a storage room.

Note the shelves up high all around the room for storing the veneer cauls and templates.  I can walk under these without hitting my head.   When we're all setup with the rest of our work space, this room will be where I have multiple tables with vacuum bags for veneering and laminating.

I feel very lucky to be able to have another great shop to work in.  The old Maine shop was very nice too.   I think it's really important to have a nice space to work in every day - comfortable and inspiring.

Progress on the "big building" (about 2500sf of additional workspace, and 2000sf of living space) is going much slower than the workshop.  We're at the point where construction funds are quite low, and we are doing almost all the work by ourselves.  It looks like it will be quite a while before we can occupy the big building, but at least we know the quality of workmanship will be higher, and the costs lower than if we were hiring people to do the work.  We have mixed feelings about living in a 30' camper for such a long time (you've seen the T.V. show "Tiny Houses" right?  Yeah, well that's us).  Still we remain optimistic about the future and we are generally in good spirits, which is not easy to do when your toilet is about the size of a mayonnaise jar, and in a closet about the size of a phone booth.

We've been living here in TN for over a year now (minus the four month stint back in Maine last summer), so we are really settling in here and it is starting to feel like home.   No more accounts in Maine, no more addresses in Maine, no more extended trips back to Maine, no more working in Maine, no more suffering through Maine Winters - it feels official now - We are Tennesseans!

I seen on Facebook they've had some wicked good stoahms lately

Ahuh, see what you'ah missin, Mutha  .  . .

A couple of quick things  .  .  .

I have discovered that there is a shift happening with how people are using email.  Fewer and fewer people have desktop computers, and more and more are using their phone for email.  I think as people are using their phones for email, they are treating email more like text messages - that is, with less importance - quick, disposable communication, versus keeping email conversations going for some time, and saving those conversations for future reference.

I believe this has had an impact on Volti Audio's business over the last couple of years.  Where I once relied almost exclusively on email communications for conducting business, I am finding that hard to do now.  So I have now put my cell phone number on my websites for people to contact me.  I am encouraging people to communicate directly with me this way, and use email as a backup to the phone conversations.  I hope this will enable me to better provide information to my customers, and to ultimately close sales.

I also think this shift is having an affect on my open rate for this newsletter.  I realize that the newsletter is not phone-friendly, which may need to change in the future.  Doing that will mean using a Constant Contact newsletter template.  Currently, I use a web-design program to make this newsletter, which gives me a lot of freedom with the amount and format of the content.  Changing to a standard newsletter template will certainly have an affect on how my newsletters look and probably even the amount and type of content I can put in them.

Do you have any thoughts on this?  Please send me an email and let me know.   

In the last newsletter I left you all hanging with regard to the Rival.  The project is complete now, and I've got some pictures to show you.  Of course you can get all these on the Volti Audio website as well.   In fact, you really should check out the new Rival webpage

If you remember, this is what the prototypes that I brought to CAF last year looked like.  Not bad, but just a little too much like a DIY attempt.  Great considering they were prototypes.

I wanted to refine the design and raise the top horns up higher.  I got some input from some of my business co-conspiritors, especially Gary Dews, who made up some nice computer drawings for me to look at, and set about making the changes.

So the cabinet became as narrow as I could make it and still fit the mid horns in, the minimal depth necessary for the mid horns to fit in, and then adjusted the height to keep the same internal cabinet volume.  I also did away with the sides protruding out beyond the front and instead opted for a front that is attached over the cabinet, with the edges showing on the sides and top.  I added some nice feet and grill options, and there you have it.

Here's one of Gary's computer drawings

A simple design that looks really nice, especially dressed up in beautiful rosewood.

Here is one of the base models in birch

Pretty sharp looking, and that's a lot of speaker for $7,900

Exciting News!

A publishing date has not been set yet, but the Rival speakers have been reveiwed for Stereophile magazine!   Ken Micallef had a pair of Rival speakers up in his seven-story WALK-UP apartment in Greenich Village NYC for a few months, and I think he really liked them.  About a week into it he texted me "The speakers are magic".  He's got some great supporting gear, and the system did sound really good that day that I helped him lug the speakers up all those flights of stairs.

I'm excited to have another review coming out in Stereophile.  We need it right now, as sales have been kind of slow over the last year or so.  The Rival is really a great speaker, and I hope this article, along with the exposure at AXPONA will kick start sales.

RDP ME

I'm going to be implementing a Rival Demo Program for potential Volti Audio customers who want to try out the Rival speakers in their own home for a period of time.  I'm going to build a pair of Rivals especially for this task, and pack them up in a very stout crate for shipping here and there and everywhere.

I did this with the V-Trac horn (Khorn replacement midrange horn) when I first introduced it, and it was a huge success.   With the V-Trac horn, about 75% of the people who demo'ed them bought them.  

We'll have a list of people who want to demo the speakers.  Each person will pay for the shipping from the last customer.   The speakers will be in a crate that is strapped to a pallet.  The crate will have big wheels on the bottom of it and it will be sitting sideways on the pallet.  The crate/pallet is shipped via truck freight, usually an 18-wheeler, with liftgate.  The service is called "curbside", which means they will pull up to your driveway, drop the liftgate, use a pallet jack to put the crate/pallet at the end of your driveway, and you are responsible for taking it from there.  That's why I'm putting the wheels on it, so you can unstrap the crate from the pallet, tip the crate down onto the wheels (handles on the crate), and wheel it up into your garage.

The shipping cost will vary, depending on how far it has to go and exactly where you live.  But it's safe to say somewhere between $400 and $800.

Laurie is planning to keep tabs of the whole thing, and arrange for the shipping for each customer, collecting payment, figuring out who gets the speakers next, etc...   If you want to get on the list, contact us and we'll get you in line.

I introduced the new Volti Audio Rival speakers at this show, and hardly anyone noticed.  Not due to the speakers however, which performed quite well in spite of the terrible sounding room we were in, and looked fantastic all dressed up in a beautiful Rosewood veneer.  The problem was the show itself, and the lack of people attending it.

I'm sorry to say, but this just isn't a very good show, and it isn't a good show because of the show promoters.  New York City deserves better than this.

2014 in Brooklyn was the best one that The Chester Group put on, and if they had continued it there, I think they could have grown it into something very good.  2015 in Westchester was an embarrassment.  Nobody showed up - vendors or attendees.

For the 2016 version, they brought it back to Manhatten at the Park Lane Hotel, Central Park South, and showed us yet again why they are not qualified to promote an audio show.  Again, hardly any vendors there, promotion was non-existent, attendance was not good, the venue was not good, and the costs (as with everthing in NYC) were exorbitant.

Volti Audio will not be a part of a Chester Group show ever again.  Done.  

If you're going to be an audio show promoter, the most important thing is to have a venue with good sounding rooms.   Nothing I do at an audio show is more important than making a good sound.  There can be no excuses.  My job is to work out all the bugs ahead of time, deal with the few that pop up at the show during setup day, and make absolutely sure that my system is sounding really, really good.  If I don't do that, I have failed.  When the show promoters don't take the time to check out the rooms they are selling to me to make sure the walls are not flimsy and the room not boomy, they put me in a bad situation.  At this show, the rooms were so bad that it was not possible to fix the problems.  Everyone had problems.  Based on what I heard at the show, the most common solution to the problem was to not have any bass in your system.   Seriously, I could not believe how terrible most of the rooms sounded.  At least one third of the rooms that I went into had no frequencies below 100Hz coming out of the system.  No bass problems in those rooms.

So anyway, we had boomy bass problems in our room, and we did everything possible to fix those issues.  I think we ended up with a respectably good sound considering the circumstances - and our system was producing properly balanced bass that extended to 32Hz.

Shows generally cost between $5,000 and $10,000 to do.  What do we hope to get from that investment?   We want people to hear our speakers, we want them to tell others about their experience, we want the Audio Press to hear our speakers and write nice things, we want to be seen so people don't think we're out of business, and generally we want to positively promote the Volti Audio brand.  I don't think much of any of that came out of the NYAS last year.

But there were a few nice things written  .  .  .

Click HERE for the complete article by Jana Dagdagan of Stereophile Magazine

Oh, and Charlie wrote me an email and said we had the best sound at the show!

Had a chance to listen to them in New York last year.   And I really think you had the best sounding room.   These really 'got it right' the variety of music sounded amazing.   Keep up the good work, Charlie

AXPONA (Audio Expo North America) is the defining high-end consumer audio show in the United States.   The three day experience features multiple hotel floors packed with listening rooms, exhibit floors, seminars and live musical performances.   Whether you're a serious audiophile, a newcomer to high-end audio or simply a music lover, you'll find everything you need to immerse yourself in your favorite sounds.

Use this code at checkout when buying tickets online, and get 15% off 3-day tickets

AP124X

This is for 3-day tickets only and does not apply to the Gold Pass.   It is for new registrations - No refunds for those who have previously registered.

Volti Audio will be at AXPONA in room 314 only this year.  I'll be bringing a pair of Rival speakers to the show, and I'm teaming up with BorderPatrol Audio, Triode Wire Labs, and Fidelis Music Systems, and I'm sure we'll make a great sound.

You should plan to be there and come hear the new Volti Audio Rival speakers!

Yup!  Another new Volti Audio speaker is on the horizon.

Here's the concept.  Simplify construction as much as possible, use the same internal components as the Vittora, and offer to my customers a three-way, fully horn-loaded speaker at a significantly lower price point than the Vittora.  This speaker will provide much of the same great horn-loaded bass sound that the Vittora has, but with the emphasis on the sound quality and not the aesthetic design.   It will be built in a way that allows for it to be offered in plain birch as the base priced model, which will further reduce costs, with veneers and other options available.

This new speaker will have a single-fold, folded bass horn with a high-sensitivity 15" driver; a wooden, tractrix midrange horn with a 2" throat and the same large-format midrange driver that is used on the Vittora midrange; the same tweeter that is used in the Vittora; a hand-built crossover with high-quality components designed by Greg Roberts.

Cabinet construction will use 1" and 3/4" thick Baltic Birch.  Grill cloth will be the same woven, acoustically-transparent cloth that is used on the Vittora.

Dimensions will be - approximately - 36" wide, 34" tall, and 20" deep, and will weigh about 150lbs.

Volti Audio currently manufactures a midrange horn replacement for the Klipsch Belle speaker and the new Volti speaker will use the same horn/frame.

I will not be copying the design; but by its very nature, with a small folded bass horn and separate upper horn section, along with the estimated dimensions of the new design, this new speaker will naturally look somewhat like a Klipsch Belle speaker.   Certain design elements will follow from the Vittora design to this new speaker, although the cabinet will not have curved sides.

I must design and build this speaker while being mindful of my production and technical abilities, the saleability, and the desired price point; which means that the design dimensions, specifications, aesthetics, hardware choice, fit and finish, and options choices must be mine alone to determine.  I will not be accepting input from customers on any aspect of the design or construction of this new speaker.

Customers can expect the same good design they see in other Volti Audio products.

Customers can expect the same high build and finish quality that they see in other Volti Audio products.

Customers can expect the same great sound quality that they have come to expect from Volti Audio horn speakers.

I'm looking for the first customer or customers to invest in this project.  I will write up an invoice for a pair of the new Volti horn speakers to be sold at a price of $12,000.  This price represents the estimated price of the base model finished in birch with a clear lacquer finish.  I will require a non-refundable deposit to be made in the amount of $6,000, an interim payment of $4,000 after the design is complete, with the balance due upon completion and prior to crating the speakers for shipping.  I will use the deposit money to cover the materials cost needed for development of the new speaker, including materials to build one or more prototypes, and after the design is complete, to build your speakers.   The time frame needed for development and construction of the first pair will be eight months from the time of deposit.

As an incentive to the first investing customer or customers, I will veneer their speakers in one of our stock veneer choices free of charge (a $3,500 value).  I will also cover the shipping cost of the speakers to my customers within the 48 U.S. States (a savings of $500 - $1000).

Please note - I promise you that you will receive a pair of final-version speakers, and not prototypes, which is why I need eight months to complete the project.

If you'd like to be one of the first to own this new fully-horn loaded speaker from Volti Audio, please contact me and let me know and we'll work out the details.

To be honest, I have found it difficult to make a living in the Audio Business.   Especially building speakers.  I mean, we've more or less done it for the last four years, but just barely.  It's not exactly a robust business, unless you're in certain segments of the business, like digital products, or headphones.

There are a lot fewer people buying speakers in the world these days as compared to the heyday of Audio in the 60's and 70's, especially big horn speakers.  Add to that, the amount of competition I'm up against, and I don't think it's going to be possible to rely on the sales of new speakers alone to provide our living.  I think it is necessary to diversify and have many different products and services to offer my customers.

I've actually known this all along, which is why we continue to manufacture and sell Klipsch Upgrades products, as well as take on speaker restoration projects now and again.  It's also why you are seeing new models of speakers for Volti to build.  But I think it's time to take it even further.

It's time to add another side to Volti Audio, and that is the sales of electronic components and cables.   It's a natural fit for me and for my customers.  I have a lot of experience matching up electronics to my speakers, and I know exactly what will work to make a great sounding system.  I've developed business relationships over the years with many different manufacturers, and I will be able to offer my customers really good choices in all budget ranges.

I enjoy working closely with customers to provide the service that they need to help them choose the right components to go with their speakers.  Setting myself up to sell these products will add one more source of revenue for Volti Audio that will help us make a living at it.

So here's a list of the products you'll be able to buy from Volti Audio in the near future

Triode Wire Labs - cables that let the music flow through, without coloring the sound.  Great construction quality, at very reasonable prices.

I am working on the new product webpages right now, so keep an eye out on the website for them.  I've also become an Audiogon Dealer, and I have an e-store setup on that site.  I think Audiogon will give us some good exposure.

Meanwhile, if you're interested in any of the products from the vendors listed above, please contact me at 207-314-1937.   There are discounts available on some of the brands, so it definitely pays to call me to discuss your options.

A couple of questions for Pete Grzybowski of Triode Wire Labs

Q:   "I'm on a tight budget and can only afford to replace one cable in my system right now.   Which one would you recommend I change out first?"

A: Changing your preamplifier or integrated amp power cord can have a profound improvement in sound quality.   Also, changing the power cord on a DAC or CD/SACD player can provide a more analogue feel to the music.

Q:   "In what order of (sound quality improvement) priority would you recommend upgrading from stock power cords on components?"

A: Here is my advice:
1. Preamplifiers or Integrated Amplifier
2. DAC or Digital Sources
3. Amplifier(s)
4. Power Conditioner or Power Bar / Strip
5. Turntable motor
6. Power Supplies for various other components

A question for Gary Dews of BorderPatrol Audio Electronics

Q:   "I saw a review of one of your rooms at Capital Audiofest last year, and in the article the author mentioned that you had a BorderPatrol DAC in the system.   I don't see this DAC on your website though.  Is this a product that you are selling now?"

A: Yes it is.

The BorderPatrol USB DAC began as a "suck it and see" project around three years ago.   I listened to a wide selection of USB input and DAC chips and I could hear that something good was going on.   After more work on the power supply I could really hear things coming together.  I built a few to test the market, and they have appeared at various shows built in "Western Electric" or bamboo boxes.  Surprisingly, considering the relatively low cost, Scot Hull at Part Time Audiophile was very impressed and asked for one for himself.   PTA has reviewed a large number of very well regarded (and expensive) DAC's so it was particularly gratifying that Scot bought one of my relatively inexpensive DAC's to use himself.  He has referred to it many times in reviews and it is still listed as one of his favourites.  Feedback from other buyers is excellent.

It is now an 'official' BorderPatrol product.   The wood boxes have been replaced by custom made copper enclosures.  It has a sophisticated tube/solid state hybrid choke input filter power supply, and there are USB, SPDIF or switchable USB - SPDIF versions available.  I will be building the web page very soon, so keep an eye out for it.   If you want one now, just send me an email.  Prices around $1,000.

Do you like this new Q&A section of the newsletter?  I thought I would try it and see how it was received.  Help me out with it - send me your questions that you'd like answered by an industry pro, and I'll include it here in the next NL.  Send me a photo of yourself, and I'll include that here too! - Greg

No Border Website and Mobile Ap Design

The new Volti Audio website design was put together by Hanna over at No Border.  She's in San Diego California, but given the personalized service she provided, she might as well have been sitting with me at my computer during the development of the new site.  She made the process so easy, and the results speak for themselves.  I've got a great looking website that performs flawlessly, and the cost was very reasonable.  If you need website work done, I highly recommend this company.

I know my email newsletters are lengthy, but I want to provide my readership with something interesting to read.   Long term, I want to tell a story worth taking the time to read.  I hope I am meeting those expectations.  Send me an email and tell me what you think.

Thank you for your support, and until next time, trust your ears and have fun!