Northwest Audio Review June 4,05 at RAW Acoustics Take II

[planet10]

Sad to say, the recent "glich" in the diyAudio database ate the 1st version of this thread beyond resurection, so this is a thread to attempt to at least bring back part of it....

On June 4, Al Wooley of RAW acoustics, held a small event, the purpose of which was to audition & critique his line of kit speakers.

These are based on the CSS WR125, the Exremis 6.8 midbass, Al's custom OEM ribbon tweeter, an Usher tweeter & a hiVi tweeter.

Post away guys....

dave

 

[planet10]

This thread spun out of some discussion in the original thread....

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=658708#post658708

dave

 

[planet10]

reposts of the pics i took... more detailed comments to follow.

All comments need to be taken with the following context. Unknown amplifier (big Theta Dreadnaught power amp), in a room that has less than stellar acoustics, with limited source material. Speakers very easily overwelmed the room, causing almost all the speakers to be bass heavy which in turn had the effect of masking & muddying the mids. Room was quite live & this could have an effect on the treble. Due to this the smaller speakers sounded best, most of the big boxes with the extermis becoming more or less unlivable (IMHO). I like the looks & context of the extermis, Tim F reports good results with it, i look forward to experiments with the 4 we now have in better known environs.

There was a quite distinct family resemblance amounst the speakers, with 2 main families divided by the kind of tweeter -- dome or ribbon.

dave

 

[planet10]

Speakers 1st...

Little guys... HT 1 (hard to see the WR125S + RAW ribbon behind the grills (more on grills later), next 4 are 2 renditions of WR125S + HiVi tweeter. One lets the WR run FR, the other a more convential 2-way. excepting the FR125 (in the same parts express box) the former had the best mids & showed off the WR125 to its best.

(note: many of the pictures are problematic from huge light coming in thru the window into the darker room)

 

[planet10]

HT 2 MTM WR125 + ribbon... all the HTs seemed to me to trade measured FR off against dynamics & livlieness ... still these were good (within the context of the aforementioned note), and some day i hope to get the opportunity to give them a better audition under known conditions.

 

[planet10]

HT 3 -- an MT up top with WR + ribbon, and an extremis low down on the side crossed qite low. Other than the performance given by the FR125, this was the best speaker of the day, possibly partially due to the placement of the extremis being much better matched for the room. This speaker has a lot of possibilities, not the least of which would be an active option on the bottom (there are some pretty big reactive components at the 110 Hz XO point that would go a ways to paying for a little plate amp)

 

[planet10]

I understand there is an HT6 coming as well...

With their svelte front profile, the heavily rounded front corners, the excellent veneer work, and the lovely copper phase plugs, all the HT series are a really pretty speaker. The grills (more on the grills) were even cool.

dave

 

[planet10]

I've gotta go attend to my day job, but will post the start of the x41 speakers (the little ones posted 1st).

This would be considered the big daddy. Called the LCR -- can be oriented as shown or rotated for convential centre channel duty. The 2 extremis on this overloaded the room severely and made it impossibly to give them a decent sonic evaluation. The tweeter is an Usher.