The Crystal Dipole and the Model 1 DSP Dipole Subwoofer
The Crystal Dipole has stirrings of an exotic speaker, with its smoked glass baffle and striking Cube Audio F10 Select driver. The Model 1 Subwoofer is not exquisite but functional, like VPE’s larger subwoofer, the Model 2, which follows the form factor of a box on the floor and employs an Eminence Kappa Pro woofer, the same woofer used in VPE’s Airfoil Speaker. The Model 2 has a 500W Class D amplifier and incorporates DSP control. It is more aesthetically appealing in a traditional form than the Model 1 and is available in Oak, Teak, Rosewood, Walnut, Ebony, and Mahogany finishes.
The cabinet of the Model 1 is shaped like a hollow wedge of cheese that had its end cut off, laying on its side and aimed at the listener. The narrow end opening (port) is to be tucked beneath the Magna Riser Stands and just under the baffle of the Crystal Dipole or suitable panel speakers. When aligned properly, the subs sit between the Magna Risers with no more than .5” between them and the stands. It’s a slick idea. For a time Magnepan was fiddling with a smallish woofer tower with several smallish bass drivers. Meh. I’ve gotten very spoiled regarding LF and can’t take puny drivers, even if in an array. When you have heard the qualitative difference between such things and a Perlisten D212s Subwoofer all smallish subs pale in significance. I own a pair and they are my reference. Yes, the Model 1 pales, too, but not terribly, as I will relate. There is a qualitative difference between subwoofers using larger drivers versus an array of smaller drivers, regardless of the specifications. The specs do not capture the nuances the ear hears. I left behind Vandersteen subwoofers with their triple 8” slot loaded design because to my ears they were muddy and lacking in finesse compared to subs like the D212s. If this rankles you and you wish to argue, sorry, not interested. Specifications-driven audiophiles will likely doubt me until they hear it for themselves.
CD Model 2 with Big Dipole Woofer, a slot-loaded dipole using a 12” Eminence woofer and a 500W DSP amplifier.
Solution for a tough commonality
The commonality between a panel speaker like the Magnepan LRS and a full range like the Crystal Dipole is the shallow bass. Most other attributes of sound quality are radically different. As I said in my review of the .7, Powering a Magnepan is like driving a brick. The F10 Select driver is like feathers. You’ll get much more headroom, dynamic impact, and quicker sounding transients from the Crystal Dipole than you will a lower end Maggie, and that adds up to a captivating vividness. The greatest technical and experiential distinction separating a full-range speaker like of the Crystal Dipole from panel speakers and larger, floor standing, full range (as in frequency response) speakers is the perceptually smallish, or highly localized, emergence of the wave launch. As might be expected, the ear can tell how physically large the source of the wave is, the difference between a diminutive source or a larger source. Think of it like a car approaching; it’s not tough to determine based on hearing whether the car is smallish or larger. Both vehicles make a big sound field but one seems larger from the start. This is not a perfect illustration, as hearing various sized vehicles involves differing frequencies, but it allows for consideration of the impact of the physical dimensions of the driver on the listening experience.
The wave launch of a panel speaker sounds much more generous, bigger, and the phantom (center) images of voices and instruments are commensurately larger. Panel speakers splay the images, making the center and soundstage larger, stretched, and it’s an appealing affect, testified to by the large number of owners of such speakers. For that reason, I own the King Sound King III, a physically large speaker. If I could get the same attributes from a smallish speaker, I would not have bought them. The Crystal Dipole, as with all full range drivers, are the antithesis, providing a relatively diminutive source for the wave launch and with seemingly more limited expansion of the center image and soundstage. However, such speakers are far superior at intensifying, making the central part of the sound stage more intense. A dipole atomizes the center image, but the Crystal Dipole intensifies the center image. Both types of speakers are coherent in the sense of creating one source for the wave launch.
Perhaps you see where this is going. As an owner of variety of speaker systems in my search for a wide variety of listening experiences, I recommend both types of speakers, dipole and full range, to both budget and high-end audiophiles! The Model 1 Sub is a gift for budget audiophiles especially since it can be used with both types of speakers. That is a win-win scenario! It is rare to find an affordable solution to a real-world problem, in this case, limited bass extension, that enhances such different speakers!
The Model 1 is a play toy, or not
The bass from the rear port of the Model 1 is time aligned and inverted to perform with the front dispersion. If one wished to try the Model 1 sitting forward facing aside the dipole speaker, the owner needs to change the setting on the subs to normal polarity. The full function controls for the Model 1’s amp, the Dayton Audio SPA250DSP 250W Subwoofer Plate Amplifier with DSP, has a suite of software that can be loaded onto your laptop. Don uses a free RTA (real time analyzer) app with his iPhone along with a calibration disc, Flat Pink CD 4,000, provided with a technically packed printed manual for the owner. Full manipulation of the subwoofer is possible if the owner wishes, and yes, there is a capacity to save frequency curves so that if you screw up you can revert, but VPE will help with an initial setup.
I dabbled in building my own frequency curves when I reviewed the Legacy Audio V and Valor Speaker Systems through use of Legacy’s Wavelet Processor. The software for the Dayton SPA250 amp reaches into that sphere of manipulation for the person who is eager for it. Do not be scared off, however, if that is not your desire. VPE will help you set up the speakers and you will not need to touch the amp again, except for the simple output control so that it can be matched to your amp. Nice! All that configurability makes the Model 1 and the Crystal Dipole an above average combo, and with far more system integration potential than the average $5K passive speaker!
VPE is aware of how squeamish some audiophiles are and is considering sending a representative of the company to purchaser’s homes to assist with setup. Don flew into town and spent about four hours at my place before returning to Missouri. I don’t see that being a viable long-term policy. What if they sell a dozen units in the next three months? Are the company owners to crisscross the country for a pair of $1K@ subwoofers? That can kill a company’s earnings quickly! Scott Kindt of Aspen Acoustics initially offered a similar policy of delivery of the speakers. I told him it was untenable. I do not want to see VPE buried with expenses in their bid to be helpful. They may wish to reconsider and offer video chat help.
As for the Crystal Dipole, it doesn’t get much simpler than a piece of plexiglass with metal footers and one driver. That’s it, and the sound is simple and clean as one might expect. The smoked baffle could use some smoothing of its edges, but it is not razor sharp. The stands do not evoke thoughts of buttresses, but what do you expect from a $3K speaker with the drivers being the bulk of the parts cost? In terms of absolute cleanness and detail retrieval, these play a lot better than expected from a $3K speaker!
For the purposes of this article I am not going to elucidate the purported technologically miraculous innards of the F10 Select driver. It was selected from a list of full range contenders and is very nice. Anyone who wants to investigate the spiral voice coil or be floored by the tubular array of magnets that make the special magnetic field for the top end model F10 Neo v2 (or F8 Neo v2 for different applications) voice coil can check it out at the Cube Audio website. My bottom line is, does the driver have capacity to wow, and it does.
Speakers change, we change
Once the audiophile is immersed fully into the community and has heard enough genres of speaker technology, they move past the infatuation with the novelty of them and on to the criticism of their shortcomings. Line source speakers and hybrid line source speakers are sloppy with their multiple wave launch and poor coherence. Dipoles lack the vividness and dynamic attack of dynamic speakers. Omnidirectional speakers are cool but disorganized. Dynamic speakers are made ponderous by cabinets that smear the bass with reflected waves internally. Most full-range speakers have checked the bass at the door. The problems of these designs are not relegated to entry level models but can be detected in SOTA products, too. Despite the protestations of each genre of speaker’s rabid fans, there is no ideal solution.
I wonder if I’m reverting, showing signs of aging? Is that what happens to the older audiophile who starts to take a hankering for a full-range speaker? Is reversion to simplicity a sign of senescence? I dare not think about it too much as I find myself increasingly attracted to coaxial and full range speakers.
What’s happening to me? I used to be all about the power, the glory of big, badass sound, the towering speakers that could put out a huge soundstage and seat vibrating bass. Multi-way was the way to go, not those skinny tower speakers with 5” full-range drivers that were an excuse for an audiophile speaker. Why am I paying attention to a 10” full range speaker?
The number one reason is coherence, the primary reason anyone would consider a full-range design. Whether the solitary driver is a sheet or a cone, the purity of a single wave launch is appealing. Over the decades, my ears have become more negatively sensitized to the moving sheet effect of magnetic planar technology. I love the size, the scale, but I don’t care for the idiosyncrastic vibration of the mylar at higher listening levels. That issue was ameliorated by the Kingsound King III (disclaimer, I reviewed and own it) which has multiple ESL drivers in what I call a line source electrostatic configuration, dispensing with the big vibrating plastic sheet. To my ears, that technological twist yields even higher resolution and fullness than the classic large mylar driver. The Sound Lab Ultimate 545 was a pleasure to review, and although I could have made it my reference dipole speaker, I ultimately kept the King III for the reasons stated. I hasten to add that the Sound Lab had much less of the vibrating sheet effect than the Magnepan speakers I have used or heard, but in comparison, the King III was richer and fuller with little to no transparency and resolution penalty.
In one sense, I hate what listening to concentric and full range speakers has done to me. They have made me sensitive to speaker coherence, the sensation that the sound is coming from one source, not a collection of sources. I still love big multi-way speakers and quasi-line source designs. Whereas I used to simply hear all their sound, now, I hear x number of bass or x number of midrange drivers, each one spitting out a copy of the signal. A horn or guitar string plucked comes with doppelgangers.
Ten years ago, I would not have reviewed a product like the Crystal Dipole Speaker by VPE Electrodynamics. Twenty years ago, my bias against them was such that I would not have cared to sit in a demonstration of a full range speaker. Times change. We get older, better educated, more informed as to the nuances of the hobby. We go from being young, brazen know-it-alls to older, mellower students of the art.
I know I am mellowing, aging, because I do not haul 200+ speakers in and out of my listening room bimonthly, nor do I seek monstrous amps to power speakers. I’m tired of the play for overwhelming sound. I want quality. Extreme coherence smacks of quality, simplicity, but I do not want it if it means not lower than 40Hz. I am not giving up low frequencies for a tight experience. To that end, it’s a very good thing that VPE offers the Model 1 for the Crystal Dipole, or else I might not have taken a serious look at it. Wow, what bias! Of course! We all have strong biases. I’m being open about mine.
In some instances, I am reverting to inexpensive speakers. I am reviewing the Crystal Dipole and Model 1 due to residual curiosity associated with some of my first systems. But I never handled an affordable full range speaker. The existence of the Model 1 is a big reason I bothered to initiate this review. A 10” full range speaker that realistically only reaches down to 50Hz in real world listening is not compelling enough, but a speaker aided by a purpose-built subwoofer that can take it down to about 20Hz, now that is worthy of my time. In this review I fulfill my affordable speaker trifecta of technology, dynamic, magnetic planar (dipole), and full-range (open baffle).
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