[Danny Richie]

I have been working on a new product line for a new company, and recently built out a mini-monitor to test the drivers with.



The tweeters are the RAAL ribbons. They are the 70-20XR (the OEM only version).

The woofers are a custom built design with a wood solid phase plug and wood veneer cone. It behaves and sounds very much like a paper cone. The motor structure is very much like the Seas Excel. But it sounds a lot better than the Excel woofers.



I used one of my N2X cabinets as a test box for them. It is a stacked lamination of Baltic Birch. This is a sealed box and will perform best when used with a good sub. The production units will have various configurations and models with the smallest one bring a stand mounted model with an matching stand that is also part of a transmission line.

The crossover is now mounted externally and uses Sonicaps, Erse XQ inductors, Mills resistors, and Sonicap Platinum by-pass caps. The crossover uses a braided cable with top level wire and Electra Cable tube connectors.

We learned what we needed to learn from this pair and are working now on production models.



The response is extremely smooth and balanced.



These would be great for a small listening room.

The owner of the company is asking $2,500 for them.

[johnzm]

hey danny,

how would you compare the RAAL to the neo's your using now?

[Danny Richie]

They have really great sounding woofers. 

hey danny,

how would you compare the RAAL to the neo's your using now?

You have to really like ribbons to like this tweeter. It has its own sound much like many other ribbons out there. It is sharp, very clean, very clinical, and has a very quick spectra decay. But lush, smooth, musical, and easy to listen to, maybe not.

I did some things to it that I don't think anyone else has done with it before in order to soften it and smooth it out a little bit. So this might be one of the best implementations of it out there. But the Sonicap by-passed with a Sonicap Platinum might not be the best combination for it unless you are using a tube amp that is a bit soft on top. Some type of an oil filled cap, that is a slow discharge cap with a little coloration to it, might be just what this tweeter needs. Some of the more expensive Mundorf's might be just the ticket.

Don't get me wrong, it is a great tweeter, but it might not be for everyone. And I wouldn't mate it with budget gear or solid state amps.

I am exploring other tweeters for my client. 

[Danny Richie]

Believe it or not, these speakers are still available. And the $2,500 asking price is about what the parts cost total comes to. Any other speaker out there with this tweeter in it is going to be a lot more money. This is a really good deal for this type of speaker.

[eclein]

I had a dream about this type of speaker and if I had  the $2500 they would be mine!!!! Danny this client your working with is working on a full fledged Speaker built and ready to sell or are they designing a kit with you?? You probably can't say either way but maybe we get lucky...what color is that cabinet???

[Danny Richie]

My client was looking at a high end level product line with something like this being the bottom of the line. A production version of this would have to retail at about $6,000 a pair in stores. Maybe even $6,900...

Right now the whole idea is on hold pending an economic change. High end stores right now are not doing too well in this economy (if you haven't noticed). Please no discussion on the economic situation. It is just a good reason for a pause.

That cabinet color as pictured is exactly how it looks.

[Saturn94]

Believe it or not, these speakers are still available. And the $2,500 asking price is about what the parts cost total comes to. Any other speaker out there with this tweeter in it is going to be a lot more money. This is a really good deal for this type of speaker.

Perhaps your description of the tweeter has scared some away?  The RAAL tweeter, at least as is implemented in my Salks, is very smooth and very easy to listen to with my solid state equipment.  IMO, it sounds very natural.

I noticed in your measurements there is a rise in response in the higher frequencies.  Looking at the measurements of my speakers (with the same scale you are using) it doesn't exhibit this rise.  Perhaps this makes it sound smoother?  Or perhaps the "custom version" that Salk uses makes a difference?

Anyway, I'm not here to promote Salk.  I just wanted to share my experience with speakers using a RAAL tweeter.

[eclein]

Danny Thanks for the info........

[Danny Richie]

Perhaps your description of the tweeter has scared some away?  The RAAL tweeter, at least as is implemented in my Salks, is very smooth and very easy to listen to with my solid state equipment.  IMO, it sounds very natural.

You say pat-tat-o I say pat-tot-o. It sounds very much like the Aurum Catus tweeters that I have worked with in the past. Better yes, but along those lines with regard to how they sound. It is not as smooth as other tweeters that I have worked with but many will think it to be real smooth compared to what they have heard or are used to.

I noticed in your measurements there is a rise in response in the higher frequencies.  Looking at the measurements of my speakers (with the same scale you are using) it doesn't exhibit this rise.  Perhaps this makes it sound smoother?  Or perhaps the "custom version" that Salk uses makes a difference?

This is the same OEM only version used in your Salks.

These speakers are easily +/-1.5db across the scale and the top end is pretty balanced with the woofer. The tweeter actually has a rising response off axis in the 3kHz range. So I compensated for that in the on axis by bringing it down slightly through that range.

See measurements of this speaker on axis, 10, 20, 30, and 40 degrees off axis:



So the over all room response on this speaker is likely smoother than any other implementation of it in any other speaker. So if you think it is smooth now then this implementation of it will be really smooth to you.

See the Yellow line that is 20degrees off axis. It is better than +/-1db. Good luck finding ANY speaker that does that. Now that is smooth.

The Sonicaps by-pass by Sonicap Platinum's will also bring the resolution levels beyond any other combo you could use with this tweeter.

So overall this is a pretty serious little mini-monitor.

[Saturn94]

You say pat-tat-o I say pat-tot-o.

So true.

It sounds very much like the Aurum Catus tweeters that I have worked with in the past. Better yes, but along those lines with regard to how they sound. It is not as smooth as other tweeters that I have worked with but many will think it to be real smooth compared to what they have heard or are used to.

I'm sure you've heard many more tweeters than I, so I'll defer to your experience on this one.

This is the same OEM only version used in your Salks.

I was wondering about that.  The RAAL tweeter in the picture looks the same as mine.  I don't know if there are any internal differences or not.

These speakers are easily +/-1.5db across the scale and the top end is pretty balanced with the woofer. The tweeter actually has a rising response off axis in the 3kHz range. So I compensated for that in the on axis by bringing it down slightly through that range.

See measurements of this speaker on axis, 10, 20, 30, and 40 degrees off axis:



So the over all room response on this speaker is likely smoother than any other implementation of it in any other speaker. So if you think it is smooth now then this implementation of it will be really smooth to you.

See the Yellow line that is 20degrees off axis. It is better than +/-1db. Good luck finding ANY speaker that does that. Now that is smooth.

The Sonicaps by-pass by Sonicap Platinum's will also bring the resolution levels beyond any other combo you could use with this tweeter.

Great info...... should be very helpful for someone considering purchasing them.

So overall this is a pretty serious little mini-monitor.

Having heard some of your other designs, I don't doubt that one bit.