At one point I had both Fritz Carrerra BE's (Fritz brought 'em around to my apartment and we hung out for a few hours) and a Quicksilver Headphone Amp. I've since upgraded both, but those were both excellent in quality and value....
To Fritz, Quicksilver, and all the exceptional makers trying to get the word out
It's been a while since I've posted. When you're in the sandwich generation, life intervenes. I've not had much chance to keep up with the conversations here, but I've managed some changes in my system, including a new set of speakers from a local audio fixer and DIY genius. These new speakers are wide baffle design with JBL woofers (15") and Beyma AMT tweeters. 97db sensitivity. I've put a picture on my system page.
But I've been thinking about Fritz and Quicksilver for an odd reason. There's an interesting guy on YouTube, Andy Edwards. He's a drummer and teacher with interestingly provocative analyses of rock, jazz, and music. Recently in a video entitled "Ten things non-musicians get wrong about music," he was pointing out how the music industry tends to advance very select fractions of talented people. There is a tremendous funneling effect that excludes a huge percentage of talented people. They are better than many of the most popular musicians, but they cannot get a hearing. They have to make a living in other ways -- but they are extraordinarily talented, nonetheless. This tends to skew the public perception of what a good musician is because people hear what they hear and then celebrate it because it's what they know. Subjective bias leads to (false) objective estimations of how good musicians can be. (Take one case in point: Kazuhito Yamashita. Look him up. Staggering genius on the guitar who didn't become a worldwide phenomenon.)
This made me think about two of the pieces in my system -- Fritz speakers and Quicksilver amps. They are complete unknowns to 99% of the buying public, and if you look around on YouTube or other media, it's pretty hard to find much promotion. It's all word of mouth, and even if they did advertise, who would hear them? With Klipsch and Focal and Yamaha et al. taking up most of the available attention economy, how could their message get through?
I am so grateful to the members of this forum for helping guide me to Fritz and Quicksilver. They are the most listenable, comfortable, and high-quality gear I've owned. I've heard amazing things about other brands -- such as Audio Note -- but I'm paying for college, soon for two kids, and that just ain't happening. These are not the best things money can buy, but as value propositions, you really cannot do better, IMHO.
For those whose ears are perking up about Fritz for the first time, I have done two reviews of what I think is his better speaker, the Carbon 7 SE MKII.
Written -- https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/review-fritz-heiler-s-carbon-7-se-mk-2-bookshelf-speakers?
Video -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpI6eAvc4_M
I've tried them with everything: they're tube friendly (Quicksilver, 60w); they're class D friendly (DIY Hypex-based amp, 275W); they're class A friendly (Pass XA-25, about 25-80w); they're class AB friendly (Adcom, Akitika, 60w).
I like them because if I focus in on them, they perform but if I just want them on in the background, they're lovely that way, too.
Hope everyone has a good 2025.
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I've been very happy with my Fritz Carbon 6s which I drive with a 5 Watt/channel tube amp. They play nice together- I have them in my bedroom system. The speakers also work great with our class D amps; we showed with the Carbon 7s at AXPONA in 2023.
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@corelli Did an extended comparison of Fritz with the Akitika GT-102 Z4 vs. the Pass Labs XA-25. There was no comparison -- with the Pass: bass tighter, greater clarity in the soundstage, wider soundstage, more presence. That said, the Akitika really surprises you when you first turn it on. It is a $625 kit (this one is maxed out with $350 in additional parts) and really sounds fantastic. Of course, the Pass is in another league, so not really a fair fight. I’m selling the Akitika. For anyone curious, the Akitika was maxed out, thus: "The unit is internally dampened, has upgraded VH audio hookup wiring throughout (roughly $100 worth), plus Pulsar CUii signal wire ($80/m). All caps upgraded including a new massive Muse cap for power ($85 cap alone), BPs on the boards and all components matched during the build. Copper lugs, gold plated speaker terminals, Cardas silver solder and more. With the chip shortage these were sold with clone chips for a while - however this amp has genuine TI chips inside." |
@mattw73 If you picked those speakers up on the last month or so you're lucky. I was watching a pair and waited 1 day too long and they sold. Having said that, I recall not long ago a guy could find several used sets to pick from (hifishark). Now... not so much. Looong periods between offerings now so I guess the word has gotten out. |
I’m unfamiliar with Fritz speakers but have owned from new a pair of Quicksilver Mini Mite mono blocks for the past 18 years. In fact the 18th Anniversary just passed in December since I purchased the Quickies in December of 2006. Mike Sanders does not worry about flashy products. He builds quality products with simple circuits that last for generations. I once had a pair of the 5 tube version of his original Quicksilver 8417 monoblocks from the mid 1980’s. One of, if not the first audio amplifiers to employ the use of the Philips 8417 Television tube. What a great sounding amplifier that was! It even astounded the late Harry Pearson of The Absolute Sound, who preferred it to many of the far more expensive amplifiers he was comparing the QS 8417 at the time, in regard to an article that appeared in TAS magazine. IME the only drawback to the philips 8417 was that it went through tubes at alarmingly high rate, which quickly used up the supply of 8417 output tubes that were available on the secondary market. In fact, while the tubes were still inexpensive, Mike Sanders (President of Quicksilver Audio) bought up thousands of them so that his 8417 owners would have access to new tubes when they needed them; and without marking them up. However, given the 8417’s tendency to burn out quickly, within a few years Mike’s supply of 8417’s were used up and NOS 8417’s having become scarce, soared in value; in some instances a set of Philips 8417’s becoming as expensive as a pair of used QS 8417’s The GE version of the 8417 was used as a replacement, however, IME did not sound as good and did not last as long as the Philips 8417’s did. Glad that you are enjoying your QS amplifier and Fritz speakers!
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