Innovo Audio Designs is a relatively new company that makes active loudspeakers, with a unique take on built-in amplification and design. Their very distinctive Luxe T1 first caught my attention at this year’s Florida Audio Expo. (Innovo has a number of additional products in the works.)
The Luxe T1, Innovo’s sole product, has a unique appearance: it’s less than six inches deep, 13 inches wide and about 51 inches high. It’s a 3-way active design with a tweeter, midrange – and eight proprietary elliptical bass drivers positioned on either side. The Luxe T1 is tri-amplified, and uses DSP and an active crossover, with no standard passive crossover components (resistors, capacitors or inductors). An optional up-firing speaker module is available. The speaker’s curved enclosure is hand-crafted in a choice of standard or custom wood finishes beginning at $24,000 per pair. The pair at Florida Audio Expo was gorgeous.
After meeting Innovo’s president Yair Raz at Florida Audio Expo, I wanted to dig deeper.
Yair Raz.
Frank Doris: How did you get interested in audio, and how did you start designing speakers?
Yair Raz: I was living in California before I moved to Florida (where Innovo is located) and wanted to replace my speakers. I [had] brought Morel speakers with me from Israel and they [were fine but] I wanted to replace them. So I did my research and [liked] Definitive Technology. I brought my wife to a store to listen to them and she said, “OK, it sounds great, but where are we going to put them in our living room?” They were quite big towers.
So I'm trying to [figure out] how we can move stuff around and put them in the living room and how everything’s going to fit. While in the [store], I saw another Bay Area engineer trying to convince his wife to buy a [different] set of towers ,and she looked at him and said, “these things will never get into my living room!” My wife was more lenient, but in the end, we bought those little Bose cubes, which were OK.
But then we moved to Florida into a condo and I couldn't bring my equipment. So I thought, what can we do? When we moved to Florida we drove from California by car. At one of our stops, I went to a Barnes and Noble just to relax. I saw a magazine, AudioXpress, and saw an ad for a certain speaker designer.
So I said, you know what? Let's see what it takes. I'm an engineer and I've been building hi-fi stuff since I was a kid. And we started a journey with that particular speaker designer. It was a learning experience. We still have [the first] prototype, which was OK. But my wife said that [what we were trying to achieve] was really a lifestyle speaker. The role model that we have is B&O (Bang & Olufsen), which have amazing style. You can like them, you can hate them, but they’re beautiful and very elegant. And the other [role model] is Sonus Faber, which has amazing craftsmanship and [their speakers are] gorgeous.So we wanted to see how we could merge the elegance of European design and the craftsmanship of a company like Sonus Faber.
And [the speaker] would have to be relatively small, not intrude into your environment. But for me, the most important thing was the sound quality. I cannot have furniture that looks good but plays so and so.
[The speaker] would have to have an active crossover with DSP and separate amplifiers for each driver, to maximize the response of the speaker. We went through a lot of prototypes with our design partner, Portland Audio Labs. My wife would say,” no, it's too big, it's too wide; this not what I meant.” And in the middle of it all, COVID came, and everything stopped. But in the end, we came to what you see right now [with the Luxe T1].
The Luxe T1 in lacewood.
FD: Why are you using DSP? To tailor the frequency response, I imagine, but also maybe the directionality, or something else?
YR: If you're doing a conventional speaker, which is not amplified or not active, then physics dictates that if you need to get a certain low end response, you have to do one or more of several things. First of all, the physical volume has to be large enough to get you the low end. Second, if you want to do some tricks, you have to have either ports or vents to somehow emphasize the low end. But then you have restrictions of where to put them. A lot of [speakers] that produce amazing sound have ports on the back, so you have to place the speakers away from the [front] walls.
When you have an active system, some of those [considerations] might not be applicable. With DSP, you can extend the low end much further if your drivers support the kind of excursion that's required. The second thing is that with passive crossovers, they have standard parts; inductors, capacitors, resistors, and in theory everybody knows the math [of how to design them], but with fourth order filters [the math] starts to get very complex and for the most exotic filters like eighth order...don’t even think about it. A capacitor also has inductance and resistance. And inductors have capacitance and resistance.
You also lose a lot of power with a passive crossover, because essentially, they’re filters that block some of the power of the amplifiers to go to reach the speaker. So the amplifier works really hard and is not really efficient.
With DSP, and correct design and correct selections of parts, you can now do wonders with filters that we cannot do in the analog domain. Of course, you need to take care of how you do the D/A conversion and the analog portion [of the design]. You can get very, very, very, very good sound quality. People really realize when they listen to our speakers that the dynamics are like a live performance.
FD: That’s what first hit me when I listened to the speakers at Florida Audio Expo.
Having an all-in-one active speaker system is appealing to some customers, and for some people it might not be so appealing; obviously, if they want to use their own amplifier.
YR: Which is OK.
Most people don’t realize that in order to get the dynamics, it's not just how much power your amplifier has but [also] how fast it can deliver it. So this [relates] to the design of the power supply of the amplifier.
We kept the sound of the speaker neutral so if you like the sound of a certain preamplifier [for example], you can use it. We deliberately didn’t have a preamp or streamer built in.
FD: How did you develop the oval-shaped woofers, and why?
YR: Those are custom drivers. They fit with having a concept of how to make a speaker very small and very unique. I need to credit the acoustic designer, David Nelson, who came up with the implementation. The concept of putting a woofer on the side of the speaker is not new. David said, “you know what, instead of using one big speaker, let's partition the load to several smaller speakers.” In the end you have to have driver units that can push the air. And we wanted to keep [the Luxe T1] very slim, very stylistic and fit in with the idea of having a minimalistic system.
A closeup of the elliptical drivers.
FD: Regarding your use of DSP, you’re using it to tailor the frequency response of the drivers, but are you also using it to control the directionality of the drivers?
YR: We can do that, and we are playing with several [ideas]. But the drivers that we chose are very, very good, and very, very expensive. Some of the drivers cost more than some [entire] speakers. And they have very good on-axis and off-axis patterns. That's why they cost so much.
FD: Speaking of expense, your speakers are not inexpensive, but they’re not crazy.
YR: I believe that for what you get, it's a very, very, very competitive price. Even comparing us against other $40,000 speakers, think about how many amplifiers you need to add and all that. By the end of the day, you might end with a system that is $80,000 that is maybe the same, maybe better, maybe less.
FD: Do your speakers have any kind of room correction?
YR: We tell customers and listeners, if you have a processor with room correction and you want to use it, go use it. But even room correction cannot fix a badly-treated room.
FD: And it might introduce problems of its own. I’m guessing the built-in amplification of the Luxe T1 is Class D?
YR: Yes. If it was Class A or AB, we could have a barbecue at the back of the speaker! And Class D has become very, very, very, very good.
FD: I want to talk about the cabinetry because it's just gorgeous.
YR: Again, our concept was to have a lifestyle product which was slim, elegant, and small. We didn’t have the capability of working with aluminum; And there are some limitations on how small you can get and still have good sound. David decided, “let’s do a carved design.” It takes a lot of manual steps to do a carved design. Everything is done by hand. We didn’t want sharp edges. And you have to book match [the wood]. But it fits for what we always imagined, a very elegant, simplistic lifestyle system that gives you amazing sounds and amazing look. So one side of the household, we want everybody to see it and the other side want everybody to hear it. But again, some people say, it's not for me. I want the old style. I want big things.” And that’s OK.
FD: When did you actually start as a company?
YR: Innovo Audio Designs registered as a company in 2015. It took us quite a bit of time because I don't have limited unlimited budgets. And of course, our first design [wasn’t the final one], and then COVID came. We kept [designing] stuff and changing, saying, “It’s not good enough.” And there’s always compromise. We had the first pre-production unit by the end of 2023. The first official appearance of the company was at Capital Audiofest 2024. It was hard to get attention because [some] people would just stick their head in and say, “oh, a small 2-way speaker.” But [when] people came to listen, they started texting their friends, and it became standing room only. At the Austin show, people had heard about us and came to the room.
My philosophy is that you have three main parameters [for a loudspeaker]. The sound – you want a system that sounds great – the look, and the price. It doesn't have to be my product. As long as it fits within those parameters and you are happy, the most important thing is that you need to be happy.
The Luxe T1's rear panel.
FD: For so many audiophiles, the process of upgrading is never-ending. I admit, when I evaluate something, I listen to the same six tracks over and over again. When you're in the business, it's easy to lose perspective and become too analytical. And sometimes I just sit there and say, no, I just want to listen. I don't want to sit here and think about the treble this and the bass that and am I hearing the back wall of Carnegie Hall on this recording? I just want to enjoy the music.
YR: You always want to enjoy, enjoy. But you know what? You start this year, maybe the budget is [a big] part and you get something within your limits that you're still happy with. And then in a year or two, you get a promotion, you get a bigger salary or something like this and you say, “you know what? That [budget] now is not X, it's 2X. Now in that space, I can find something else that makes me happy. But you need to close your eyes and focus on the music. Focus on what you want to hear and just be happy. When I came to the US, I wanted a sports car. Now I drive an SUV.
FD: Where are you originally from? Did you say Israel?
YR: Yeah. We came to the Bay Area in 1992.
FD: How many employees do you have?
YR: We have three [full-time] employees, and most of the work we are doing is with subcontractors and design partners. As I mentioned, we have David Nelson of Portland Audio Design. He is a design and manufacturing partner. I designed the electronics and implementation, but we have other design partners that are building the amplifier. There is a DSP board that is brought in from another design partner that we're working with on this and other products. Everything is [done] in the US.
FD: Many speaker manufacturers subcontract the cabinetry and other components. It's not like they’re in a building that magically creates everything.
YR: On the other hand, we would like to [eventually] expand.
FD: I think a lot of people, myself included, like the fact that they're dealing with a small company and with people they can talk to.
YR: My model for that is (guitar maker) Paul Reed Smith, a very good company with consistent quality.
I hope a lot of people get what we’re doing, and I would love to have a lot of customers of course. And would love to have people enjoy listening to music. It’s important.
Innovo Audio Designs
3312 SW 120th Drive, Gainesville FL 32608
info@innovoaudiodesigns.com
(408) 499-7025
www.innovoaudiodesigns.com
Luxe T1 Specs at a Glance
3-way phase-aligned active speaker, driven by proprietary amplifiers
Driver complement:
Eight proprietary long-throw 3" x 6" carbon fiber subwoofer drivers powered by 500-watt Class D power amplifier
6.5" TeXtreme mid-woofer powered by 500-watt Class D power amplifier
1-inch TPCD (thin ply carbon diaphragm) tweeter powered by 150-watt Class D power amplifier
An additional 500-watt Class D amplifier is available for an optional up-firing speaker module
All amplifiers are managed by an active crossover using SHARC DSP and AKM Velvet Sound ADC and DAC converters operating at 192 kHz
Frequency Response: 35 Hz – 28 kHz @ - 3 dB
Dimensions: 13" W x 50.5" H x 5.5" D
Weight: 53 lb. (single speaker)
Pricing:
Standard finishes, $24,000/pair
Premium finishes, beginning at $27,000/pair
Custom finishes upon request
