AudioCircle
Audio/Video Gear and Systems => Owner's Circles => Selah Audio Owners => Topic started by: XMarine on 31 Dec 2004, 12:21 am
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I am not qualified to write an audiophile review but as a music lover I can describe what I hear. Rick designed the speakers after many sessions learning my taste in music, room dimensions, associated equip etc. Through the years I've owned horns, cones and domes, hybrid planars, and ribbons many of which were highly acclaimed. When the speakers were completed, I had the pleasure of Rick and his family driving 12 hours to deliver and install them..How many designers are going to have the courage to do that? What if I was unhappy with them? It only cost me a dinner for four at a Japanese steak house. :beer:
CABINETS: Bloodwood finish consisting of two parts...Cabinets 60 x14" x 14"...Bases 4" h with the crossover and binding posts built into them. Perfect craftsmanship and very solidly built...8 Vifa woofers and 8 Fountek ribbons...Rick will have to supply the tech specs but we did set the processor to crossover at 60 Hz but the two channel listening w/o subs indicated a lowend around 35 Hz.
SETUP: Rick designed the speakers so I left it up to him to position them. :hyper: He ended up at 7' center to center...49" from front wall...28" from side wall. Interesting that the final position is very close to the Cardas formula for nearfield listening but he managed it by sound not measurements...Main listening position 9'...not quite an isoceles triangle.
SOUND: The line array design affords a very wide and deep soundstage w/o center channel....No hole in middle. You can move to any position in the room and not lose imaging or the sweet spot. If you are over 6' tall you will lose some extension while standing but who does critical listening standing. Instruments and vocals seem to have air around them and are in their proper position. We tested them w/o subs and the bass was deep, tight, and musical. What can you say about ribbons that hasn't been said? Exceptional extended and crisp highs.. At any listening level there is no distortion and even at very low levels(which my wife likes) they do not lose their detail. Anyone else out there have that problem? I think so! After playing some of my favorite cd's; TD's Oasis, Junor Reactor's Shango, The Best of William Orbit, Hotel Callifornia, The Flamingoes' I Only have eyes for you, Doo-wop music, etc, I wanted to listen to all my CD's again to see what instruments or vocals I could never hear or understand. Now I can say that's an Oboe or a triangle or a rim shot or the percussion is in the rear of the sound as meant to be.
SUMMARY: Am I happy with the speakers? :dance: :dance: Best audio I have had in my room and the best sound these 64 worn out ears have heard in a home environment. Compliments to Rick for an exceptional design. I would highly reccommend anyone thinking of new, replacement or upgrades to give Selah Audio a call before making a final decision. Please feel free to PM me for information or even an audition.
ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT: Krell Amp and Processor, Integra universal player, Monster power center, 2 VMPS subs, MIT XLR interconnects and bi-wire speaker cable. :drums: :drums:
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Which speakers did the XT8 replace?
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The XT8 is a taller version of the Xarray. See the Xarray on the Selah site
2nd paragraph
http://www.selahaudio.com/id23.html.
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XMarine- welcome to the linearray fan club :!:
I have been extremely happy with my arrays.
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Thanks Brian! I don't have a lot of technical knowledge...just enough to get into trouble. I know that red means positive and black means negative except when replacing a light switch. That black one will grab you. :nono:
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Hi Xmarine,
Did you go with the sealed or ported model? Was your measurement of 35hz a flat response or some dB down from flat? Thanks.
Bill
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Which speakers did the XT8 replace?
I'm gonna assume this question was answered correctly by Bigenito, but I'll ask it a different way:
XMarine,
What speakers did the XT8's directly replace in your listening room?
Thx,
Ted_B
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Hi Xmarine,
Did you go with the sealed or ported model? Was your measurement of 35hz a flat response or some dB down from flat? Thanks.
Bill
We did the sealed version. These measurements would be best answered by Rick. I'm just the messenger of good listening.
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Which speakers did the XT8 replace?
I'm gonna assume this question was answered correctly by Bigenito, but I'll ask it a different way:
XMarine,
What speakers did the XT8's directly replace in your listening room?
Thx,
Ted_B
I have sent you a PM. Needless to say the speakers I replaced did not "do it for me" in my listening enviroment.
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I have sent you a PM. Needless to say the speakers I replaced did not "do it for me" in my listening enviroment.
Please PM me too, I was curious...
I spoke with Rick tonight about a possible line array project. I was hoping the curved back cabinets could be made taller but because of the materials used it seems they are limited to 5' or so. I have a 10' ceiling and would really like to have the array near 70% of room height, so I will probably go rectangular.
If you have a digital camera, please post some pics!
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XMarine- welcome to the linearray fan club :!:
I have been extremely happy with my arrays.
Brian
These are by far the best speakers I have ever heard. Their dynamics, detail, sensitivity, and presence clone the early Klispch horns from the '60's & '70's without the 'honk. My wife is not a music person but she acknowleges a better sound. I have a somewhat dedicated room which is a basement room and she will not come down here when I 'm listening. She loves to watch movies and I have an Optoma HD50 with VMPS 626R as surrounds. I don't know how to post pics yet but will figure it out. In the meantime, Rick can fill you in on my room.
BJ
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Further XT8 info.....link > http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=15000 :)
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Which speakers did the XT8 replace?
I'm gonna assume this question was answered correctly by Bigenito, but I'll ask it a different way:
XMarine,
What speakers did the XT8's directly replace in your listening room?
Thx,
Ted_B
I have sent you a PM. Needless to say the speakers I replaced did not "do it for me" in my listening enviroment.
I didn't receive a PM from you, XMarine, and PM'd you again about it yesterday. Please try again, assuming you don't want to say publicly what you used to listen to.
Thx,
Ted_B
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Well, I think the fact that he has 626R's as surround speakers probably gives a big clue what his front speakers used to be 8) It's too bad that it's all secret, cause I'd really like to hear a comparison :cry:
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I caught that, too. Well, it''s probably a good thing to keep flame wars down to a minimum. I'm very interested in hearing more of his impressions of the Selah's anyway.
Ted_B
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I caught that, too. Well, it''s probably a good thing to keep flame wars down to a minimum. I'm very interested in hearing more of his impressions of the Selah's anyway.
Ted_B
While it's good to keep the flames down, I think it's also good to compare two speakers in the same system and give your opinion.
I think this helps others with the decision on which speaker to go with in their enviornment.
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I think that the secret to keeping the flames down, is to state carefully what you mean - when I read about someone's new component X sounding better than old component Y, I usually chalk it up to system synergy, and preference.
For example - some have likely read my reviews about the Teac tripath when it replaced my Sugden integrated - I hope that it did not come across as my dislike for the Sugden, it was an excellent piece, and served me well for 10 years.
In any case, nice report on an interesting speaker, and hopefully more thoughts to follow.
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Exactly. Just look at tkp's comparison of the Omegarrays to his RM40's. He liked the Omegarrays better, but no flames....
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Exactly. Just look at tkp's comparison of the Omegarrays to his RM40's. He liked the Omegarrays better, but no flames....
Tyson,
My pair is the Incredarray which is a lot more expensive than the RM40s. However, with my preference, I put the Incredarray above even the RMX. I could have gotten the RMX but decided not to.
I do think that both the RMX and the Incredarray are up there with the very best and it will broil down to personal taste. For me, wide sweat spot is a must without sacrificing other areas.
Direct comparison between speakers are beneficial and more meaningful because readers can use the previous speakers as a base, especially if the previous speakers came from respected brand. The key is to keep the emotion out of the review and try to stick with facts.
I have learned that good first impression might not lead to long term satisfaction and the exciting of getting a new pairs of speakers might take over one's opinion. This is the reason why I have not written an official opinion of the Incredarray yet because I want to be sure that they are as good as I thought when I first turned them on. So far they have met and probably exceed my expectation in some area. Hopefully, I can write an honest opinion on them in about a month.
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Hi Xmarine,
Did you go with the sealed or ported model? Was your measurement of 35hz a flat response or some dB down from flat? Thanks.
Bill
This is a sealed version. 35hz would be an in-room response but I don't know how many db down from the average level. In-room figures can vary quite a bit so that's why I don't include them in the specifications like some other manufacturers do. In my experience if you see them listed without a nearfield / anechoic response curve to compare to the company is either :
1) not smart enough to know how to do it (it's really not that hard) or
2) full of it
3) or both :nono:
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Well, I think the fact that he has 626R's as surround speakers probably gives a big clue what his front speakers used to be 8) It's too bad that it's all secret, cause I'd really like to hear a comparison :cry:
We talked about some of the previous fights between manufacturers here at AC and XMarine noted that he didn't want his arrays to become part of another pissing match. I'm sure he would be happy to speak directly to anyone with comparison questions.
I did have an opportunity to listen to his previous speakers before we set up the XT8's and would be happy to give my *biased* opinion via PM, e-mail, or phone.
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Thanks for the info, Rick.
Bill
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While it's good to keep the flames down, I think it's also good to compare two speakers in the same system and give your opinion.
I think this helps others with the decision on which speaker to go with in their enviornment.
i completely agree here...even if one speaker doesn't fare as well in a comparison, it doesn't mean that it's a poor speaker. just that one speaker works better for the individual's circumstances...
i hope a comparison is shared here!
most of us know that VMPS makes some fine speakers. of course they don't work for everyone all the time which is why there are other fine speakers to choose from. one of those happens to be Rick's speakers! glad to see more folks are finding out about Selah! Rick is not only a fine gentleman, but an excellent speaker designer!
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Well, I think the fact that he has 626R's as surround speakers probably gives a big clue what his front speakers used to be 8) It's too bad that it's all secret, cause I'd really like to hear a comparison :cry:
please check my original post. I didn/t post that I had VMPS surrounds but VMPS subs.
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i completely agree here...even if one speaker doesn't fare as well in a comparison, it doesn't mean that it's a poor speaker. just that one speaker works better for the individual's circumstances...
i hope a comparison is shared here!
most of us know that VMPS makes some fine speakers. of course they don't work for everyone all the time which is why there are other fine speakers to choose from. one of those happens to be Rick's speakers! glad to see more folks are finding out about Selah! Rick is not only a fine gentleman, but an excellent speaker designer!
The speakers I replaced were very good in a lot of respects and the mfg has been very supportative. But I like a Benz and you may like a Lexus. It's all a matter of personal preference.
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The speakers I replaced were very good in a lot of respects and the mfg has been very supportative. But I like a Benz and you may like a Lexus. It's all a matter of personal preference.
I appreciate you saying that. While comparisons are inevitable, I do think a speaker should only be judged on its' own merits and not who made it or the company who made the one it replaced.