Volent Paragon VL-2 Loudspeaker (TAS 201)

Planar Transparency From a Stand-Mount Box

At the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, Jonathan Valin, Neil Gader, and I independently thought that one of the show’s most pleasant surprises was a stand-mount two-way from a then-unknown (to us) company called Volent. Made in Hong Kong and distributed in the U.S. by Laufer Teknik, the $4995 Volent Paragon VL-2 impressed us with its dynamics, transparency, and soundstaging. We mistakenly thought the VL-2 used a Heil Air-Motion Transformer tweeter, but later discovered that the tweeter is an unusual dual-ribbon unit designed by Volent. I immediately put the VL-2 on our short list of “must-review” products.

    The VL-2’s large (for a stand-mount speaker) cabinet is unusually shaped, with faceted side panels that merge into the baffle. The side panels are also tapered toward the rear, giving the VL-2 a boat shape when viewed from the top. In addition, the top panel is sloped to further minimize parallel surfaces that could create standing waves inside the wool-stuffed enclosure. The cabinet is vented by a large port on the rear panel. Connection is made via a single pair of WBT binding posts. The Volent’s sensitivity is 87dB, and its impedance 6 ohms. The VL-2s were perfectly happy being driven by the 100W Pass Labs XA100.5 amplifiers.

    The enclosure is stunning visually, with absolutely gorgeous woodwork. The side panels (and the side-panel facets that merge into the baffle) are veneered in a burled dark-red wood and lacquered to a high gloss. The top, bottom, and rear are finished in piano-black gloss. The baffle is covered in a black leather-like material.

    The VL-2’s drivers are unusual; the 7** woofer is made from graphite and titanium, and the tweeter is, as noted, a twin-ribbon designed by Volent. Starting with the woofer, the cone is a sandwich of polymer foam coated with graphite and titanium. The patented motor system employs dual neodymium magnets and a copper Faraday ring. The driver has considerable excursion and power handling, as I witnessed when breaking in the VL-2 with organ music. The tweeter, designed by Volent in 2002, is a 1.5** dual side-by-side ribbon set back in a waveguide. This is a true ribbon in which the audio signal flows through the aluminum ribbon itself. (By contrast, a “quasi-ribbon” or “planar-magnetic” driver has signal conductors bonded to the diaphragm.) The pleated ribbon, which is only 0.006mm thick, is split into two side-by-side halves, a technique that Volent says produces the dispersion of a dome tweeter with the transient speed and other virtues of a ribbon. The driver reportedly extends to 50kHz. The dynamic woofer is crossed over to the ribbon at 1.8kHz.

    The cabinet seems solidly constructed and the finish quality is outstanding.

Listening

I positioned the VL-2s on 24** Sound Anchor stands that put the tweeter at 37**, somewhat below the 42** height of my ears in the listening chair. After much experimentation, I installed feet of slightly unequal height between the speakers and stands so that the VL-2s were tilted back by about 10°. This put my ears more on-axis with the tweeter and resulted in greater air, life, and resolution. Such fiddling would be unnecessary with taller stands. These speakers are sensitive to listening height (a result of the narrower vertical radiation pattern of the ribbon compared with a dome tweeter) and to toe-in. The VL-2s, however, had much wider vertical dispersion than other ribbon speakers I’ve auditioned. The treble response of some ribbon-based loudspeakers drops off precipitously just a few degrees above the tweeter axis, but the VL-2 produced a more gradual roll-off. I ended up with the VL-2s moderately toed-in so that their axes crossed just behind the listening seat.

    The qualities I heard at the CES demo that made the VL-2 such a standout were abundantly apparent in my listening room. Simply put, this is an amazingly great pair of loudspeakers for $5000. For starters, the VL-2 had unbelievable bass extension, weight, and bottom-end dynamics for the cabinet size. Had I not known the VL-2 was a stand-mount two-way, I would have guessed from listening that it was a floorstanding model. The VL-2 didn’t create faux extension with a hump in the midbass—it had genuine depth and dynamic impact in the bottom octaves. After hearing these qualities, I drove the VL-2 with more and more challenging music at higher and higher playback levels. Amazingly, it reproduced the dynamics and low-end sock of the extremely challenging orchestral recordings on Reference Recordings HRx 176.4kHz/24-bit files sourced from my music server. The massive bass weight and impact of Dance of the Tumblers from Exotic Dances, for example, was reproduced in full measure of authority. The VL-2 kept perfect composure, filling the room with a huge, unfettered, and believable sonic picture of an orchestra. That’s saying a lot for a $5000 stand-mounted two-way. The VL-2 even did a credible job with organ pedal tones. In rock and jazz, the VL-2 had a wonderfully solid bottom end, with explosive dynamics on kick drum and deep-tuned toms. Although I heard no cabinet resonances that colored the bass, I thought that on occasion I could hear the port’s contribution as a separate component of the bass. Overall, I’ll go so far as to say the VL-2 had the deepest extension and widest bass dynamics of any stand-mounted loudspeaker I’ve heard.