Krix Epicentrix Mk2 Centre-Channel Speaker
Australian Hi-Fi 55fl oor-standing models with excellent bass
response and the centre-channel speaker is
the size of a matchbox, with no bass response
at all. You’re watching a movie in which the
lead actor is a male, and he’s standing at the
left of the screen. As he speaks his lines, his
deep, baritone voice will be reproduced by
the left speaker. If his image moves across the
screen until he’s positioned at the far right,
his deep baritone voice will now be repro-
duced by the right speaker with exactly the
same depth and clarity as it was by the left
speaker. But now our hero walks to centre
stage and, as he speaks, we hear not a deep
baritone voice but a pip-squeaky sound
because the matchbox-sized centre-channel
speaker just can’t handle the actor’s voice.
So you can see why the centre-channel
speaker should be identical to your left and
right speakers. However, it’s actually prefer-
able if the centre channel speaker has more
bass/midrange drivers because in a home
theatre system the centre-channel is doing al-
most all the work when images are centred...
which they are most of the time. So whereas
in a normal two-channel system you have
two loudspeakers combining to produce a
central image, in a home theatre system, the
centre-channel has to do it all on its own.
In fact, in most home theatre systems the
centre-channel speaker delivers more than
50 per cent of the movie sound track and the
majority of the movie’s dialogue.
So why don’t manufacturers offer correct-
ly-matched centre-channel speakers?
In smaller home theatre systems from
reputable manufacturers you’ll fi nd they
often do. The front-left and front-right
speakers will have single bass/midrange driver
and a tweeter, and the centre will have two
identically-sized bass/midrange drivers and a
tweeter. You do have to look carefully at driv-
er size, because some manufacturers still use
slightly smaller bass/midrange drivers in their
So why don’t manufacturers
ɁǏƬʁƋɁʁʁƬƋǜǚ˿ȊȧŘǜƋǒƬƞ
ƋƬȭǜʁƬȊƋǒŘȭȭƬǚʊɡƬŘǘƬʁʊɵ
so-called ‘matching’ centre-channel speakers.
However once the left and right channel
speakers become larger, almost all manufac-
turers cut back on the size of the centre-chan-
nel cabinet, the number of drivers in it, and
the size of those drivers. Why? Because they
know that consumers who are given the
choice between a system with a small cen-
tre-channel speaker and
one with a proper-sized
centre-channel speaker
will mostly opt for the
one with the smaller
speaker cabinet... and
most especially if they’re
buying with their eyes
instead of their ears.
All of which is a really,
really long explanation as
to why Krix’s Epicentrix
Mk2 centre-channel speaker is so large, as
well as why it costs $2,495. It’s designed to be
a perfect sonic match with Krix’s Neuphonix
Mk2 stereo loudspeakers.THE EQUIPMENT
As you can see, the front panel of the Epicen-
trix Mk2 has lots of drivers—six to be precise.
Four of them are dedicated solely to bass re-
production, each one of these being 130mm
in diameter, with a 26mm voice-coil wound
on an aluminium former. Four drivers means
increased capacity to deliver bass, thanks to
a greater cone surface area, but it also means
four voice-coils to dissipate heat and thus an
increased power-handling capability. Also,
because using four drivers means each one
has lower cone excursion, they can move in
the most linear part of their operating range,
where distortion is least.
The four bass drivers cross to a single
midrange driver, which is physically and elec-
trically exactly the same design as the bass
drivers, so tonal cohesion across the crossover
point is perfect, as is the sonic transition
from the bass to the midrange.
The tweeter is a 25mm dual-concentric
diaphragm model with a neodymium motor
system, a non-resonant aluminium rear
chamber and a patented phase-plug.
So far as the crossover network is con-
cerned, the Epicentrix Mk2 is a true three-
way design, using a hard-wired and hand-sol-
dered crossover network with components
that include air-cored cross-mounted
inductors, Krix-branded MKP capacitors andhigh-power cermet resistors that deliver nom-
inal crossover points at 300Hz and 2.5kHz.
The midrange driver operates from its own
sealed enclosure while the bass drivers oper-
ate in a bass refl ex environment, with dual
symmetrically-positioned refl ex ports.
The cabinet of the Epicentrix Mk2 is
233mm high, 910mm wide and 370mm deep
and is available in Black Ash, Atlantic Jarrah,
Walnut, Blackwood and Cola veneer fi nishes.IN USE AND LISTENING
SESSIONS
Installed in a 5.1-channel home theatre sys-
tem comprised exclusively of Krix loudspeak-
ers, including the Neuphonix Mk2s as front-
left and front-right speakers, I was completely
fl oored by the front-channel sound: and not
just by its out-and-out quality, but also by the
seamless way sounds shifted across the front
sound-stage. So seamless that I never had a
sense of there being a transition at all: images
were just precisely placed, and that was that.
The fact that the sound also moved so
seamlessly right across the width of the
room from extreme left to extreme right,
without changing tonal quality as it shifted
was remarkable enough, but what was even
more remarkable was the performance of
the Epicentrix Mk2 when it was delivering
its sound almost solus, particularly the silky-
smooth highs which have the kind of ‘air’
around the high-frequencies that you usually
hear only from high-end stereo hi-fi speakers.
But good though the treble sound was, the
midrange was at the same high performance
level, a level that’s essential for the correct
reproduction not only of singing, but also of
the spoken voice... not least because when
watching movies, after the images them-
selves, the dialogue is the most important
part of the movie, and it’s essential that you
hear every word clearly.
With every movie I watched, whether it
was an old black-and-white movie, rich with
dialogue (Raising Baby) or a more modern
fare, where background sounds and effects
are constantly threatening to obscure the
dialogue (The Fifth Element), the dialogue was
beautifully articulate and crystal-clear. Our
family movie nights, which are notorious for
my mother-in-law, who’s hard of hearing,
constantly asking ‘what did he say?’ during
our movies suddenly became much quieter
affairs... though we still did get the occasion-
al query from her.