Sphinx Element 3

Shaped by the Curves of a Harp

The Sphinx Element 3 is a three-way floorstander whose silhouette Sphinx drew from the curves of a harp, and every curve has work to do. The sweeping rear of the cabinet houses the bass channel, the slender crown lifts the tweeter clear of the main enclosure, and the whole shape follows the acoustic plan rather than the other way round.

Built by hand in the Netherlands, the Element 3 is the compact half of Sphinx’s Element Series. Audio Lounge offers the pair in Marble White or Midnight Grey, with private auditions in Wigmore Street by appointment.

Zero Gravity Bass

Most cabinets trap the energy from the back of the bass driver and soak that energy up. Sphinx takes the opposite course. In the Zero Gravity Bass channel, a modified transmission line, the rear wave is delayed and brought back into phase, so the wave reinforces the bass instead of fighting the cone, with less air compression and less distortion along the way.

The result is deep bass from a cabinet of modest size: notes that start and stop quickly, carry real weight and settle into the room without the boom of a box being pushed too hard. Sphinx designed the system to reduce room interaction, so the low end stays clean, fast and woven into the music.

They immediately sound mature, confident, refined and so much bigger than their relatively compact dimensions might seem to promise.

Stone Outside, Silence Within

The cabinet pairs a layered MDF core with a synthetic stone composite exterior, chosen as much for the way the material behaves as for the way the surface looks. The stone-like skin damps resonance naturally, so the enclosure stays inert while the drivers work, and the midrange and tweeter each sit in a dedicated sealed chamber.

A curved aluminium base steadies the cabinet and draws heat away from the electronics inside, while the raised tweeter housing is sculpted for even dispersion and a stable stereo image. Marble White lets the Element 3 read as a pale sculpture in the room; Midnight Grey makes the pair a quiet, dark presence.

A Crossover With Power Steering

Behind the rear panel sits the idea that sets the Element Series apart: the power-assisted crossover Sphinx calls PAC. To the amplifier, the Sphinx Element 3 looks like an ordinary passive loudspeaker and an easy one, so the familiar chain of source, preamplifier, power amplifier and loudspeaker stays exactly as before. Inside, a low-power analogue filter with no inductors divides the signal, and local buffer stages and a dedicated amplifier module for each driver take over the heavy lifting.

Sphinx compares the arrangement to power steering in a classic car. The amplifier still holds the wheel and sets the character of the sound, while the local power stages supply the muscle. The drivers stay under firm control, and the presentation becomes more precise, less fatiguing and more consistent whatever the music asks.

A Natural Partner for Valve Amplifiers

Because the external amplifier meets a high, steady load and a highly sensitive design, the Sphinx Element 3 welcomes a wide circle of partners, including lower-powered valve amplifiers. Sphinx built the Element 3 to convey the true nature of whatever drives the pair, so a cherished amplifier keeps the very sound that made the choice worthwhile.

A bass switch on the rear panel adds a little extra weight where a room soaks up the low end, and a power switch with automatic standby looks after the internal electronics, so day-to-day use stays as simple as with any passive pair.

Drivers Chosen for Speed

Sphinx selected each driver for speed and control. A compact underhung paper-sandwich woofer with a neodymium motor delivers deep bass from a small diaphragm, a dedicated midrange concentrates on articulation and natural presence through the vocal band, and a textile dome tweeter completes the system with smooth dispersion and refined treble. Time alignment brings all three into phase, so voices and instruments arrive as one coherent whole, and Sphinx’s proprietary Silver-Gold conductors carry the signal inside.

The impression Sphinx aims for is immediacy and freedom: a pair that disappears, a stable and natural stereo image, and instruments that keep shape, colour and timing without exaggeration, open and resolved without ever turning sharp.

Born of Siltech and Crystal Cable

Sphinx builds the Element 3 on principles first proven in two celebrated loudspeakers from the same engineering family, the Siltech Symphony and the Crystal Cable Minissimo Forte. The passive-active crossovers of both designs inform the PAC network, now joined by the Zero Gravity Bass channel and a cabinet entirely of Sphinx’s own design.

The larger Element 5 extends the same ideas with a second woofer and a beryllium tweeter for greater scale, while the Element 3 delivers the full Sphinx philosophy in a more compact form that is easy to place in a wide variety of systems. Further choices in the same form sit in Audio Lounge’s floorstanding speakers collection.

About Sphinx

Sphinx began in the 1980s as a name for high-end electronics, produced by Siltech with Edwin van der Kley-Rynveld, CEO of Siltech, as designer and engineer, and through the 1980s and 1990s Sphinx electronics were known across Europe and Asia. Today the name returns, reimagined by the engineering team behind the Siltech Symphony and Crystal Cable’s Glass Arabesque, with decades of research into cables, electronics and loudspeakers distilled into the Element Series. Every Sphinx loudspeaker is hand-assembled, tested and acoustically tuned in the Netherlands. The Sphinx Element 3 can be auditioned in Audio Lounge’s Wigmore Street showroom, and the Sphinx collection at Audio Lounge gathers the whole Element Series.