VAF Research

27/10/2026

Here is one of two copper woofer inductors that are used for a pair of new VAF Signature i66 MKV's, wound in-house from heavy gauge 2mm pure copper wire, and weighing a whopping 3.5 kg.

Why use such a hefty inductor? Ultra low DC resistance. This provides several benefits - better power transfer, better damping and power handling with more dynamic headroom, along with better thermal stability. Being an air cored inductor, the thicker wire avoids magnetic core saturation and results in lower distortion. It also doesn't alter the woofer's Q, which leads to more accurate, predictable and consistent crossover simulation during the design process.

All of this purposeful, thoughtful design for an internal component that 99.9% of purchasers will never see, or even know is there.

21/10/2026

A lovely collection of VAF Signature i66 MKV customer orders under assembly this week.

The i66 MKV is the best i66 we have ever designed. Extremely high quality, Australian made cabinetry. Beautiful Norwegian SEAS drivers, time aligned both physically and electrically. First order, linear phase crossovers built by hand. All resulting in a completely pure, uncoloured, accurate, reference musical performance.

06/10/2026

Another trophy has arrived to add to the collection. The VAF DC-2S is Sound + Image Magazine's 'Standmount Speaker of the Year under $5000'.

An absolutely superb bookshelf speaker made to last a lifetime, featuring Australian built genuine timber veneer cabinets, time aligned drivers, hand built crossovers including heavy gauge copper inductors wound in-house, all for $1699 a pair.

No wonder they are flying out the door...

17/09/2026

𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠, 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐼 𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑙𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖91 𝑀𝐾𝐼𝐼𝐼 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑦 𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑡ℎ, 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑢𝑛. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑜𝑤-𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑜, 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑜𝑏𝑠𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑡. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜, 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑎𝑡...' - Max Langridge, Editor Australian Hifi Magazine

Read the stellar review of our VAF Signature i91's in the latest issue ( #547) of Australian Hi-Fi Magazine , available at all good newsagents and Apple News+. The review will be online via What Hifi in the coming weeks.

10/09/2026

Throwback Thursday!

Our first magazine cover, from Nov 1992. Featuring the first DC-7 we ever designed. Kit speakers in those days were largely very average, and so we set out to prove that that doesn't need to be the case at all, they can sound absolutely fantastic. With thousands of speaker kits sold in the subsequent years, we certainly did prove it.

20/08/2026

Have you watched the latest review of our VAF Signature i91 MKIII's yet? We sent Dan from Concord Hifi a pair to play with, and he loved them. See here -

VAF Signature i91bookshelf speakers, a nice sounding and easy on th...

28/07/2026

A great speaker starts with a great driver. One such driver that has been a star in our VAF repertoire for many years is our proprietary 170mm coaxial driver, manufactured especially for VAF by SEAS in Norway.

A coaxial driver is actually two separate drive units in one – where the tweeter is mounted in the centre of the woofer. This allows the tweeter to be perfectly time aligned with the woofer, at any angle, at any distance. It achieves optimum phase and impulse responses, resulting in a very accurate reproduction of spatial information, significantly enhancing imaging and sound stage. An added benefit is a wide and even dispersion, so that ideal sound is available to a variety of seating positions in a given room – making them fantastic not only as stereo speakers, but as surround speakers as well.

This coaxial driver features a woven polypropylene woofer paired with a Sonomex soft dome tweeter providing incredibly transparent and dynamic sound, and is utilised in our Signature i91 bookshelf speakers, compact Signature i90 speakers and our VAF Soundwall. Not only is it an extremely accurate, natural sounding driver, but it is also very robust and reliable – with literally thousands produced over the past 20 years, all still happily providing amazing sound in homes and studios across Australia.

If you’d like to experience the fantastic sound this driver and our speakers produce, come into the Adelaide showroom.

20/07/2026

We packed up our demo Denon X3800 that resided in our DC-Cinema room on Friday, ready to be handed over to a happy new owner, and installed the newly released Denon X3900. Here are some unboxing pics and initial thoughts.

The very first thing we noticed is the amount of plastic packaging has been dramatically reduced from the X3800 (see photo) and the quality of packing/packaging has been elevated closer to Marantz levels. Replacing all the plastic bags containing manuals/accessories is a lovely cardboard box, with everything laid out neatly. Big tick!

Setup was a breeze, the setup GUI was overhauled with the X3800 and that carries over to the X3900.

No time for a full calibration yet, but we did a quick manual setup with speaker levels and bass crossover points. First thing played was the Dolby Atmos mix of Michael Jackson's Thriller via Apple Music. Immediately apparent was a decent sonic improvement over the X3800, detail and instrument separation is a lot better - so it looks like the new Cirrus Logic DAC architecture in the X3900 has been a worthy and substantial upgrade.

The old X3800 held the unbeatable value crown for quality, specs and features for the price. The X3900 with its decent internal quality improvements (along with better packaging), more than easily hangs on to that crown. A worthy successor.

08/07/2026

You may know that as a Sony Pro dealer we demonstrate and sell Sony's range of 4K laser projectors, which are absolutely superb pieces of kit.

A promo is being run until August 31st, trade in ANY make and model of old projector to receive $2000 off the XW5000ES laser projector, for the sale price of $6999. The XW5000 has never been priced this low, an excellent price for a brilliant projector.

Call, email or message us here if you'd like to learn more.

17/06/2026

Recently, we had a customer ask if we could build them a pair of DC-Cinema LCR on-wall speakers in a custom Tasmanian Blackwood timber finish, instead of the standard black textured paint. 'Sure!', we said. The Tasmanian Blackwood veneer was hand selected by our cabinet maker and as you can see, they came out looking absolutely stunning.

The good news? We had one spare pair built, and available for a lucky customer. Priced at $3499, delivered to your door.

This beautiful, custom pair of loudspeakers will not last long, get in touch with us on 08 8363 9996 or [email protected] if you want to snap them up!