$15,000 Speaker Does Not List Freq Response Specs

Fmalitz,

Thanks for the post. I have no idea how good this speaker is or isn't, but you do have to love the ambition behind the design.  Best of luck with the venture!

I wasn't there but after listening to you're story about the dealer adding super tweeters and a Rel sub I would bet you were at David Weinhards store in Bel Air, California.

Yes, Taters, it was Dave's place. Good call. Bob was not supposed to pick dealers. As CEO, that's my job. I inherited the account. Now, I'm glad I did. I've come to respect David for his absolute dedication to providing his clients with the best audio possible. His opinions and mine often are at odds but his heart is in the right place. He does have extensive experience. I value the relationship.

Next, I don't bullshit about sound--ever. I too have little direct knowledge of the speaker's performance capabilities. I don't have my samples yet. Frankly, I'd prefer the purchaser to form his own opinions anyway. I may comment later when I hear them but am uncertain about breaking Audiogon rules since the phrase "conflict of interest" raises questions about my objectivity.

Now, onto a clarification: you get two towers, one subwoofer, one carton with two crossovers and one sub amplifier. I'm considering selling the woofers separately for those rooms with non-uniform coverage. Using two would be preferable under those circumstances. David was concerned about the thinness of the woofer cabinet--like 3", but at four feet tall, there's enough internal volume to allow very deep and powerful bass. Bob designed the shallow drivers for bore and stroke despite their slim profile. The woofer cab is georgeous with its multiple layers of hand-rubbed lacquer. You can use it in any way you can imagine. It won't shake since it has an internal mechanism to cancel cabinet vibration. Hell, make a coffee table with legs if you like. You'll not spill the wine!

There's more than one way to wire it and you'll be guided by a quick-start guide. One scheme utilizes an umbilical we provide which obviates the need for at least one run of expensive cables while simplifying hookup. Bob has provided terminals for bi-wiring but neither Bob nor I feel the benefit outweighs the cost (David Weinhart will throw a fit).

When we finally get feedback from you guys who actually purchase this system, I'll post updates from time to time. Maybe bi-wiring will improve it; I have no way to know at this time.

 I'm not much of a forum guy and that's why I left my phone number. If you have a pressing issue, post it here but if I don't respond in a day or so, call me. There's far too much subjectivity and pseudo-science on forums and I tire of explaining things like specs are meaningless, which, sadly, in the real world, and not on paper, they are.
Frank

Back in the 70's when we had Stereo Review and High Fidelity, I would regularly read the equipment reviews and look at all the specs to see who had the best numbers and try to make my choices accordingly.

These days, I'm inclined to take a selection of familiar recordings and just let my ears be the judge.  Trust your ears

Joe, I remember going to my college library to read the reviews in the magazines I could not afford--hour after hour (ca. 1968). I also remember the transition from tubes to solid state in 1964 or so.  the SS stuff had far better specs but I was baffled at the utterly dreadful sound. 

You are entirely correct. One must listen.  Trust your ears on,y as Joe suggests. I can easily attack any specifications generally employed by most companies. Still, there are manufacturers like Bel Canto who provide incredible S/N ratios and yes, their stuff sounds great. Is it simply due to their specs? If it was, how do we reconcile the superb performance of units with lesser specs? Admittedly, tubes usually have mundane numbers but one must agree many sound wonderful.

Some day perhaps we can finish the science and all enjoy the expressive communication all too often at great financial cost these days. Thank goodness for Andrew Jones who demoed a pair of Elac speakers at CES for $500 RETAIL! They positively murdered a $100,000 system from a very famous company in the same hotel in the same size room. If this industry is to survive, it'll be due to folks like Elac who subverted their German pride, hiring an Englishman to bring young people an astonishing listening experience. They deserve our gratitude and support.

i forgot to respond to Almarg: even solid state amps with very low source impedance can be manipulated by the ALS. With an amp with zero feedback, the ALS is still  going to have the same basic character. The equalization is very subtle. One cannot make a significantly crappy speaker sound good with all the band aids in the world. I set up a huge system for a dealer show with the new Yamaha 11-channel separates which use proprietary EQ developed in cooperation with their pro division (it uses two different filtering schemes and sounds pretty good sans EQ anyway) but yet dealer insisted on Polk speakers.  The Polk guy was terrific. Worked his ass off. We used at least four of his subs and all 11 channels but my car system sounds better. As I recall. The Polk stuff was top of their line. Very disappointing for all the work we did.

Sorry about the length of these posts.