I received a set of RAD Micro's from Brian at Rudledge Audio Design. I'll be honest, it was in exchange for work I did for him. I needed HT speakers and he needed a new website. I'm not letting this cloud the issue since I worked hard on the site and this was payment... in no way do I represent RAD.
In fact, since this was an exchange, I was a bit nervous about it because I'd never heard them or seen any of Brian's work. What's more, I asked that Brian ship them completely unassembled because I wanted to finish them with a blue stain. So, if I got these things stained, assembled, and then found out they weren't good, I was going to be highly upset. Plus, who's going to buy blue speakers? I'd be stuck with them.
Luckily, I AM stuck with them.
I really like what they do. When I got the first 2 finished I put them in place of my Green Moutain Europa's on my 2-channel rig just to hear how they sounded. I was very surprised at the imaging, smoothness, and relaxed sound. For some reason I was expecting them to sound a little bright or harsh. They are not. If anything, the highs are a little rolled off and the mids are are sweet. They have a lot more bass than I thought possible out of something so small. That little woofer can move!
Anyway, onto the HT...
I'm using a Panasonic XR-25 receiver and F65 DVD player. I'm using 5.1 and Dolby PL II mostly... and some Dolby Digital source material. I haven't quite figured all the surround formats out yet.
I have all the speakers set to 'small' because they are small. I don't know what that means. I have the crossover set at 100Hz. I have all the distances set to 10' except the center which is set to 12'. I have the center up +1 and the rears up +2. The sub is at level 3 and its volume is at about 1/3rd and crossed over at about 120.
First I put the front 3 speakers and the sub in place and found that to be room-shaking if need be. Explosions are full of impact. The 8" sub is ported (2 tubes) and down firing. It really packs a wallop. For concerts like John Mayer or The Police, the bass isn't as tight as a sealed music-only type sub but it's not bad either. It gets deep but without as much delicate detail as my other sub. Listening with all the speakers setup and the sub behind the TV in a corner, the sound is seamless from low bass to mid bass.
I have been watching mostly TV to get the speakers burned in and I mounted the rear speakers just 2 days ago. However, I've done my final tweaking and even my wife loves it. It's a great toy to have HT. I'm not a serious HT person and my entire rig would retail for about $1,200 including speakers, wire, ic's, and components. Labor was free.
The overall character of this system is a little relaxed. It has a nice, warm midrange that is perfect for HT. I don't like super extended highs when watching TV or movies. It hurts my ears because it sound unnaturally peaky. There's so much visual information that I don't want to draw attention away from that. These speakers fit in that way. They don't say 'look at me' or 'here I am' they just sound right. This is true for day to day TV watching or Terminator 3.
With all the clamoring of sounds in T3, I never had any fatigue. The sounds were reasonably convincing and real. (Don't forget I'm using a $100 DVD player) What more could I ask for? Oh, and they're small and easy to hide. I think the speakers are a little better than the source or amp... Pictures to come....
So, excellent job putting this package together, Brian. This is a good package and I'm as pleased as I had hoped.
-C
