speakers with Ebony finish

I bought one of their UFW-10 subs for my dad to complement the speakers I built for him, and I was very impressed with the bang for the buck it represented. The UFW-10 is a 13 inch cube (quite small), but weighs 50 pounds.

AV123.com were out of Macassar Ebony (the finish I wanted, which looked great online) in B-stock, so they offered (and I accepted) a brand new 1st quality one in Rosewood (which looks *much* better in person) in its place... The finish was on par with some fabulously finished speakers from Dali I saw recently that sold for $5900 all the way up to $40000/pr. Pretty much the best I have seen to date. Build quality was superb too.

The sound of the sub was very musical, but it was obviously not going to compete with much larger high-end subs that cost 3-5+ times its price... Still, for the $400 plus shipping I paid for it, I know I could not do better for the price.

Based on my Rocket sub buying experience, I would not expect Rocket soundwise to compete with speakers like Tyler Acoustics (not implying in any way that Rockets are mediocre sounding speakers, only Tyler is really that good!), but they will definitely win on finish quality (and that is saying something).

Worth a look if your budget is relatively tight...

---Dave

AV123 Rockets/Onix/Perpetual Technologies is Mark L. Schifter's company. Mark was with Genesis back in the Artie Nudell days. He was also part of the Acoustic Alchemy group. He is a descendant of the Marantz family. My understanding is that he went along with his partners wish to sell Acoustic Alchemy even though he did not want to. The subsequent heartbreak when the new owners of Acoustic Alchemy bankrupted it in a about a year is what lead him to go with the consumer direct sales model to give him complete control over everything thing. He also co-owns Sound Arts China which produces many of the high end cabinets used these days.

See these reviews-

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_11_2/onix-reference-speakers-5-2004.html

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_11_4/onix-reference-3-speakers-11-2004.html

Jphii, I hung out with Danny of GR Research at the Denver show, he and Gary Dodd of Dodd amplifier fame are fellow Texans.

I had Gary's Dodd's mono block tube amps here last week and they are extremely good. They use EL34 outputs, which are one of my favorites and likely why I adapted to them so easily.

Gary lives here in Dallas but Danny lives several hours drive from me, so I have not visited him yet.

Gary Dodd has a pair of the new Epiphany 20-21 speakers (retail $27K), and right beside them, a pair of GR Research Alpha Line Source. Personally I prefer the sound of the GR Research.

Danny's Alpha's image further outside of the box, the upper midrange and highs are smoother and sweeter and the bass has more impact.

There is a ringing sound from the Epiphany that seems to ride on top of the music. I heard this at HE in New York and again at the Denver show. Hearing it again in a home environment leads me to believe it is in the design rather than a one time thing.

Considering the price of the Alpha's, I am totally blown away by their performance. I actually considered buying them instead of my Dali Megaline's.

The Alpha's woofer/midranges are a larger driver than the Epiphany. The claim from Epiphany is that their smaller drivers are faster and therefore, integrate better with the ribbon top.

I hear no issues with the Alphas, so I will take the larger driver and along with it, the benefits. It is plenty fast, provides excellent deep bass impact and integrates perfectly in my experience.

Anyway, even if the Alpha were only 75% the Epiphany rather than the other way around, Alpha's are a fraction of the price and equal if not superior in appearance.

If this weren't enough, new Alpha's on the way which will surpass the current model. New custom built Peerless woofers (same size) with truncated frames, which will allow closer "center to center" alignment and Bolander-Graebner is completing new custom ribbon tweeters with 8 ohm impedance.

Estimates are about two months for this to all come together. I plan to give them a serious listen.

Albert, do you happen to have the approximate measurements for the Alpha S? Thanks.

Thanks for the info Albert. I think that new speakers are going to be the next "major" purchase. I'm having a hard time trying to sift through all of the possibles. I really want to build my own, and the GR's give me that option. Being the Audio Note fan that I am, the AN/E Kit 3's have been looking good, but now the GR's must be given some serious consideration. If you have heard the AN/E's, either kit or factory, I would appreciate a comparison.

Vnt001, also, the AN/E kit is something you might want to consider if you do go the DIY route. Then you can finish (or have them finished) as you desire.

Joe