Red Rose Speakers (From Mark Levinson)

The source is the key with regard to these speakers. In fact, it goes to the CD itself. The store plays ONLY those CDs' (or other sources such as live piano recorded in the store and immediately played back) that sound good with the speakers. Try your favorite demo discs and you will have a decidely different response. Proves the theory that the retailers set-up is not necessarily what you will hear at home. Noticed that the speakers are starting to hit the *pre-owned* market.

Has anyone compared the Red Rose to Proac Response 1SC or Dynaudio Contour 1.3SE. I have the Jeff Rowland Model 2 with a Wadia 850 and Aerial 5. The Aerial 5, at 85db, are a bit inefficient for the Rowland. Any recommendations?

nathanu, check out newform research r645's - not minimonitors, but the same price-range, they're ribbons above 1khz, and they're 91db/w/1m. their www: http://www.newformresearch.com/ amazing reviews: http://audioreview.com/reviews/Speaker/product_8052.shtml good luck, doug

An audiophile friend of mine visited the New York store. Said the Red Rose combination was very musical. He stated a drawback as the lack of strong bass response, which would have to be expected of a speaker of that size. Yes it will sound accurate with the piano, but feed it some other material, and you will remember the first law of audio, "There is no perfect speaker". I listened to the Audioprism(a company which Red Rose took hold of) amplifier at a local used audio store here, and found it to be very nice.

I have heard them with the "entry level" Red Rose system for amplification and an old Luxman tube-output CD player at a friend's house, who bought them. They have surprising bass (sort of like the smaller Totem speakers), but it is limited, probably to the 40hz range. What makes them special is the ribbon tweeter, which, together with the Red Rose/Audioprism tube amplification, gives them a natural, fast, detailed and extended high end. Certainly not perfect, but excellent imaging, soundstaging and dynamics. Well worth a listen.