Kudos Audio may be a somewhat young entity, however, in a relatively short time it has confidently gouged deep impressions in the diverse landscape of high quality loudspeakers. The company offers a strong entry point into its wares via the accomplished Cardea series, while the notably more ambitious, and aptly named, Titan range is the showcase for the finest technologies Kudos Audio has to offer. Taking advantage of the many benefits of modular design, where the tweeter and midrange are incorporated in an independent enclosure, as are the low frequency drivers, the Titan 808 loudspeaker builds the concept with bespoke transducers and intelligent engineering. In addition, its sizable anatomy promises deep low frequencies and an overall large scale sound. So, is Kudos Audio’s flagship 808 a true Titan?
Cronus the King of Titans
Cameron Pope from Krispy Audio, the Sydney/New South Wales Kudos Audio dealer for Australian importer Audio Magic, personally delivered the Titans. The 808s arrive in four large, reinforced cartons. Setting up the four cabinets was a breeze, partly due to the easier to handle multi-box design and partly because of the simply clever design of the cabinet coupling system. More on that below.
So, placing the bass cabinet in a starting location within the room is a matter of sliding it to its approximate in-room position and tipping it upside down in order to fit the spikes. These are seriously heavy duty, precisely machined, and look a lot like an acclaimed design by Track Audio, a fellow Brit company. Once that’s done, tip the cabinet onto its spikes. Then, three machined aluminium dowels fit into detents in a thick aluminium plate fixed on the lower cabinet’s top panel. These provide coupling guides for the upper module’s own detents. The top module simply and easily drops-and-locks into place. Although two people are recommended for extra safety, being somewhat of an Adonis, Pope preferred lifting the top module himself.
The Titan 808’s speaker binding posts are quality Furutech. Kudos Audio provides a quad of those for bi-wiring (for single-wiring, nicely made jumpers with spade lugs at both ends are provided).
A panel above the binding posts offers wiring options for active configurations. It features sockets fitted with U-shaped links which, once removed, allow the sockets to accept banana plugs. In active configuration, one channel of amplification is required per driver. Kudos Audio offers its own custom crossover design, which it calls SIGAO DRIVE, and which has been designed specifically to drive any of the company’s speakers. It’s a high quality passive component which is compatible with any power amplifier (there’s no in-built power supply in order to simplify the circuitry and maintain signal purity). Kudos Audio also supports Linn Exakt, Devialet Expert and Naim SNAXO.
Onto the custom designed drivers which are exclusive to the Titan 808 and which are configured in a 2.5-way arrangement. The highs are handled by a ‘Kudos Crescendo K3’ 29 mm fabric dome tweeter manufactured to specifications by renowned specialist SEAS. Also made by SEAS for Kudos Audio is the mid-bass driver, a 220mm Nextel-coated paper cone featuring a 39 mm voice coil with a copper shortening ring. The driver houses a prominent aluminium phase plug etched with the company logo at its centre.
The lower module houses the low-frequency drivers which consist of two SEAS-made 220 mm double-coated hard paper coned drivers with 39 mm voice coils. The drivers are supported via a reflex system in an isobaric configuration (each in an independent cabinet), meaning one driver is housed within the enclosure’s interior. The reflex port is placed on the bass module’s top panel just behind the aluminium plate mentioned above. It lines up with the top cabinet’s own port which fires down from its bottom panel.
Kudos Audio specifies the Titan 808 as having a frequency response spanning from 20 Hz to 30 kHz Average In-Room Response (AIRR) with no parameters given. Sensitivity is 91dB at 1 watt/1m while the nominal impedance is quoted as 8 ohms. Kudos Audio recommends a minimum of 25 watts and a maximum of 300 watts of amplifier power. The Titan 808’s network is a “trademark, low-order crossover” employing select high quality components including Mundorf MResist Supreme resistors, air-core foil inductors, and ClarityCap CopperConnect capacitors.
Cabinet construction quality is very high. You’d be hard pressed to pick it from the front, because the Titan 808 looks like a conventional rectangle from that perspective, but the cabinet’s sides, tops, and rears feature chiselled, cut-off angled panels which present a unique design. The cabinets feel solid and Kudos Audio states there’s substantial bracing and “differential panel resonance control” aimed at dealing with vibrational distortions. The review sample came in an attractive Walnut veneer while Black Gloss, White Gloss, Black Oak, Natural Oak, and Tineo (a beautiful heavy grained timber) are also on offer. Overall, fit and finish is excellent.
Mythic Gods and Beasts
The speakers ended up being placed within an inch of the location of my own reference speakers. I’ve consistently found that within that overall radius of about four or five inches, every speaker I’ve reviewed since living at this location has produced satisfyingly neutral, controlled bass devoid of boom or overhang. It’s also in that roundabout position that I can wring excellent spatial qualities and appropriate dynamic expression. It was no different with the Titan 808.
Titan 808’s configuration was via connection directly to my Gryphon Audio Antileon EVO power amplifier. I also had a brief stint with the excellent Cary SLI-80HS integrated amplifier as the driving amplification. As different as these two modes of amplification are, both in terms of technology and price point, each provided superb performance outcomes, a testament to Titan 808’s ease of drive and wide amplifier compatibility.
Titan 808 is a fairly large speaker, plus the isobaric bass configuration, coupled with the high quality drivers, promises deep low-frequencies. In that light, I wanted to test it first with some challenging material.
It may be over 30 years old now, but Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik is a superbly recorded album, produced by Rick Rubin. On the track “Suck My Kiss” the shock wave of Chad Smith’s kick drum and Flea’s dexterous bass skills are both truly powerful, shaking and rattling this listener’s entrails. Yet, it wasn’t just sheer thump, but it was a textured, clearly defined bass (something evidenced further via more subtle acoustic bass as mentioned below). The Titan 808s deftly handled the tumultuous assault while managing to clearly separate John Frusciante’s guitar riffs and Anthony Kiedis’ vocals.
Albeit on a less congested track, and for something completely different, the same control was shown on Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man from the famous Reference Recordings production (Eiji Oue conducting the Minnesota Orchestra), where the big, dramatic bass drum is juxtaposed against the subtle decay of the horn section. The trumpets and trombones were far-flung-deep within the soundstage, as was the gong, both showing great spatial reproduction by the 808 (for short from now on). There was plenty of ‘skin’ and timpani mallet texture to the drum hits too.
There’s no denying the quality of the 808’s drivers. Especially the fine tweeter, which presents great detail, air and separation of complex music. It also excels at low level subtlety and precise tonality. These traits are also shared by the mid-bass driver, despite its wide bandwidth in the 2.5-way design. On Lhasa’s “Love Came Here”, from her self-titled album, the singer’s voice is beautifully rendered with presence and clarity over and above the instruments. The rhythm section is driven by well-recorded drums (especially the snare), a toe-tapping electric bass, and a twangy guitar. Each instrument lives in its own space – both spatially and musically – while combined, they determine the feel of the track. The 808s do this so beautifully.
Female jazz vocals you ask? OK, how about the superbly recorded I Wish album from Tok Tok Tok? On the cover of Ray Charles’ “Hallelujah”, Tokunbo Akinro’s vocal inflections are precisely reproduced with good presence and in cohesion with Morten Klein’s sax. The acoustic bass is full-bodied and nimble, while the keyboard solo has all the tinkling and note edge definition you’d expect from a precision high-end loudspeaker system. On “Have a Talk With God” the intro sax is breathy and super-revealing in terms of breath-through-reed and, when the bass line kicks in, it’s solid and sharp. Akinro’s voice rises with excellent dynamics… and it’s never, ever bright or sibilant.
On “Train Song”, a Tom Waits cover by Holly Cole from her tribute album Temptation, man, were the highs oh-so sweet! There are lots of low-level delicate bells and sticks sounds, all recorded as subtle musical accents. The 808’s tweeter just played with delicacy, detail and air, decaying naturally. Again, Cole’s voice was realistically natural.
There’s just an overall musicality and a just-right sweetness to the way the 808s deliver music. Feed them with neutral electronics, and you’ll be stuck to your listening chair for… well, rather long listening sessions. The 808s just deliver an expertly curated, balanced sound all round. And if you have room within the context of your system for at least one valve-based component (I had my Supratek ‘King of Tone’ 6SN7-based valve preamplifier in the signal chain and, alternatively, the KT88/6SN7-based Cary SLI-80HS integrated), you’ll be in for an engaging and enjoyable musical experience. There’s no denying the sense of body and tonal colour the 808s can deliver with a sprinkling of valve goodness. The speakers just relish it... and so will you.
Conclusion
How do you combine the qualities of a precise standmount monitor with the extension and grand scale of a big floorstander? The solution has been presented to the high-end loudspeaker space since the 1980s and the venerable Wilson Audio WATT/Puppy, the poster boy of the two-box per channel architecture.
While there have been others since (most of them sonically excellent as a result), the Titan 808 provides a twist to the theme: The lower cabinet houses an internally-mounted woofer in an isobaric configuration. It then adds to the formula by providing the means to convert the passive speaker into a fully active Titan. That, of course, opens the opportunity to employ either a consistent or a differing selection of amplifier technologies.
Regardless of configuration, the crucial ingredients at hand are superb and the engineering is skilled, as evidenced by the 808s excellent sonic performance. At least passively as I tested them. Actively configured may open up some further blissful vistas into your music. Either way, that’s what it’s about, right? Needless to say, I really enjoyed my time with these exceptional loudspeakers, their music-making powers will be missed. And yeah, music… the Kudos Audio Titan 808 offers that in titanic proportions.
… Edgar Kramer
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Associated Equipment
- Speakers — Wilson Audio Alexia V, Axis Loudspeakers VoiceBox S (nearfield monitor), Vermouth Audio Little Luccas Mk.II, Atacama stands
- Amplifier — Gryphon Audio Antileon EVO
- Preamplifier — Supratek Cortese, Totaldac d1-triunity (periodically, direct to amplifier)
- Sources — Digital: 432 EVO Aeon Mk.3 Reference Music Server/Roon Core, Yamaha CD-S2100 transport, Totaldac d1-triunity DAC. Analogue: Transrotor Crescendo with Konstant Studio controller, Reed 1X Tonearm with upgraded internal wiring, Shelter Harmony cartridge, The Funk Firm Houdini cartridge decoupler, Supratek Cortese & REDGUM Audio RGPH2 phono stages
- Processor — DEQX PreMate (part of arsenal/casual use)
- Cables — VYDA Laboratories Orion Silver Reference HFC IC and speaker cables, PSC Audio custom design XLR, Vermouth Audio Reference loom,Tubulus Concentus USB
- Audio Rack — SGR Audio Statement Model V, Aspire Audio Belgravia amplifier platform (customised for Gryphon Audio Antileon EVO), Stereotech Aluminar Dark 3-tier rack
- Acoustic Treatment — Vicoustic Multifuser Wood, Wavewood Ultra, Cinema Round Premium and Super Bass Extreme
- Miscellaneous — Silent Angel Bonn N8 Pro network switch, GigaWatt PF-1 EVO power strip, Les Davis Audio Viscoelastic CLD discs, Voodoo Cable Iso-Pods, Bocchino Audio Mecado, VRC Vinyl Record Cleaning system plus miscellaneous accessories
Kudos Audio Titan 808 Loudspeakers
Price: AU$54,200
Australian Warranty: Two Years (Five Years After Manufacturer Registration)
Australian Distributor: Audio Magic
+61 3 9489 5122
www.audiomagic.com.au
Kudos Audio
Harvey Court, Low Willington Industrial Estate
Willington, County Durham, DL15 0UT
England
+44 (0) 138 841 7177
www.kudosaudio.com
