New Krix LX-7 Passive LCR "Soundbar"

[thezone]

KRIX INTRODUCES THE LX-7 LINEAR LCR SOUNDBAR

Krix LX-7

Cedia 2023 Tech Summit - Launch

Hey guys,

Krix is a local manufacturer of speakers in the town I live in (Adelaide, South Australia).  They have been making professional cinema speakers and home theater speakers for nearly 50 years.  

They have just released this new passive sound bar which contains 3  x 90 x 90 Krix short-throw waveguide speakers for LCR.  It caught my eye as my new living area will be limited and front L&R speakers will not be suitable.

It comes in 3 main widths to suit 75", 85" or 100"  TV's or it can be custom made to order in any size.

Apparently, it contains 3 x Hyperphonix 45 speakers which have a wide dispersion and so emits sound at a wider dispersion than normal L+R speakers to help combat their more closer positioning.

They still require 3 amps channels to drive which I find actually refreshing rather than using whatever amp can be crammed in the soundbar.  

If you watch the youtube clip from cedia above, you can see its actually pretty big, even the 75" one which is the smallest one. 

Any thoughts? 

My biggest concern is whether the center speaker will perform as well as my 14yo Dynaudio Countour SCX.  

Interestingly, they have a very high sensitivity of 92db, compared with my SCX of 87db.  Short throw speakers are usually known to have low sensitivity. 

They are pretty pricey at around $5k Aus (around $3k US), but they are known for their quality and sound.

[ashrum]

I could not say whether or it would sound as good as your Dynaudio Countour SCX. Especially since it will not only be taking the place of your center but your L&R channels as well. Since you said they are local manufacturer is their any place that you could go to listen to it. The best option in this case to make a decision would be to listen to it and make a decision based on whether you are happy with how they sound. Also I think that you will definitely need a good well positioned subwoofer in the room you are setting it up as with the small drivers in the soundbar you will definitely be lacking in the low end bass frequency range.

[thezone]

Yes of course, I will audition, thanks for the advice. Issue is they won't have my Emotiva/pro and amps.

I was more after peoples opinions on the tech of having LCR in one bar as I had never heard of this before.

[ashrum]

I seen good performance from soundbars that have LCR channel in one I have even seen some high end soundbars that that create 11 channels of sound using processing and bouncing the sound off ceilings and walls to create the appearance of discrete 11 channel sound, like atmos speakers do to create the appearance of the sound coming from above rather than from the speaker below.  There are one in the 3-5k range that do it well but that is all heavily reliant on having the optimal room for conditions for it.  The LCR soundbar you mentioned does seem better than most. It seems made well and I like it even better knowing it can be powered with a separate amplifier rather and having its own built in powered amplifier.  I think as long as you like how it sounds and will produce the amount of volume you desire at your listening position, than it  may be a good choice.    As you did mention they won't have your Emo amps or preamp to listen to it on, If you are going to a high end stereo / home theater store you could let the sale person know what amp and pre-amp you have. I know in the past shopping in demo sales rooms they usually have few amp they can cycle through the speakers you want to listen to, and will usually try to switch it to something closer to what you might be using to listen at home.