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Reviewer: Edgar Kramer 
Financial Interests: Click here 
Source: Yamaha CD-S2100 as transport, TotalDac d1-core DAC with twin Power Supply upgrade, MacBook with BitPerfect player and AIFF files, DEQX PreMate as DAC and preamplifier  
Preamplifier: Supratek Reference DHT with Bendix rectifier tube; NuForce P20, Lightspeed Attenuator 
Amplifier: Gryphon Antileon EVO; NuForce Reference 18 monoblocks
Speakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia 
Cables digital: Cerious Technologies; Harmonic Technology Magic; NuForce digital cables analog interconnects: Bocchino Audio Morning Glory; Cable Research Laboratory (CRL) Gold with Bocchino XLR and RCA; Cerious Technologies; DanA Digital Reference Silver; ETI Quiessence Reference; Exakte IC; Harmonic Technology Magic; MIT Giant Killer MPC; NuForce IC-700; PSC Audio Monolith AG; PSC Audio Pristine R30 Ribbon speaker cables: Cerious Technologies; ETI Quiessence Reference; Exakte speaker cable; MIT Giant Killer GK-1 loudspeaker cables; NuForce SC-700 power cords: Cerious Technologies AC; Eichmann eXpress AC power cables; Exakte AC; Harmonic Technology Fantasy; PSC Gold Power MKII; Shunyata Research Diamondback 
Stands: SGR Signature racks 
Sundry accessories: Burson Audio Buffer, Bright Star Audio IsoRock Reference 3 and BSA IsoNode feet; Bocchino Audio Mecado isolation diodes; Black Diamond Racing cones; Stillpoints ERS paper in strategic positions, Shakti On Lines; Densen & IsoTek CD demagnetizer; Auric Illuminator CD Treatment 
Room size: 6.4m wide by 7.1m long with high ceiling and narrow cavity behind speakers. Room has been professionally measured and found to be extraordinarily flat and neutral 
Review component retail: $4'000/pr


If it ain't broke… when you're on a good thing… don't reinvent the wheel… you get the gist, right? Thankfully, this has not been taken literally by creatively ambitious souls seeking to advance whatever endeavour they pursue for the benefit and evolution of our species. If only our politicians strove for such steadfast, noble and selfless actions. Just sayin'. Many of these ventures of course return fiscal rewards for their originators; and most often deservedly so. Tesla much?


By the sheer will to excel and rediscover, the elegant Axis VoiceBox FLS is a strong case in point. The Axis VoiceBox S I reviewed back in December 2014 was perhaps the best mini monitor this writer had heard (and there have been many, many). It was a collaboration between Axis Loudspeakers founder John Reilly, an avid listener and music lover with decades of experience in distribution, retail and design; and speaker engineer Brad Serhan whose own portfolio of designs both as company head and ace freelance engineer/designer is rather lengthy. Their VoiceBox S exhibited extraordinary resolution, lightning-fast attacks and surprising scale for its diminutive dimensions; so much so that I bestowed a Blue Moon award for "Extraordinary balance of attributes in the small speaker category".


"But what next?" Axis Loudspeakers' founder John Reilly must have asked himself. How to extend bandwidth and further broaden the dynamic scale of the mini monitor without disrupting its many other fine attributes? The answer now comes in the svelte lines of the new floorstanding Axis VoiceBox FLS. A concurrently designed Extended Bass System (EBS) has also been released. That's a 10-inch active bass module dock which transforms the VoiceBox S monitor into a full-range transducer (stay tuned for an upcoming review).


Reilly has taken the VoiceBox S and effectively elongated its vertical dimension into a floorstanding speaker. To expand the principle, the bottom third of the enclosure features an elegantly rounded protrusion—a laterally swollen beer belly—which houses a high quality 175mm/7" pure bass driver perfectly matched to a dedicated plate amplifier on the rear of the cabinet. Have Axis managed to retain the beauty of the monitor in this new design? Has the directive of bass and dynamic extension been met?