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I met this guy in a hotel room....

Many years ago, in a dark hotel room I heard a pair of relatively small two-way speakers with excellent tonal balance, clarity and absolutely glass smooth response. Literally among the best sound at the show, the only other contender in a room there in Oakland being a top of the line Vandersteen driven by $60K worth of electronics. Nothing else in the entire show actually sounded as good in room as these little gems.

I ran into Blue Coast records (an excellent and under-appreciated audiophile DSD label). Cookie was there, along with two lovely musicians who had finished their tour. The musicians also praised the room. Cookie had not heard the room, I beleive. She was busy actually working! She did sell me a portable DAC that was amazing though. (I may be mixing up 2 different Cookie stories). Sadly it died six months later from some power supply issue. I miss that little puck. Anyway, going back to my story...

In the room I speak of was Fritz and his speakers. For under $4,000 he was selling really unique crossover designs with world class drivers. $4k for the parts he was using is basically a song, and to be put together in such lovely sounding speakers was an amazing feat.

Today, looking for an interesting new DAC, I came across the Montreal Audio Show coverage in Stereophile, and I found a pair of speakers using similar components and they run almost exactly 10x the price.

I don’t really have a moral, except maybe that audiphiles need to get away from looking at price tags for sound quality and that if you are looking for sweet 2-ways, and have been following any of my postings about how you can get a lot of bass out of two way monitors you should look up Fritz.

 

erik_squires
ashoka
96 posts
 

we always hear good feedback on Fritz speakers pity it is not manufactured industry scale & marketed but as handmade speakers.

 the writer didn't mention which model and writing is distracting with other subjects poking in.

 

carlsbad's avatar
carlsbad
1,551 posts
 

Cool story.  Not everyone can evaluate and compare at your level of understanding.  it is always an advantage to understand how things work.  This helps you recognize quality.  

 

Many would have looked at the price and dismissed them as "cheap".

erik_squires OP
16,118 posts
 

P.s. I lunked the model I was referring to in my OP.

b_limo's avatar
b_limo
2,277 posts
 

Fritz is an awesome dude, he really is.  He promised something to me and then when things changed on his end, he still kept his promise to me.  Nobody else in the audio industry has gone out of their way for me as much as Fritz (and Paul from CLear Day cables) has done for me.  Lifes been extremely busy / complicated for me this past year so I haven’t talked with Fritz for awhile and I do miss our conversations.  No one else out there that I am aware of is a one man show like Fritz.  He does everything and his Veneer work is awesome.  I’ve not seen another speaker that is book matched down the center, bookmatched left and fight, with a waterfall edge (?).  All of his speakers use top notch drivers.  His enclosures are super solid and he lines the insides with no rez.  Most of all though, his speakers sound fantastic.  I highly recommend his speakers.

arafiq's avatar
arafiq
1,681 posts
 

I own the Fritz Carrera BE speakers that replaced Harbeth M30.1 in my home office system. You won't find a better bookshelf speaker for anything in the ~3K price range. It has such a balanced presentation from top to bottom that it's hard to find any faults. Also agree with everyone that the bass coming out of these little guys is amazing. I wrote a review on these speakers a few months ago ..

 

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