Ophidian Voodoo

There are small loudspeakers, tall speakers and speakers like the Voodoo which just make you stop and stare...

Does size really matter? Experiencing Voodoo might well provide the answer. No, I don’t mean Hendrix, Win wood, Mason and Cassidy giving Voodoo Chile the full business. Which isn’t to say Jimi won’t get his turn later because, for our purposes, Voodoo is what you see here – specialist British speaker maker Ophidian’s XXL statement on the art of go-for-broke, flagship floor-stander.

Believe me, pictures give very little idea of how big and heavy it is. Let’s wheel in B&W’s 702 Signature (HFC 480) for comparison. It’s 994mm tall and weighs a beefy 29.5kg. Certainly large enough to get noticed. Not weedy by any stretch. Yet you could hide a 702 in the shadow cast by the Voodoo. It would be like Tyson Fury putting a protective arm around Tom Cruise. The Voodoo is 1,300mm high, 304mm wide and weighs nearly 60kg. It needs as much house room as a floor-standing Wilson Audio or Magico. It’s taller than my mum.

Ophidian’s founder, designer and boss, Gareth James, delivers the Voodoo to me personally which, to say the least, is a welcome pair of helping hands for getting it setup.

Voodoo sure is a big statement for Ophidian, a company I described as a tiny, vision-led, auteur-style loudspeaker maker when I reviewed its previous flagship, the £5k P3 Evolution (HFC 451). That was back in 2020 – and it’s a testament to James’ skill, and not least the effectiveness of his proprietary Aeroflex bass loading system – that, until its retirement, the P3 Evolution appeared in HFC’s Buying Guide every month. I would say big shoes to fill but, well, you’ve got the idea by now.