[Mad DOg]

After placing myself on the RC3R home demo tour and then waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting only to be disappointed that the tour had stalled due to damages to the speaker incurred in shipping, I wasn't sure I wanted to sign up for the SA-1 home demo tour this time. All that changed when a few other AC members expressed interest in hearing them and suggested we gather for a group listen.   Since I was going to be hosting a listening session soon, this seemed like a great idea!     Now all that was needed was to contact Rick Craig to see if he could accomodate us for the date of the listening session. After trading a few PMs, Rick agreed to send the SA-1 out to me the first week of Sept.

The SA-1s arrived last week double boxed. The inner box is suspended within the outer box by styrofoam corner protectors in all 8 corners. Within the inner box the speaker was covered with a plastic bag. Rick also takes the additional precautionary measure of placing a piece of tape over the front of the ribbon tweeter so that the suction when removing the plastic bag will not damage or cause the ribbon to become misaligned.

My first impression when I pulled the speakers out with their grill on was that they looked like Biro L/1s without the exposed tweeter. The oak cabinet was identical with the exception of the port location. A quick PM to Rick confirmed that this is indeed the case. Apparently this cabinet comes standard with the SA-1 kit when purchased through Madisound. There is the option of nicer cabinets in other finishes are available when the SA-1 is purchased from Rick.

The SA-1 monitor is a 2 way with a driver compliment of a Fountek ribbon tweeter and a 7" Vifa XT18W09. The tweeter looks very similar to the Aurum Cantus tweeter that I've heard in the past in Aurum Cantus' own Leisure 2D and the GR Research Criterion. Having heard the AC L2D and GR Crits in the past, I found them both to be too polite for my tastes. So would Rick Craig's speaker designed with a mix of drivers I had heard in other speakers sound polite as well? And would the dispersion characteristics of the ribbon create a super narrow sweet spot as the other 2 speakers exhibited in the past? That's what I wanted to find out.

Within minutes with the SA-1, I discovered the answer and it is a resounding NO! Rick Craig's SA-1 really BOOGIES!   In my room, these speakers were more detailed, dynamic and engaging than any $850 speaker has a right to be! According to Rick, the Fountek tweet measures nearly identical to the AC tweet and the AC tweet was supposed to be far more detailed than the Vifa XT ring radiator or any other silk dome tweeter. I had never found that to be true until I heard the SA-1. In this application the Fountek ribbon indeed sounds more detailed than the Vifa XT ring radiator. The detail is not harsh or edgy though, rather smooth and extended. The midrange is extremely engaging! The bass is on the warm side-a bit warmer than I prefer, but extends down nicely for a monitor.

So far the 2 way ribbon equipped SA-1 has really shown me what no other 2 way ribbon speaker has before which is when properly implemented, a 2 way ribbon monitor can be engaging, musical and addictive! A more detailed review will follow in the near future...

But for right now, I'm raising this toast to Rick Craig for a SUPER JOB of making an amazing sounding speaker for the price. Great work, Rick! I sincerely hope that more folks will begin to discover your speakers! They are affordable and simply magical!  

[ooheadsoo]

This is one reason why I decided not to go to the meet.  I have no more budget for speakers so listening to this has great potential for causing me DIY'ers remorse!  I'll be saving up my pennies for a selah line array in a few years

[Mad DOg]

This is one reason why I decided not to go to the meet.  I have no more budget for speakers so listening to this has great potential for causing me DIY'ers remorse!  I'll be saving up my pennies for a selah line array in a few years

smart move on saving for the line arrays...Rick is one talented designer! if he can make a budget speaker sound as good as the SA-1s, i'm DEFINITELY interested in seeing what his higher end models sound like...

[MarkM]

Excellent review mad dog.  The price to performance is what blew me away with Rick SA-1.  Convinced me to purchase the Carnelian, which will be completed next week.  

[Carlman]

I just received the SA-1's and already I'm impressed by the vocal presentation.  I will write some comparisons after I've spent some time with them... but my first impression is very positive.

-C

[Rob Babcock]

Do you still have those Europas, Carlman?  I'm curious how those two compare (near the same price and general size, and both interest me).

[Carlman]

I still have the Europa's... fully broken in... ready to rock.  I must say the sound of the SA-1 leans to the sound of the Europa a bit more than to the Usher...

My soundroom is basically a box of Neopolitan ice cream.  Which flavor do you want?  

[cryotweaks]

I have to second MaD dOg's review.  These are some very fine sounding speakers. I wished we would have had time to bring them downstairs at MD's house, I think they would have held their own very nicely against the VR's and Ref 3's on balance.

[Carlman]

These speakers grow on me every day.... And I've liked them since I first started playing them.  They are indeed 'balanced' sounding.  No one part of the range is presented 'hotter' than the rest.  They have a very 'energetic' sound that's tough to describe.  The bass isn't as warm as when I first connected them.... however, I haven't done direct comparisons yet.  I probably will later this week.

Thanks again, Rick.  Great speakers!!!

[Carl V]

I have had an oppurtunity to listen to both Rick's RC3R & his SA-1.
Thank you for the demo tour oppurtunity.

[Carl V]

While the SA-1s were here I and quite a few buddies & their families were able to compare & contrast these speakers with many others.
Some of the others on hand were older Store bought units.  Such as a Totem Tabu, Monitor Audio Gold 10 and a JM Lab Electra 906.
We also had on hand some of our DIY units.
Those conisted of well respected designs, all of which were larger
Stand Mounted monitors. 2-ways, ported with good quality XO parts
and well made enclosures.  
Driver in these designs were:
Seas Excel 25, SS9300, OW1, Focal, APT-50, Vifa. Fountek.
SS8546, SS8545, Focal W cone, Seas Millenium, Emminence, Vifa.

We had on hand Kelvar, paper, metal, Silk & poly.  It was interesting
how they all had a diferent sound yet all had a similarly  good sound.
In other words there were no 'dogs'.  They differed by only degrees.
And their differences were only decernable by closer scrutiny.  Especially
when level matched.

We found the SA-1 to be easy to play on a wide variety of amps
& systems.  No specific synergistic interplay was needed.  Be it
tubes, bipolars or Mosfets...even a hybrid amp.  No DIgital amps.


We used two amps the most for our A/B tests.  A CinePro3K6.
and a a Parasound 1206.  These are large 6-Channel amps which
have individual gain/volume controls, thus allowing us to level match
the speakers.  These are competent designs. Plenty of Current.

We played the usual suspects of "reference " recordings as well
as fun stuff.  All the speakers did a good job.  Some did parts of the
job better, some did it better at certain SPL levels, & some did certain
types of program material better.

Playing smaller scale music elucidated the the diffreneces easier.
Larger more complex symphonic, R&B or C&W distracted our focus.
You got to tapping your feet and forgot about the geeky nature of
'auditioning'.  So, solo guitar be it blues, Classical or Bluegrass was used a great deal. Duets, trios & quartets. A couple of us went to the last MAF in Lima and bought some CDs of the blues duo that played there that night.  

We even did some ad hoc living room recording of a
folk guitar stumming along to ourselves singing Puff the magic dragon,
Row-row- row your boat..... one of the guys does the sound & recording
at his church.  SO he came up with the idea of US singing.  He also recorded Mohters reading the Christmas Novel The Polar Express.

It was these homebrew recording which caught our attention.
WE all hated our own voices but we could recognize each others
voices very well.  And we just heard it.  So no long term memory
needed.

[Carl V]

The other auditioning techinique we used was MONO A/B.

We palyed Mono recordings or switched the preamp to
Mono.  We sent the signal to the Big HT 6CH amps.
Level matched.  Then compared a single SA-1 against
a different single speaker.  Then by just twisting the
Balance switch we got to hear two speaeks in terms
of tone & timbre.  No Pin point imaging, no phase issues,
no sound stagfe issues.  We also did the usual A/B pair
comparisons with these big amps.

[Carl V]

So, all in all the SA-1 aquitted itself rather well.

Rick's speakers were compared & contrasted to
speakers which cost less, about the same and
quite a bit more. But I feel his speaker...no all
these speakers are in the same league.  None
of these I would describe as "bang for the buck"
baragains.  IN other words no inexpensive "value"
driven desgins.

The SA-1 is attractive and well made.  It plays
plenty loud and also does lower SPL quite well.

It likes some juice. Thankfully it is biwireable.
Not that I beleive biwiring (buy wire) is crucial.
But it allows you to passivley biamp.  So now
you can usue two Identical Push Pull EL34 amps
and let the speaker really sing.  It did well with
EL34 & 6550 amps.

It is a bit on the warm side, like some of the others.
maybe a bit recessed in the midrange just after the warmer
lower midrange.  But many of the others did likewise.
Polite non irritating.  It can be a bit sibilant
when pushed.  At lower levels this detail or energy can
be very appealing.  It did simple voices well.  On
jazz quartets, especially of the LA-4 it shined. Direct to
Disc LP.  The Telarc SACD of Ray Brown & friends it did
all the musical instruments well.  Bill Monroe playing guitar
was wonderful.

The SA-1  is a deal... a steal.  Consider that one of
the guys has an older Totem Tabu which once sold for
+$3,000 ( $3,500) and it is seen used for about a grand now.
And the SA-1 new at less than a thousand was it's equal.
It bettered the Monitor Audio unit. and it was the equal of the Electra.

As far as how it compares to those other DIY speakers.
It nestled in there quite nicely.  Cost isn't always an indicator
of performance.  Sometimes it is.

Thank you Rick.

[Ravi]

Carl, I'm really impressed with your review.  Very methodical, and fair to all.   Do you have more details of the other speakers you compared, and your relative impressions of them?  Perhaps you could PM me or post in a General forum when you have time.