I wanted to follow-up on my original post, about the BMC PureVOX speakers. I pulled the trigger on a pair, and have had a chance to live with them for a while and wanted to offer feedback for other prospective buyers.
The PureVOX replaced a set of Proac D2, which at the time were sort of a "holy grail" acquisition for me, not from a cost standpoint but because I'd always wanted a set of new Proacs and my dealer had the D2 in the Birdseye Maple that I liked. The reason I was considering replacing the D2 was soon after buying the D2 I also purchased a set of pre-owned Wilson Benesch Arcs for an office listening space, and loved how transparent those sounded, much moreso than the D2. I'm sure the Arc drivers had a lot to do with it, but I liked the effect of removing the wooden box from the speaker equation (WB Arc cabinets are steel and carbon fiber). After hearing the Arcs I found I liked the D2 sound much less, so I decided to try to replace the D2 with something that, like the WB Arcs, did away with the wooden cabinet. That's how I came across BMC, which makes the PureVOX out of extruded aluminum.
I got my PureVOX in the Titanium, which is really a blue titanium. It's a hard color to describe...sometimes deep grey, more often like a subdued sapphire blue color. Whereas oftentimes manufacturer pictures flatter the product, and the in-person experience can be less thrilling, with the Purevox it's the other way around. They're much nicer in person than in the photos - none of the photos I've seen captured the bluish hue like it appears to the naked eye.
Build quality is far beyond the price point. When I look at them, touch them, move them around, there's a disconnect between what I'm seeing and feeling vs. what I paid or even what they cost at full retail. I got a great deal on them, which only heightens the feeling of "why didn't these cost more?" Even before you compare their sound output, and just using full retail prices, the Proac D2 and the PureVOX seem worlds apart. Everything from the heft, to the solidity, technology, materials, overall quality - they are much further apart than their actual $2000 cost difference.
And there was a huge difference between the sound from the Proac D2 and the PureVOX. My ownership of both overlapped, so I had time to compare them side by side in the same room on the same amps (Peachtree X-1 Grand Integrated and Audio Research VSi55). The PureVOX does everything better - the sound is more open, airy, clear, transparent, and has greater weight and body. It's not a small, let's switch back and forth 10 times with 10 different songs to hear the differences kind of difference - it's immediate and dramatic. I'm not trying to knock the D2 by comparison, but I've always felt that sound reviews without reference points are harder to interpret, and the D2 is my reference point. I should also mention that the PureVOX is a sealed cabinet design - the bass quality, both in terms of tightness and depth, is far beyond what comes out of the D2 (or my Wilson Benesch Arcs).
The cool thing about the PureVOX is that because of the rear-upward-firing drivers, you can create interesting wall-of-sound effects by playing with toe-in and changing how the rear drivers reflect off the back wall behind the speakers. In our bigger living room, toeing the PureVOX outward (which you'd normally never do with a direct-firing speaker), which points the front drivers at your sides but the rear drivers towards each other, creates a wide concert-hall wall-of-sound effect.
Two other quickie notes - great packaging, with foam coffins that encase the entire speaker, making it easy to re-pack and transport should that be necessary. And I really like the removable hard plastic & magnetic driver covers. Very anti-feline, but easily removable for critical listening.
The PureVOX only come with rounded floor footers, and I have carpet so I got some stone slabs from Home Depot that match the speakers. If you have carpet, plan on either doing what I did, or buying some spikes.
Thanks to Doug Schroeder for his input and time - he did a review on these and was generous with his personal time in answering questions about his experience with them. Thanks also to Hamburger - his comments above were actually dead-on correct, he heard what I'm hearing.
Happy to answer questions, if you need a quick response PM me.
The PureVOX replaced a set of Proac D2, which at the time were sort of a "holy grail" acquisition for me, not from a cost standpoint but because I'd always wanted a set of new Proacs and my dealer had the D2 in the Birdseye Maple that I liked. The reason I was considering replacing the D2 was soon after buying the D2 I also purchased a set of pre-owned Wilson Benesch Arcs for an office listening space, and loved how transparent those sounded, much moreso than the D2. I'm sure the Arc drivers had a lot to do with it, but I liked the effect of removing the wooden box from the speaker equation (WB Arc cabinets are steel and carbon fiber). After hearing the Arcs I found I liked the D2 sound much less, so I decided to try to replace the D2 with something that, like the WB Arcs, did away with the wooden cabinet. That's how I came across BMC, which makes the PureVOX out of extruded aluminum.
I got my PureVOX in the Titanium, which is really a blue titanium. It's a hard color to describe...sometimes deep grey, more often like a subdued sapphire blue color. Whereas oftentimes manufacturer pictures flatter the product, and the in-person experience can be less thrilling, with the Purevox it's the other way around. They're much nicer in person than in the photos - none of the photos I've seen captured the bluish hue like it appears to the naked eye.
Build quality is far beyond the price point. When I look at them, touch them, move them around, there's a disconnect between what I'm seeing and feeling vs. what I paid or even what they cost at full retail. I got a great deal on them, which only heightens the feeling of "why didn't these cost more?" Even before you compare their sound output, and just using full retail prices, the Proac D2 and the PureVOX seem worlds apart. Everything from the heft, to the solidity, technology, materials, overall quality - they are much further apart than their actual $2000 cost difference.
And there was a huge difference between the sound from the Proac D2 and the PureVOX. My ownership of both overlapped, so I had time to compare them side by side in the same room on the same amps (Peachtree X-1 Grand Integrated and Audio Research VSi55). The PureVOX does everything better - the sound is more open, airy, clear, transparent, and has greater weight and body. It's not a small, let's switch back and forth 10 times with 10 different songs to hear the differences kind of difference - it's immediate and dramatic. I'm not trying to knock the D2 by comparison, but I've always felt that sound reviews without reference points are harder to interpret, and the D2 is my reference point. I should also mention that the PureVOX is a sealed cabinet design - the bass quality, both in terms of tightness and depth, is far beyond what comes out of the D2 (or my Wilson Benesch Arcs).
The cool thing about the PureVOX is that because of the rear-upward-firing drivers, you can create interesting wall-of-sound effects by playing with toe-in and changing how the rear drivers reflect off the back wall behind the speakers. In our bigger living room, toeing the PureVOX outward (which you'd normally never do with a direct-firing speaker), which points the front drivers at your sides but the rear drivers towards each other, creates a wide concert-hall wall-of-sound effect.
Two other quickie notes - great packaging, with foam coffins that encase the entire speaker, making it easy to re-pack and transport should that be necessary. And I really like the removable hard plastic & magnetic driver covers. Very anti-feline, but easily removable for critical listening.
The PureVOX only come with rounded floor footers, and I have carpet so I got some stone slabs from Home Depot that match the speakers. If you have carpet, plan on either doing what I did, or buying some spikes.
Thanks to Doug Schroeder for his input and time - he did a review on these and was generous with his personal time in answering questions about his experience with them. Thanks also to Hamburger - his comments above were actually dead-on correct, he heard what I'm hearing.
Happy to answer questions, if you need a quick response PM me.