Rat Shck Presidian 40-5053. Next Sonic Impact?


I just bought a pair. Supposedly a guy from the Connecticut Audio Society bought a pair for his video system and couldn't believe how good they are. He was floored.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2104336&cp
petewhitley
as these speakers break in, they are simply impossible to criticize for the price. to my ear, they offer a surprisingly clear, robust and balanced sound within their 65-20K range. there is of course a degree of opacity compared to my current speakers (vintage hartley monitors with crossoverless midbass driver and upgraded tweeters/tweeter crossovers), but i attribut this to several factors, not the least of which are they are 1) brand new and 2) most surely have bargain basement chinese crossover components (and i guess drivers, but they are not the weak link IMHO). to boot, my current (and incredibly modest) system is currently running a lower echelon (and unworthy of mention) vintage amp while my primary (also vintage but much higher quality) amp is being completely overhauled and updated by audiogon member ezekiel.

the midbass driver looks to be a simple paper-cone-yet-fairly-long-throw deal with treated cloth surround, and the tweeter is some type of polymer 0.5" dome. they are (contrary to the RS website) 10.5 by 7.4 by 6.6 inches and weigh a whopping 5.25 pounds each. 8 ohms impedance with 50 watts nominal and 100 watts maximum power handling. bass reflex design with a small rear port.

to look at them they make me think of something along the lines of a black vinyl clad, chinese linn kan. after a week or so of break-in, my tentative plans are (depending on the degree of improvement experienced) to consider upgrading the crossover components, internal wiring and binding posts, and maybe putting some dampening material on the (likely stamped) woofer basket. all told, still less than $100 per pair and a helluva lot of fun for my money, come what may.
Since I had to return a gift to RS today, I picked up a pair of these speakers. I'll give you an update when I get a chance to play with them a bit.

TIC
Bet they're made in China. Any bets as to how long it will be before the China bashers start in on this thread?
OK, I hooked up the Presidians to my trusty Sharp SD-EX111 (which was THE killer deal on closeout for $70 at Overstocks.com) and right out of the box they sound pretty good. They are a bit lacking in bass, but sound pretty good and much better than the $40 would suggest. Of course, they will likely improve when they get some break-in time on them too...

I took an opportunity to open up the speaker to take a look at the components. There is only a single 1 Microfarad capacitor on the (+) tweeter lead, so the mid-woofer is running rull range. The box is very cheap and thin MDF with no internal bracing (except a bit in a couple of corners. The port is a cardboard tube glued to the inside of the back panel. There is no stuffing or sound dampening material inside.

So, for the adventurous type, possibly changing the cap, internal wiring and adding some dampening may provide some sonic gain for very little money.

Enjoy,

TIC
I knew it! All this crap this hobby suckered me into was a trick. Assuming Rat Shack uses standard retail markups that's a $20 pair of speakers. I wonder what they cost to build maybe $15 ?? What was I thinking ??