Evaluating a loudspeaker that would become Stereophile’s 2011 Product of the Year, Art Dudley, at the time the magazine’s editor-at-large, wrote, “The Voxativ Ampeggio went beyond sounding good: More than once, with too many records to mention, I found myself stopping to marvel at its brilliantly good pitch certainty. In terms of being able to simply nail a note, whether in isolation or tucked within a whole string of the little bastards, I’ve heard few other speakers this accomplished. And while it’s one thing to focus on such a characteristic for a moment at a time, it’s quite another to bask in it subconsciously—and the Voxativs allowed me to do just that.”
“I’ve now encountered a single-driver dynamic speaker I could live with,” Art concluded. “In most audio reviews that’s faint praise, but in this one it’s a revelation.”
I quote Art’s review not only as an homage to the man (who has now been gone four years) and the unrivaled clarity, flow, and humor of his writing but as an introduction to a loudspeaker he would surely be reviewing if he were still with us.
Launched in 2008 by Voxativ’s Inès Adler, the Voxativ Ampeggio has now been resurrected as the Ampeggio 2024, with an optimized cabinet, a redesigned support system, and a choice of 8" full-range drivers (the original driver was 7"). In 2011, at the time of Art’s review, a pair of Ampeggios cost $29,750. Today, the base-model Ampeggio 2024 with the paper-cone AC-1.9 driver costs $13,900/pair.
The Ampeggio 2024
Adler’s resumé is impressive. An engineer veteran of Mercedes-Benz, she holds 23 patents. Her studies in mechanical and electrical engineering and thermodynamics prepared her for her role with the team that developed the first fully electrical diesel injection system.
I first encountered the Ampeggio 2024 in 2023, at that year’s Capital Audiofest, powered by Voxativ’s 12Wpc, single-ended T211 integrated amplifier. I reported that the Ampeggio 2024s streaming Jacques Loussier playing his unique, jazzified Bach “breathed, tossing out music well beyond physical boundaries. The presentation had punch, precision, and presence in spades.… The Voxativs played big and generous of soul and disappeared, regardless of genre.”
Every Voxativ loudspeaker is assembled by hand in Voxativ’s Berlin factory, by Adler and her Why full-range?
