XAV EXPRESSO MINI MONITOR…A Honest Transducer?!

I chanced upon a pleasant meet up with Mr.Kitiwat Watcharachatchawan of XAV, an established loudspeakers design and manufacture company at Thailand. He invited me to have a listen to their hand made Expresso mini monitor that he just put up in a small audio set up at AMCORP MALL, Petaling Jaya. We played some tunes then and there.

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Pleasurably, I owned and played with some notable mini monitors namely, the Penaudio Charisma, Graham LS3/5 and Kef LS50 thus I could easily recognized the traits of their strengths and weaknesses.

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Without further ado, my first question to him was whether the company’s baby could play “louder than the usual mini monitor and yet retain its strength“? His answer was an affirmative thus sparkled an interest in me to asked for a review sample. Then and there, he generously offered me that pair for review.

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I have the XAV Expresso Mini Monitor (hereinafter refer to as Expresso) set up in my audio den that may be large for a mini monitor (?). I am not using my usual big amplifiers to drive the Expresso but my Naim integrated amplifier, Nait 5i, sourced by Oppo BDP-103D, and connected with speaker cables from XLO Cables. I figure that that set up would be more accommodating to more audiences.

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The dimension of my audio den is around 18′(width) x 28′(depth) x 8′(height). From the photo provided, the Expresso are placed slightly above 12′ apart (from tweeter to tweeter) and around 19′ from the listening position. I do not imagine that there would be that many audiophile setting up their Expresso in like manner. It was my intention to cast as big as possible a soundstage and explore the very limit of their extension, dynamism and transient (no worry, I know the limitation of the other accompanying components in the set up).

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I have been using the Expresso for the usual music appreciation and home theatre duty. Some may be wondering why I have these mini monitors in an audio den filled with my reference behemoth Gryphon Audio Kodo loudspeakers? I have been fascinated with their simplicity, purity and unadulterated sound quality. Henceforth, I use them and their positive sound quality as a gauge in setting up my behemoth loudspeakers. Thus, many have been wondering why the sound quality of my behemoth loudspeakers have certain similar attributes of a mini monitors (now, the readers know my little trick).

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As could be seen in the photo, the Expresso was placed on top a pair of simple but sturdy unbranded speaker stands, and have no tweak on the monitors nor on the stands. The intention was to experience the native (or as close as possible) sound quality so as to better understand them.

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That simple set up resulted to my surprise, a soundstage that expanded beyond their miniature size and their 12′ apart placement. Having experienced that sensation, I took the opportunity to play the CD of Thai female vocalist, Pacharamon Naphasthanakiet, “Oopiib Sings Impression 2” (Impression Sound Studio), which was recorded at the orchestra hall of Studio 28, Bangkok. Here, the Expresso managed to present the width, height and depth of the recording venue, an orchestra sized hall, and illusively made themselves disappeared amidst the sound and stage.

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I found the Expresso able to image, separate and segregate very well the content of the music. Here, given any lesser audio (loud)speaker, the multitude of musicians in an orchestra hall would have drown the voice of the vocalist. I must credit the recording engineer, Pongpan Channet for the fine recording work, and the Expresso’s ability to present his works accurately. The image height of the vocalist was in the right proportion to the accompanying musicians, and the same could be said for the musicians and their respective instruments. Equally, the separation and spacing among the musicians in the orchestra hall were presented.

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I found that the Expresso present musical contents with a certain flair, i.e.; crystalline feel, and clarity. They were not bright sounding nor incline to exaggerate the higher frequencies. Equally, there was no exaggeration in the mid and lower frequencies. They maybe a slight lean sounding to some, but to others, they may be neutral or flat sounding. At the fourth track in the CD album, The Fifth & Fifthteenth (Kent Poon, DSFS-001 CD feverSound.com) they presented (Ms.) Judas Law‘s voice (a known busker in the streets of Hong Kong) with firmness, focus, anchorage, definition, stability and palpability. The accompanying guitarist, Tommy Ho and his strings too enjoyed (I believed) proportionately right amount of presence and weight. Comparatively, I did not hear from them any mid range bloom or warmth, which coloration may enticed a larger audiences.

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The mid bass transient and energy of the Expresso were clean, tempo-right and punchy, with the recent works of Taku Iwasaki, “CITY HUNTER PRIVATE EYES” Original Soundtrack (CD, Aniplex SVWC 70395). Impressively, these babies were able to punch and move some waves of air at only around 85dB peak, and without any hint of distortion, exhaustion and loss of integration among the musical contents. In other words, if so chose, one could dance with them at higher volume level than the normal mini monitors!

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If pushed further, playing Alan Silvestri “AVENGERS ENDGAME” Soundtrack (Hollywood Records MARVEL CD 0003093702) proved to me that the Expresso could maintain the atmosphere, separation, spacing and coherency of a symphonic presentation at a higher volume than most mini monitors. Try track 23, “Portals”, and most listeners would realize that the Expresso could equally pushed the lower frequencies of the drums at the rear of the orchestra.

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The XAV EXPRESSO is one of the very few (loud)speakers that, I have the pleasure with, aimed to be an honest transducer, within its limitation as a mini monitor. It will rather sing, within its limitation, the actual tone as intended than sing a re-colored tone…the purpose of a monitor.

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Personally, I found the Expresso’s honest transparency, neutrality, ability to play louder and more expansive than most in its category, far outweighed any preferred coloration for a monitor speaker…

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Check out their website: www.xav-audio.com

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SPECIFICATIONS eXpresso

System : 2-way, Bass Reflex, Stand-mounting

Bass/Midrange : 130 mm, Woven Carbon Fiber Diaphragm, Engineered through XAV’s Proprietary Design and Acoustically Coat Treated For Ultra Low Distortion and High Definition

Tweeter : 28mm Silk Dome with Advanced Acoustic Air-chamber (AAA), Coat Treated for Extended High Linearity

Crossover Network & Cabinetry : Optimally Tuned with Wave-Guide Time-Aligned Panel for Highly Accurate Imaging, Depth and Spaciousness Dispersion. Speaker Terminals Premium Gold-plated 5 way Binding Posts.

Frequency Response : 58-23,000 Hz

Crossover Point : 3.5 kHz

Nominal Impedance : 8 Ohms

Recommended Power : 30-150 watts

Sensitivity : 87dB/2.83v/@1m

Dimension (WXHXD) : 170 x 300 x 260 mm

Weight : 6 Kg (13.2 Lbs.)/Pcs.

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