Red Rose Speakers (From Mark Levinson)

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.

According to Mark Levinson "the man" Red Rose is his attempt to make a real world, ie. affordable system, that the common man can afford. He reports that systems are flying off the shelf. Am not sure if price includes the cat.

The system is very good, really. There is an excellent synergy between the electronics and the speakers, and the system really is something special. As for them flying off the shelf, Mark's store location in the Whitney Museum here in NYC sure doesn't hurt. He's got a large group of, for the most part, well-heeled arts lovers most of whom, considering the lack of press the high end audio community gets, have never heard a good high-end audio system. Selling package systems, including cables, also appeals to the non-audiophile music lovers who don't really want to get into mixing and matching--a set it and forget it, good sounding system. I think that's great marketing.

I like the prices of their cables. Especially, the VERY affordable silver interconnects. Proof that you don't need to spend a lot(of money, not thought and time) on wire.