Volti Audio, Triode Wire Labs, Border Patrol, and Beethoven

I admit, I have my preferred rooms, my biases, at shows. Hey, I'm only human! One such joint is the Volti Audio, Border Patrol, Triode Wire Labs room commandeered, respectively, by Greg Roberts (right), Gary Dewes (left), and Triode Pete Grzybowski (center). I favorably reviewed one of Gary's SET Border Patrol amps, and use Greg and Pete's components in my system. So, when I hit their AXPONA room and saw a bust of Beethoven staring glumly at the rig, I asked "Who's the new guy?"

Greg responded, "I dreamt last night that a dude came in this very room and wounded me! (Greg took on an Oswald-shot-by-Ruby pose, grimacing in pain). I tackled the guy and knocked him out with Beethoven's head. It was all so vivid." Let's get physical!

The room included Greg's new Volti Audio Razz LEs ($6500/pair, specified sensitivity and impedance of 97dB and 6 ohms, footnote 1), which come in a variety of good-looking stains including Crimson Red, Deep Blue, Sage Green, and Drift Gray Oak. These speakers retained their neutral sounding mien, with deep, tight lows, transparent mids, and blue-sky reaching highs.

Gary Dewes' dual mono, 16Wpc, parallel-300B SET, Border Patrol S20EXD amplifier ($19,500–$22,290), which features all triode circuits, inter-stage driver transformers, no negative feedback, point-to-point hard wiring, a copper and wood chassis, and twin external tube-rectified, choke input filter power supplies powered the Voltis, and his 24/96-capable Border Patrol DAC SE-I ($1525–$1995) worked in tandem with Innuos equipment.

In my system, Triode Wire Labs interconnects are extremely transparent, add no flavor or color of their own, and work with everything. The AXPONA complement included Pete's The Obsession Power Cords ($1499 each), Digital American ($499 each), American Speaker cables ($699/pair), Spirit II analog interconnects ($399/pair), and Passion Digital USB cable ($399).

As practically two-thirds of this rig is in my home (Followup review on Volti Razz LE upcoming), I recognized the sound: natural, super dynamic, transparent, fast, and large of scale, with all styles of music. But guys, you added Beethoven to the room, how 'bout a turntable next time?


Footnote 1: the original Volti Razz was reviewed in August 2020.

COMMENTS
avanti1960's picture

if you put some finish on the woofer and vent cutouts!
I heard them on Friday and the sound was very good, that Sting song had sound stage to the ceiling. A little finishing touch on the cabinet goes a long way.

George S's picture

You are so right! I noticed the same thing about the speakers. Looks like they had a stained cabinet and realized that hey forgot to cut holes for the vent... I didn't notice the driver at the time.

I was tempted by the demo pairs they were selling, especially the green. They sounded really nice......

avanti1960's picture

with the show !

doyle3433's picture

I sort of like the contrast myself. It may look a bit more pronounced in the sage. However when I picked up my very own pair of Razz in Walnut, I had the good fortune of listening to a pair of Razz LE in that beautiful red gum finish, (sans grills), and that slight contrast really worked. Greg has so many options and he's super responsive to customers, I have no doubt he would create any finish and detail one might prefer. The man is a perfectionist.

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