RAD Micros in the house!

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Jay S

RAD Micros in the house!
« on: 27 Jun 2003, 07:12 am »
I picked up my RAD Micros from the post office today.  Brian did a pair for me in cherry wood with a custom cherry/red mahogany stain to match my bedroom furniture.  



You can see more photos here: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=gallery;area=browse;album=5

Brian did a very impressive job of packing them, and undoing the packaging to reveal the speakers was almost like a strip tease!   :o   I opened the box only to find another box (double boxing was a nice precaution - thank you, Brian).  Each speaker was then wrapped in thick bubble wrap.  I unwrapped the bubble wrap, only to find another layer... I removed the next layer, and found a 3rd layer!  Each time I was getting better and better peeks at the speakers, till finally they were exposed to the world in all their glory.  My wife, who was watching me unwrap them, said that I really had to be a (sick?) audiophile to see the sensuality in the situation.   :mrgreen:

The wood finish is nice, certainly better than I could expect from store-bought speakers at the price!  The custom stain also matches my furniture very closely!  Kudos, Brian!  Each speaker is really quite compact -- a bit taller but narrower than a CD jewel case -- and is surprisingly hefty.  The corners are rounded, which is a nice touch.  The front port doesn't shout for attention.  The binding posts in the back feel solid and grip banana posts firmly.  

I hooked them up briefly to my main system.  I bet they will sound a bit different after 200 hours of break in, but they are already quite listenable from the very start.  At this point, they have a nice smooth and somewhat full midrange.  Highs are present but maybe with a slight bit of roll off (then again my main system does tend to be slightly on the sweet side even with the Revelator tweeter of my nOrh 9.0).  The Micros have nice upper bass.  You certainly don't feel kick drums but the overall musical picture is there.  Imaging and soundstaging don't come close to matching the nOrh 9.0 but I figure they will improve with break in.  In my main system, the Micros are set up 10 - 15 feet from the side walls and about 2 feet from the back wall -- this is quite different from the recommended placement next to walls or in a bookcase!  So, I figure the bass can only get better if placed closer to room boundaries.

Dealing with Brian has been a pleaure.  He was always very very prompt to respond to emails and was very helpful and reasonable.  I would recommend him to anyone.

I will be placing the Micros in my bedroom, where they will be powered by a Radii Audio 300B tube integrated amp with a mighty 9 watts per channel!  I expect that the Micros will be an easier load than my Acoustic Reality Avinci bookshelf speaker, which already play quite loudly.  That said, I will save concert level rock for my main system!

JoshK

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #1 on: 27 Jun 2003, 01:47 pm »
Congrads!  I am building a pair on my own and they aren't turning out quite like those unfortunately.   :(   I wonder what Brian charges for them?

Anyway, what are you going to do with your Avinci's now?

jackman

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #2 on: 27 Jun 2003, 04:04 pm »
Josh,
It's pretty inexpensive, I think he only charges $200 per pair.  Not worth building you own at that price!

J

Brian Bunge

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #3 on: 27 Jun 2003, 04:21 pm »
Josh,

Jackman is correct.  They're $200/pr. unless you start talking really wild veneers and stuff like that.

I do know of one company selling something somewhat similar that's actually 1" smaller in all dimensions and sells for $500/pr!

Jay S

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #4 on: 28 Jun 2003, 02:38 am »
Well, its day 2 and the little RAD Micros seem to be opening up and getting more dynamic.  Brian tells me that I'll notice some nice improvements even in the first few days.

Josh, I'm still going to keep the Avincis.  They are simply too good to sell for the (low) prices I have seen them go for.  For now they will go on vacation in a closet... my future plans do see them in a very high performance but cost-effective main system elsewhere.  

I would love to find a way to cover the Avincis in a nice wood veneer (I love the look of the ProAc Response 1SC monitor!) so they'd fit in better in a living room.

Guan

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #5 on: 2 Jul 2003, 09:42 am »
Beautiful speakers! Great job Brian and congrats to Jay. :thumb:

I suggest putting the Micros on some Soundcare spikes or similar for even better performance.

Jay S

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #6 on: 2 Jul 2003, 09:54 am »
I've just moved them to my bedroom today... maybe I'll be able to play a bit with tweaks this weekend.   :D

Brian Bunge

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #7 on: 3 Jul 2003, 02:16 pm »
Jay,

So...what's the latest!?:)

audiojerry

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 1355
RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #8 on: 24 Dec 2003, 02:26 pm »
yes, Jay, what's the latest?
My wife might like a pair - the smaller the better - as long as it sounds great!

Brian Bunge

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #9 on: 24 Dec 2003, 02:47 pm »
Jerry,

I emailed Jay a while back and I believe he stated that he'd had a lot of business travel going on at the time and just hadn't found time to follow up with his impressions.  He did say that he was very happy with them but I really don't remember if he went into any further detail about them.

I can tell you that I've used for all five channels in a 5.1 application and also used them strictly as surrounds in another.  Both customers have been extremely impressed with them.  I also know that my associate whom I designed these with has built a full 7.1 system using 4 of them for surrounds along with a pair of towers for mains and a 3 way center channel and that customer was extremely impressed with them as well.

I don't know if anyone around here is a big fan of cherry, but I do have a large piece of figured cherry veneer that's too small to do much of anything else with other than veneer a pair of Micros.  Normally figured cherry would be an upcharge but since I don't have any othe use for it I'd be willing to build a pair with a nice semi-gloss finish for no extra charge.

If anyone is interested let me know.  First come, first serve.  I may even have enough to veneer two pair but I'll have to double check.

Everyone have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

TowJumper

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 5
I'll take them if you can squeeze out 2 pair :)
« Reply #10 on: 30 Dec 2003, 04:58 am »
Hey Brian!

I would love to get a couple pairs of micros in the Cherry finish.  As I had emailed you last week, the medium-ish cherry from the Lexington Entertainment center would be perfect.

I intend on using a pair with my Yamaha TSX-15 micro system in my office.  

And I have a thought on the use of the second pair at home but I will email ya (hey I am in Georgia too :) ) about that - and about the sub.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Miguel

Brian Bunge

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #11 on: 30 Dec 2003, 05:17 am »
Miguel,

Cool!  I don't know if you'll want to put a stain on this figured cherry veneer that I have though.  This stuff is awesome.  I'm afraid that a stain or dye would totally obscure the grain.  But hey, you're the customer, right? :)  I'm about to post a response graph of the sub.  I think it's pretty impressive for a 14" cube!

Are you back home know or are you still down in Florida?

TowJumper

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 5
RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #12 on: 30 Dec 2003, 05:23 am »
I am still at my parents house in Tampa - the old man filled me full of expresso and then he went to bed (as is his routine) and left me wide awake!

I'll send you and email in the morning...wife is complaining about my typing.   :D

Miguel

Brian Bunge

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #13 on: 30 Dec 2003, 05:32 am »
Miguel,

No problem.  The 2 pairs of Micros in the figured cherry are ear-marked for you as long as you let me know for sure in the next day or two.  I got an order for a maple pair today because the customer preferred regular cut cherry veneer, which I'm in short supply of right now.

BTW, here's the link to my post about the sub's response:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=6863.msg60235#60235

Jay S

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #14 on: 6 Jan 2004, 07:27 am »
Hi all,

First off, happy new year!

I apologize for not saying much about the Micros.  I had great initial impressions but then as Brian mentioned I started doing tons of travel for work (I am out of town most of the time, and it will continue for a few months).  I no longer get to listen to music in my bedroom (where the Micros are), partially since my source died (an old Pioneer dvd player) also because I do whatever listening I can in my living room (where my main system is).  

I want to simplify so I think I will remove the music system from my bedroom.  I will keep the Micros for future use but I may sell my Radii 300B SET tube integrated amp.  They may find use in the office or elsewhere but nothing is firm at this point.  

Btw, I did play the Micros briefly in my main system when I first go them.  They sounded fine, which is quite amazing since my main speakers cost 20x as much.

JoshK

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #15 on: 9 Feb 2004, 08:52 pm »
Brian,

Do you treat the insides of the Micro's box?  Stuffing?  I am curious as I built a pair of speakers similar to these from a kit off of CSS and they sound pretty awful except for the upper midrange.  I wonder if it is the untreated box, not getting the port length quite right or lack of break-in.  Mine obviously aren't the ones you build but are similar.

Brian Bunge

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #16 on: 9 Feb 2004, 09:13 pm »
Josh,

I do stuff the boxes with some polyfill but don't use any other treatment.  I do know that the CSS boxes are tuned a bit higher than mine which, at least from the sims, shows a 5dB peak around 140Hz.  I don't know if this is what you are hearing or if something else is going on.  Obviously they aren't going to really produce a lot of bass regardless of what tuning you go with.  

It could be break-in as well but to tell you the truth, the differences I hear in these speakers before and after break-in are not huge.  They are noticeable, but within a few days of listening they sound about as good as they're going to get, IMHO.  I thought it was funny when someone suggested 100 hrs. to fully break them in.  The driver only has .5mm of Xmax.  How long could it take? :)

I'm not sure where you're located but I do have a demo pair going around right now.  You could compare the two and see what you like better.  I haven't tried anything quite like the CSS design so I can't really compare myself.  I could knock out a couple of cabinets in an afternoon obviously but I've got other things going on at the moment and am quite pleased with my design as is for the moment.

Oh, and look for a Micro Signature design soon.  I've smoothed out the midrange a little bit more by knocking down a rather broad, 3-4dB hump in the 1KHz-10KHz range which caused female vocals to glare at you a bit at higher volumes.  I think the highs open up a bit more after doing so.  I think it makes them much more listenable if you want to use them for 2-channel audio.

JoshK

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #17 on: 9 Feb 2004, 09:24 pm »
Thanks Brian for the reply.  I built mine based on the rec'd dimensions that CSS publishes.  I didn't keep their exact geometry as I needed them to fit my computer cabinet but seeing as I am a mathematician and all  :lol: I figured out the corresponding dimensions keeping the inner volume constant.  

I knew they were fantastic sounding when I first heard them but thought they were acceptable for the application I built them for, computer speakers.  I compared them this weekend to my $75 Omage speakers in my bedroom system and didn't expect the bass of the Omage but even the midrange and treble wasn't quite right.  I figured I did something wrong.  Could be a few things but I suspect my port length isn't quite right.  I should also lightly fill the cabinets as I think I can hear them a little too much even at modest volumes.  

I just knew you had experience working with them so I thought you might have an idea.  Thanks again.   I appreciate the offer to demo them and if they come out to the East Coast I will take you up on that offer and cover the shipping to the next guy.

JohnR

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #18 on: 9 Feb 2004, 11:02 pm »
I believe the CSS kit comes with a small baffle step circuit. My first suggestion would be to check the wiring of that, and/or try removing it.

Brian Bunge

RAD Micros in the house!
« Reply #19 on: 9 Feb 2004, 11:06 pm »
John,

I don't believe that they use one on the single driver units.  I know they do on the 1.5's.  The lower woofer helps bring up the low end and then the network rolls it off so that only the top driver is reproducing the highs.  

I've talked to Al Wooley numerous times about their kits so I'm pretty sure I'm correct.  But I could be wrong.