China 2006

K. E. Lee's $8000/pair Calix Academy Jr. Phoenix loudspeakers are far smaller than the Phoenix Grand Signatures Paul Bolin reviewed, but tiny they ain't. Still, they looked a lot more manageable than those behemoths, which I helped JA wrestle into their shipping crates.

The speaker boasts a 1" silk dome tweeter, a 6" lower midrange driver, and a 10" woofer—the 2" silk dome midrange driver is horn loaded into the large, top-mounted, adjustable horn that gives the speaker its unique profile. The horn has a complex rear-mounted screw mechanism that allows it to be integrated into the rest of the speaker's drivers "regardless of room size and listening position," as Paul Bolin described so well.

Wowsers. The Academy Jr. was dynamic and present. I wanted to take them home. Alas, that may not be possible. "Would you like to distribute them in the US?" Calix president Liu Sun asked me.

Probably a bad idea. Successful dealers are never users themselves.